ART 418 · Charleston Southern University · Fall 2026

The Business of Design

AI is changing how design gets made, and the profession is still working out what the medium is. This course takes both halves seriously. You learn design practice and process the way the discipline has always taught it: research, iteration, critique, craft. And you learn to make work with AI the way working studios use it now, on real production, with your name on the output.

You carry one project across the whole semester. It starts the way a startup starts: with a real product or technology that has no market yet. You research who could want it, choose an audience, pitch your creative strategy to the room in September, and set the brand's direction out of the October explorations. Then you build the brand, write it down as rules a machine can follow, and use it to make the product's case: a brand book with the product-market fit plan inside it, and a landing page for signup. Along the way we read the people who built the discipline and look at how the best teams and brands are working right now. The field is being redrawn while you are entering it, and you should have a hand in it.

Start · Session 01

How the course runs

Mon and Wed, 1:30 to 2:50 PM, CSU LB 104. Aug 24 to Dec 7; finals Dec 8 to Dec 14. 28 sessions in 2 parts.

Part I · Brand from Business Data: You take on a product with no market. You find the problem it poses, research who could want it, choose an audience, and build the argument for what you want to make. It closes with the pitch.
Part II · Brand as Foundation: The pitch becomes a creative brief, written in class, and the brief drives two weeks of exploration that set the brand's direction. You build the identity, write it down as rules a machine can follow, and use it as the foundation for the go-to-market: the brand book, with the product-market fit plan inside it, and a landing page for signup.

The project

One project across the whole term. You take a real product or technology that has no market yet and use design to take it toward one. First the strategy and the brand: choose an audience, pitch it, set the directions, build the identity. Then the brand becomes the foundation: the brand book, with the product-market fit plan inside it, and a landing page for signup, all made against the brand's own rules. Four milestones, each presented to the class, and each built through dated checkpoints between them; the full run is on the project page.

You start where a startup starts: with a product or a technology that works, and no customers. Some are offered in class, real ones from biotech, hard tech and software, each with a real problem attached. You can also bring one you found yourself, using the same methods we teach for finding problems. Whatever you pick, enough has to be published about it that a semester of research does not run dry. You are not redesigning the product: you find the people it is for, frame the business problem in design terms, and build the brand and the plan that could sell it.

The brief itself, with the checkpoint run and the rules the project is worked under, is at /course/business-of-design/project.

Assignments

Assignment	Due	Weight
Personal statementWritten twice. A first pass in the second week, made with AI in the open, and a final one in the last week, after a semester of work has given you something to say. Say what the machine did.	Dec 7	5%
Milestone 1: the pitchThe opening argument, built across September and presented standing on September 21: the product, the problem it poses, the audience you chose, and the ideas you want to carry into the brand, as a deck with a one-page proposal behind it. Say what the machine did.	Sep 21	15%
Milestone 2: brand explorationsThe pitch distilled to a creative brief in class, then two weeks of open exploration: a moodboard, the brand themes, and the brand language, with the research behind them and recommendations rooted in the business problem. Say what the machine did.	Oct 14	15%
Milestone 3: the brandThe brand itself, built as the answer to the brief, and the largest body of work in the term. At minimum it carries a mark, a palette, the type, the voice, and three applications. Say what the machine did.	Nov 4	25%
Milestone 4: the brand book and the landing pageWhere the term lands: the finished brand book, with the product-market fit plan as its go-to-market chapter, and a landing page for signup, both made from the brand's own rules. Say what the machine did.	Dec 2	25%
PresentationsEvery milestone is presented; the last one runs across the final two class days. Graded across all four.	All term	10%
ParticipationSeminar discussion, critique, and the studio check-in. Every work session opens with three minutes on your log, and that is where progress gets graded.	All term	5%
Final versionsEverything is due by the end of the last class, December 7: the final versions of the brand book, the landing page, and the personal statement, in the repository. There is no exam-week meeting and nothing is due after the last day. The room has already seen every part of the project.	Dec 7 to Dec 7
Total		100%

How work is marked

Every piece of work is marked on four counts, evenly weighted.

