Paradigm Shift: The Challenge to Graphic Design Education and Professional Practice in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

Although this statement was written more than a decade ago by South African art historian Colin Richards, it might be said that, in spite of many changes, South Africans still are struggling with the narrow that history has cast for [them]. Consequently, this paper seeks to explore some of the issues that have informed the way in which South African visual communications design and designers have attempted to meet the challenges of a country in transformation. Since Nelson Mandela's long walk to freedom in 1990, much has been said about the failure of apartheid. It would be foolish, to underestimate the impact of this divisive policy on the lives and experiences of all who live in the country. On a physical level, apartheid created (designed) cities that were racially divided under the Group Areas Act, and on an intellectual level, separate education systems for the different races were introduced that created very narrow roles for the majority of learners. Culture was used as a tool to divide, hence, on a material and a symbolic level, multiple realities meant that individual South Africans experienced the country and its culture in profoundly different ways. For any paper that hopes to address design education and professional design practice issues in South Africa, this is especially important because it provides the context in which these activities take place. This is particularly true of marketing and advertising which, of necessity, have to deal with reality issues, either as a mirror or as an aspiration model. Many of the above-mentioned issues have come to the fore since the end of 2001, when the South African Government's Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communication convened hearings in Cape Town to explore the need for transformation in the marketing and advertising industry. Subsequently, the Government Communications and Information Service (GCIS) has been tasked to C. Richards, About Face in Third Text-