Dr Ria van Zyl

Research Interests

• Development design research and post-graduate studies in South Africa
• Interdisciplinary collaboration 
• Design for social good
• Design management and entrepreneurship

Brief Bio

Ria van Zyl started her career in 1985 as a communication designer and product developer. After this, she spent time at Woolworths, a South African retailer, in the capacity of Packaging Co-ordinator and Technologist before starting her own communication design consultancy. 

Ria joined the University of Pretoria in 1999 as senior design lecturer and researcher.

She completed her Master’s Degree at the University of Pretoria with a dissertation on the development of a service quality framework for the communication design industry. 

She published several articles and conference papers, and wrote a “pocket” book in 2007 aimed at the SMME market and entrepreneur: Brand your business. Looks are important. 

In 2014 she developed the academic contents of the Independent Institute of Education (IIE)’s Design School Southern Africa’s (DSSA) courses. DSSA has since then integrated with IIE-Vega where Ria is now academic programme manager in the design department and national post-graduate research co-ordinator. 



In 2018 she completed a Doctorate at the Da Vinci Institute, looking at the development of post-graduate capacity in communication design education and also served on the Design Educators Forum of Southern Africa (DEFSA) committee.