Lizelle Wagner

Owner, Director / Sylver Films

"Raquel is a consummate professional and it was such a pleasure to work with her! How rare to find high levels of creativity, commitment, and service, combined with real skill and technical ability all in one place. She is amazing!”

Peter & Karen

Managers / Bay Lodge

"It has been a great pleasure working with Raquel. We have had awesome comments from our guests and tour operators on the photography and marketing materials that she developed for us. We have no hesitation in recommending Raquel for her artistic creative ability and professional approach to any project!”

Deanne Viljoen

Director & Designer / De Steyl Furniture & Manufacture

"Raquel is a very dynamic creative who manages to combine creative flair with a very professional approach to design. It’s a joy to work with her; she is accommodating to me as a designer, she has taken the trouble to understand the people, product and company that she is creating for and delivers beautiful design solution of excellence every time.”

Deddou Burkhard

Owner / Chocolate Box, Switzerland

"Thanks to Raquel my business has a beautiful corporate design and image. My brand looks different to other brands and attracts a lot of attention. It perfectly matches my target group and represents all attributes of my business. I am not only proud of my corporate identity but I also have a great basis to on which to build a successful business.”

Sanchia Hadlow

Owner / Firefly Eating House

"Raquel is a highly talented creative individual but also extremely skilled in conceptualising, execution and delivery. Definitely the person to put wings to your dreams….”

Lesley Hathorn

Owner / Hearts Content

"Oh my Goodness !!! That is SO SO wonderful ! I am thrilled with my branding and marketing materials ....but not surprised as you did such an amazing intuitively creative job.”

JJ Maia

Creative Director / D.C. Maia Fashions CC

"It was essential for D.C. Maia Fashions CC to have Raquel as a strategic design partner. She understood the building blocks of the ORIGAMI DUCK brand and came on board at the very beginning. Raquel was able to emotionalize and translate the brand concept into design. For a fashion brand, visual design elements are fundamentally important to communicate consistently across various formats, Raquel handled all the design work for ORIGAMI DUCK with precision execution. Raquel experience also provided a dynamic bouncing board for ideas and she was able to provide strategic consultancy for the brand. Runway photography, mailer campaigns, master brand formats, image catalogue, flash website, fashion photography, were all successfully handled for ORIGAMI DUCK giving a memorable brand image for our markets. The strong visual campaign gave the brand immediate differentiation from competitors which is exactly what the goal was. I highly recommend Raquel to handle all your creative requirements.”

Di Marshall

Owner / Wonki Ware

"My working relationship with Raquel has been inspirational and fun to date. She has contributed enormously to the promotional and marketing side of my business. Her efficiency and ability to work under pressure has been invaluable.”

Mike Louw

Architect / CMAI Architects

"We’ve been working with Raquel for several years now and she has been taking care of our photography, graphics and website during that time. Her work speaks for itself and it is of a consistently high quality. She is a pleasure to work with and her response time is always excellent. We as a company are glad to have a working relationship with her and hope to build on this in the future.”

Creative Vision

Having a deeper sense of passion and purpose underpins creative vision

I have a hunger to understand businesses – their vision, their truth, the fundamentals of what they want to communicate. Designing and delivering this vision creatively, translated in whatever form needed is what I am passionate about. Having a deeper sense of purpose is the most basic of all human needs. I strive to create brands that matter and that reflect a powerful purpose and existence in a hyperconnected complex world.

Design, illustration & photography are my way of exploring, understanding, recording and expressing. I am a great believer in the fact that design is a powerful voice that can transform and inform lives and perceptions.

My personal purpose and goal as a designer is to work with integrity and humility, to create visual stories that best communicate your purpose.

Profile

Raquel de Castro Maia has a BTech in fine art and photography from NMMU as well as a diploma in digital design from Concept Interactive. Over the years, she has collected many accolades from various competitions including the Design Indaba’s Construction Award. After traveling and working in international design agencies in the United Kingdom, Raquel Co-Founded Create Design in 2003. An award-winning graphic design agency who’s branding, corporate identity and graphic design were under her creative art direction for more than 14 years. Currently (since 2017), Raquel is the Creative Brand Manager for Gondwana Game Reserve and is responsible for developing all digital and printed marketing materials as well as developing monthly marketing campaigns and content for social media posts and blogs which includes photography, video and copywriting.