College of Design


	College of Design , Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts

Education Features

The most important feature of design programmes in Design College, is sticking with the mode of Manufacture-Education-Research Cooperation,enhance theory in practice, and stay close with the progress of economic and social development.

Located in Guangdong----the foreland of China's reformation and opening-up, GAFA was the pioneer of building relationship between design and market economy. We witnessed the impact on traditional arts & crafts design education done by the mega-production.We also sensed the need of modern design education from the information and creative economy age.

Therefore, GAFA insists its principle of "Design education should serve the development of Guangdong's society and economy," deeply rooted in Pearl River Delta with the Manufacture-Education-Research Cooperation mode. Teachers are allowed to take part in design business besides completion of education duty, so that they could bring new ideas into classroom. Also we encourage students to gain actual experience of design by any possible way.

Guided by this principle, Design College has achieved prolific harvest, some important ones are:

1. The first five-star hotel that was completely designed and supervised by local designer, the Dongguan Yincheng Hotel, was a project managed by teachers of Design College.

2. The first concert hall that was completely designed and supervised by local designer, the Xinghai Concert Hall, was a project held by teachers of Design College.

3. Design Works from GAFA has achieved 1 gold, 1 silver and 3 copper medals in the State's top class National Fine Arts Exhibition.

4. The environmental design Fine Arts Museum of Guangdong has achieved gold medal in the1st National Award of Architecture and Environment, 2001. The other work Xinghai Concert Hall also achieved a golden design prize.

5. The environmental design Hunan Changsha Huanghua International Airport, has achieved State's top architecture award the Ruban Prize, also Hunan's top architecture award the Furong Prize.

6. Design College has undertaken the mascot design and 39 disciplines' symbols for the 9th National Game 2001. Moreover, we designed the formal dress of the game, as well as the special effect of the opening.

7. Appointed by the Guangdong Government, Design College undertook to design and produce the greeting gift "Yi Fan Feng Shun" for the Government of Hong Kong SAR and "Jiu Zhou Tong Xin" for the Government of Macao SAR. The projects were successful and granted 3rd prize in the 2003 Guangdong Technology Award.

8. The publishing work of Design Series, including 9 theoretical books , 4 translation works, 14 text books, and 3 work collections. The accomplishment of Design Series has filled up an academic blank in mainland China, representing the leading steps of Design College
in advancing through education and research.

The programmes of Industrial Design, Environmental Design, Graphic Design, Fashion Design, Decoration Design, Integral Design and Textile Design are wellgrounded through years of construction, and have high reputation among all congeners in mainland. The
development of Guangdong's society and economy is still requesting for more employees in these fields. Therefore, during the process of improving programmes, we paid attention both to strengthen the advantage and to reform the education with fresh elements related to the practice.

Among these programmes, Design College is going to expand the Environmental Art Design, and strengthen the Industrial Design. The two programmes have excellent professional instructors and well-organized ladder. The instructors came from many fields, and they are outstanding in combining practice with theory. The courses are dedicated on business research, case study, and workshops. They stick close to the Manufacture-Education-Research Cooperation and
focus on the rationality of design procedures.

Moreover, we also expand the practice by planning research and internship to the enterprises, and cooperate with them to hold workshops. We encourage and help students to participate in campaigns and competitions. These measures have glorious effect on
raising the education level and assuring the education quality.

For example, the Architectural and Environmental Design Department has achieved 1 gold medal, 1 copper medal and 3 excellences in the "2003: The year of Best Graduation Design Projects of Environmental Design Programmes in China". Design College also won the Best Organized Prize in it, with two instructors wining the Best Instructor Prize. The graduation design projects "Kangwang Road Reconstructing Plan", "Chen Jia Ci Reconstructing Plan" and "Technology and Culture Communication Center of Sun Yat-Sen University" have been well appraised by the society. 2005 graduation design "Wind's house- heat comfort house research," completed by Luo Zhen Hua's group, was published as the cover page on Oxford University's magazine "Be" (2005 sixth issue). This design was also honored "Hanson" cup in the 2nd College students' Architecture Design Contest of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau.

The Industrial Design Department has achieved 6 Excellent Award in "2002: The Best Graduation Design Projects of Industrial Design in China" ; under the topic of "2008 Beijing Olympic Game sports footwear
design", students from Industrial Design Department won gold, silver, cooper medals as well as group award in the Reebok International Design Competition; in the Kelong Refrigerator Design Competition, students' projects on "Kelong Refrigerator Design" have won gold, silver, cooper medals; In '05 Braun Prize design contest, three designs from industrial design department were rewarded Chinese best design; among these three, "Emergency Bed," designed by He Peibin's
group, was the only Asian design received the title of the best 24 global designs.

2005' guaduate of Fashion Design Department was awarded "the 5t h Edi tin Domus Global Garment Fashion & Accessories Design Scholarship Competition,2005 " oneandonly Full Master
Scholarship in fashion design of Domus Academy,Italy.

The traditional programmes are looking to innovating while developing, and born many fruits. For example, 21 students in Graphic Design specialty are honored gold medal, silver medal, cooper medal, best explanation,and best design of mainland China in the eleventh,
twelfth, and thirteenth "Times Advertisement New Generation Award".

Benefited from the excellent resources and facilities as well as the innovative educational concept and the efficient education reformation, the new programmes are also improving, which received high social reputations. For example, the Digital Art Department was continually
awarded "Contribution Award of Animation Education" by the Cultural Communication Centre of China Cultural Ministry and Cartoon Committee of China Television Association in 2003 and 2004; in "2003' International Cartoon & Digital Art Week", graduation design from
Digital Art Design Department was awarded "the Best 3D Animation Clip".

These achievements have greatly raised our social reputation, and turned into appeal when recruiting new students. The rate between quota and applications was constantly 1 to 20 in the province, and 1 to 40 in the country, with the average mark 13 points more than preset value. In the past three years our recruit quality has always been on top of the whole GAFA.

Because of insisting to adjust education system with social request, the graduates from Design College obtain employment well. In the past couple of years the graduate employment rate was 91%, and during a survey, 95% of employers approved the quality of our graduates. It has become a brand of the graduates from Design College, which they have "excellent integrative ability, practical working style, sensitivity of innovation and working independently". On the other hand, it has been another feature that a lot of graduates carved out
by themselves.