PARTNER NEWS
Greenside Design Center (GDC) is the most internationally
acclaimed design institution in South Africa.
GDC was the first institution in Africa to become an
education member of the International Federation
of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI) and the
International Council of Graphic Design Associations
(ICOGRADA). In 2009 the college won the prestigious
IFI Design for All Award, recognising excellent design
in the service of humanity, for the 10% community
engagement. The students were competing against
practising designers the world over.
GDC was also the first design institution in Africa
to become a member of Cumulus, the International
Association of Universities and Colleges of Art,
Design and Media, made up of the top design schools
in the world. Members are from 201 prominent
institutions from over 40 countries around the world
who provide degree studies for 300 000 students.
In September this year GDC and FADA, Faculty of
Art, Design and Architecture at the University of
Johannesburg, hosted an international Cumulus
Conference. The title of this conference was Design
with the Other 90%: Changing the World by Design.
This conference attracted 89 international delegates
from around the world and 91 local delegates from
around South Africa. The conference followed a
rigorous double-blind peer review process for the
submission of conference papers, and Carolanda
du Toit, Robin Turner, Kathryn Pope, Jason Wiggin,
Marina Meyer, and Ray Whitcher of GDC staff had their
papers accepted. Two students, Ryan Honeyball and
Vuyolwethu Motingoa also had their papers accepted.
Coinciding with this conference, GDC hosted its
annual community project called 10% which gives
ten percent of notional teaching time to community
projects. This year saw students and lecturers from
Australia, Switzerland, Finland, Canada, the USA and
Denmark attending the three week programme. One
of the keynote speakers for the Cumulus Conference,
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Dr Antoine Abi Aad from Lebanon spent a further
two weeks at GDC doing a hands-on workshop with
the Multi Media and Graphic Design students. In
2013, Ray Whitcher from the Graphic and Multimedia
department, was selected to be a panellist at the San
Diego Comic Convention, along with a colleague from
UCT, to talk about the South African comic industry.
Following this, he was invited to present on this at the
famed Design Indaba in 2014.
GDC has comprehensive international exchange
programmes in place and over the last two years two
students have attended the Master Camp each year
at Kolding Design School in Kolding, Denmark. The
two students who attended were Maryke Meyer, an
Honours student from the Interior Design Department,
and Caitlin Sloane, an Honours student from the
Graphic Design Department.
For the past 20 years, GDC has invited international
verifiers to the examination board annually. These
verifiers benchmark our courses from an international
perspective and play an invaluable role in ensuring our
courses comply with the best international standards.
Last year they invited Hanne Lind-Bonderup from
Denmark and Antoine Abi Aad from Lebanon. This
year David Grossman from Israel, Antoine Abi
Aad from Lebanon and Gerrit Schilder from the
Netherlands will make up the team.
GDC also represented Africa at the educational
platform meeting of the International Council of
Graphic Design Associations. Robin Turner and
Kathryn Pope attended this meeting in Hong Kong
in August 2014 to assist the international body in
establishing its purpose and objectives.
Hall of Fame
Once again their Hall of Fame grew this year. Prof Des
Laubscher received a Fellowship in June from the IFI at