By Dr Michelina Andreucci

IN my ongoing advocating for industrial design and other related design disciplines to be incorporated into the larger framework of Zimbabwe’s education curriculum development exercise, I would like to highlight the wide scope of possibilities and diversities available in the field of design and how it would benefit economic growth and employment creation in the country.
Design is not the overtly glamorous artistic discipline it is often portrayed to be in the popular magazines and mass-media. On the contrary, design is a practical and function-oriented subject which enables innovation on old industrial products in order to create new ones as demands arise.
Design is a knowledge-based discipline with a unique set of proficiencies required to enable one to excel in the specific chosen discipline of design in industry. 
It is a study of various components of human activities and commerce and how we respond to environmental and physical material challenges that require critical thinkers capable of producing new products.
Concisely defined: “Design is the appropriate combination of materials in order to solve a design and production problem to create a new prototype.”
Historically, often perceived as a man’s domain by the West, which we have now adopted, design in the historical traditions of Zimbabwe was equitably practised, more so design was principally carried out by women.
Women in Zimbabwe created and took part in the conceptualisation, design and manufacture of most of the domestic utensils; from pots to basketry, weaving of mats, sewing of clothes and general home-making. 
Mukadzi (the woman) was the administrator of domestic provisions; the designer and distributor of spaces in the home, much like the creative director of a modern urban design establishment.
In the Shona context, the proverb musha mukadzi (the homestead is a woman) sums up the central and mandatory role of a woman in designing, building and maintaining the homestead and its associated institutions such as agriculture, food provision, shelter childcare and education.
In Zimbabwe, the unique indigenous functional implements and ornamentation produced by local craftspeople included women in the production process.
Using natural materials to craft unique functional implements with elaborate geometric, organic and asymmetrical forms attests to the design genius of our people.
These sophisticated cultural objects, coveted the world over for their design pedigree makes up our indigenous Zimbabwean design heritage which we should be proud of.
While they appear simply made, they possess remarkable aesthetic qualities and properties; all-the-while incorporating the complex art and design theories such as the universal principles and elements of design, while concurrently integrating arrangements of culturally symbolic colours, patterns and codes of communication.
Our ancient Zimbabwe civilisation and the cultural materials produced in the classical age of Madzimbahwe attest to our design pedigree. These simple design objects form an important part of our nation’s cultural heritage and identity today.
Design in Zimbabwe is one of the most gender equitable academic and trade disciplines that can offer professional career employment opportunities today for both sexes. It is a thinking person’s discipline which offers, especially for the young girls, boundless possibilities of creative economic empowerment.
There are many specialised disciplines, occupations and trades that require design proficiency, more so if we wish our industries to be revived viably.
So what is this mystifying item called ‘Design’?
The word “design” has a fortuitous double meaning; simultaneously describing the intrinsic structure of an item and/or the wilful act of conceptualising and creating a design prototype of a product, concept or service.
However, it must be understood that design is not mahumbwe, nor is it child’s play.
For design to be understood and used effectively in the fields of industry, commerce, technology and even trade, we need to enhance our knowledge of the professional understandings of the role of the designer through the most appropriate education, and not simply add the moniker ‘design’ willy-nilly, whether applicable or otherwise.
Design is essentially structure, form and function. It is simultaneously morphology and construction. In terms of morphology, design is inherent, whether its sources are organic, unconscious, commonplace or the carefully premeditated product of the professional work of the designer.
Conceptualisation and construction in design is also an act, a manifestation of agency and a process of transformation whereby one is cognisant of design laws and incorporates the existing universal designs intrinsic to found objects, architectures, landscapes, processes, human relationships and cultures.
The function of the designer, therefore, is to engage in the matrix of designing, re-constructing and/or re-working, innovating and re-voicing recognised designs for different interests and uses according to the needs of the times. This, naturally, opens up many opportunities for designers and consumers in Zimbabwe today.
Regrettably, colonialism limited the choice and scope of professions for our children. Since independence they have expanded. Therefore, our young students need to be exposed to the professional world very early in their schooling. We need to engage young children from an early age into understanding the mechanisms of society, profession, industry, commerce, agriculture, medicine and law, among others. Study trips geared for children to inter-act with the professional adult world should be mandatorily undertaken.
Government ministries involved in the national formulation of policies for industrial development and planning as well as the relevant Ministries of Education, Commerce and Industry need to take cognisance of the missing cog in the wheels of production in the economy. This missing cog is the appropriate attainment of the knowledge of design for industry in educational and vocational institutions.
According to a United Nation resolution, November 20, each year, has been declared ‘Africa Industrialisation Day’. Will Zimbabwe be part of the celebrations in the future?
By omitting industrial design from our syllabus we are negating the re-discovery and flourishing of new ideas, new visual processes and indigenous inventions that enhance further scholarship, research and understanding of the African self.
New openings to new design narratives will be produced as a result of a well directed design education syllabus in Zimbabwe.
Dr Michelina Rudo Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher, Industrial Design consultant, lecturer and specialist hospitality interior decorator.  She is a published author in her field. For Comments E-mail: michellinamanucci@gmail.com