Central University of Technology

CUT's Diploma in Design and Studio Art is a qualification across the design and art spectrum that encourages a wide, multidisciplinary view where students are encourage to pursue, debate and prioritize real world issues as individual “creative’s”.

The department aims to harness and extend students’ knowledge, skills and creativity with a critical ideas-driven approach across the field of graphic design, fashion design, jewellery design, fine art and photography with a unique technology approach.

CUT is the foremost higher education institution in the heartland of South Africa. The education university has two campuses – one in Bloemfontein, the judicial capital of South Africa, and one in Welkom, in the heart of the Free State goldfields. The two campuses offer education opportunities in a number of technological fields, including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); management sciences; humanities; and education. 

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Integrating design concepts learned in the classroom with real-life issues: A case study

AuthorInstitution
Moremoholo, Tsekelo PatrickCentral University of Technology

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Design Education Strategy
Moremoholo - Integrating design concepts learned A case study.pdf

Community service learning (CSL), generally known as service learning, is a method of teaching and learning in which specific needs in the community are combined with learning objectives and goals to stimulate meaningful learning experiences. CSL provides students with opportunities to relate and channel what they have learned in the classroom to real-life situations in the community. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in integrating CSL into higher education training programmes.

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The Value of Using Hypothesis-Testing Research for Graphic Design: Do decorative pictures contribute to learning?

AuthorInstitution
Moremoholo, Ts'ekelo PCentral University of Technology
de Lange, Rudi WTshwane University of Technology

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Graphic Design & Visual Art
The Value of Using Hypothesis-Testing Research for Graphic Design: Do decorative pictures contribute to learning?

Graphic design as an academic and research practice is relatively young when compared to the established disciplines such as education, psychology, medicine, and history. It was only community-type colleges and technical institutions that offered design as a vocational trade. Universities in South Africa started to offer design in the latter half of the twentieth century. It is only in the last two decades that we have seen design research output in South Africa. The relatively low number of international design journals when compared to education, for example, attest to the young scientific discipline of research in design.

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Using Educational Research Results To Improve Graphics For Instructional Material

AuthorInstitution
de Lange, Rudi WCentral University of Technology
Ojo, OlutunmiseCentral University of Technology

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Graphic Design & Visual Art
Using Educational Research Results To Improve Graphics For Instructional Material

Graphic designers and illustrators intuitively believe that their graphic embellishments such as pictures, photographs and graphics will aid a learner when they use instructional material. The results of empirical studies however indicate that graphic embellishments have a limited effect and only contribute to learning under very specific conditions.

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An Evaluation Of Interpreted Technical and Aesthetical Design Suitability in Garments

AuthorInstitution
Slegtenhorst, LisaCentral University of Technology
Venter, NeliaCentral University of Technology

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Fashion, Jewellery & Textile Design
An Evaluation Of Interpreted Technical and Aesthetical Design Suitability in Garments

Silk is a prestigious material, often used to produce textiles and clothing associated with rank, luxury, wealth and social status. In Africa silk is produced and used less extensively than cotton and wool – both geographically and socially. However, silk textile traditions in Africa have been sustained by the continuing demand for prestigious culturally significant clothes.

Kalahari tussah silk comes from a silk worm from the Kalahari, a vast region of red sandy soil extending across much of Southern Africa. The wild silk is a naturally occurring renewable resource used by the San, who are the original and oldest inhabitants of South- Africa. Small communities are located in a few areas like the Kalahari Desert region, and regions of Namibia (Lewis- Williams, 1991:6-11).

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Design solutions to community health communication

AuthorInstitution
Ojo, OlutunmiseCentral University of Technology
de Lange, Rudi WCentral University of Technology

Keywords: 

Discipline: 

Media & Communications Design
Design solutions to community health communication

The aim of health communication campaigns is to effect a change in behaviour and attitude.

 

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Latest News & Events

DEFSA conferences

DEFSA promotes relevant research with the focus on design + education through its biennial conferences, to promote professionalism, accountability and ethics in the education of young designers. Our next conference is a hybrid event. See above for details.

Critical skills endorsement

Professional Members in good standing can receive a certificate of membership, but DEFSA cannot provide confirmation or endorsement of skills whatsoever. DEFSA only confirm membership of DEFSA which is a NPO for Design Education in South Africa (https://www.defsa.org.za/imagine).