Sessions28
- Part IBrand from Business Data
- 01Mon Aug 24Kickoff and Introductions
- 02Wed Aug 26Design Practice and Process
- 03Mon Aug 31Version Control, and Design Practice in the Age of New Mediums
- 04Wed Sep 2Discovery Workshop
- Sep 7No class
- 05Wed Sep 9The Process So Far
- 06Mon Sep 14Pitch Studio
- 07Wed Sep 16Pitch Studio: the recording
- 08Mon Sep 21Should designers design?
- Part IIBrand as Foundation
- 09Wed Sep 23Process: Definition
- 10Mon Sep 28Brand: Storytelling
- 11Wed Sep 30Creative Brief Studio
- 12Mon Oct 5Aesthetics and the Moodboard
- 13Wed Oct 7Standing Apart
- Oct 12No class
- 14Wed Oct 14Milestone 2: brand explorations
- 15Mon Oct 19Design Systems
- 16Wed Oct 21Brand Systems: Tokens and Rules
- 17Mon Oct 26Brand Systems: Voice and Language
- 18Wed Oct 28Testing the System with AI
- 19Mon Nov 2System Review Studio
- 20Wed Nov 4Milestone 3: the brand, presented
- 21Mon Nov 9Design for Meaning: Storytelling, Mythology, and Meaning
- 22Wed Nov 11Product-Market Fit
- 23Mon Nov 16Brand Book Studio
- 24Wed Nov 18Build Session 1
- 25Mon Nov 23Guest speaker, to be announced
- Nov 25No class
- 26Mon Nov 30Build Session 2
- 27Wed Dec 2Milestone 4: the brand book and the landing page
- 28Mon Dec 7Milestone 4, day two, and Wrap-Up
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.
About this courseTexts, grading, policies
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 semester. 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% |
| Personal statement, first passSix 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. Turned in on Blackboard. | Aug 31 | Checkpoint |
| Personal statement, finalThe same statement, rewritten in the last week of the semester. What changed in it, what changed you, and which of the two you would rather show someone. Put the August version beside it. The AI note is written the same way it was in August. | Dec 7 | Checkpoint |
| Milestone 1: the pitchThe opening argument, built across September and recorded for 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 you talk over for ten minutes. Say what the machine did. | Sep 21 | 15% |
| The audienceThree 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. Turned in on Blackboard. | Sep 9 | Checkpoint |
| The problem statementOne 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 on Blackboard. | Sep 14 | Checkpoint |
| The pitch, recordedSubmit your complete ten-minute video pitch: your slides on screen, you in a corner with the camera on, and your voice over them, exported as an MP4. Upload it to the Blackboard assignment before class; if the video will not upload, put a link to it in the submission text. The pitch includes your audience, problem, research, design direction, and next steps in Brown's five sections: objectives and outcomes, the problem elaborated, the design direction, supporting details, and next steps. Include your principles and boards within that presentation. Next steps covers scope, outputs, fidelity, a timeline against the milestone dates, priority, and what the work would cost. The complete video is the submission; no separate PDF or individual worksheets are due with it. | Sep 21 | Checkpoint |
| Milestone 2: brand explorationsThe pitch distilled to a creative brief in class, then two weeks of exploration: at least three moodboards, with the research behind them, presented in your updated pitch deck. Say what the machine did. | Oct 14 | 15% |
| The creative briefThe pitch, distilled to the creative brief: the nineteen sections from the Sep 28 class, from the problem and the insight to what gets built. Every section needs an answer; length is up to you. Written in class. Turned in on Blackboard as a PDF, or as a link to a shared document. Not graded on its own: it counts toward Milestone 2, and a missed checkpoint is not made up. This is the document the brand answers to for the rest of the semester. | Sep 30 | Checkpoint |
| The moodboards, in progressTwo or three moodboards as they stand, in one PDF on Blackboard by 1:30, and on the screen at the start of class. None of it is graded on polish. It is there so the exploration happens in the open, and not the night before the presentations. | Oct 7 | Checkpoint |
| The explorationsYour pitch deck, updated and presented again in class. Add what you have learned since the pitch and the creative brief, then at least three moodboards, and talk through each one: what it is for and where the brand could go. Three minutes, latest version up first. Say what the machine did. | Oct 14 | Checkpoint |
| Milestone 3: the brandThe brand itself, built as the answer to the brief, and the largest body of work in the semester. At minimum it carries a mark, a palette, the type, the voice, and three applications. Say what the machine did. | Nov 4 | 25% |
| The direction and the first rulesOut 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. | Oct 19 | Checkpoint |
| The rules, written for a machineEvery 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. | Oct 28 | Checkpoint |
| The system, reviewedBy now the machine has been making things under your rules for two weeks, so this is a review, not a rewrite. The whole system laid out: 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. | Nov 2 | Checkpoint |
| The brandThe 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. | Nov 4 | Checkpoint |
| Milestone 4: the brand book and the landing pageWhere the semester 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% |
| The brand book, draftedThe 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. | Nov 16 | Checkpoint |
| The landing page, first buildThe 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. | Nov 23 | Checkpoint |
| Presentations, day twoThe 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. | Dec 7 | Checkpoint |
| The brand book and the landing pageThe 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. | Dec 2 | Checkpoint |
| PresentationsEvery milestone is presented, the first one on video; 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. From October 19, 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 and turned in on Blackboard. 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.
