Young Ones Student Awards

The Young Ones competition is one of the most acclaimed advertising, interactive and design student competitions. It has a tradition of excellence dating back to 1986.

Young Ones 2018 Brief Jury

Wessie van der Westhuizen

Lecturer

Stellenbosch Academy

Stellenbosch /South Africa

Wessie van der Westhuizen is the Technology Development Manager and heads up the Multimedia Design elective within the BA Visual Communications programme at the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Wessie has developed and taught award winning multimedia curricula at more than one South African tertiary design institution over the past 14 years, tuning and developing student's skills within the ever-changing realms of animation, UI/UX design, motion graphics, film, typography and graphic design.

He is currently devoted to finding ways in equalizing the playing field in the media and advertising industries regarding diversity and equality quotas and this will be the main focus of his post-graduate studies.

He does not see himself as an educator nor lecturer, but rather speaks of himself as a creative enabler, someone that enables creative thinking and problem solving through methodologies of disturbance and disruption. And, as many of his students, past and present will tell you, he drives a hard bargain in the classroom to achieve great results.

He is known amongst his peers, colleagues and fellow educators for his boundless energy, enthusiasm, and dedication towards design education, and has led many of his students to great success in competitions locally and abroad.

A maverick of digital productions himself, he is constantly tinkering with new programming technologies in the production of software and UI/UX solutions such as website experiments and even recently custom built a learning management system for the Stellenbosch Academy. And if he does not find that challenging enough, he makes memorable motion graphic presentations for his students and colleagues.

He also sees himself as an occasional artist, taking part in numerous group shows and produces artists' books with fellow artist Ian Marley under the label of the Angustora Black Press.

He always ponders on what will be the next big thing in technology and design and tries his utmost to stay one step ahead of emerging technologies and how they will influence design education in the future.

In his off time, he imagines his life as Darth Vader and practicing sick lightsaber moves, loves to spend time with his equally cool wife Cashandra (aka as his queen Amidala) and his three even cooler Stormtrooper dogs, Rex, Raven and Misty. And he cooks and bakes too.

 

 

 

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