13 NOTABLE STUDENT PROJECTS 2ND Year Editorial Design: Lecturer Ilhaam Khan facilitated the editorial design unit for our second-year students. For this assignment our students were tasked with creating an alternative publication based on a typeface. This project required students to research their selected typeface, blend traditional and digital media, and do visual research on how their selected typeface is used in the real world. This required that the students photograph and record how they see these fonts being used on signage, billboards, packaging and menus. Students had to learn how to integrate their creative experiments in traditional media into the digital workspace, prior to printing and binding their publications. 2ND Year Design Thinking: Senior lecturer Reshma Maharajh facilitated the design thinking unit, in which students were presented with a problem and were required to do research and execute a solution. This unit focuses on research as a crucial part of the creative process. Students had to apply their design thinking skills to their own context within the university, thinking about how design can promote mental health and well-being for students on campus. 2ND Year 30 Years of Democracy: For our students’ mid-year exam, they were tasked to develop integrated campaigns for the celebration of 30 years of Democracy in South Africa. Students were required to use a minimum of three South African languages in their campaign, with some of the required deliverables being billboard designs, a poster, an Instagram carousel, two social media posts, with students needing to include a deliverable of their own choice. The project was coordinated by lecturers, Ilhaam Khan and Neil Badenhorst. 2ND Year Direct Marketing: The second-year students received a brief from the marketing consultancy WeilCo and company Capfin. They were tasked with conceptualising a campaign for the client responding to the multitude of positive reviews Capfin receives from their clients. The unit required that students execute their campaigns in groups, in various phases; facilitating an agency environment and workflow processes. This unit was taught by lecturers Neil Badenhorst and Ilhaam Khan. 3RD Year FADA Poster: This unit involves the creation of the poster for the annual FADA exhibition. In addition to designing the poster, the brief required students to design signage and approaches to wayfinding, as well as digital invites to the exhibition. The top ten posters have been shortlisted, and the Faculty will soon open voting for selecting the final poster for the year. This unit was taught by senior lecturer Reshma Maharajh. 3RD Year Wayfinding: Lecturer Ilhaam Khan taught the wayfinding unit, which seeks to equip the students with the skills necessary to work on environmental graphics and execute wayfinding systems. This project required the students to reapproach FADA’s wayfinding systems to maximise clarity and spatial awareness of the different locations of departments, administrative offices and other locations in the building, ensuring a student-centred approach. Honours Women’s Month Portraits: Each year during August, our HOD Christa van Zyl facilitates a project in which honours students pay homage to notable South African women by illustrating portraits of them for our departmental Instagram page. This project seeks to honour these women who have made impacts on various corners of society, but also educate our students of notable women and what they have worked towards within our democracy. Honours Publication Design: Prof Deirdre Pretorius teaches the Honours unit, publication design. This year, students were required to design a publication celebrating 20 years of the Graphic Design Department. Students had to delve into an archive of past student work in order to execute their publications and do research on the history and current visions of the department and FADA. In the students’ words “there was never a dull moment in class” and that Prof Pretorius is “one of the coolest lecturers I know because of her patience, great advice and jokes”.
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