Process · 25%: Contributing to discussion and critique, and improving the work as a result of research and iteration.
Concept · 25%: Responding to the problem inventively, and thinking critically about the work in light of critique and reading.
Resolution · 25%: Making work that is effective and appropriate to its concept and its context.
Craft · 25%: Care in the manufacture of the work, and technical ability in the making of it.

Books

Read in selections, never whole. Each session lists what to read before that class.

Required: Creative Strategy and the Business of Design. Douglas Davis, HOW Books, 2016. ISBN 9781440341557.
Required: The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design. Marty Neumeier, New Riders, 2006. ISBN 9780321348104.
Recommended: Don't Call It That: A Naming Workbook. Eli Altman, No Picnic Press, 2019. ISBN 9781734248302.

No class

Sep 7: Labor Day. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.
Oct 12: Fall Break. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.
Nov 25: Thanksgiving. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.

The rules

Readings: You read selections, not whole books. Each session lists what to read before that class, and readings are handed out the meeting before.
The log: Keep a log file in the project repository. The commit history already says what changed; the log says what you decided and what the machine did, which a commit message should not carry. Two lines an entry is fine. It is what the AI note on every milestone is written from, and it is the only proof of progress this course accepts other than the history itself.
Studio days: A work session opens with a stand-up: three minutes each, screen up, the last week of commits and your log. Say what moved since the last one, what is stuck, and what you will have done by the next. Then the room is yours to work in and I am in it. Missing the stand-up is missing the class, whatever time you arrive.
Revision: Nothing in this course is turned in once. Everything you make lives in one repository and you commit at the end of every work session, so the version history is a side effect of working rather than a chore. Decks and boards go in as dated PDF exports, since git will not diff a picture. When a piece comes back to the room, the previous version goes up before the new one with a line on what changed and what made you change it. Process is a quarter of every grade here, and the history is how it gets seen.
Late work: Work is due when the session says it is due. A missed checkpoint is not made up later; the next one is already asking for the thing after it. A milestone handed in late loses a letter, and a milestone more than a week late is a zero. Tell me before the deadline rather than after it and we can usually find a date that works; tell me after and we cannot.
AI use: Use AI on anything in this course. Disclose it every time: each checkpoint and milestone names the tools you used and what they did, even when the answer is none, and that note is written out of your log. You defend everything you turn in as your own decision, and an error the machine made that you submitted is your error. Use whichever tools you want. Every assignment can be done on free tiers, and no grade in this course requires a paid model. Do not feed confidential material about a real organization to a public model; work from what the company behind your product has already published. Turning in AI work without saying so is misrepresenting the work, and it is handled the way plagiarism is.
Academic integrity: Academic dishonesty is a grade of FD, failure due to academic dishonesty, and may carry further discipline; the Student Handbook has the definition and the appeal. You may not hand in a project made for another class, including one adjusted for this one. Disclosed AI use is not dishonesty here; undisclosed AI use is, and is handled the same way.
Accessibility: Charleston Southern University will provide reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities to make all learning experiences accessible. If you feel you may need accommodations based on the impact of a disability, please contact the Office of Accessibility Services located in The Hub (2nd floor of the library; 843-863-7159, awatson@csuniv.edu) to initiate a conversation about your options. Accommodations are not retroactive, so please avoid delays.
Nondiscrimination: Charleston Southern University does not illegally discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, sex, disability, age, religion, genetic information, veteran or military status, or any other basis. Inquiries go to the Title IX Coordinator at 843-863-7374. The Student Handbook carries your rights and remedies in full.
Title IX: The university prohibits sex and gender-based discrimination and harassment, sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, and stalking, and it prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or recovery from either. Pregnant and parenting students can arrange accommodations through the Title IX Coordinator. Faculty are responsible employees: anything disclosed to me on these matters goes to the Title IX Coordinator, who provides support and resources and keeps it private. That is Shannon Morrison, with Justin Brown as deputy, at titleix@csuniv.edu. The university's Title IX page carries the procedures, the anonymous reporting form, and the rest of the support available.
Attendance: Attendance is tracked. University policy R-10 fails a student who misses a quarter of the meetings. In this course that is seven.
Grades of record: Grades live in Blackboard, the university's system of record. This site carries the schedule, the readings, and your notes.

