This paper compares selected analyses of the likely sustainability of society and the factors affecting it, including social, environmental, economic, and political. It examines the likely effects of these factors on South Africa, including possible interactions between them, cumulative effects and feedback loops. The literature increasingly suggests that these effects are likely to be extreme for the South African environment, society and economy, to say nothing of the rest of the world, within the working lives of current or near-future students, i.e. the next forty to fifty years.

This paper suggests two possible approaches to researching and conceptualizing aspects of a de-colonized design education for Graphic Design/Visual Communication Design (VCD). Concepts from Post-colonial theory, such as Ngugi wa Thiongo’s decolonization of the mind, Afrocentrism, Homi Bhabha’s hybridity, and appropriation, along with aspects of Social Identity theory are drawn on as means of investigating these approaches.

The creative and cultural industries form a significant employment sector in both the Thames Gateway region in England and the Durban Metropolitan Area in South Africa. Whilst successful completion of a degree has increased the chances of employment and career options for learners in both countries, employability may also be increased through work experience.

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.

This paper will discuss selected issues of transformation and Graphic Design education at the Department of Graphic Design, Durban University of Technology (DUT), and draw preliminary conclusions from recent research. It will begin by discussing the context in which both transformation and Graphic Design education take place at this institution, particularly with regard to the pressures of Globalisation.

It will then discuss certain problems of the relationship between Graphic Design and Indigenous Knowledge, and suggest some methodologies derived from recent projects in our department, as possible ways forward. The Indigenous Knowledge of the amaZulu people is the source consulted in this case.