South Africa Special: I See A Different You

With their swagtastic street-style threads, award-winning branded photo series, collaborations with names such as Diesel, Grant’s and Visa and their infectiously positive attitudes, the members of Soweto-based creative collective, I See A Different You, are showing the world the more chic and hopeful side of their troubled Jo’burg township, and of South Africa as a whole

“No matter where you are, in any part of the world, there is positivity around you.” The guiding principle of Soweto-based creative collective, I See A Different You (ISADY) is more than just a tagline, judging by the beaming smiles and ready laughs of founders Innocent Mukheli and Vuyo Mpantsha (the third, Innocent’s twin brother, Justice, is away on a shoot) and ECD Neo Mashigo, during our Skype interview. Despite a dodgy internet link and a distance of some 8,000 miles, their chutzpah lights up the laptop screen.

Turns out there’s plenty to smile about: they’ve just spent two months shooting around South Africa for a new photo series, SA Kings; they’ve secured a slew of lucrative brand collaborations and, to top it off, won the 2015 AdFocus New Broom award, which recognises groundbreaking young talent shaping the local industry.

Life through an optimistic lens

It’s a long way from the humble blog that the Mukheli twins and their childhood friend Mpantsha started in 2011, when they were junior creatives at FCB Johannesburg.

Keen amateur photographers, they came up with the idea for ISADY following a business trip to Kenya, where Innocent was struck by the difference between popular preconceptions (“I thought it would be all tall people and poverty”) and the “cool and beautiful” reality he discovered.

Back in the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto, where the trio had grown up riding bicycles and playing soccer outside at night, kept an eye on by friendly neighbours (“Everyone was your parent in the ’hood,”) they decided to challenge the mass-media image of burnt-out cars, riot police and grubby kids, through a more optimistic lens.

“If you’re always fed negativity, you start believing it,” agrees Mashigo, who, having mentored the trio throughout their agency years, recently left his role as co-ECD at Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg to be executive creative director of the collective full-time. “We wanted to create a feeling that no matter where you are, in any part of the world, there is positivity around you – it’s just what you choose to look at.”

Shooting around Soweto, the neighbouring township of Alexandra and Johannesburg’s many suburbs – in locations deliberately chosen for their dodgy reputations – they began capturing a colourful cast of neighbours, family and local characters, even putting themselves in the frame.

A burgeoning local street-style scene was already gathering pace, thanks to groups such as the ‘Swenkas’ – working-class Zulu dandies who’d gather to strut their stuff in fashion shows-cum-beauty contests – and ISADY’s eclectic mix of swag, including brogues, denim jumpsuits, Starsky & Hutch-style leather coats and sharp suits, perfectly caught the zeitgeist.     

“At first people were very conservative and would dress according to what they saw on international style blogs,” notes Innocent. “But now they’re starting to show their personalities. And the style is very diverse: old school mixed with urban; tailoring; African prints and patterns.” It wasn’t long before the international fashion pack picked up the scent, and in 2013 denim giant Diesel and EDUN chose ISADY to front the new Studio Africa collection, alongside rising African film and music stars.

They’ve proved to be much more than mere clotheshorses, harnessing their huge social influence for brands as diverse as Grant’s whisky and Visa. For the latter’s 2015 #MyEverywhere campaign, promoting Johannesburg’s hidden-gem travel activities, they conceived, shot and starred in a raft of video content covering everything from thrift store bargain-hunting to cruising town with a local hipster cycling club.

Tribal chiefs and turntables

Having quit their nine-to-fives, the trio remain grateful for the ‘amazing learning opportunities’ of their agency background; a boon both in terms of having credibility with clients and the knowhow to grow their own brand strategically, always a concern for influencers. And with a prominent industry figure in the form of Mashigo, the current Loeries chairman, at their creative helm, ISADY looks set to go from strength to strength.

Following local awards success, the aim is to win international advertising plaudits: “It’s a competitive industry, so it’s important to stay up there,” says Innocent. Beyond their personal goals, the team are excited about ISADY’s potential to shape a uniquely South African advertising aesthetic. “[Clients] are making us part of the process rather than just telling us what to shoot,” says Mashigo, “because they want us to help bring this idea of a ‘pure’ South African voice to life.”

2016 will see a 50-50 split of commercial and artistic work, and the unveiling in May of SA Kings, a photo exhibition exploring the legacy and descendants of South Africa’s tribal chiefs. Dethroned during the apartheid era and replaced by regime-approved puppets, “They were the original freedom fighters, but their stories have never been told,” explains Mashigo.

ISADY is also dabbling in DJ-ing; their debut album of electronic music is due out soon. Given their passion for fashion, could a collection be on the cards? “People are always saying we should do a collaboration with H&M,” laughs Innocent. “But we want to do things right and not rush it.”

There’s obviously plenty of substance behind ISADY’s style, and the team seem refreshingly unfazed by their fame. Asked what it means to be the faces of young, black creativity in the region, the response is hoots of bemused laughter: “Poster boys? We didn’t know that’s what we were… we’re just boys from Soweto!”