Time each week

A meeting: 80 minutes, 75 of them usable.
Reading: Up to 90 minutes a week, and each week's readings are counted against that.

Schedule

Part I · Brand from Business Data
August3 sessions
MonAug 2401LectureOpen the session →Card §
Kickoff and Introductions
Introductions, and a walk through the whole semester: what the course is, how it runs, and what it asks of you.
Assignments
Readingsfor Wed Aug 26
- That Was Then, and This Is Now: But What Is Next?the essay, 8 pp.Lorraine WildEmigre 39, 1996Read now ↗
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designforeword and chapter 1 through Segmentation; the close reading is chapter 1, 20 pp.Douglas DavisHOW Books, 2016
WedAug 2602LectureOpen the session →Card §
Design Practice and Process
An overview of design process and design practice.
Assignments
Project
- Semester project assignedOne project across the whole term. You take a real product or technology that has no market yet and use design to take it toward one. First the strategy and the brand: choose an audience, pitch it, set the directions, build the identity. Then the brand becomes the foundation: the brand book, with the product-market fit plan inside it, and a landing page for signup, all made against the brand's own rules. Four milestones, each presented to the class, and each built through dated checkpoints between them; the full run is on the project page.Runs all term
- Personal statement, first passCheckpoint for Personal statementSix hundred words on the work you do and the work you want to be doing, made with AI in the open. Keep the prompts and keep the versions, and hand the statement in with a short note: what the machine wrote, what you cut, what you kept, and where you overruled it. Close on the worlds you already know: they are where your first audiences come from.Due Aug 31
Readingsfor Mon Aug 31
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designthe rest of chapter 1, from Segmentation to the end, 12 pp.Douglas DavisHOW Books, 2016
MonAug 3103LectureOpen the session →Card §
Version Control, and Design Practice in the Age of New Mediums
Twenty-five minutes on GitHub Desktop, then the lecture. You stand up the project repository in class and your personal statement is its first commit, which is the whole point: the repo exists before the theory does. Then how new mediums change design work.
Due in class
- Personal statement, first passCheckpoint for Personal statementSix hundred words on the work you do and the work you want to be doing, made with AI in the open. Keep the prompts and keep the versions, and hand the statement in with a short note: what the machine wrote, what you cut, what you kept, and where you overruled it. Close on the worlds you already know: they are where your first audiences come from.
Assignments
Project
- The audienceCheckpoint for Milestone 1Three audiences who could want your product, a paragraph each: what problem it would solve for them, what they use today instead, and what that costs them. This is segmentation the way Davis teaches it in chapter 1. Say which one you are leaning to.Due Sep 9
Readingsfor Wed Sep 2
- Practical Design Discoverychapter 1, Discovery Defined, 16 pp.Dan BrownA Book Apart, 2017
September8 sessions
WedSep 204WorkshopOpen the session →Card §
Product Research Workshop
What makes research credible: sources, costs, and the difference between a claim and evidence. The audience hunt starts here, from the worlds your personal statement named.
Assignments
Readingsfor Wed Sep 9
- Design Is a Jobchapters 1 and 2, 22 pp.Mike MonteiroA Book Apart, 2012
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapter 10, the eleven questions a creative brief should answer, 12 pp.Douglas DavisHOW Books, 2016
MonSep 7
No class
Labor Day. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.
WedSep 905SeminarOpen the session →Card §
Should designers design?
The debate over what designers do now: Soleio on designers who ship, Monteiro on design as a job, and how fast the ground is moving.
Due in class
- The audienceCheckpoint for Milestone 1Three audiences who could want your product, a paragraph each: what problem it would solve for them, what they use today instead, and what that costs them. This is segmentation the way Davis teaches it in chapter 1. Say which one you are leaning to.
Assignments
Project
