ijusi (meaning “juice” in Zulu) is an experimental magazine first published by Garth Walker in early 1995 from his studio in Durban, South Africa. Gradually piecing together the various cultural dichotomies and social potentialities that have evolved following the demise of apartheid, ijusi has posed an important question from the start: “What makes me South African, and what does that ‘look’ like?” According to Walker, “The magazine aims to encourage and promote a visual design language rooted in our own South African experience.” From the onset, ijusi effectively showcased a burgeoning South African visual culture, which has come to be recognized worldwide for its quality and diversity. Over the following years, subsequent issues have made invaluable contributions to the ongoing discourse surrounding representation and identity in South Africa, specifically within the context of graphic design, illustration, typography, writing, and photography. It is a noncommercial, free publication, and each uniquely themed issue is self-published by Walker in a small print run of around 300 copies, roughly twice yearly. Contributors have included Anton Kannemeyer, Mikhael Subotzky, David Goldblatt, and Pieter Hugo, among others. The magazine has released 29 issues to date, including the spring 2014 Nelson Mandela issue.
Garth Walker was born in 1957 in Pretoria, South Africa, and trained as a graphic designer and photographer at Technikon Natal in the 1970s. In 1995, he founded Orange Juice Design, which soon became one of the country’s leading graphic design studios. In 2008 he started his current studio, Mister Walker, based in Durban. Its clients include many of South Africa’s favorite consumer and corporate brands.
