Then why not tweet us your experience today at @inscapeEdu
Graphic Designer
Joshua is one of Inscape’s finest talents completing his Bachelor of Design in Graphic Design at the Inscape Midrand Campus in 2017. With a year of industry experience as a part of the MSNGLNK team, located in Fourways, Joshua describes his works as a “full-time presentation specialist and overtime ‘Boredom Slayer’.” Going on to say that “Graphic design has become a part of my life. I love creating visuals, so I’m always getting inspired to create digital artwork, be it photomanipulation, animation or integrating it into fashion. I also do a bit of graphic portrait design as freelance work and share my work on Instagram @rushoctober. I also want to start collaborating more with other artists so I can increase my following.”
Interior Designer
Reikantse Seremane has been part of the team at Hush Interiors the past 18 months. She completed her Bachelor of Design in Interior Design in 2017 at Inscape Midrand campus. In conversation with @love.reii she shared that she, “was lucky enough to have had made a good impression during my internship at Hush and was offered a permanent position. She goes further to share that the best part about her career is that each day is never the same, one day its concept planning and presentations, and the next day its project management and procurement. She believes that her studies at Inscape taught her how to engage with clients and keep them interested in her services or products. She continues to develop content that engages the interior design industry and an overall audience to keep viewing her page and works to gain momentum to be recognised as an Interior design specialist.
Nicholas Smit completed his Bachelor of Design in Interior Design at the Inscape Cape Town Campus in 2015. After graduating from Inscape, Nick worked at ARRCC Interior Design Firm as an Interior Designer. He recently took part in the fifth season of South Africa’s premier interior design reality TV competition, Win a Home.
Cape Town Photographer
Ryan Byrne, an exciting young photographer based in Cape Town. Ryan graduated with a Bachelor of Design Degree in Ideation Design from the Inscape Cape Town Campus in 2017. He currently works at Frontier Lab while doing photography on the side. His Instagram account focuses on photos of Animals, people and landscapes.
Graphic and lettering designer
Zachary Styles also known as @thattypeguy, graduated with a Bachelor of Design in Graphic Design from the Inscape Durban Campus, he was recognised as the top national student in Graphic Design. Zachary sees himself as a graphic designer and lettering artist, who is making waves in the lettering community. With over 2600 followers, also being a part of an invite-only design conversation group that has an international presence, he is focused on success. When asked about advice or words to live by, this go-getter has a great response: “I practice gratitude for where I am today, and I practice everything else for where I will be tomorrow” Humble and hungry for success, this is truly a young designer to look out for.
Now that you’ve seen all these creative Instagram accounts, give them a follow!
Why not start your own creative feed?
Back in the day, I wanted to study Interior Design at Inscape, but I ended up studying Marketing instead. Obviously back then I had no idea that I’d end up working for Inscape some 10 years later! From what I have seen and learnt working at the Inscape Cape Town Campus for the past 2 years, these would be my top reasons to study at Inscape and key pointers I’d use when recommending Inscape.
1)Pioneers in Design Education
Inscape was the first institution in South Africa to offer the Bachelor of Design (B.Des) degree. The Bachelor of Design degree is a well-known degree internationally and is offered at universities such as The University of Melbourne in Australia. Staying up to date with global trends and pushing the boundaries of design education is a constant driver at Inscape. We’re currently the only institution in South Africa to offer Ideation Design and our graduates from this programme tend to get snapped up very quickly!
2) INscape has been INspiring for more than 3 and a half decades
Established in 1981, Inscape has grown significantly over the years to include 4 campuses in South Africa, online learning (distance) campus and an international campus in Dubai. We will continue to grow and adapt to an ever-changing landscape and yet we can always look back and draw from our experience and wealth of knowledge that’s been gathered over the course of 37 years.
3)Find what suits your needs
Nowadays it is not always that easy to take 3 years to study a degree full-time, no matter what age you are. There are so many different factors in our lives these days that we need to consider such as time, finances, working while studying and transport. At Inscape we offer a variety of options to choose from in terms of timeframe and length of studies as well as location. Whether you choose one of our 8-week Short Courses, a 1-year Higher Certificate, a 3-year Diploma or a Bachelor of Design Degree, you are sure to find exactly what suits your specific needs.
4)Choose from 4 Faculties and a variety of design disciplines
With our Bachelor of Design Degree, we have expanded our offering in recent years to include the following specializations: Interior Design, Environmental Design, Graphic Design, Audio Visual Design, Interaction Design, Ideation Design, Marketing & Communication Design, Fashion Design and Jewellery Design. And that’s just for our B.Des degree! Spoilt for choice?
