 Welcome back to Afternoon Express. Now today marks the end of week one of WinnerHome, right here on Afternoon Express. So far we've met our three design contestants, Joanne, Minen, Claire as well as Rudolph, and we've met their three industry mentors. We've met our three WinnerHome judges as well as our property finance expert, Tim Akinoussi. So for those of you who missed out on any of the action, here's a quick look at what went down. WinnerHome is the biggest, baddest property show on TV, so it's really great to be part of it. You've got all of the elements that make for great TV, but also for great property exposé. We've got huge expectations for the season. We're going to see some tough challenges, particularly excited about following the progress of these designers on a daily basis. You can't get more real than that and I'm sure we're going to see drama, great ideas, and ultimately a beautiful result. At Plascone we really believe that beautiful spaces can really enhance your life and we love showcasing that. So the WinnerHome collaboration is fantastic for us because it gets to show people what is possible with paint, with colour and with design and you can actually do it yourself as well. I think we're looking for something that is memorable, first of all, distinctive, something that shows attention to detail, something that has delight and just an all-round great experience of going into a space that you want to stay in. Viewers are going to be able to experience the whole process of how young talent pick up clues from current designers, artists looking at the elements of architecture and design and grow and develop throughout this process of creating these amazing spaces. After weeks and weeks of searching we decided on three young designers who themselves will compete to win a 100,000 rand cash prize and an internship at one of South Africa's top interior design and decor studios, Ark in Cape Town. Yeah, and first up we have Joanne Fenter from Lumpentine who is a candidate architect and freelance photographer. And secondly we have Minette Lenduli from Durban who is an architect, avid photographer and amateur soccer player. And lastly, our final design contestant is Rudolph Giordano from Cape Town who is a qualified interior designer and lecturer. Why did you enter this competition? Because I always try to challenge myself to something new all the time and I thought this was the competition to do it, because you get pushed into this thing and there you go, make the best of it. What are the things stood out about the few of you respectively that made you really get selected in the end out of all the entrants? I think we're all very versatile we don't do just one thing we showed multiple talents I think. Did you manage it? She just said because getting to meet these guys got to understand that they're very versatile like with me I have a lower background in this architecture but I'm branching off into other fields from graphic design to photography. And you're also a lecturer Rudolph apart from just being an interior designer. Yeah so I'm really being put on the spot here. So you've all met your mentors how do you feel? Personally I'm very excited with my mentor I was extra happy that it's a female. I feel that would work well she had that feminine touch. The biggest thing I'd like to give this contestant is belief in themselves and also that they also sometimes just have to fake it. You have to fake that confidence in yourself. You need to back your decisions, you need to you just need to go down that path. I want the end product here to be really something spectacular and in order to get there you can't be a sissy. I'm so excited what I'm looking for is an enormous amount of talent enthusiasm the willingness to actually do the hard work and just to be fearlessly creative and I hope we have a fantastic working relationship because I think if you've got a good relationship with somebody that you work with half the battle is won. I'd like to be a collaborative mentor someone who helps network the young designer with the networks that we have in the magazine I really want to work with someone who's got quite a clear vision a good strong vision. I think you're never too old to learn from young talent who have new ideas and to watch how those are shaped into a very defined competition space the designer needs to work within that space yet give it give it character give it some meaning. I think as judges we're going to be a lot tougher on the contestants this year they've got immeasurable support this year you know magazine editors you've got all of the trend insight the design insight that they bring to the show so it's really about great ideas breaking the mould is going to be a trick this year. This time I'm going to be looking for originality and creativity in the design the quality and innovative use of materials but also taking the environment into consideration. Seeing that we designed the architecture of the Polar Village I also think the location is also going to be quite challenging for the contestants so I quite like the challenge of seeing how these young designers are going to interpret the architecture of the spaces that we've created. Of course it's a lot easier sitting on this side of the table I think I am going to be quite demanding because this year we have professionals and I think we expect a lot from them. We've had a great history with Winner Home over the last two years. The show has been a really entertaining show it's provided a lot of ideas and it enables us to connect with our audience and continue to educate people about the various aspects of home ownership with a lot of ideas sharing and information sharing about real estate and what we've gotten out of that is we've been able to showcase just how important real estate is in the lifestyle context and more importantly on the design element is how design influence and enhance value of property over the long term. When renovating a home one needs to consider the purpose for why they're doing the renovation. As a principal it's important that they are renovating to enhance the future value of the place. So ideally each renovation needs to consist of both functional and aesthetic changes to the place to ensure that the investment in the renovation project and in the future. So on Season 3 of Winner Home I think the new format would allow us to have great dialogue with our audience and allow us to talk about real estate and how it can be used to improve their lives regardless of their life stage or income bracket. For us as a bank the show continues to be relevant to us because it allows us to connect with South Africans in a fun way such as home ownership which is arguably the largest investment that consumers will ever undertake. Sure, we are so excited to have Winner Home right here on Afternoon Express for an exciting third season of Exquisite Design. Every weekday we follow our talented design contestants as they turn empty properties at Valdivia State and the Cape Winelands into dream homes using finishes provided by Caesarstone and Plaskon. And the best part is that you can enter the grand prize competition on privateproperty.co.za for a chance to win a finished apartment valued at, take a listen to this 3 million rand. Winner Home is proudly brought to you by Private Property in association with NetBank. Now after the break we put the finishing touches on our dinner of traditional Talia Tele Bolognese. Should be delicious.