This blog is usually reserved for things related to books, but being a a big fan of New South Wales TAFE* and having a soft spot for designers, I couldn’t help spreading the news about the talented design graduates coming out of the Design Centre Enmore. Below is an extract from the TAFE press release:
Cassandra Hewitt took out the Design Institute of Australia’s Graduate of the Year Awards in the Fashion & Textiles category, Jason Pante was named Graduate of the Year in the Interior Design category and Roisin Wade won a highly commended award in the same category.
The event’s big win went to Jason Pante, who was not only winner in his category, but went on to be named ‘Australasian Graduate of the Year’.
You can read the press release in full here.
Why a soft spot for designers? It’s probably the way they bridge technology and aesthetics, whether they are of the graphic, interior, fashion, industrial or some other variety. And it’s also that designing things is so hard. That’s why we have design degrees. I’ve done DIY designs for book interiors, websites and house extensions, and they always look, well … unprofessional at best, and crappy at worst.
Why am I a fan of TAFE NSW*? Primarily because TAFE NSW has given countless thousands of people their career start in hundreds of trades and professions. I doubt whether there’s a person in Sydney who doesn’t have a family member with a TAFE qualification. And it gave me my start in education. Long before I became a university Pro-Vice Chancellor, I spent six years as a TAFE teacher working in the exquisite colonial Building A in Mary Ann Street, Ultimo. By a strange quirk of fate, my old office is sometime used for meetings of the TAFE NSW HE Academic Board, of which I am now a member – the same Board that recommends the approval of the degrees at the Design Centre Enmore.
*For my non-Australian readers, NSW is New South Wales. TAFE used to stand for Technical and Further Education.
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My new novel Cairo Mon Amour will be released in July 2017 by Austin Macauley Publishers, an independent publisher with headquarters in London and New York. You can learn more here.
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Stuart Campbell author 