About the Vega School

When Vega launched over a decade ago, we made it our business to consider what the business environment of the future would look like. In the process, we have helped shape that environment. Few would have predicted the impact that one tiny renegade brand innovation school would have.

Although Vega has grown, physically and philosophically, its essence remains unchanged. We constantly strive to embody the wisdomwithmagic that will result in healthier brands, businesses and communication campaigns. At Vega, we know that good ideas are the currency of the future, and we believe that a stimulating environment breeds the best ideas. Everyone who passes through the doors of our campuses is encouraged, in the words of Bob Dylan, to “question, to overturn tables, disconnect cables, in places and things that don’t make sense no more.” We offer a new way of looking at business today.

About the Vega School

When Vega launched over a decade ago, we made it our business to consider what the business environment of the future would look like. In the process, we have helped shape that environment. Few would have predicted the impact that one tiny renegade brand innovation school would have.

Although Vega has grown, physically and philosophically, its essence remains unchanged. We constantly strive to embody the wisdomwithmagic that will result in healthier brands, businesses and communication campaigns. At Vega, we know that good ideas are the currency of the future, and we believe that a stimulating environment breeds the best ideas. Everyone who passes through the doors of our campuses is encouraged, in the words of Bob Dylan, to “question, to overturn tables, disconnect cables, in places and things that don’t make sense no more.” We offer a new way of looking at business today.

Alex Sudheim

Alex is the Senior Copywriting Navigator at Vega, Cape Town. He is responsible for initiating the 2nd and 3rd Year students into the dark art and uncanny craft of writing killer copy. A modern copywriter is a latter-day bard: a suave, seductive storyteller who enraptures the masses with his vivid tales of the promised Land of Brand. Alex is an award-winning copywriter, screenwriter, journalist and poet whose students at Vega have thusfar won 6 Vuka Awards; 5 Loerie Awards and 3 Pendoring Awards. He can usually be found by following the trail of broken pencils

Dr Franci Cronje

Franci is the Academic Co-Navigator of Vega Brand Communication School in Cape Town. She is also a filmmaker and artist. Passionate about Critical Studies, multimodal discourse, Border Crossing Theory with a focus on adolescent cultural identities, and the academic argument, she has recently submitted her PhD thesis at the Centre for Film and Media Studies under the supervision of Dr Arlene Archer of the University of Cape Town. She specializes in video as art medium, and her work has been shown in Ekanterinburg, Russia; Centrum voor Jonge Kunst, Gent; as well as at the “International Shorts”, California State University, Chico, during 2004-5, and at the Spanierman Gallery in New York during May/June 2007.

Heine Botha

Heine is the IT Navigator at Vega, Cape Town. He is a certified Jedi Warrior of the Computer Class who can take remote control of any operating system within a 10 kilometre radius of his magical mouse. Despite being a formidable tech-fundi, in his spare time Heine likes to stay away from the world of technology and hone his equally formidable cricket and golf games.

Ilené Bothma

Ilené is a Creative Development Navigator at Vega. She holds a MA degree in Fine Art from Northumbria University in the United Kingdom, as well as an MA and a BA degree in Fine Art from the University of Stellenbosch. When she is not busy engaging her students in the delicate art of creative thinking, she is working on her own art practice. She is particularly interested in the domestic space and the everyday. These concerns take form through sculpture, video and installations.

Janey Nixon

Janey is Vega CT’s Relationship Navigator for the 3rd Year BCBC and BBM students as well as the Honours, Diploma and Photography students. How Janey manages to maintain her enviably calm disposition amidst the chaos is perhaps explained by her BA in Industrial Psychology. This, together with her Post-Graduate Diploma in Information Science, also explains her interest in all things forensic. Although Dexter himself would never in a million years discover the secret behind Janey’s world-beating Spaghetti Bolognaise. 

Jan Horn

Jan is the Campus Navigator at Vega Cape Town. He has been with Varsity College in a management capacity for the past 3 years, before joining Vega, and in education for the past 17 years. His perfect day would include his wife and children, and catching a 5kg rainbow trout in the Drakensberg on a fly that he tied himself. Jan’s quote to live by: “Never test the depth of the water with both feet.”

Kyle Fawkes

Mozart may have written his first sonata when he was 4, but Kyle had already dismantled his dad’s HiFi at age 3. This youthful feat of mechanical engineering launched Kyle’s lifelong fascination with all things technological. The natural-born IT whiz has the rare ability to quickly grasp the kind of impenetrable mysteries of computerdom that have most of us cowering behind our keyboards in abject terror. When not ensuring Vega’s systems are running smooth as silk, Kyle can be found shooting pool, firebreathing, making origami sculptures or saving the world playing Call of Duty and Counterstrike.