- The problem statementCheckpoint for Milestone 1One page framing the problem for the audience you are leaning to: who has it and how you know, what it is and what signs show it, why it is worth solving and what it costs unsolved, and where it shows up. Compressed to one statement from the audience's side, with every claim naming a source. Say what the machine did. Turned in, not presented.Due Sep 14
- The pitch and proposalCheckpoint for Milestone 1Three minutes standing with your deck, plus the one-page proposal that carries the detail: deliverables, a timeline against the milestone dates, and what the work would cost. The pitch is the argument; the proposal is what a client would sign.Due Sep 21
Readingsfor Mon Sep 14
- Practical Design Discoveryfrom chapter 2, Frame the Problem: the sections on problem statements and project objectives, 10 pp.Dan BrownA Book Apart, 2017
- Just Enough Researchfrom chapter 6, Competitive Research, and chapter 9, Quantitative Research: 14 pp. in allErika HallA Book Apart, 2013
- Just Enough Researchfrom chapter 5, User Research: interview structure and conducting the interview, 12 pp.Erika HallA Book Apart, 2013
MonSep 1406LectureOpen the session →Card §
Process: Discovery
The technical side of brand: brand infrastructure, brand platforms, house of brands, and how the pieces fit together, with Hall on how you go and ask people things. Your problem statements are on the table today, each framed for the audience you chose and argued against the evidence.
Due in class
- The problem statementCheckpoint for Milestone 1One page framing the problem for the audience you are leaning to: who has it and how you know, what it is and what signs show it, why it is worth solving and what it costs unsolved, and where it shows up. Compressed to one statement from the audience's side, with every claim naming a source. Say what the machine did. Turned in, not presented.
WedSep 1607WorkshopOpen the session →Card §
Pitch Studio
A working day on the pitch. The strategy at the desk: what the product is for the audience you chose, what has to be true for them to buy, and the ideas you want to argue for. The deck gets built here; Monday you stand with it.
MonSep 2108CritiqueOpen the session →Card §
Milestone 1: the pitch
Twenty pitches, three minutes each, standing: the product in one line, the problem you found, the audience you chose with evidence rather than assertion, and the ideas you want to carry into the brand. The one-page proposal you hand in carries the detail, and that page is what a client sees before any work starts. A pitch the room cannot follow is sent back and re-presented at the top of Wednesday.
Due in class
- The pitch and proposalCheckpoint for Milestone 1Three minutes standing with your deck, plus the one-page proposal that carries the detail: deliverables, a timeline against the milestone dates, and what the work would cost. The pitch is the argument; the proposal is what a client would sign.
Assignments
Readingsfor Wed Sep 23
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapters 5 and 6, ending with the Creative Strategy Framework, 24 pp.Douglas DavisHOW Books, 2016
Part II · Brand as Foundation
WedSep 2309LectureOpen the session →Card §
Process: Definition
Definition: the frameworks a brand uses to define itself and speak to its audience, now pressure-testing the strategy you just pitched before it becomes a brief. Anyone sent back on Monday re-pitches at the top of class.
Assignments
Readingsfor Mon Sep 28
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapter 8, Finding the Gold: turning data and insights into creative business solutions, 14 pp.Douglas DavisHOW Books, 2016
- Practical Design Discoveryfrom chapter 3, Set the Direction: assertions, principles, concepts, and Focus on a Solution, 10 pp.Dan BrownA Book Apart, 2017
- The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypeschapter 1, the archetype argument, 10 pp.Margaret Mark, Carol S. PearsonMcGraw-Hill, 2001
MonSep 2810LectureOpen the session →Card §
Brand: Storytelling
Where the design work starts. The story a brand tells, who it is for, and the frameworks for telling it. Mark and Pearson enter here, so archetypes are on the table before you choose your direction. The thread picks up again in Part 2 with voice and language.
Assignments
Readingsfor Wed Sep 30
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapter 7, the advanced strategy session, 12 pp.Douglas DavisHOW Books, 2016
Assignments
Readingsfor Mon Oct 5
- Ways of Seeingepisode 2, Nude or Naked, watched before class, 30 minJohn BergerBBC, 1972Watch now ↗
