THE HAIRPOLITAN MAGAZINE VOL 6 MAY 2017

Presenting final project at the University of Nairobi
just but a constituent college of the University of East
Africa and they only offered a Diploma in Fine Art.
“It just happened that a new degree Design Course
was being started at the University and without
knowing what it was all about the career advisor
recommended that I should try it because of my Fine
Arts course.”
The new course offered options in Graphic Design,
Textile Design, Product and Industrial Design. The
lecturers came from different parts of the world i.e.
East Africa, Denmark, Germany, USA and Yugoslavia;
therefore it gave the graduates multi-disciplinary
exposure. The students had no idea what the course
would mean in terms of a career path.
was privileged to visit leading designers in London,
Paris, Zurich and Munich.
EMPLOYMENT
Sadly, when Mum got back home she was in for a
rude shock as there were no established posts for
graduate designers in Government. “The private
sector and specifically the fewadvertising agencies
did not have openings for us because they were
training their own employees on the job straight from
High School. My colleagues were being placed in
departments that had a section or anything remotely
creative like KBC for Television captioning,” she
bemoans. Grace was to be absorbed by the then
“We spent time putting our lecturers to task to tell
us what we were training for and where we would
get jobs. We had a committed advisor and guide,
our Professor and Head of Department who tirelessly
scouted and invited people from Government and
Industry to talk to us,” she explains. She goes on
to add that those who were to take the course later
had the benefit of seeing the past graduates in
practice and would go on to choose design and have
established careers.
TRAVELLING THE WORLD
Once she finished the degree course she was
offered a Dutch Government scholarship, which saw
her attend the Academie Industriele Vormgeving
(Design Academy) in Eindhoven. After which, and
with the help of her Nairobi Professor and Head of
Department, she bagged a 3-month internship at
Holland’s leading Graphic Design firm - Associatie
voor Total Design NV (Total Design). Once done, she
Grace in her time at Associatie voor Total Design NV
(Total Design)
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