Making It!
Client: Craft + Design Institute
Period: 2025-2026
Not-for-profit
Multi-stakeholder partnerships
Design economy
Education & knowledge
Design & architecture
Awards & events
01 — The sneak-peek
South Africa's makers, in one room at last
The Craft and Design Institute had a craft and design summit, Making It!, whose brand was not yet living up to its promise, and limited funding to change that. BBA Liminal evolved the brand, opened a sponsorship path, and delivered the launch end to end – identity, website, programme and signage – bringing makers to Kramerville in March 2026.
02 — The liminal moment
The Craft and Design Institute has spent more than twenty-five years developing South Africa's makers: over 8,300 of them, and more than R490m mobilised into the sector. For its anniversary year it wanted Making It! to become the national platform where the whole sector could meet, learn and trade.
The ambition was there; the brand was not yet carrying it. Making It! already existed, but its identity did not signal the calibre of event CDI intended, the vision needed sharpening, and the funding behind it was thin. A small internal team was already stretched. CDI came to BBA Liminal for a partner that could make the brand live up to its promise, give the vision a form the sector would recognise, and grow the funding to match. The brief, in effect, was to lift a summit into a flagship, and to have it standing, rebranded and sponsored, within six months.
03 — The transformation
We made the brand live up to its promise. We evolved Making It! into a catalytic platform for the continent's creative economy, and built it a variable typeface, Motion, that shifts weight and curve like a dancer mid-movement. It was made to read as premium and serious on purpose, lifting the summit above the usual craft-fair look.
We grew the funding. The existing budget could not carry the ambition, so we built the sponsorship strategy and proposal and went after partners ourselves. iKhokha came on board and funded 46 emerging makers into the room through its Maker Grant, turning a budget constraint into an act of access.
We made it real, end to end. We curated the programme, designed the website, ran four months of press and social, and shaped the venue itself: wayfinding, signage and stage. By the time the doors opened at Kramerville, almost every surface a maker touched had been considered and made to belong.
04 — The craft
A summit that looked like it had always existed
Motion, the variable typeface at the centre of the identity, gave Making It! a mark that could stretch and soften and move, echoing the making it was there to celebrate. From it grew a full visual ecosystem — logo animation, pattern, typography and templates — carried across a website designed in Figma and handed to development, four months of social content, three press releases and a press kit. On the ground it became a place: Level Three for the plenaries and MAKEshops, Weylandts for the breakaways, Katy's Palace Bar for a reception marking CDI's twenty-five years, and a Cape Town Watch Party so the west coast could join. Wayfinding and signage tied the Kramerville Design District together into a single, legible event.
05 — The validation of purpose
"There is so much magic that happens when we create these bridges across generations, across geographies, life experiences and context. It's a living form of cultural currency, and we are so proud that we were able to give expression to it over these two magical days. It proved so tangibly that gatherings like these are necessary — we are already planning for Making It! 2027."
— Erica Elk, CEO, The Craft and Design Institute
R2.4m in media value
46 makers funded via iKhokha
333 registered
Partnership origination
Brand & communications strategy
Facilitation & convening
Signage & wayfinding
Copywriting
Event & convening design
Brand identity design
Brand platform development
Positioning & narrative
