In Memoriam: Yanni Vosloo

🖤This image is a version in black of one of the designs I made for the Skinny laMinx collab with MrPrice Home in 2017, in memoriam to Yanni Vosloo, the Mr Price group’s merchandise director for 19 years, who succumbed to Covid19 this week.🖤

When Yanni contacted me in 2016, proposing a collab with Skinny laMinx, I was excited, but nervous about meeting him, because I’d decided I would only participate if Mr Price could manufacture everything in South Africa.

My first meeting with the MrP team at their Durban HQ was thrilling. Yanni was fun, enthusiastic and highly energetic. This was going to be so much fun! But… was I setting myself up for a dealbreaker with my specific conditions?

I wouldn’t have worried so much if I’d known what I know now, which is that Local is what made Yanni’s big heart beat. Establishing fruitful, generative connections between design and manufacture was his skill, his joy, and his gift to us all.

The tragedy of our mortality is that we often only realise exactly what impact a person has made with their life once it’s over.

Our nation’s designers, makers and merchants – even those who never knew @yannivosloo – will miss this man deeply. Thank you, Yanni. Our condolences to your family, colleagues, and everyone who loved you.