- The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypeschapter 2, the twelve archetypes; a third of it tables and case stories, about 12 pp. of textMargaret Mark, Carol S. PearsonMcGraw-Hill, 2001
WedSep 3011WorkshopOpen the session →Card §
Creative Brief Studio
The pitch becomes the brief, in the room. The first half of class distills your pitch into the two-page creative brief that answers Davis's eleven questions; the second half starts the exploration while the brief is still warm. You leave with the brief turned in and the first references pinned.
Due in class
- The creative briefCheckpoint for Milestone 2The pitch, distilled in class to a two-page creative brief that answers Davis's eleven questions: the client, the budget, the date, the target, the business problem, and what the work has to do. Written in the first half of the session so exploration starts the same day. This is the document the brand answers to for the rest of the term.
Assignments
Project
- The explorationsCheckpoint for Milestone 2Moodboard, brand themes, and brand language, with the research behind them and your recommendations. Images, references, adjacent brands, and analogous technologies, each one tied to the business problem it helps solve, and the recommendations saying where the brand should go and why: the foundation for the product's development and its market fit. Added to the deck as a section and presented in three minutes, last version up first.Due Oct 14
- The explorations, in progressCheckpoint for Milestone 2The moodboard, the brand themes, and the brand language as they stand, pinned up and worked in the room: the images and references on the board, the themes emerging from them, and the first words the brand might use. None of it is graded on polish; it is there so the exploration happens in the open instead of the night before the critique.Due Oct 7
October7 sessions
MonOct 512SeminarOpen the session →Card §
Seeing and Being Seen
Berger's Ways of Seeing, the week your direction becomes a brand. Episode 1 is screened in class: reproduction changed what an image is. Episode 2 is watched before class, and the discussion is how brands look at people and how people are taught to be looked at. The whole series is on the Internet Archive. Episode 3, Possessions, is optional, and episode 4 returns as reading in Part 2.
Assignments
Readingsfor Wed Oct 7
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapter 12, Sell Without Selling, 14 pp.Douglas DavisHOW Books, 2016
WedOct 713WorkshopOpen the session →Card §
Brand: Storytelling Workshop
The moodboarding and brainstorming process, in the room: themes, references, adjacent brands, and analogous technologies, all argued against the brief.
Due in class
- The explorations, in progressCheckpoint for Milestone 2The moodboard, the brand themes, and the brand language as they stand, pinned up and worked in the room: the images and references on the board, the themes emerging from them, and the first words the brand might use. None of it is graded on polish; it is there so the exploration happens in the open instead of the night before the critique.
Assignments
Project
- The brandCheckpoint for Milestone 3The built brand, pinned up and argued for. At minimum: a mark, a palette, the type, the voice, and three applications. That is a directed identity, not a finished system; the brand book is where it gets finished. Boards are up before class starts, so the three minutes go to the argument. The deck is rebuilt again and the brief rides in it; where the brand disobeys the brief, say so and defend it. Say what the machine did.Due Nov 4
MonOct 12
No class
Fall Break. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.
WedOct 1414CritiqueOpen the session →Card §
Milestone 2: brand explorations
Twenty decks, three minutes each, last version up first. The new section argues: the moodboard, the themes, and the language have to come out of the September evidence, and the room says whether they do.
Due in class
- The explorationsCheckpoint for Milestone 2Moodboard, brand themes, and brand language, with the research behind them and your recommendations. Images, references, adjacent brands, and analogous technologies, each one tied to the business problem it helps solve, and the recommendations saying where the brand should go and why: the foundation for the product's development and its market fit. Added to the deck as a section and presented in three minutes, last version up first.
Assignments
Project
