Wendren's PPC Bag

CONGRATULATIONS to Wendryn Milford!

Check out this piece of really cool info from Mari Lecanides-Arnott.

Wendren, Wren and the PPC cement bag

The Design Foundation Course in the Faculty of Informatics and Design is most proud to announce that one of its lecturers, Wendren Milford will be launching her new PPC cement bag at Design Indaba 2010, where she will be showcasing her products as an Emerging Creative.
Wendren graduated with a BTech in Surface Design (cum laude, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, in 2006)
In 2008, she started her own business called Wren, after leaving a factory job. Initially she did everything on her own, designing, sewing and marketing. Since then, her business has grown and now she employs two seamstresses, which frees her up to spend more time designing and marketing her products. She does all of this when she is not teaching in the Design Foundation Course and setting up recycling bins in the studios, to encourage the students to become more aware of the environment.
Wendren designed her own website (http://www.thewrendesign.com/ ) where she shares her process and this is linked to her online shop (http://www.thewren.etsy.com/ ). Her bags are sold in many shops around the world in cities like, New York, London, Sydney and Tokyo. Locally, in South Africa, Wendren’s bags are sold in a few select shops and at the Neighbourgoods market in Cape Town.
Currently, Wren products consist of uncycled coffee bags and clutches, antique linen and leather bags, bird purses and the much awaited PPC cement bag, the Wren Cement Laptop Bag.
The PPC cement bag is a laptop bag, with a difference and is 100% South African with the following design features (information supplied by the designer):
This laptop bag is made out of unused Pretoria Portland Cement paper bags. - All the layers of the Wren Cement Laptop Bag are fused with calico, which makes the paper untearable and suitable for the purpose of a laptop bag.- The outside surface of the Wren Cement Laptop Bag is Scotch Guarded to make the surface water resistant and more durable.- The Wren Cement Laptop Bag closes with two magnet snap clips.- The Wren Cement Laptop Bag has two pockets and two sections inside. One pocket is large enough to carry laptop cables whilst the other is the right size for either an iphone or mouse. The divider is padded and separates the laptop from notes or other belongings that would be carried in the bag.- The base and one side of the Wren Cement Laptop Bag are padded for comfort and extra protection for the laptop.- The strap of the bag is made from Organic Hemp. This is also adjustable.

Mari Lecanides Arnott
Design Foundation Course

International fame at last

And so, inevitably I made it to Youtube. Just like Susan Boyle! (Ha ha ha).
seriously, though, it's actually the Faculty that made it to Youtube. I just had to say what we're about.
Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/user/creativecpt#p/a/u/1/vCo9FVEjbME
Thanks to Zayd Minty who reminded them of us! Long live the East City Design Initiative!

Greetings from Khartoum

So, here I am in Khartoum AGAIN!
Tomorrow we will be doing a "Computers in Schools" conference.
The exciting thing about the conference this year is that we have so much to show that was done entirely in Sudan.
Abdurrhman and Ezzeldin arranged the conference, and the students will be the main speakers.
I will do a keynote and a summing up at the end.
It is amazing what we have achieved in the past few years!

What I want to achieve this year

So, these are not new year's resolutions.
They are simply a set of activities that I have to engage in this year to keep up to date with what is going on in the rest of the world.

1. Initiate the re-design of the FID Design Foundation Course. This needs to be done in order to prepare the faculty for the consolidation of the two graphic design departments on the Cape Town campus, while at the same time providing us a "foundation" for the new degrees and diplomas.
2. Develop the framework of the B.Design degree, and the B.Design (Hons) degree - so that we will be in line with the new HEQF.
3. Engage with the Faculty in a reflection on the first year courses of all the design disciplines, and PR. This will be done to find out what all the design disciplines have in common; to find out what makes each design discipline unique, to see what overlaps there are that we can exploit, and also to see what may be falling through the cracks all together. The information that we obtain this way will be very useful in helping us decide what the B.Design degree should look like, and also what the new diplomas in design should look like.
4. Help with the arrangements of an E-Learning Update in Gauteng. The one in Cape Town was highly successful, and we really should do it in Gauteng - even if it is just a nice way to hold a "Catts" re-union.
5. Help with raising R1000 000 for Westerford High School. The school with the best results in Maths and Science in the country really deserves an astra-turf hockey pitch!
6. Help with arranging various IT Update conferences in the Cape and in Gauteng. This will help update me on the goings-on in the field of IT, and it will help put CPUT on the map in the country.
7. Finish supervising my Sudanese Doctoral students, and hand over the Sudanese Masters in ICT for Education over to my Sudanese Doctoral Graduates.
8. Institute a group that studies Instructional Technology at Masters and Doctoral studies at CPUT.
9. Be a loving husband and a devoted father. (9 overrides 1 - 8)

Invitation: Coffee and Muffins with Stephen Hobbs

The Dean of the Faculty of Informatics and Design, Prof Johannes Cronje invites you to coffee and muffins with Stephen Hobbs at 80 Roeland Street, on Saturday Morning, 7 November, 2009 from 09:00 to 10:00.

Venue: "MARC" building on attached map, see picture for parking.

Stephen Hobbs is currently one of the directors of the "Trinity Session" and independent artist concentrating on art in urban spaces.
Stephen's exhibition "End of Cities" will open at the "Blank Gallery, Sir Lowry Road on Thursday Evening @ 18:00 Check out http://www.blankprojects.com/current.php

Stephen has agreed to talk to us about his work, and the creative process, particularly in terms of the research component of the creative process as it impacts upon his work.

This invitation is open to all who are interested in Design and the City of Cape Town. Admisison is FREE. PLEASE PASS IT ON TO YOUR FRIENDS

Please RSVP to Munira Allie alliem@cput.ac.za before 13:00 on Friday 6 November.

#7Oct09

We had such a productive day today!

We had a Faculty training day.  The theme was "Your career"

Thelo Wakefield explained the University performance management system and cleared up a number of concerns.

We discussed the new degree designators, and I was able to reflect upon my 2 and a half years, and give feedback to comments made by staff.

Chris Lombard taught us how to beg, and Chris Winberg told us about the category of teaching and learning in the performance management session.

Retha did a really nice speed dating exercise.

Finally Charles Gilbert, in his own inimitable way, cleared up some issues about BEE.

I REALLY enjoy spending a day with the Faculty!

Welcome to the Blogosphere

So, suddenly the blogging has taken off! And that just as I was considering giving up this blog in favour of Twitter (ha ha ha)
Ayesha Toyer tells me her students are all a blogging now. (And some of them are actually following me - NOGAL!). Ayesha is blogging at www.thescienceofcommunication.blogspot.com
All this at the same time as my wife, Franci's students have also started blogging about their "out of body experiences". They have been given an instruction to alter their physical appearance in some way, and live like that for two weeks, blogging about their experience. Check out some of their work at
http://michness-dollparts.blogspot.com/
http://brownpaperbagplease.blogspot.com/
http://shearinsane.blogspot.com/
http://seemybelly.blogspot.com/
http://pyjamarepublic.blogspot.com/
http://stepofftheassemblyline.blogspot.com/
http://masaidamu.wordpress.com/

So, welcome to the Blogosphere