- Required
- The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes. Margaret Mark and Carol S. Pearson, McGraw-Hill, 2001. ISBN 9780071364157. Chapters 1 and 2, and the opening of chapter 16.
- 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 short running log of what you decided and what the machine did. Two lines a work session is fine. From October 19 it is a file in your project repository. It is what the AI note on every checkpoint and milestone is written from.
- Studio days
- A work session opens with a stand-up: three minutes each, screen up, what you have made since the last one, and from October 19 your repository 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. You turn each version in on Blackboard, as a dated PDF for decks and boards. From October 19 the work also lives in your project repository, and you commit at the end of every work session, so the earlier versions are kept for you. 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 earlier versions are 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
Kickoff and Introductions
Introductions, and a walk through the whole semester: what the course is, how it runs, and what it asks of you.
2 decks
Lecture- The slidesWhat the course is, and how it runs: the project, the semester map, grading, and AI. Arrow keys, or type a slide number and press Enter.Open ↗
- The slides as a PDFThe same deck to keep, 33 pages, with every frame of the studio's projects.Open ↗
Assignments
Readingsfor Wed Aug 26
- That Was Then, and This Is Now: But What Is Next?the essay, 8 pp.Emigre 39, 1996Read now ↗
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designforeword and chapter 1 through Segmentation; the close reading is chapter 1, 20 pp.HOW Books, 2016
Assignments
Project
- Semester project assignedOne project across the whole semester. 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 passSix 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. Turned in on Blackboard.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.HOW Books, 2016
Version Control, and Design Practice in the Age of New Mediums
Twenty-five minutes on GitHub Desktop, and you set up the project repository in class. Then the lecture: how new mediums have changed design work, from the printed page to AI, and what design thinking is. Your personal statement is due today, turned in on Blackboard.
1 reading · 2 decks · 6 handouts · due: Personal statement, first pass
Due in class- Personal statement, first passSix 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. Turned in on Blackboard.
Lecture- The slidesDesign in the Age of New Mediums. Arrow keys, or type a slide number and press Enter.Open ↗
- The slides as a PDFThe same deck to keep, 68 pages, with every page of the Emigre 39 scans.Open ↗
Handouts- Templates for framing, audience, and the briefEvery template printed in a book you were assigned, with the authors' own worked examples.Open →
- The worksheets, three pages to printThe problem framing canvas, the five whys ladder, and the problem statement check.Open →
- Jan Tschichold, The New Typography, 1928The full book, in our collection. The plates in the lecture come from it.Open ↗
- William Morris, Hopes and Fears for ArtMorris answering the machine, in our collection.Open ↗
- Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in ArtIn our collection. The painting in the lecture is his.Open ↗
- Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, 1969Where the definition of design thinking quoted in class comes from. Internet Archive, not our collection.Open ↗
Assignments
Project
- The audienceThree 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. Turned in on Blackboard.Due Sep 9
Readingsfor Wed Sep 2
- Practical Design Discoverychapter 1, Discovery Defined, 16 pp.A Book Apart, 2017Read now ↗
- The Rise of Designers Who Shipvideo, 62 min. Assigned today; watch it before the seminar on Sep 21.Dive Club ep. 78Watch now ↗
- September8 sessions
Discovery Workshop
What design discovery is, from Dan Brown's Practical Design Discovery: the mindset, and how to frame a problem, with the framing canvas and five whys. With it, what makes research credible: sources, costs, and the difference between a claim and evidence. Soleio's talk on designers who ship is assigned today. In the workshop you start your project brief from the template, beginning with the worlds your personal statement named.
