Sustainability has become a defining imperative for brands and consumers in an era of intensifying environmental and social challenges. Organisations increasingly turn to visual storytelling as a strategic communication tool to foster environmental consciousness, drive behavioural change, and shape public perception. This paper investigates the role of visual storytelling in advancing sustainable advertising practices. It explores how such techniques can be integrated into design education to prepare emerging creatives for purpose-driven communication. Grounded in a dual focus on environmental and social responsibility, this study responds to two central questions: (1) How can visual storytelling techniques influence consumer engagement and action toward sustainability?

As architectural education evolves, integrating sustainability demands more than technological solutions; it requires an experiential understanding of physical and spatial design qualities. However, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in architecture has often been shaped by Global North-centric technical approaches, promoting one-size-fits-all solutions. A more holistic understanding, incorporating the cultural and environmental realities of the Global South, remains underexplored. This research investigates how sensory perception, informed by Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and phenomenology, can enhance architectural ESD by fostering contextually grounded design approaches.

Design for social good refers to the application of design knowledge and skills to solve problems to enable a better future. From a fashion perspective, design for social good could refer to the pursuit of environmental sustainability and to uplift communities. Design education, at undergraduate-level aims to encourage students to apply design knowledge to improve the world and potentially introduce research methodology. However, literature concerning pedagogical strategies for design for social good in a South African fashion design higher education context is lacking. To fill this gap, a design for social good teaching and learning project was presented to third year Fashion Diploma students at a South African fashion higher education institution.

This paper explores how the principles of Cosmopolitan Localism, specifically the Small, Local, Open, and Connected (SLOC) framework, can be operationalised within sustainability-focused fashion design education. Drawing on a practice-based, qualitative research study conducted within an undergraduate fashion design programme at a South African university, the paper analyses a pedagogical intervention aligned with the global Fashion Revolution movement. The intervention included a three-week experiential learning module, the Fashion Revolution Designathon, and a campus-wide clothing swap event to embed ethical awareness, material circularity, and critical design thinking into the student learning experience.

This paper proposes a hybrid developmental Design model for innovative research, practice and learning in complex socio-technical systems by combining topical theories and methods. It begins by challenging the problem of exclusive Design approaches and typical Design models which use centralised development and beneficiation. The model asks Designers to rethink their future role and relinquish control via a Participatory Design approach where Designers are responsible for demystifying the value impact of Design through a process of ongoing engagement (Lasky 2013, p. 24). The model’s framework combines three Design theories that have common themes: ‘Socio-Technical Systems Design’, ‘Appropriate Technology’ and ‘Design for Sustainability’.

This paper examines how sustainability and future-focused design can be effectively integrated into design education through a case study of a third-year Industrial Design project in South Africa. As part of an international design competition, students were challenged to critically engage with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by identifying and addressing actionable problems. Working in teams, they developed technically refined product solutions within a computer-aided design (CAD) environment, applying human-centred and sustainability-driven design principles. The project outcome analysed in this study tackled organic waste management in lower-income urban areas under the competition theme of “sustainable habitat/city infrastructure”.

South Africa’s escalating environmental challenges, exacerbated by the Anthropocene, demand a radical rethinking of design education. While science and engineering have developed mechanisms to address ecological degradation, design education remains rooted in Human-Centred Design, which prioritises human needs while neglecting planetary systems. This paper argues for a paradigm shift toward Planet-Centred Design, supported by interdisciplinary collaboration through STEAM(D) (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics + Design) and biodesign as transformative approaches for South African tertiary arts, design, and engineering education.

This paper deals with the gap in undergraduate graphic design student prepress knowledge, and how addressing the shortfalls can lead to reduced waste through graduating designers that practice more informed reproduction. This paper follows the research for my master’s thesis (Lottering 2017) which emerged as a result of being required to teach prepress theory and finding that the amount of theory needed to be covered in the classroom was far too much and far too complex for students to fully understand given the available time allotted to teaching and learning on the topic. On an exchange trip to Sweden in 2014, my students were given the opportunity to print milk carton packs on an actual, industry standard flexographic press.

This research investigates the transformation of studio-based learning environments within spatial design education, focusing on the increasing need for adaptability, immersion, and sustainability. With roots in Interior Design and Architectural Education, traditional studio models have historically centred on fixed, institution-bound environments. However, shifts in ecological consciousness, technological advancement, and pedagogical priorities demand a rethinking of the studio typology. This paper proposes an alternative: the immersive nomadic studio.

