Unexpectedness By Kim Browne Post the summer holidays, January brings realism, a slow start and an avalanche of social media memes lamenting the verisimilitude that comes packaged with a new year. A favourite cartoon that caught my eye is a Roz Chast classic from The New Yorker on how the annual calendar truly feels, which [...]

The machines have won By Louis Eksteen In a kind of cosmic justice of sorts, long-established television is now starting to feel the internet winter. For years only traditional print media was hammered by the internet’s all encompassing advertising juggernaut. These days venerable old media can seemingly only be saved by billionaire philanthropists. Bezos bought The [...]

We’re only as good as our partners By Kim Browne Over time we’ve realised we’re really only as good as our trusted supply partners. The people, companies, teams, organisations and others we work with to ensure we can deliver the goods for our own valued clients, are crucial to the continued success of our own [...]

Voice first, mobile second By Louis Eksteen I can’t stand Siri. Apple’s voice assistant is irritating beyond, because she always pops up out of nowhere when I’m actually trying to do something else. At Toast HQ we often hear someone shouting rude comments at Siri, such as “Shut up Siri!”. So at the moment I’m not [...]

Charity begins at home By Kim Browne It's truly heartwarming to be able to support worthy charities. The two institutions we assist as The Toast are actually a bit like our own family. Atterbury Trust and Hearts of Hope are the two causes we are committed to for the long term. It just so happens [...]

Learning machine systems By Louis Eksteen As the world turns increasingly to a reliance on the automation of repetitive and/or complicated tasks, the role of business managers changes. Rote execution of mundane actions are better served by software. This is well-known and "IT", as it's incorrectly referred to by the C-suite, has already permeated most management [...]

All in a life’s work By Kim Browne A client wished me happy New Year yesterday – in March! That’s got to be a first for me, but indicative of just how crazy 2018 has been. The passing of my father on 17 January after his protracted battle with throat cancer has derailed my world [...]

Design Indaba 2018 By Sharlene Safi Being in design means keeping abreast of trends and new developments in the industry. What’s intensely satisfying about the field of design is that it spans so many industries. Where there’s a problem, there’s a design solution waiting to be implemented, and nowhere is this more evident than [...]

Learning new tricks By Louis Eksteen Paddling at Emmarentia dam yesterday, I regaled my early morning kayak school buddies with my latest midlife crisis. I was in Durban last week and “had to” go around to legendary shaper Spider Murphy’s Safari Surfboards. I walked out with a 9.6" L2Pro longboard, just in time for the holidays. [...]

Min dae By Kim Browne I think most people will agree that 2017 has been a tough year on a number of levels and we’ll be happy to see the back of it. It’s min dae now with just 10 days to Xmas and two weeks until the start of the new year – where [...]