2 readings · 5 decks · 8 handouts
Lecture- The slidesDiscovery, Defined: Brown's book front to back, each chapter on the date its work is due. Arrow keys, or type a slide number and press Enter.Open ↗
- The slides as a PDFThe same deck to keep, 38 pages, with three slides on Hall ahead of the Sep 9 reading.Open ↗
- September, in order: the hand-ins and a preview of the pitchA short deck to keep open: what is due Sep 9, 14, 16 and 21, in what form, and the Sep 21 pitch slide by slide. Also as a PDF at /lecture/art418-september.pdf.Open ↗
- The pitch, demonstrated once: an invented companyThe whole pitch run once on an invented company, Mise, in the ten-slide form and written as if presenting: the founder's own three slides at the front, the five sections with a title slide each, the boards, the photographs. Nothing in it is real and every invented figure is marked with a dagger; slide 15 is the one that says which parts a demo may make up and a hand-in may not.Open ↗
- The demonstration as a PDFThe same twenty-nine slides to keep.Open ↗
Handouts- The audience: the fill-in formThe blank form. Copy it into section 2 of BRIEF.md.Open →
- The problem statement: the fill-in formThe one-page form, blank and then filled in. Export yours as a PDF for Blackboard.Open →
- The boards: the fill-in formWhat each board page carries.Open →
- The pitch: the fill-in formThe ten slides in Brown's five sections, with the next-steps worksheet behind them.Open →
- BRIEF.md, the templateThe five headings for the project brief you start in class and keep adding to all semester.Open →
- Templates for framing, audience, and the briefBrown's six traps and objectives, Davis's four dimensions, Hall's interview questions, in the authors' own words.Open →
- The worksheets, three pages to printThe problem framing canvas, the five whys ladder, and the problem statement check.Open →
- The forms, one packet to printBRIEF.md and the four forms in hand-in order: audience, problem statement, boards, pitch. Each form is a blank sheet and a filled-in sheet. Also one at a time: /handouts/ART-418-form-pitch.pdf and the rest.Open →
Assignments
Readingsfor Wed Sep 9
- Practical Design Discoverythe rest of chapter 2, Frame the Problem: the sections on problem statements and project objectives, 10 pp. Taught Sep 2; read it now that you have heard it.A Book Apart, 2017Read now ↗
- Just Enough Researchchapter 6, Competitive Research, and chapter 9, Quantitative Research: 14 pp. in all. The two hardest lines of the audience form, what they use today instead and what that costs them, come from these.A Book Apart, 2013Read now ↗
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapter 10, the eleven questions a creative brief should answer, 12 pp. Read it as a form: it is the one you fill in on Sep 30.HOW Books, 2016
No class
Labor Day. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.
The Process So Far
Where the process stands, and what a brief is for: a brief exists to make the work better than it would be without one, and it fails without a target. Your three audiences are due today, turned in on Blackboard.
3 readings · 2 decks · 5 handouts · due: The audience
Due in class- The audienceThree 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. Turned in on Blackboard.
Lecture- The slidesThe Process So Far, then Davis, Brown and Hall, then five real creative briefs and the course template built from them. 44 slides.Open ↗
- The slides as a PDFThe same deck to keep.Open ↗
Handouts- The creative briefThe document you drafted last week. Section 15, the deliverables, the dated milestones and the budget, is your next-steps slide already written.Open →
- The pitch: the fill-in formThe ten slides in Brown's five sections, with the next-steps worksheet behind them.Open →
- The audience: the fill-in formDue today. Blank on top, filled in underneath.Open →
- The problem statement: the fill-in formDue Sep 14. Export yours as a PDF for Blackboard.Open →
- Templates for framing, audience, and the briefThe authors' own templates and worked examples.Open →
Assignments
Project
- The problem statementOne 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 on Blackboard.Due Sep 14
- The pitch, recordedSubmit your complete ten-minute video pitch: your slides on screen, you in a corner with the camera on, and your voice over them, exported as an MP4. Upload it to the Blackboard assignment before class; if the video will not upload, put a link to it in the submission text. The pitch includes your audience, problem, research, design direction, and next steps in Brown's five sections: objectives and outcomes, the problem elaborated, the design direction, supporting details, and next steps. Include your principles and boards within that presentation. Next steps covers scope, outputs, fidelity, a timeline against the milestone dates, priority, and what the work would cost. The complete video is the submission; no separate PDF or individual worksheets are due with it.Due Sep 21
Readingsfor Wed Sep 16
- Design Is a Jobchapters 1 and 2, 22 pp. Read for Monday's seminar.A Book Apart, 2012
Pitch Studio
A working day on the pitch. The pitch presents thinking you have already done: your audience, your problem statement and your research become the ten slides, section by section. Then the two things writing cannot give you, the principles in their own form and the boards as made things. The pitch is recorded now, not presented standing, so the deck you build today is the one you talk over for ten minutes.
