Husband and wife design duo are Nando’s hottest young designers

The husband and wife design duo – Nikhil Tricam and Nindya Bucktowar – has been crowned as the hottest designers of Nando’s Hot Young Designers for 2022 talent search competition.

Their victory was announced at a function held at the Basha Uhuru Youth Festival at Constitution Hill on October 26 after what the organisers described as an ‘intensive judging process as most of the design artwork were rated as masterpieces in their own right’.

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Announcing the winning duo, Bradley O’Neill said arduous as it may have been, there had to be a winner at the end of the competition. “The fact that it made the judging an arduous affair is testimony to the high standard of the design artwork and it can only be good for the growth of the design industry and Nando’s investment in it.”

Tricam and Bucktowar are the joint owners of Kalki Ceramics, a design studio based in Durban and specialising in bespoke handcrafted ceramic tiles. For their winning entry, they looked to South African flora and desert landscapes for inspiration. Their Cactus Server draws on the duo’s combined experience in ceramics, product design and architecture to create a rich and textural functional art piece.

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Being named as winners opens up new business opportunities for Tricam and Bucktowar including having their piece prototyped and included on the Nando’s Portal to Africa, an online ordering and purchasing platform utilised by interior design studios locally and globally to source South African designer items to include in Nando’s restaurants around the world.

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The winners will also receive ongoing mentorship and development support from the Clout/SA team designed to help fast-track their progress in the industry, said Tracy Lynch, creative director at Nando’s design programme and Clout/SA, in an interview with Alex News.

The Cactus Server was chosen from over 120 entries into the fourth iteration of the competition, which saw young designers from across the nation answer the call to conceptualise a condiment unit to display the brand’s acclaimed Peri Peri sauces.

The challenge was to do so in such a way that these sauces and their piquant ingredients, which form an intrinsic part of the Nando’s experience, remain visible and accessible to customers throughout their visit.

Details: https://clout-sadesign.co.za

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