Here's what our company does:

 For enquiries, please e-mail Francois or Debbie.

Photo: Duif de Toit

Francois Smit

(artist / designer / illustrator)

Born 1966 in Namaqualand, South Africa, in Nababeep, a small copper mining town where we raked the sand in the yard to create the illusion of orderlyness and wellbeing . . . . No, not like the Zen thing.

Moved to Alexander Bay on the Namibian border when I was ten. Sand raking evolved to trimming the lawn with kitchen scissors. Here I had my first taste of mass media – grainy and hugely exciting classroom films of sheep, maize harvesting and means of transportation with vehicles from the 40's. We saw many, but these three really stood out.

Left home at 12 and went to boarding school in Clanwilliam.

Conscripted to the army, went and became a very nice platoon sergeant – in retrospect, my only contribution to the apartheid struggle.

Entered the rest of the world 20 years after its expiry date. Went to study Fine Art (Painting) in Port Elizabeth under mentor Vivian van der Merwe. Started speaking English.

After studying left for Yeoville, Johannesburg. Got my first job at a signage company, airbrushing smoking people and giant coffee beans onto backlit billboards.

Thanks to a friendly neighbour who, in compensation for stealing my drill and pawning it, showed me an ad for an artist's position at The Sunday Star newspaper, I went for an interview. There I finally began my computer-aided career as a newspaper illustrator and graphic journalist in 1992. (Stopped writing my first book) Worked for The Star until 1996.

Was seconded to and began illustrating for The Sunday Independent since its launch in 1995 with the encouragement of Shaun Johnson.

Left the Argus group of papers (now called Independent Papers) to work as art director for an advertising/events company and then a year later to start my own business, Orrel & Wishbein (1997). Amalgamated with a friend in 2002 to form QUBA Design & Motion, specialising in design for all media and video production.

In February 2006 had an exhibition on the last 10 years of illustration for The Sunday Independent at the Gordon Institute of Business Science.

Currently working in Johannesburg, South Africa as artist, designer, illustrator and a director of QUBA Design & Motion . (Finishing first book)

Awards include several SPA Pica Awards, including best overall magazine design for CMYK/Enjin magazine, several Mondi awards for magazine and newspaper illustration. The book Particulars he designed with photographer David Goldblatt won first prize at the photographic festival in Arles, France in 2005.

Debbie Smit 

(writer, researcher and designer)

Debbie graduated from The University of Witwatersrand in 1986 with a BA and a Diploma in Higher Education.

Having spent most of her adult life between working in the Johannesburg Public Library, where she learnt her amazing people skills, and raising two children, in 2003 she teamed up with her husband to help run their business.
Apart from controlling their busy office and practising basic bookkeeping, she has had to learn layout and design skills. Last year she managed the production of a series of workbooks on HIV/AIDS for the Namibian government. She was responsible for conceiving the brand identity for Tshwarisanang, a division of PHRU, for whom she completed a number of other projects.
Recently she did the layout for Mindset’s Primary School Channel workbooks and a book on Es’kia Mphahlele, due for publication this year.
 
She  writes the weekly column Haywire for The Sunday Independent newspaper and various marketing and technology columns for Enjin magazine.