5 decks · 2 handouts · due: The problem statement
Due in class- The problem statementOne 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 on Blackboard.
Lecture- The slidesFive slides: the dates that moved, how the pitch gets delivered now, and the three files you hand in. Arrow keys, or type a slide number and press Enter.Open ↗
- The slides as a PDFThe same five slides to keep.Open ↗
- The pitch, demonstrated once: an invented companyThe whole pitch run once on an invented company, Mise, in the ten-slide form and written as if presenting: the founder's own three slides at the front, the five sections with a title slide each, the boards, the photographs. Nothing in it is real and every invented figure is marked with a dagger; slide 15 is the one that says which parts a demo may make up and a hand-in may not.Open ↗
- The demonstration as a PDFThe same twenty-nine slides to keep.Open ↗
- September, in order: the hand-ins and a preview of the pitchA short deck to keep open: what is due Sep 9, 14, 16 and 21, in what form, and the Sep 21 pitch slide by slide. Also as a PDF at /lecture/art418-september.pdf.Open ↗
Handouts- The pitch: the fill-in formThe ten slides in Brown's five sections, with the next-steps worksheet behind them. Printed for you today; this is the copy to keep.Open →
- The creative briefThe document you drafted last week. Section 15, the deliverables, the dated milestones and the budget, is your next-steps slide already written.Open →
Pitch Studio: the recording
The deck gets finished, and then it gets a voice. First, time on whatever is still blank on the ten slides. Then how to record it on the machine you already have: slides on screen, you in a corner with the camera on, your voice over them, ten minutes. Everyone records a two-minute first take before they leave.
1 reading · 4 decks · 3 handouts
Lecture- The slidesThirteen slides, the lecture: recorded versus in person, Monteiro's thirteen and the four that get harder, saying it plainly (Hale, Duarte), how the good ones do it, sound, picture, the recorder, the ninety-second checklist, the first take, and Monday. Arrow keys, or type a slide number and press Enter.Open ↗
- The slides as a PDFThe same thirteen slides to keep.Open ↗
- The pitch, demonstrated once: an invented companyThe whole pitch run once on an invented company, Mise, in the ten-slide form and written as if presenting. Nothing in it is real and every invented figure is marked with a dagger; slide 15 is the one that says which parts a demo may make up and a hand-in may not.Open ↗
- The demonstration as a PDFThe same twenty-nine slides to keep.Open ↗
Handouts- The recording checklistThe form, the camera, the light, the audio, the length, the pacing, the open, the take and the file. Printed for you today; this is the copy to keep.Open →
- Recording yourself: the professional practiceThe longer version, for keeps: camera, light, background, sound, delivery, the export, and the same rules on a live call. With the tool guides and the reading it draws on.Open →
- The pitch: the fill-in formThe ten slides in Brown's five sections, with the next-steps worksheet behind them.Open →
Assignments
Readingsfor Mon Sep 21
- Design Is a Jobchapters 1 and 2, 22 pp.A Book Apart, 2012
- Just Enough Researchchapter 5, User Research: interview structure and conducting the interview, 12 pp.A Book Apart, 2013Read now ↗
- The Rise of Designers Who Shipvideo, 62 min. Watched before class. Assigned Sep 2. The first of the three positions we argue today.Dive Club ep. 78Watch now ↗
- The design process is dead. Why designers can no longer trust it.video, 25 min. Watched before class. The third position: that what moved was the process itself.Hatch ConferenceWatch now ↗
Should designers design?
What kind of work do you want to do as a designer, and how will you decide what is worth making? Begin with Monteiro’s account of what a designer does, then ask what design means as AI changes the work. Define design, work, technology, artificial, and real, with short word histories to help examine your assumptions. Put Wild’s Emigre essay from the first week beside Soleio and Jenny Wen, and use Hall to test what counts as evidence. Consider which advice you would follow as a beginning designer. Your complete video pitch is due before class.
