PARTNER NEWS
Greenside Design Center College of Design is the most
internationally acclaimed design school in South Africa
offering Graphic Design, Multimedia Design & Interior
Design courses. They strive to be leaders in design higher
education and to nurture innovative and responsible
designers for the greater good of humanity.
GDC is a private higher education institution that
specialises in design education promoting:
• Innovation and critical thinking in the design process
• Sustainable design and design for social
development
• An optimal environment for teaching and learning
• The use and production of research
As a uniquely focused design college we prove
ourselves year in, year out - not just with awards and
commendations, but with our most important asset our students.
They leave Design Center with the right foundations
on which to build a career and a future in an exciting
and challenging industry. Students from Greenside
Design Center not only have a valuable qualification,
but a sense of confidence, humour, awareness and
initiative.
Design Center is recognized within the industry as a
centre of excellence and because of this, many of our
students are being instantly recruited into important
positions as soon as they leave Greenside Design
Center. Greenside Design Center’s staff are committed
to teaching sound design values and practices, and are
more than qualified to do so.
Lecturers at Greenside Design Center treat their
students as mature young adults, not as teenagers, and
because of this the education system at Design Center
is not a parrot-like regurgitation of facts and figures,
but a focused development of the right skills each
student needs in their development.
Des Laubscher is presently director of Greenside
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Design Center and he is also a Past President of the
International Federation of Interior Architects/
Designers, a federation representing the interests
of 60 000 designers worldwide in 43 countries.
Des is also a Fellow of Design for The World, a
multi-disciplinary organisation concerned with
humanitarian aspects of design based in Barcelona,
Spain.
In 2007 Laubscher was elected President of the South
African Institute for the Interior Design Professions
(IID). Additionally in 2001 he was appointed a Visiting
Professor of Design at Nottingham Trent University
because of his achievements in promoting socially
responsible design on an international design level.
His appointment was vetted by designers in Sweden,
Denmark, Australia, Korea and Ireland.
Laubscher has also presented papers on many design
issues in numerous countries around the world, such
as Korea, Japan, Australia, Bali, China, Spain, Denmark,
England, Brazil, Mexico and the USA, to mention a few.
He has also been a juror for many design competitions
locally and internationally.
Laubscher has recently been appointed onto
the Advisory Board of DESIGN 21: Social Design
Network, who in partnership with UNESCO, explore
relationships between design and society. He is also
on the Advisory Board of the International Federation
of Interior Architects/Designers, and is currently the
African and Middle East liaison for the federation. AD
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