- The direction and the first rulesCheckpoint for Milestone 3Out of your explorations, commit to one direction for the brand and defend it against the brief: which of its words it answers best, and what the alternatives would have cost. Then start writing it down the same day: the first rules, each named for the decision it came from, go into the repository before you leave. Made in the studio, in the room, so the build and the book start together.Due Oct 19
MonOct 1915WorkshopOpen the session →Card §
Brand Studio
A working day on the brand. The direction gets chosen at the desk, out of the Milestone 2 room notes, and the documentation starts the same day: the first rules go into the repository before you leave, so the build and the book start together.
Due in class
- The direction and the first rulesCheckpoint for Milestone 3Out of your explorations, commit to one direction for the brand and defend it against the brief: which of its words it answers best, and what the alternatives would have cost. Then start writing it down the same day: the first rules, each named for the decision it came from, go into the repository before you leave. Made in the studio, in the room, so the build and the book start together.
Assignments
Project
- The rules, written for a machineCheckpoint for Milestone 3Every choice in your brand, written down as a rule someone who has never met you could follow: a person or a machine. The parts with exact values, like colors and type sizes, become data a machine can read; designers call these tokens. The judgment calls, like what the voice sounds like, what the brand refuses to say, and where it says it, stay as plain written instructions. Then hand it all to a model and keep the receipts: what you asked for, what came back, and which rule each failure points at. Started in class on October 21 and built in the repository, not a new document.Due Oct 28
Readingsfor Wed Oct 21
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapters 9 and 11, leading the client, and aligning target, channel, and messages, 20 pp.Douglas DavisHOW Books, 2016
- Atomic Designvideo, 30 minBrad FrostWebdagene, 2014Watch now ↗
WedOct 2116WorkshopOpen the session →Card §
Brand Systems: Tokens and Rules
What a brand system is: tokens, rules, roles, and guidelines, written for two readers, a person and a machine. Then we take a brand apart at the front of the room into color, type and spacing data, and you do the same to yours. Every decision in your brand gets restated as a rule.
Assignments
Readingsfor Mon Oct 26
- Don't Call It Thatthe opening sections of the workbook, through the first naming exercise, 24 pp.Eli AltmanNo Picnic Press, 2019
MonOct 2617LectureOpen the session →Card §
Brand Systems: Voice and Language
The written side of the system: voice, naming, and the rules that govern copy. The storytelling strand from Sep 28, written down as rules this time.
Assignments
Readingsfor Wed Oct 28
- Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Artthe essay, 25 minTed ChiangThe New Yorker, 2024Read now ↗
WedOct 2818WorkshopOpen the session →Card §
Testing the System with AI
You hand your written rules to an AI model with nothing else attached and look hard at what comes back. Whatever it gets wrong is your to-do list. Use whichever tool you want: rules that only work on one model are not rules, they are prompts.
Due in class
- The rules, written for a machineCheckpoint for Milestone 3Every choice in your brand, written down as a rule someone who has never met you could follow: a person or a machine. The parts with exact values, like colors and type sizes, become data a machine can read; designers call these tokens. The judgment calls, like what the voice sounds like, what the brand refuses to say, and where it says it, stay as plain written instructions. Then hand it all to a model and keep the receipts: what you asked for, what came back, and which rule each failure points at. Started in class on October 21 and built in the repository, not a new document.
Assignments
Project
- The system, reviewedCheckpoint for Milestone 3By now the machine has been making things under your rules for two weeks, so this is a review, not a rewrite. The whole system on the desk: the brand data, the rules, the written instructions, and the skills you have built for the machine, read as one thing. What the runs taught you gets folded in, what drifted gets reconciled, and the rest of class is studio time on the brand, which is presented Wednesday.Due Nov 2