The high failure rate of small and micro businesses together with limited information about the operations of informal fashion micro-businesses and necessitated a study about the apparel product design and development process applied by custom-made apparel manufacturing micro enterprises (CMMEs). These micro-enterprises have an important role to play in poverty alleviation in South Africa despite implementing survivalist strategies, and they also provide a sense of self-worth and dignity to people who would otherwise depend on welfare (Grant 2013; Phakathi 2013; Campaniaris et al. 2011). According to Burke (2011), knowledge of design enables creativity and innovation and therefore to prosper, informal CMME owners need to be competent, as well as innovative (SME Reports 2014).

Interior design is a discipline concerned with human inhabitation. It provides the capacity for inhabitant identities to inform and be informed by the interior. Interiors are cultural products, reflective of societal identity and taste (Königk & Khan 2015). Following Bourdieu (1979 [1984]), tastemaking is a repeated, cyclic process. As tastemakers, interior designers are responsible for deciding how selected goods are made desirable through responding to, interpreting and shaping the tastes of society. The cyclic nature of interiors is prevalent in the commercial realm. The conventional fit-out lifecycle is governed by lease periods of five years and the physical deterioration of shopfitted elements after ten years of use.

The emergence of young African social entrepreneurs who design social change could translate to significant social value design that, in turn, could improve the future of several communities. Nevertheless, the designed value will only benefit the continent if it is substantial and sustainable. The problem is that many social entrepreneurial endeavours are implemented without a long-term future focus or an understanding of how social value is conceptualised. For this reason, tertiary institutions in Africa should consider presenting training or education related to sustainable social value design.

This study expands the concept of cosmopolitan localism by Manzini (2010), which supports the approach of contextualised design solutions and not necessarily a global approach due to context differences. The research adopted an ethnographic approach for studying emerging sustainable graphic design practices with the aid of Sustainability Development Analytical Grid and Activity Theory. The results show the practice of sustainability through the aid of Ghana Food and Drugs Authority and Ghana Environmental Protection Agency who checked the content and materials of graphic design products for conformity to set standards.

The systemic nature of cultural production implies that designed objects are made desirable (or acceptable) by tastemakers who endow objects with forms of social distinction. Social distinction highlights or diffuses status and reveals self-perceptions of consumers’ identities. In this way, design becomes a form of tastemaking, invested in the construction of identity and is therefore a form of cultural production rooted in consumption. The role of the designer in facilitating conspicuous consumption is therefore critical in the context of social distinction, cohesion and identity.

The multifaceted and complex phenomena of ethics and accountability have relevance for the current discourse of fashion design. This is evident in the choice of materials used, the conditions under which clothing is produced, as well as how designers think about and implement the practice of fashion. Fashion practice has environmental and ethical impacts that ultimately connect human wellbeing and society with sustainable practice.

Governments, policy makers and environmental activists across the globe, entered the 21st century with a renewed focus in combatting the impact of humanities unsustainable practices. To achieve this goal a paradigm shift towards being environmentally responsible and accountable is required in which humanity will have to adopt radical personal change. This paper therefore aims to address the unsustainable future that humanity faces through investigating the role of education as agents of change in motivating sustainable practices and inspiring personal, ethical conduct amongst university students.

The role of the design educator is to mediate learning and equip students to effectively contribute to their specific field once they graduate. With an ever-increasing demand for the ethical consideration of the sustainability of products and the impact of the manufacture thereof, so too the role of the educator should compensate and prepare learners accordingly. This paper aims to investigate the social and environmental responsibilities of industrial design professionals by referring to the works of key authors as well as current industry practices.

In  order  to  save  both  the  planet  and  the  human  race,  society  needs  to  take  action  and  adopt  sustainable practices and approaches. The embedded modes of operations and encultured human behavioral patterns are under attack and radical changes are required, to ensure a future that provides sustainable  living conditions. Through employing various teaching and learning strategies, educators aim to convert the student’s approach and encourage  personal  awareness  that would stimulate   responsible  sustainability  thinking  and design. This paper  explains  how  behavioral  patterns   can  be changed  through  our  teaching  and  learning  approach  thus contributing towards an environmentally responsible design culture and society.
 

Ethos, the origin of the word ethics, originally meant a place where animals frequent. When the herds gather at the watering hole how do they interact with other herds, species or competition? How do they behave in a way that they will be welcomed back?

This presentation will report on progress made in the development of a new Master’s degree structure in Graphic Design at the Durban University of Technology.