5)Top-notch facilities
At Inscape we are always upgrading our facilities to suit the needs of our classes. Whether it’s changing a room to include a green screen and getting a fabulous new camera for our first Audio Visual class, or redecorating our campus with our vibrant new branding, we’re always at work on our facilities.
6)Our Alumni
We’re constantly working at maintaining good relationships with our Alumni and we love to brag about the amazing things that they are doing around the globe! We recently watched 2 of our Cape Town Alumni on the Win a Home Design Challenge on TV. They were team Contrast Control and it was great to see how they pushed the boundaries of Interior Design with their ‘out of the box’ ideas! With Inscape Alumni working all around the world including Singapore, the UK, Dubai/UAE and Namibia to name a few – we are confident that what we offer can really take you places!
7)Partnering with the Design Industry
An important part of my job as a Campus Marketing Coordinator at Inscape is inviting dynamic and influential Guest Speakers to speak to our students at our campus. We often find that these speakers will also be happy to take our students for their In-service training or work with us on other projects. Then there is our annual Graduate Exhibition where our current graduates have an opportunity to display their final portfolios at an event where we invite key people from the industry to join us and view our graduate’s work. This is a great opportunity for networking.
8)Be a part of the bigger picture
Our CEO Helen Buhrs, and therefore Inscape as a whole, is very focused on creating opportunities for people through Inscape’s Scholarship Programme and promoting young designers who are still at school through the Young Designers Award. Partnering with projects like Thru the Chair, enable us to assist in raising funds to impact education in South Africa. At our campus we like to take part in local initiatives such as The Santa Shoebox Project and our SRC Charity committee is always finding a way to partner in uplifting the community.
9)Fun-day Fridays
Whether its funky sock day or dressing up for a cause, we’re always making time to have a bit of fun at our campuses. ‘Work hard, play hard’ is how we like to do things and that’s also why you’ll find foosball tables, table tennis and other such distractions at our campuses.
10)Develop your unique identity
It’s all IN our name! The word Inscape as coined by Hopkins, the poet, in the 18th century means: The unique inner nature of a person or object as shown in a work of art, especially a poem. INscape is the distinctive design that makes up one’s individual identity. At Inscape, we hope to nurture the INscape in our people!
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The typical understanding of ‘design’ is that it has become something to feel and look at. When we think
design we think a cover of a book, a nice clothing item, a website or Architecture. The concept of using
design to change lives and solve real problems is slowly fading, with design becoming a tool available only
to few who can afford it, and less of a tool to deal with everyday real problems. Design is not just a tool for
business, it can also be used to deal with the social and economic issues. Warren Berger states “When
people talk about design changing the world, it tends to sound a little grand and ridiculous, because they
think of design as, in one fell swoop, changing the world and solving our problems. What design actually
can do, it can solve problems on a case-by-case basis around the world. As it does that, it changes the
world, because it changes the reality for people wherever the situation is happening”.
A good example of such an intricate design deals with a global issue concerning the lack of access to clean
The “lifestraw” was designed to combat this crisis, and very few people know about it. The life straw is
design to clean water source as needed on a day-to-day basis, it purifies water through a series of layers of
textiles and copper within the straw which effectively cleans water of any bacteria and parasites as the
water is drawn and passes through the textile chambers. It can filter 1000 litres of drinking water which is
the same amount of water a single person drinks every year. It effectively eliminates 99,9% of problems
caused by the consumption of unclean water.
The world has is full of real issues which need designers to intervene, from renewable energy, pollution,
education, food waste, climate change, internet safety, housing and terrorism many more. Design is the key
to effectively deal with many of these problems, therefore we should consider design to be more than just
aesthetics and just cool ideas, but good ideas that in effect change lives, and create a better society for our
future generations, It is not about one good Idea that fixes all problems. Design is a social responsibility it
is about dealing with on issue at a time within a given or immediate environmental issues. A good design
considers both aesthetics and function, keeping in mind that form follows function. It considers the
environment and the economic implications related thereof.
Congratulations to our students for making it to the Inscape Winners Wall of 2018.
Tayla Simpson
Inscape student, Tayla Simpson, did exceptionally well by not only taking part in the Durban July Young Designers Awards but has also made it to the Semi-Finals which was a pool of only 30 top student designers from across Kwa-Zulu Natal. The Young Designer Awards was set-up to give talented design students an opportunity to start a journey towards a career in fashion. It has been largely successful for a number of reasons; the enthusiasm of the talented students that submit entries, the colleges that continually support the initiative and the sponsors who believe in it. Well-done to Tayla for making the Inscape Tribe proud, we look forward to many more successes.