4 readings · 2 decks · due: The pitch, recorded
Due in class- The pitch, recordedSubmit your complete ten-minute video pitch: your slides on screen, you in a corner with the camera on, and your voice over them, exported as an MP4. Upload it to the Blackboard assignment before class; if the video will not upload, put a link to it in the submission text. The pitch includes your audience, problem, research, design direction, and next steps in Brown's five sections: objectives and outcomes, the problem elaborated, the design direction, supporting details, and next steps. Include your principles and boards within that presentation. Next steps covers scope, outputs, fidelity, a timeline against the milestone dates, priority, and what the work would cost. The complete video is the submission; no separate PDF or individual worksheets are due with it.
Lecture- The discussion slidesQuestions, source passages, and separate working definitions, beginning with Monteiro’s “What Is a Designer?” Etymologies and present-day meanings connect design, work, technology, artificial, and real to your future role.Open ↗
- The discussion slides as a PDFThe seminar deck, including its source references.Open ↗
Assignments
Readingsfor Wed Sep 23
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapters 5 and 6, ending with the Creative Strategy Framework, 24 pp.HOW Books, 2016
Part II · Brand as Foundation
Process: Definition
Definition: the frameworks a brand uses to define itself and speak to its audience, used now to test the strategy you just pitched before it becomes a brief. Then what a product requirements document is, the product team's companion to the creative brief, introduced as a concept. Notes on the recordings come back in writing; anyone sent back re-records by Monday, September 28, at 1:30.
1 reading · 2 decks · 1 handout
Lecture- The lecture slidesFeatures, benefits and values (Davis ch. 5), then the Creative Strategy Framework (Davis ch. 6), worked once on the invented company from the pitch demonstration, with the two in-class exercises.Open ↗
- The lecture slides as a PDFThe same deck, one slide per page.Open ↗
Handouts- The creative brief templateWhere today's framework goes on September 30.Open →
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.HOW Books, 2016
- Practical Design Discoveryfrom chapter 3, Set the Direction: assertions, principles, concepts, and Focus on a Solution, 10 pp.A Book Apart, 2017Read now ↗
- The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypeschapter 1, the archetype argument, 10 pp.McGraw-Hill, 2001
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. Voice and language come back later in Part 2.
3 readings · 2 decks · 1 handout
Lecture- The lecture slidesWhat is due this week (the creative brief, now with a third page for what gets built), then how discovery becomes decisions on paper: the insight, the design principles and concept, the brand's character, and two or three paths for the brand, with three short exercises.Open ↗
- The lecture slides as a PDFThe same deck, one slide per page.Open ↗
Handouts- The creative brief templateWhere today's three sheets go on September 30.Open →
Assignments
Readingsfor Wed Sep 30
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapter 7, the advanced strategy session, 12 pp.HOW Books, 2016
- The Brand Gapthe opening, what a brand is and the gap between strategy and creativity, then the first two disciplines, Differentiate and Collaborate; illustrated and fastNew Riders, 2006
Assignments
Readingsfor Mon Oct 5
- The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypeschapter 2, "Archetypes: The Heartbeat of Enduring Brands": the Apple logo, the Beetle, Coke, and the Young & Rubicam study of one archetype against confused brands, about 12 pp. of textMcGraw-Hill, 2001
Creative Brief Studio
The pitch becomes the brief, in class. First the two readings, Davis on the advanced strategy session and Neumeier on the gap between strategy and design, each run as a test on your own brief. Then what a Markdown file is, and DESIGN.md, a way to describe a visual identity in plain text, with the project template you will use when the repository comes back on October 19. The rest of class is time on the brief, the nineteen sections from Monday, turned in on Blackboard.
2 readings · 2 decks · 13 handouts · due: The creative brief
Due in class- The creative briefThe pitch, distilled to the creative brief: the nineteen sections from the Sep 28 class, from the problem and the insight to what gets built. Every section needs an answer; length is up to you. Written in class. Turned in on Blackboard as a PDF, or as a link to a shared document. Not graded on its own: it counts toward Milestone 2, and a missed checkpoint is not made up. This is the document the brand answers to for the rest of the semester.
