Craft and design

The ability of craft to express the vitality of a culture has not had a significant impact on design in this country. South Africa\u27s rich and diverse craft heritage needs to be reappraised by designers for the contributions it could make

Nico Roos – Painter of landscape\u27s living tissue

One of Nico Roos\u27 former students once told me that the most important thing Roos had taught him was that the painter had to pay minute attention to every single square centimetre of the canvas. No part of the canvas, however far removed from the focus of attention, should be neglected or treated carelessly. The whole surface had to signify the care and attention of the artist

Design – The key technology

A manufacturing industry competitive in export markets needs to secure the ownership of its designs and brand names. This is the central message of a paper presented by Dr Michael Hunt at the centenary conference of the SA Institution of Mechanical Engineers in September 1993

William Steyn\u27s pictograms for Africa

William Steyn’s pictographic illustrations in the booking kit for the 1994 Grahamstown National Arts Festival show how cliché images may be presented in a fresh and visually appealing way which is communicative, thematic and harmonious. The images which are used to identify performance categories and specific festival events, achieve a lively charm and succeed in conveying the spirit of an arts festival in Africa

Measuring design competence

While attending the Design Renaissance Conference in Glasgow in September 1993, I obtained some interesting information on a system for the standardised assessment of vocational competence

Selling with the San. Representations of Bushman people and artefacts

Bushmen have recently been appropriated by the advertising media, reflecting certain ideological issues which are typical of the changing sociopolitical circumstances in South Africa. These issues are discernible in a range of recent commercials, not all discussed here, for both print and electronic media