Professional practice provides a context which requires design to be performed as an efficient and linear process (which may be a determining factor in the sustainability of practices). Research is an increasingly important component of accountability for design decisions.

The study qualitatively explored the local communication-design-education landscape and identified the structures, nature, challenges and role players. Theoretical models with the potential to guide the development of postgraduate design education were analysed. These are the Mode 1, 2 and 3 models, Innovation Triple, Quadruple and Quintuple Helix models, as well as research approaches that have the potential to better align academia with industry, such as practice-based and practice-led research, recognition of prior learning and work-integrated learning.

Following a query in 2018 by the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) alumni office to establish in which industries or companies UJ alumni were predominantly employed, information was gathered by members of the department of Graphic Design and data accumulated on a large number of alumni from the Department of Graphic Design.

Rapid and ongoing global changes are forcing educators to consider how students can be supported to navigate these events successfully. Reports from the World Economic Forum (WEF 2018) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD 2018) highlight the need for developing learner and worker agency and for embedding curricula with projects that develop problem-solving skills; enable deep thinking and reflection; and focus on transferable skills, knowledge, attitudes and values. There is an ever-increasing need for knowledge-based practice in the design industry, and the value of design research in addressing cross-disciplinary challenges has been noted by several government agencies.

Communication design for documentaries is changing with online distribution through global platforms like Netflix. Actuality and entertainment are increasingly often elided in a single program, which confuses the genre categories that tend to underpin the scholarship of documentary as a field of study distinct to that of entertainment. Certain programs are marketed as documentary/docu-series alongside fictional ‘based on real events’ stories and fiction but are constructed as much through significations used in pure entertainment as through those associated with informational and educational media.

In an earlier paper presented at a DEFSA conference, Munro called for a debate on and the development of a research ethics code tailored specifically for design – as opposed to simply importing, applying or borrowing ethical principles applicable (and as such possibly more suitable) to the medical and scientific disciplines.

The aim of this paper is to advocate likewise for a tailored research ethics code, but, more comprehensively, aimed at researchers working in the fields of art, design, as well as photography.

Appropriate pedagogies for the development of an online (distance education) clothing and textile product development module presented at NQF level 8 is paramount. The curriculum and the pedagogical perspective of students enrolled at Unisa are affected by student diversity; locality of students; separation from the institution, lecturing staff and fellow students. Cognisance should be taken regarding the proliferation of the internet, changing student profile and adoption of various teaching methods, which all have an impact on the learning process and should form the theoretical underpinning of a design of a course/module (Ertmer & Newby 2013).

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.

Design education has an integral association with engaging both critical and creative thinking. While the previous critical cross-field outcomes explicitly fostered both critical and creative development (SAQA 2000), the newer level descriptors (SAQA 2012) focus almost exclusively on critical thinking. This could be because critical and creative thinking are often regarded as synonymous. Authors like Macat International Limited (2017) support this understanding by including creative thinking as a component of critical thinking, while other authors differentiate between the two concepts.

My doctoral research critically explored design education in South African higher education through employing post-qualitative methodology. The research was approached from new materialist, posthuman theoretical perspectives. This implied that I set out to practise design research/education aimed at productive transformation in the institution that I work. I critically negotiated a range of individual experiences of being engaged in design/research/teaching in the Visual Communication Design curriculum at Stellenbosch University.

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.

One of the most significant challenges faced by South Africans is the high youth unemployment rate. Government and the private sector are unable to create sufficient job opportunities to accommodate young graduates. Entrepreneurship is a significant solution in a climate of unstable economy, limited job security and abundant social issues. It is debated whether entrepreneurship can be taught. Some researchers believe entrepreneurs are born and cannot be made. However, employers seek people with specialised skills, quick learners who can easily shift from one role to another (Majithia 2017), competing on a global level. Fashion entrepreneurship education could help prepare students for real business situations, whether as entrepreneurs or responsive employees.

In the era of the fourth industrial revolution that proposes an increasingly automated future, designers need not lose focus on the discipline’s important role in social design and innovation. Such an undertaking becomes difficult when the discipline of design itself has inbuilt biases and inequalities. Gender bias is one such prejudice that design educators and researchers need to become more aware of and engage with, not only to prepare our students for the workplace but also to begin to change the patriarchal dominance of the design industry and hence the equity of the discipline itself.

Historically, the Zulu indlamu costume is a traditional battle dress. Over the years, it has come to constitute a significant feature of contemporary theatre stages in South Africa. Like other traditional forms that have made the transition from original functionality into the realm of art as education and entertainment, its accompanying costumes and regalia have aided the process. Together with these iconic costumes and related regalia, the indlamu dance continues to play a prominent role in the propagation of Zulu art and cultural identity.

Despite the development of Practice-Led Research (PLR) to acknowledge the centrality of practice in the pursuit of research outcomes, the methodology still seems to be confined by the necessity to separate out the cognitive/conscious processes (of writing, for example) from the phenomenological and body/mind dynamics at play in the creative process. This confinement seems to be a product of duality or a binary research system as espoused in the West. The central thesis of this paper, therefore, is to attempt to demonstrate a potential strategy that circumvents or collapses this dichotomy. This paper sets a triadic relationship between/among practice-led research, Kasulis’ (2002) theorising of intimacy in understanding, and the eastern philosophy of Rasa, in the pursuit of wisdom.

Typography is constantly shifting its form according to technologies and audiences. Understanding the constant motions of typography is critical in designing forms of visual communication. In addition, current digital technologies provide novel opportunities for users to participate and co-create new typographic conventions. Online ‘fandoms’ consist of communities with interests in cultural phenomena, ranging from fan art to celebrities, to artefacts. Fandoms are an example of user-generated content with strong typographic shifts.

This paper is a supervisor reflection on theory selection for research design in design-orientated research. Selection and deployment of theory in a research design can powerfully affect what design research achieves. The research design of a graphic design master’s dissertation targeting ‘research for design’ illustrates this. The view of research design discussed in the paper is not typological or logistical, but instead one where relations between research components are interactive and emergent during the course of the study.

Traditionally, design-based research (DBR) unifies research, design and evaluation of interventions aimed at improving educational practice. Shifts elucidate DBR as a novelty to bridge the gap between knowledge generated from research with that of design practice. DBR, therefore, locates itself in both educational and design practice contexts. This paper considers DBR in the educational context hence aimed at the affordance for improving fashion design educational practice. The DBR phases in educational disciplines may well act as guidelines to develop scholarship around research on and through design.