Lecture- The slidesPart 1, the two readings as the books tell them. Part 2, the brief. Part 3, what a .md file is and how DESIGN.md describes a design system to AI tools. Part 4, the starter repo, and student access to AI tools.Open ↗
- The slides as a PDFThe same deck, one slide per page.Open ↗
Handouts- The starter repoThe template for the project repository, which comes back on October 19. The README has the steps and where each file goes.Open ↗
- The study guideDavis chapter 7 and the opening of The Brand Gap: what each argues, the terms, and which brief sections each one feeds.Open →
- The creative brief, the simple versionThe nineteen sections from Monday's class, each marked with where its answer comes from. Download the Word copy, fill it in, and turn it in on Blackboard as a PDF or a link.Open →
- The full creative brief templateThe same sections with where each one comes from and what the books say.Open →
- The Resume Place briefA finished brief Workhorse wrote for a client in 2022, to compare against.Open →
- DESIGN.md, the specGoogle Labs' format for describing a visual identity to AI tools: exact values on top, the reasons in prose below.Open ↗
- DESIGN.md, the philosophyWhy intent described clearly does more than precise values. Short; read it before October 21.Open ↗
- DESIGN.md files for real brandsExamples to read, not to copy.Open ↗
- Markdown, from the sourceJohn Gruber's 2004 page introducing the format.Open ↗
- GitHub Student Developer PackFree GitHub Pro and Copilot Student for verified students.Open ↗
- Google AI Pro for studentsA free year for US college students 18 and over; claim by Dec 31, 2026. It bills after the year unless you cancel.Open ↗
- Figma EducationThe Professional plan free for verified students, with Figma Make and AI credits.Open ↗
- NotebookLMFree. Load your readings; it answers from them and cites them.Open ↗
Assignments
Project
- The explorationsYour pitch deck, updated and presented again in class. Add what you have learned since the pitch and the creative brief, then at least three moodboards, and talk through each one: what it is for and where the brand could go. Three minutes, latest version up first. Say what the machine did.Due Oct 14
- The moodboards, in progressTwo or three moodboards as they stand, in one PDF on Blackboard by 1:30, and on the screen at the start of class. None of it is graded on polish. It is there so the exploration happens in the open, and not the night before the presentations.Due Oct 7
- October7 sessions
Aesthetics and the Moodboard
What aesthetics means, where Western thought has located beauty from Plato to the brand, how an archetype shows up in a look, how to name the parts of a look, and how to talk about it with clients who are not designers. Then moodboards: how other fields use them, how Workhorse builds them from descriptors and themes, where looking turns into copying, and how to build a board that stays yours. Work time on your boards, with app and site screens added.
1 reading · 2 decks · 3 handouts
Lecture- The slidesAesthetics, talking to clients, Workhorse moodboards from real projects, the copying cases, and the rules for a better board.Open ↗
- The slides as a PDFThe same deck, one slide per page.Open ↗
Handouts- Blame the MoodboardAIGA Eye on Design, 2022. Why boards built from the same feeds make every brand look the same.Open ↗
- Style Tiles and How They WorkSamantha Warren, A List Apart, 2012. The step between a moodboard and a mockup.Open ↗
- MobbinA library of app and site screens. The free tier is small; your own phone is the first place to look.Open ↗
Assignments
Readingsfor Wed Oct 7
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapter 12, Sell Without Selling, 14 pp.HOW Books, 2016
Standing Apart
Boards go up first, and the PDF goes on Blackboard for the moodboards checkpoint by 1:30. Then one lesson: differentiation. What happens to a product that looks like all the others, how brands moved from what a product is to what it means, and three brands that went the other way on purpose: Volkswagen, Avis, and Pepsi. Then how to find your own: map what every brand in your category does, and break one thing while keeping the rest. Then we look at a case from now, packages that dress like a different product, and where that goes too far. Then we cover how to say it to a client, using today's reading. The rest of class is work time on your moodboards for the Oct 14 presentations, with desk visits.
1 reading · 2 decks · 4 handouts · due: The moodboards, in progress
Due in class- The moodboards, in progressTwo or three moodboards as they stand, in one PDF on Blackboard by 1:30, and on the screen at the start of class. None of it is graded on polish. It is there so the exploration happens in the open, and not the night before the presentations.
