Blog | BHC School of Design | Cape Town - Part 3

Boeresport!

After 5 weeks of hard work, late nights and amazing design results, we felt it was time to get the students out in the fresh air to get their blood pumping. This past Friday, we did just that by hosting our annual Boeresport Competition at the Camps Bay Primary School fields. Not only are the views from these fields incredible, but the Cape Town weather was really showing off.

 

Check out that view in the background! Cape Town, you beauty!
Check out that view in the background! Cape Town, you beauty!

 

Boeresport (Afk., boere  + sport = sport, games, amusements) is one of the many social events BHC hosts for the students throughout the year to get the students to take time out of their demanding work schedules to interact, collaborate and generally just have fun. They divide themselves up into teams, come up with a theme, get all dressed up and then partake in some seriously silly events, all for the title of BHC Boeresport Champions.

 

The Wheel Barror Race; 3-Legged Race & Sack Race
The Wheel Barrow Race; 3-Legged Race & Sack Race

 

After some stiff competition in the tug of war, 3-legged and wheel barrow races (among others), the Awe-Sims emerged as the overall winners, with The French Maids claiming the prize for best dressed on the day.

 

The Awe-Sims took home 1st place
The Awe-Sims from the 3rd Year class took home 1st place

 

Best Dressed on the day went to the French Maids in 1st Year
Best Dressed on the day went to the French Maids in 1st Year

 

Well done to the winning teams and thank you to all the students who came out for a bit of a run-around and a laugh. These social events are what really give BHC the awesome culture that we pride ourselves on.

 

Team work!
Team work!

 

For most photos of the day, check out our Facebook page.

Welcoming the New Students

After a long and restful December holiday, BHC is back in full swing. The 1st of February marked the first day of the new academic year as well as the first day for all our new 1st Year Design and Decorating Students.

 

1st Years and Decorating Students hard at work in their first week
1st Years and Decorating Students hard at work in their first week

 

It has become a bit of a tradition at BHC for the new students to ease their way into college by designing and making storage boxes for the children at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital as part of BHC’s Social Awareness drive. This year, the Design and Décor students worked in groups, creating themes to work around and the outcome was really special. We are so looking forward to dropping them off at the hospital.

 

The completed storage boxes, ready to be delivered to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital
The completed storage boxes, ready to be delivered to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital

 

Another tradition at the college is the 2nd year class hosting an orientation party for the new students at the end of their first week. The new students did an awesome job of rising to the challenges that the 2nd Years put them too; none of them seemed too embarrassed!

 

Cheering on the new students during the orientation challenge
Cheering on the new students during the orientation challenge

 

The party is also an opportunity for the rest of the college to get to know the new students as well as an opportunity for all the students to catch up, mingle and have a laugh.

 

Spirits run high during a “friendly” game of Pictionary, during the Orientation Party
Spirits run high during a “friendly” game of Pictionary, during the Orientation Party

 

Now that Orientation Week is over and the students are in the swing of things, we are incredibly excited to see what the amazing bunch of BHC students will produce this year.

 

 

It’s a Wrap

Last week Thursday, we officially wrapped up the academic year with our 2015 graduation, held, for the first time, at our Salt River Road campus. We are extremely proud to announce that we had 17 Diploma of Interior Design students and 12 Higher Certificate in Interior Decorating students graduating this year.

 

getting ready to graduate
Students getting ready for their big moment

 

After all the hard work that the students have put into their studies over the past few years, especially leading up to their final portfolio hand-in, it was an emotional moment for them. We were lucky to have Adri van Zyl and Vincent Clery from Atelier as our guests of honour, who delivered an inspirational and insightful talk for the graduates on entering the real world of design.

 

Vincent & Adri of Atelier
Vincent & Adri of Atelier

 

As per tradition, we hosted an Industry Evening later that same day. Each year we host this event at which we exhibit the students’ final portfolios of work, giving the industry an opportunity to look for potential employees. It also gives the students an opportunity to meet, mingle and network with past graduates, suppliers and other designers. And of course it also gives us an opportunity to have a party!

 

Industry Evening
Industry Evening

 

Both events were a success and the day was really the perfect to wrap up what has been a jam-packed year of rebranding, high quality work and victory.

To all our graduates – congratulations on your amazing achievement and we wish you all the best for your next adventure into the fun, thrilling, slightly scary, but mostly incredible world of interiors.

 

Graduating classes of 2015 - Interior Decorating (left) & Interior Design (right)
Graduating classes of 2015 – Interior Decorating (left) & Interior Design (right)

And the winner is…

Aimee

Aimeé’s entry

Last night Caesarstone hosted its 2015 Student Designer Awards in Sandton. BHC is very proud to announce that not only did we have 2 finalists in the top 9, we also took home the top prize. Congratulations to Kyla-Val Azar, for being a top 9 finalist and to Aimeé de Villiers for being named the winner of this years’ competition.

 

IMG_2712

Kyla-Val, Donna and Aimeé

We are incredible proud of both of our young ladies for all the effort they put into their entries. They are both truly inspiring and we certainly hope this achievement inspires our future 3rd years students.

Aimeé and her lecturer, Donna,  are looking forward to their international design trip in 2016.

 

Kyla-Val

Kyla-Val’s entry

Thank you to Caesarstone for running this competition – we certainly look forward to entering it next year.

BHC Relaunched

After recently undergoing a full re-brand BHC School of Design is stronger than ever. Our new look and feel has been in the pipeline for quite some time and after 30 years in the design education industry, BHC felt like 2015 was the year to start afresh.

bhc-relaunch-logo

Aftermany hours of work-shopping, strategizing and then more work-shopping with staff, students, industry leaders and graduates, welaunched our new brand direction and logo in the Decemberof last year at our annual Graduation and Industry Evening. We were delighted to receivethe amazing feedback we did, which only continued to motivate us further. We then took the opportunity to roll-out the new brand across all platforms, and commenced the design of our premises.

bhc-relaunch-image-construction

During the course of the year so far, we have been working hard behind the scenes preparingour new and improved website as well as getting our social media campaign under-way.

Still to come this year is the roll-out of our slick, new branding within thecollege campus. This is an exciting time for BHC and with the already high level of education, the new and inspiring space will add to the rising standard of design education at the institution.

2016 Enrolment is open and the application forms are available for download for both our Diploma in Interior Design and Higher Certificate in Interior Decorating Courses.