Congratulations to our students to making it to the Inscape Winners Wall of 2018.
Rene von Abo
Congratulations to our very own Rene von Abo for making it to the Top 10 of the PG Bison 1.618 education initiative competition in August.
My design found inspiration from multiple aspects of the Old Gas Works. Firstly, I looked at the start and result of the gas production process. Therefore, the site is excavated, starting at a sloped sidewalk to an outdoor pavilion shaped like a coal mine that offers a view of the internal performance space. The Building’s interior explores the result of the gas production process, a colourful gas flame. Viewers experience the colours and weightlessness of the flame through 4 levels.
The preservation of the Old Coke House’s history was also an important aspect to consider. Therefore, the brick walls are kept as is, while the interior steel beams are extruded above the building’s silhouette into a glass box. The windows are also extruded display boxes. This materiality and form play with the contrast between the old and the modern.’
Katlego Malatji
Katlego Malatji – Alumni Fashion student from Pretoria. Was selected to participate in a three month programme, 21 Steps To Retail; Design Innovation Challenge 2018. She completed the programme and was awarded a 1-year internship at Edcon and showcased her latest collection “play-sexy” at the 21 steps to retail showcase in June.
‘I was 1 of 13 people selected to take part in the 21 Steps to retail; Design innovation challenge 2018 which took place from January 2018 till March 2018. We had the opportunity to engage and exchange information with some of the most experienced experts in the fashion industry like Coenraad De mol founder of De mill clothing and Carina of Erre Fashion. We also had the great privilege of interacting and being facilitated by the likes of Black coffee, Gert-Johan and Sober Designs who are prominent influencers within the fashion and entertainment industry.
April 2018 was a beginning of a new venture as I started working for the Edcon group as one of their design interns. I work with the most welcoming and helpful team in the Edgars Kids department, and a few of my designs for toddlers and infants can be found in Edgars stores nationwide. The internship has helped me better understand how the retail environment works and the 21 steps to retail, has helped me become a better designer in the retail industry. I have showcased my resort collection “play sexy” at the EDCON DIC show that took place at the Aphartied Museum on 27th in honour of youth day and recently at the Proudly South African show that took place at Mall of Africa on the 15th September.
It is not always rainbows and unicorns, but it has honestly been a great experience. I have learnt so much, and I will forever be grateful for being a part of Inscape and the quality education that I received.”
Zachary Styles, Schalk Theron and Alex Rassool
The Loeries Award was created to promote and support creativity, innovation and outstanding execution in the advertising industry. The Loeries Creative Week is the culmination of a series of seminars, exhibitions and the gathering of some of the most creative and innovative minds in the country. Zachary Styles, Schalk Theron and Alex Rassool from Inscape were given the amazing opportunity as Inscape ambassadors and third year Graphic Design students, to showcase their best work at the Student Portfolio Day on the Friday of the 17th of August 18. This was also a great opportunity to network with industry professionals, learn about the industry and enjoy all this amazing event has to offer. Well done to our students who showcased their talented work.
Graphic Design students invited to exhibit at Loeries. Ruan van Zyl
Ruan van Zyl participated in the Miss and Mr. King South Africa pageant that was held at the Carousel Casino on the 19th June 2018. The competition provides an opportunity and platform for young men and women between the ages of 18 and 25 to take the runway by storm with the prospect of qualifying for Mr & Miss International. The competition is an annual event that incorporates winners from all over the world.
Finalists all over South Africa were selected and went through a screening process, which included interviews, information sessions and fitness tests.
Inscape Fashion and Jewellery design students can benefit from this platform as they look for young designers to sponsor the clothing for the finalists. This year there was a young designer that sponsored all the tracksuits, and his collection was worn by all girls and boys. (photos included)
The competition not only provides the participants with the opportunity to better themselves but also contribute towards the betterment of society. The finalists are expected to raise funds and goods for charity. According to Ruan, it was an amazing event, and he was placed 2nd runner-up in the competition.
Inscape student, Tayla Simpson, did exceptionally well by not only taking part in the Durban July Young Designers Awards but having also made it to the Semi-Finals which was a pool of only 30 top student designers from across Kwa-Zulu Natal. The Young Designer Awards was set-up to give talented design students an opportunity to start a journey towards a career in fashion. It has been largely successful for a number of reasons; the enthusiasm of the talented students that submit entries, the colleges that continually support the initiative and the sponsors who believe in it. Well-done to Tayla for making the Inscape Tribe proud, we look forward to many more successes.