Malcolm Venter

Malcolm is the Photography Navigator at Vega, Cape Town. Passionate about all aspects of photography, he is also a keen student of art history. He brings this passion to the classroom, insisting that we should be creating artists rather than just technicians. When not in the studio or the darkroom, Malcolm can be found dangling from a rock face on Table Mountain or enjoying a good book under a shady tree. 

Marthinus van Loggerenberg

Marthinus is the Field Navigator for Business Leadership. Wearing the magical hats of where business meets brands and where innovation meets leadership, he fulfils his passion in the field of academic navigation. Marthinus completed a B Com (Law) with major Statistics (UP), Post Grad in Integrated Marketing Communications (AAA) and MBA cum laude (US) and is currently reading for his PhD. He also completed his AMASA certification in 2001, is a member of the Golden Key Society and has published in the Journal of Digital Marketing in 2010. He has spent several years in the industry as anything from Marketing and Advertising Manager for major brands to Brand Strategist. His main interest in the world of brand communications is exploring the socio-cultural and psychological influence of brands relating to the brand narrative and word-of-mouth as result

Pamela Lundberg

Pamela is a Contact Navigator. She has a BA Degree in Communications Management (specializing in Creative Brand Communications) and is also an ex-Vega student. If not helping worried parents about career choices for their “Creative creatures,” Pam is preaching the Vega Brand in all its glory to the masses. She is currently working toward her Honours degree in Brand Leadership as she strives to be the next Brand guru. She is always around to give advice and is usually responsible for the smell of microwave popcorn around Campus.

Richard Kilpert

Richard’s creative development class is called Lost & Found. He has a B Fine Art degree in printmaking from Rhodes and has studied interactive digital media at Wits. He has a background in social development work, having been director of the Ilitha Arts Education Project (Eastern Cape) and the Imagination Lab (Gauteng). He loves traditional printmaking and kinetic art machines, has exhibited in Paris, Liverpool and Nieu-Bethesda and declared March 23rd “Jour International des Popcorn”.

Rigard Janse van Rensburg

Rigard is a Contact Navigator at Vega Cape Town and joined the team in February 2010. He holds a BCOM degree in Marketing Management from UNISA and completed a post graduate specialisation in Media Management at the AAA School of Advertising. Prior to joining Vega, Rigard started his career at FNB where he was responsible for sales and marketing in the acquisition division while managing a portfolio of private and commercial clients. Currently he is studying towards a BA Honours degree in Brand Leadership as a part-time student at Vega. He is a passionate brand ambassador for Vega and strives to live the brand and infuse wisdomwithmagic into everything he does. In his spare time he is a keen portrait and wedding photographer.

Shane de Lange

Shane de Lange is an artist, designer, writer, and curator, originally from Johannesburg. He has a Masters Degree in Fine Arts and has years of experience teaching at University level in the Arts, Multimedia, and Graphic

Design. Although he has focused much of his attention on curating and writing, notably heading Outlet Project Room and writing extensively on South African art and artists, he is also noted for his role as co-founder of the Gilgamesh Collective in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. His professional work focuses on political extremes, artistic resistance, philosophical undercurrents, and design agitation. He has always wanted to be a lumberjack due to his sincere love of bears.

Sibusiso Mbele

Sibusiso (Sibs) has been working as a Frontline Navigator at Vega Cape Town since 2007, during his spare time he enjoys spending time with his family and friends. His interests/hobbies are watching WWF RAW/ Smackdown, Soccer and Cricket.

Thys de Beer

Thys de Beer is the Brand Strategy Navigator and Head of the Honours in Brand Leadership-degree at Vega Cape Town. He is an admitted Advocate (non-practising) and holds a B.Proc. degree from the University of Johannesburg, an LLB degree from the University of Pretoria and a Post-graduate Diploma in Brand Contact Management from Vega and is currently investigating Design Thinking and the construction of Brand Identity on (hopefully) a doctorate level.

Thys has a keen interest in human expression and understanding the human condition and spent 7 years in the advertising industry as a strategic planner with global agencies such as DRAFTFCB and JWT. Thys regularly consults on Brand- and Communication Strategy projects to various agencies and private clients. Thys loves film, friends, food and his 3-legged cat, Piet. 

Tristan Bunn

Tristan is fascinated with all things digital, design, and open-source. Since embarking on his design career almost a decade ago, he has worked extensively in both the aesthetic and more technical aspects of his craft, eventually ending up as Digital Media Lecturer at Vega