Established 21 years ago by a group of passionate educators, Vega has grown from strength to strength in the intervening years with a consistent focus on creative development, while at the same time nurturing critical thinking around how to conceptualise, launch and sustain brands.
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From the outset a new type of advertising school — one which combined creativity with analytical thinking — had the support of industry stalwarts such as Thomas Oosthuizen, Reg Lascaris, Mark Steinhobel and Graham Warsop. Listed company AdvTech, bought into the vision for a new concept school and agreed to finance it. The name Vega was the suggestion of AdvTech’s company lawyer after the brightest star in the constellation Lyra.
The name, says co-founder Gordon Cook, was ideal for a number of reasons, not least of which was that the star was used by ship captains to navigate their way across the seas. The concept of navigation, he says, precisely informed the school’s approach to teaching and learning. The team focused on developing a curriculum that would encourage students to question everything and to consider meaningful changes that would make brands and businesses more human. The concept wisdom with magic was captured as the brand’s ethos. It is an ethos that continues to inform what occurs at Vega today. Vega launched in February 1999 with 93 students, two studios filled with state of the art Apple computers and a curriculum focused on design, the study of creative innovators, creative development, the pros and cons of brands and a number of multimedia programmes.
“The curriculum was much about play, making, thinking, feeling and questioning,” recalls Cook. “There were few constraints and little regulation.” More than two decades later, Vega has, as Cook puts it, passed through its recalcitrant teenage phase and has evolved into an elegant and savvy young adult with an academic environment that is based on experiential learning where creatives are trained in strategy and strategists in design-thinking on four campuses situated in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban. Vega School is an educational brand of the Independent Institute of Education (IIE), SA’s largest and most accredited private tertiary education institution. The IIE is internationally accredited as an independent higher education institution by the British Accreditation Council. Carla Enslin, national head of strategy and new business development at Vega, is the last co-founder of the school still involved on a permanent basis. She has been instrumental in launching a number of innovative
programmes, including an MA increative brand leadership. “In the past 21 years our values may have evolved, but our focus has not shifted,” says Enslin. “The need for more creative thinkers has never been greater to solve both business and societal problems. Phygital brand building and omnichannel marketing requires creative solution seekers. It ’s no longer sufficient to simply be a graphic designer or a media planner; rather the industry now requires strategic creative thinking is embedded in the way every individual and team works.” Cook, who continues to serveon the school’s national advisory, is now involved with Vega’s social partner, Re-Imagination Lab.
Students of the IIE’s Vega areequipped with timeless skills that are in high demand among employers, allowing them to pursue meaningful and impactful careers no matter how the world of work changes. The future workplace needs more astute, agile and better-equipped sense makers. Purpose-led undergraduate and postgraduate degrees will help train students with the requisite insights and skills to explore all angles, uncover value,disrupt norms and ultimately develop and implement original concrete and sustainable brand building solutions.
Vega School
2019 AdFocus Corporate profile
Trailblazers in design, brand and business
Established 21 years ago by a group of passionate educators, Vega has grown from strength to strength in the intervening years with a consistent focus on creative development, while at the same time nurturing critical thinking around how to conceptualise, launch and sustain brands.
From the outset a new type of advertising school — one which combined creativity with analytical thinking — had the support of industry stalwarts such as Thomas Oosthuizen, Reg Lascaris, Mark Steinhobel and Graham Warsop. Listed company AdvTech, bought into the vision for a new concept school and agreed to finance it. The name Vega was the suggestion of AdvTech’s company lawyer after the brightest star in the constellation Lyra.
The name, says co-founder Gordon Cook, was ideal for a number of reasons, not least of which was that the star was used by ship captains to navigate their way across the seas. The concept of navigation, he says, precisely informed the school’s approach to teaching and learning. The team focused on developing a curriculum that would encourage students to question everything and to consider meaningful changes that would make brands and businesses more human. The concept wisdom with magic was captured as the brand’s ethos. It is an ethos that continues to inform what occurs at Vega today. Vega launched in February 1999 with 93 students, two studios filled with state of the art Apple computers and a curriculum focused on design, the study of creative innovators, creative development, the pros and cons of brands and a number of multimedia programmes.
“The curriculum was much about play, making, thinking, feeling and questioning,” recalls Cook. “There were few constraints and little regulation.” More than two decades later, Vega has, as Cook puts it, passed through its recalcitrant teenage phase and has evolved into an elegant and savvy young adult with an academic environment that is based on experiential learning where creatives are trained in strategy and strategists in design-thinking on four campuses situated in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban. Vega School is an educational brand of the Independent Institute of Education (IIE), SA’s largest and most accredited private tertiary education institution. The IIE is internationally accredited as an independent higher education institution by the British Accreditation Council. Carla Enslin, national head of strategy and new business development at Vega, is the last co-founder of the school still involved on a permanent basis. She has been instrumental in launching a number of innovative
programmes, including an MA increative brand leadership. “In the past 21 years our values may have evolved, but our focus has not shifted,” says Enslin. “The need for more creative thinkers has never been greater to solve both business and societal problems. Phygital brand building and omnichannel marketing requires creative solution seekers. It ’s no longer sufficient to simply be a graphic designer or a media planner; rather the industry now requires strategic creative thinking is embedded in the way every individual and team works.” Cook, who continues to serveon the school’s national advisory, is now involved with Vega’s social partner, Re-Imagination Lab.
Students of the IIE’s Vega areequipped with timeless skills that are in high demand among employers, allowing them to pursue meaningful and impactful careers no matter how the world of work changes. The future workplace needs more astute, agile and better-equipped sense makers. Purpose-led undergraduate and postgraduate degrees will help train students with the requisite insights and skills to explore all angles, uncover value,disrupt norms and ultimately develop and implement original concrete and sustainable brand building solutions.