Readingsfor Mon Nov 2
- This is the best time in history to be a designervideo, 55 minIan SilberLenny’s PodcastWatch now ↗
- Ways of Seeingepisode 4, The Language of Advertising, 30 minJohn BergerBBC, 1972Watch now ↗
November8 sessions
MonNov 219LectureOpen the session →Card §
System Review Studio
The whole system gets a desk review: brand data, rules, instructions, and the skills built for the machine, read as one thing before the brand stands up Wednesday. Then the room is studio time, and the brand is what gets worked on.
Due in class
- The system, reviewedCheckpoint for Milestone 3By now the machine has been making things under your rules for two weeks, so this is a review, not a rewrite. The whole system on the desk: the brand data, the rules, the written instructions, and the skills you have built for the machine, read as one thing. What the runs taught you gets folded in, what drifted gets reconciled, and the rest of class is studio time on the brand, which is presented Wednesday.
WedNov 420CritiqueOpen the session →Card §
Milestone 3: the brand, presented
The brand showcase. Boards up before class, three minutes each arguing the identity against the brief. The rules work from the last three weeks is in the room too: where the machine already follows your brand, say so.
Due in class
- The brandCheckpoint for Milestone 3The built brand, pinned up and argued for. At minimum: a mark, a palette, the type, the voice, and three applications. That is a directed identity, not a finished system; the brand book is where it gets finished. Boards are up before class starts, so the three minutes go to the argument. The deck is rebuilt again and the brief rides in it; where the brand disobeys the brief, say so and defend it. Say what the machine did.
Assignments
Project
- The brand book, draftedCheckpoint for Milestone 4The brand book in draft, holes marked as holes. Three parts. The brand: what it is and who it is for, the mark and how to use it, color with exact values, the type scale, layout and spacing, voice with worked examples, and misuse drawn from real mistakes. How it sells: the audience, the channels, the message in each place, the offer and its price, and the result that would prove people want it. The appendix: every color, type, and spacing value written as data a machine can read. I mark up the draft overnight and it comes back Wednesday. The finished version, page-numbered and free of placeholder text, is due December 2.Due Nov 16
Readingsfor Mon Nov 9
- The Brand Gapthe first two disciplines, Differentiate and Collaborate; illustrated and fast, 14 pp. of textMarty NeumeierNew Riders, 2006
- The Hero with a Thousand Facesfrom the Prologue, The Monomyth: the hero's journey in brief, 12 pp.Joseph Campbell1949
- The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypesthe opening of chapter 16, The Artichoke: uncovering the archetypal meaning of your brand, pp. 265-274Margaret Mark, Carol S. PearsonMcGraw-Hill, 2001
MonNov 921SeminarOpen the session →Card §
Design for Meaning: Storytelling, Mythology, and Meaning
A deeper look at story: Joseph Campbell, archetypes, mythology, and how meaning gets made. Lecture first, then discussion. You met the archetype argument before the midterm; today you read your own brand through it.
WedNov 1122LectureOpen the session →Card §
Product-Market Fit
What fit means and how a brand argues for it: the offer, the price, the channels, and the signal you would accept as proof. The argument gets written into the brand book as its go-to-market chapter, and the landing page is where it becomes real.
MonNov 1623WorkshopOpen the session →Card §
Brand Book Studio
The draft brand book is due today and worked in class: it is marked up overnight and comes back Wednesday. The second half of class works the go-to-market chapter, so Wednesday's revision closes it rather than opening it.
Due in class
- The brand book, draftedCheckpoint for Milestone 4The brand book in draft, holes marked as holes. Three parts. The brand: what it is and who it is for, the mark and how to use it, color with exact values, the type scale, layout and spacing, voice with worked examples, and misuse drawn from real mistakes. How it sells: the audience, the channels, the message in each place, the offer and its price, and the result that would prove people want it. The appendix: every color, type, and spacing value written as data a machine can read. I mark up the draft overnight and it comes back Wednesday. The finished version, page-numbered and free of placeholder text, is due December 2.
