Hosted by Design Week South Africa curators Simone Schultz and Margot Molyneux, two Morning Sessions discussions will pop up during The Craft & Design Institute’s upcoming Making It! conference in Johannesburg next week (24-25 March 2026). Acting as an introduction to Design Week South Africa’s theme for the year, The Shape of Us, the conversations will explore the theme in relation to insights and learnings from industry-leading guest speakers, encouraging both personal and professional reflection.
The Morning Sessions at Making It! are presented in partnership with second-generation South African furniture and homeware retailer Weylandts, continuing the platform’s partnership with the brand after collaborating with StudioLandt during last year’s Design Week in Cape Town. Weylandts’ support of the Making It! Morning Sessions strengthens this association, and preludes Weylandts’ activations during Design Week in Johannesburg and Cape Town later this year. The Morning Sessions, as well as part of the broader Making It! programme, will be hosted within the brand’s Kramerville showroom.
Theme Launch: The Shape of Us
Moderated by Margot Molyneux, with TheUrbanative founder Mpho Vackier and StudioLandt creative director Eloise Thompson. Drawing on their respective practices and responding to Design Week South Africa’s thematic framework, the session will reflect on our diverse cultural heritage and how these perspectives inform the way we design for now and for the future.
In Conversation with Monika Bielskyte
Simone Schultz will host a fireside conversation with Monika Bielskyte, a futurist who works at the intersection of culture, technology and speculative futures. Bielskyte is the founder of Protopia Futures, Futurist in Residence at Nike and a partner of African Life-Centric Design, seven principles for regenerative, speculative and critical design rooted in African knowledge and futures.
ABOUT MORNING SESSIONS
The Morning Sessions series was launched during Design Week South Africa in Johannesburg and Cape Town in October 2025, inviting design-minded audiences to start each day of the four-day city-wide programme with coffee and conversation. Morning Sessions captures the casual, friendly nature of the cities’ cafes, taking design discourse out of the expected spaces and into more relaxed settings.
Morning Sessions invites creative practitioners to dive deep into their creative practice, the politics of making and the questions that keep them up at night — and get them up in the morning. No PowerPoints or rote introductions, just a group of interesting speakers, good coffee and an audience keen to engage with the city’s creative voices. Morning Sessions are deliberately familiar and intimate: small enough that everyone can lean in and informal enough that barriers dissolve. We hope to encourage design discourse at its most human: an intimate conversation, a room full of curious minds and the belief that the future of South African design won’t be decided only in boardrooms or established institutions, but in these moments of generous exchange and inclusivity that bridge sectors, communities and economies.
The Craft & Design Institute’s inaugural Making It! conference is a two-day event taking place in The Kramerville Design District in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 24-25 March 2026. Making It! aims to connect, collaborate and share learnings between South African makers, innovators, and supporters for two days of connection, collaboration, and shared learning, honouring the craft and ritual of making while focusing on how sustainable markets are built. Through thought-provoking plenaries, hands-on MAKEshops, live demonstrations, and time spent together, ideas are explored, tested and turned into action.
DETAILS & TICKETS
The conference will take place across Level Three and the Weylandts Showroom in Kramerville on 24 and 25 March 2026. Tickets to the Making It! conference range between R850 and R2 595, and are available to purchase online.
Weylandts Kramerville Showroom
12B Kramer Road, Kramerville
Level Three
Kramerville Place, 14A Kramer Road, Krameville