Megan Dye and Rico Niezen
Congratulations to Megan Dye and Rico Niezen for winning the Argo Industry Brief Challenge.
Students were required to design a website that was fresh, crisp and enticing but maintained a corporate financial look and feel. The website needed to include a login profile, link to policies, financial tools, profile page of all employees of Argo and a link to associates.
The projects were moderated by a panel of Argo Directors and Inscape National Academic Team. The decision was a tough one as the top ten finalists from all campuses produced work that showed well-refined design application and skill. Argo had the following to say about the top two selected designs:
“Megan had a lot of very good points that we felt had us as a brand very well summed up. Her Tool buttons, team feel and colour usage were really great. We also felt that it had a nice modern feel to the entire page and if we had to plug and play as is, she would have been the closest to the overall picture. Rico, however, threw a spanner in the works in terms of pure uniqueness and story-telling. In the brief, we wanted to try again some out of the box thinking where Argo could also trend slightly differently and that is what he gave us. The pictures in the background and themed/storytelling concept were great.”
These two winners will now work alongside Argo in combining their designs to make a fantastic final live website – showing collaborative design is key.
Well done and a big high five to the rest of the 3rd years who also did really well too!
Megan’s work
Rico’s work
Year 03 Graphic Design Students impress Argo a Financial Industry partner with winning website designs.
Can you believe its almost the end of your final year studying? You’ve worked really hard at your studies and you need to start thinking about next steps for the year ahead. Presuming you’re not going to be taking some time out after college, now is a prime time to start taking steps to get that amazing first job in your career as a professional, qualified designer. The thought alone is super exciting but can also be a little daunting. To help you out, here are 5 great tips to help get you placed in the design workplace.
1.Identify what area of your industry you’d like to be in
Oftentimes, newly qualified designers don’t have a clear focus on what areas of their field they’d genuinely be interested in. We can often make the mistake of focusing on getting placed and paid that we don’t pay careful enough attention to the kind of work we actually want to be doing for the next few years. For example, I had an interview with a seriously talented, just-out-of-varsity interior designer who applied at my company for an exhibition design position. When we got chatting I was able to quickly identify that he’d be really great at exhibitions, but would get super bored within a few months and leave as his passion (although unbeknown to him at the time) was in high-end residential design. Your future employers will be able to tell a lot about you within your first interview and the biggest thing they are looking for is an accountable designer who will give them a return on their investment in you. Bottom line, be clear on what your interests are before applying for a job – your passion for the industry will translate in your interview and you’ll have a much higher chance of being placed in the right place, where you can learn and gain experience in a field that actually excites you.
2.Your CV and portfolio need to stand out
You’re a designer, not an accountant. Super word-heavy pages of a boring Word document-typed CV is just not going to cut it. Try get the design of your portfolio and CV to speak the same language, whether it’s a similar layout design or using the same font type, consistency is a great way to show that you consider all aspects of a project and that translates as “I pay close attention to detail in my work” for your potential employer. Keep your information concise and easy to read. Your future employer will likely be looking at 10-20 applicants minimum, make sure you stand out ad that your work looks interesting to read.
3. Research the company well before your interview
First impressions count. When you arrive at your interview, it can be a pretty scary experience and your potential employer will likely know within the first 2 minutes whether they think you’ll fit in with their company. Research the culture of the company before you get to the interview so you can dress appropriately. Some design agencies are pretty casual while others are more formal/ corporate.
4. Know their work
Another really important thing to do is check out some of the projects the company has done that you can refer to in your interview. Your interviewer will ask a lot of questions about yourself and your work, use it as an opportunity to bring up some of their work and how you feel you relate to it. Something along the lines of “I really enjoy bringing a bit of wit into copyrighting, your agency’s work of the new Nando’s ad was one of the main reasons I applied for this job – it was brilliant how you use “x” to convey “y” in the campaign”, will work well in showing the company that you have a genuine interest in the work they do, which is a sure way to impress.
5. Get some experience beforehand
Whether its job shadowing or an unpaid internship over your holidays, it’ll go a long way to have even just a tiny bit of experience in the design industry before you apply for your first job. You’ll learn a bit more jargon and hopefully have a better understanding of the client/supplier relationship dynamic. It also shows initiative, which will your most appealing characteristic in your job application. Trust me, your employer will want to get you on the ground and running independently as soon as possible, as their hands will be quite full with their own work and they need to know that you’ll step up and take accountability in your role.
Keep these in mind when applying for your next job and you’ll be 5 steps ahead of the crowd. Inscape wishes all our students the best of luck!