WedNov 1824WorkshopOpen the session →Card §
Build Session 1
We run a build from a written system at the front of the room, then you start your own.
Assignments
Project
- The landing page, first buildCheckpoint for Milestone 4The signup page, first build: the brand's rules driving a real page with one call to action, and what failed on the way. Bring the run that made it: the prompts, the rules, the commits. A first run that fails is normal and useful.Due Nov 23
MonNov 2325LectureOpen the session →Card §
Guest speaker, to be announced
A working designer on how the work actually gets bought. Monday because Wednesday is Thanksgiving. If no guest is booked by Monday November 9, this becomes Build Session 2 and November 30 becomes the punch list and the demo rehearsal.
Due in class
- The landing page, first buildCheckpoint for Milestone 4The signup page, first build: the brand's rules driving a real page with one call to action, and what failed on the way. Bring the run that made it: the prompts, the rules, the commits. A first run that fails is normal and useful.
Assignments
Project
- The brand book and the landing pageCheckpoint for Milestone 4The close, presented: the finished brand book, its go-to-market chapter included, and the landing page live enough to sign up on, produced with the machine under your rules. A one-page handoff README comes with it: what it is, how to run it, and what it gets wrong. The work is due December 2 for everyone; the room presents across the last two class days, half on December 2 and half on December 7.Due Dec 2
WedNov 25
No class
Thanksgiving. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.
MonNov 3026LectureOpen the session →Card §
Build Session 2
Punch list, scope cut, and a rehearsal of the Milestone 4 demo. The last twenty minutes are on how you talk about this project in an interview.
Assignments
Project
- Personal statement, finalCheckpoint for Personal statementThe same statement, rewritten in the last week of the term. What changed in it, what changed you, and which of the two you would rather show someone. The August version is in the history, so put the two side by side. The AI note is written the same way it was in August.Due Dec 7
December2 sessions
WedDec 227CritiqueOpen the session →Card §
Milestone 4: the brand book and the landing page
Live, three minutes each: run the system, show what it made, and name what it got wrong. The handoff README is turned in with it. Everything is due today for everyone; half the room presents today, the other half on Monday.
Due in class
- The brand book and the landing pageCheckpoint for Milestone 4The close, presented: the finished brand book, its go-to-market chapter included, and the landing page live enough to sign up on, produced with the machine under your rules. A one-page handoff README comes with it: what it is, how to run it, and what it gets wrong. The work is due December 2 for everyone; the room presents across the last two class days, half on December 2 and half on December 7.
MonDec 728LectureOpen the session →Card §
Milestone 4, day two, and Wrap-Up
The second half of the room presents, same format: run the system, show what it made, name what it got wrong. Then the wrap: what the machine did and what you did, separated out across the whole term, and the punch list of what has to be in the repository by the end of class today, because nothing is due after it.
Due in class
- Presentations, day twoCheckpoint for Milestone 4The second half of the room presents, same format: run the system, show what it made, name what it got wrong. The work was due December 2; nothing new is turned in today.
- Personal statement, finalCheckpoint for Personal statementThe same statement, rewritten in the last week of the term. What changed in it, what changed you, and which of the two you would rather show someone. The August version is in the history, so put the two side by side. The AI note is written the same way it was in August.
ExamDec 8–14
Final versions
Everything is due by the end of the last class, December 7: the final versions of the brand book, the landing page, and the personal statement, in the repository. There is no exam-week meeting and nothing is due after the last day. The room has already seen every part of the project.

The whole term as cards →

Grades of record live in Blackboard. This is the reading and the schedule.