About
We are Wethu Collective!
Wethu Collective is a regenerative, social, conceptual and graphic design agency. Our roots lie in South Africa and The Netherlands, which gives us a great scope and a diverse cultural background to work from.
About Wethu Collective
Addressing someone as wethu frames the relationship through collective belonging.
‘Wethu’ is a word in isiXhosa, one of the 12 South African languages. It translates to ‘our’ or ‘ours’.‘Umntu Wethu’ would mean ‘one of ours’. The word reflects the core philosophy of Ubuntu ("I am because we are"). Addressing someone as wethu frames the relationship through collective belonging rather than individualism, treating the other person as part of an extended community.
Wethu Collective is a regenerative, social, conceptual and graphic design agency. Our roots lie in South Africa and The Netherlands, which gives us a great scope and a diverse cultural background to work from.
We work from a ‘collective’ perspective, where we believe anyone has a talent that can be used in creating a better world for everyone.
Wethu works from two core principles: Projects and Publications.
We believe that a good project is rooted in proper research. For us publications feed the projects, but projects also feed the publications.
Within the Publications principle, we work together with humans, writers, researchers, local artists, and community leaders from all over the world. We believe strongly in the phrase ‘strength is in diversity’.
The projects we do vary from meaningful graphic design assignments to creating new community hubs across the world. All projects follow the regenerative core principle, which means that after our part of the job is done, the project should thrive within the local community without our help.
Wethu Collective was founded by Ikhona Plaatjie-Jacobs & Koen Plaatjie-Jacobs and is developed with many other Wethu-ers.
“ Treating the other person as part of an extended community. ”
* Ikhona Plaatjie-Jacobs Ikhona (born in South Africa, 1999) is the Social Designer & Lead Researcher at Wethu Collective. She builds the social and research foundation on which Wethu Collective is build.
* Koen Plaatjie-Jacobs Koen (born in The Netherlands, 1995) is the Graphic Designer & Conceptual Curator at Wethu Collective. He builds the conceptual and visual foundation on which Wethu Collective is build.