Going into the creative field in South Africa, is a very conflicting and often confusing journey. Coming out of a school system that places priority on Mathematics and Science, I was immediately faced with the idea that the fashion design industry has little to no job security but spending time as a student of the field broadened my mind to the possibilities in the field, which I find to be often overlooked.
The local fashion industry is, contrary to popular opinion, brimming with opportunity. The problem arises with the type of jobs in the industry. Realising that there are aspects of the fashion industry beyond designing and constructing garments, such as merchandising, trend analysing and fashion buying, as well as how an individuals style can indirectly play a role in the industry. As I believe my style has gravitated towards how I can play a role in the industry indirectly.
We live amongst a generation of people preoccupied with correcting the injustices of the past, colonisation being most pertinent to South Africa. We are now seeing that attitude and intention emerge in the field and that trickles down into the work produced as a student.
Designers like Laduma Noxolo, founder of the MaXhosa brand and Rich Mnisi, have become a prime example how African cultures can be incorporated into daily attire and elevated to the status of wearable high fashion, resonant around the world. Similarly, artist & fashion photographer Trevor Stuurman uses his styling to create images of African fashion that speak to the movement of African pride. His growing global popularity heralds the era of African design, of which South Africa has a leading role to play as one of the economic powerhouses of Africa.
South Africa’s culturally rich society lends itself as a diverse pool of inspiration. The stark contrast of wedding attire between the various cultures is an example of how local designers must meet the different needs of the variety of people they may encounter. Many people within the industry work for themselves as seamstresses or tailors, serving their local community by producing culturally significant clothing which is usually unavailable at a retail level.
As sustainability has become a regular topic at industry events the likes of South African Fashion Week, it too affects the way students approach designing. South Africa’s focus on promoting local design often meets the agenda of sustainable design but begins to exclude a large part of the local population, who can only purchase affordable low-priced garments. I find that bridging this gap in the market often directs the textiles and people I design for.
Ultimately, in a globalised African country, local fashion serves as a grounding to our own cultures, formidable enough to hold their own against seasonal fashion trends observed in international fashion circles.
Gosh! Time flies when you are having fun. My yesteryear memories of being a young fresh designer eager to change the world are now happily rose tinted with fondness. As young designers going out into the world to make our mark we were fearless. And by we, I mean the motley crew of design bandits cobbled together from the varsity days.
Honestly, we were more like young and witless. We were too foolish to fear anything. Those were such good times. Thinking about it we probably survived on optimism alone. The sheer audacity and bravery of our claims to handle anything, winning us way bigger clients than we should ever have even looked at. I’m not even sure how we managed to get past the front desk at times, let alone get to tap dance in the boardroom back then. Maybe it was the risk that drew us in but we delivered on every promise.
Lesson #1 Believe in yourself. If you don’t why should anyone else?
Lesson #2 Your word is your bond.
I remember winning a spur of the moment pitch against a slew of animation houses and post production facilities for a high-end 3D Animation job to be broadcast nationally. We had the skills, the PC hardware and software, a decent kettle and the drive to prove we were legit. The very same day we won the pitch we went out and bought two cheap pine desks and two sturdy chairs to set up our office. No one had asked if we had office furniture so it was a moot point.
Lesson #3 You need a comfy, sturdy chair. You are going to spend a lot of time in it.
Lesson #4 People tend to focus on what they don’t have, rather than making good use of what they do have. Utilize everything to the max. Up until that point there hadn’t been an office. Working around the clock and surviving on chip rolls, supplemented with semi decent coffee – we delivered our first installment of what would become a long line of animation stings.
Lesson #5 First you survive, then you thrive!
Reminiscing on my 1st year in the design wilderness I must say the pace of it then and the fogginess of the memories now, don’t allow for much clarity on that specific year. I do hold every one of these 5 lessons, abbreviated above, learnt in that year as important to my foundation as a successful designer.
Hopefully you get some value from this too!
Self-described as a “Prolific scribbler, coffee drinker and happy.” Gareth Smart is a Design Lecturer at Inscape’s Pretoria Campus, he celebrates the chance to work with the future of the design industry every day!
Welcome prospective applicant, you are about to embark on a journey that could have a significant impact on your life.
Inscape is committed to supporting students achieve their goals. The Early Bird Discount seeks to award students who choose to begin a new course.
If you apply to study on a full-time course by 30 September 2018, you will automatically receive a discount.
Enhance your career prospects by studying at degree level, with a range of full-time study options. Experience student life at its best.
Click here to find out more about the discounts if you enrol as an early bird.
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