Lecture- The slidesStanding apart: the sugar aisle, how brands got here, Volkswagen, Avis and Pepsi, the category map, borrowed packages, and how to say it to a client.Open ↗
- The slides as a PDFThe same deck, one slide per page.Open ↗
Handouts- Think SmallThe 1959 Volkswagen campaign by Doyle Dane Bernbach, and why it was named the best of the century.Open ↗
- Being No. 2 and trying harderThe Avis ads from 1962 on, and the Hertz reply, collected in one place.Open ↗
- The Big SqueezeCathy Erway, TASTE, 2025. How Graza's squeeze bottle spread across the olive oil aisle.Open ↗
- Fishwife's illustrated tinsCreative Review, 2026. Danny Miller's drawings and how they turned canned fish into a gift.Open ↗
No class
Fall Break. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.
Milestone 2: brand explorations
Updated presentations, three minutes each, latest version up first. Each deck adds what you have learned since the pitch and the creative brief, and at least three moodboards, and you talk the room through them.
due: The explorations
Due in class- The explorationsYour pitch deck, updated and presented again in class. Add what you have learned since the pitch and the creative brief, then at least three moodboards, and talk through each one: what it is for and where the brand could go. Three minutes, latest version up first. Say what the machine did.
Assignments
Project
- The direction and the first rulesOut 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
- The brandThe 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
Design Systems
What a design system is, from the NASA manual to the files an AI tool reads today; who in a business uses one and why it pays; how systems get better in loops, with sketches and prototypes; and the starter repository read as a design system for one brand. Then the repository comes back: the brief, the moodboards, and the updated deck go in first, one direction gets chosen out of the Milestone 2 notes, and the first rules go into the repository before you leave.
2 decks · 1 handout · due: The direction and the first rules
Due in class- The direction and the first rulesOut 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.
Lecture- The slidesDesign systems and their parts, where they came from, who in a business uses them, iterative design and prototyping, the starter repo as a brand system an AI tool can work inside, and today's direction and first rules.Open ↗
- The slides as a PDFThe same deck, one slide per page.Open ↗
Handouts- The starter repoIf you can't find your repository, make a new one from this template, set it to Private, and add your instructor. The README has the steps.Open ↗
Assignments
Project
- The rules, written for a machineEvery 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.HOW Books, 2016
- Atomic Designvideo, 30 minWebdagene, 2014Watch now ↗
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.
2 readings · the deck · 1 handout
Lecture- The slidesThe Brand System template: what is in it, how to make it yours, and how to use it in other Figma files and in Figma Make.Open ↗
Handouts- The Brand System template in FigmaDuplicate it into your drafts, then follow the Start here page.Open ↗
Assignments
Readingsfor Mon Oct 26
- Don't Call It Thatthe opening sections of the workbook, through the first naming exercise, 24 pp.No Picnic Press, 2019
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.
1 reading
Assignments
Readingsfor Wed Oct 28
- Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Artthe essay, 25 minThe New Yorker, 2024Read now ↗
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.
1 reading · due: The rules, written for a machine
Due in class- The rules, written for a machineEvery 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, reviewedBy now the machine has been making things under your rules for two weeks, so this is a review, not a rewrite. The whole system laid out: 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 minLenny’s PodcastWatch now ↗
- Ways of Seeingepisode 4, The Language of Advertising, 30 minBBC, 1972Watch now ↗
- November8 sessions
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.
2 readings · due: The system, reviewed
Due in class- The system, reviewedBy now the machine has been making things under your rules for two weeks, so this is a review, not a rewrite. The whole system laid out: 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.
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 on the wall too: where the machine already follows your brand, say so.
due: The brand
Due in class- The brandThe 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, draftedThe 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 Hero with a Thousand Facesfrom the Prologue, The Monomyth: the hero's journey in brief, 12 pp.1949
- 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. 265-274McGraw-Hill, 2001
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.
2 readings
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.
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: The brand book, drafted
Due in class- The brand book, draftedThe 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.
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 buildThe 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
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: The landing page, first build
Due in class- The landing page, first buildThe 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 pageThe 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
No class
Thanksgiving. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.
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, finalThe same statement, rewritten in the last week of the semester. What changed in it, what changed you, and which of the two you would rather show someone. Put the August version beside it. The AI note is written the same way it was in August.Due Dec 7
- December2 sessions
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: The brand book and the landing page
Due in class- The brand book and the landing pageThe 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.
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 semester, and the punch list of what has to be in the repository and on Blackboard by the end of class today, because nothing is due after it.
due: Presentations, day two, Personal statement, final
Due in class- Presentations, day twoThe 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, finalThe same statement, rewritten in the last week of the semester. What changed in it, what changed you, and which of the two you would rather show someone. Put the August version beside it. The AI note is written the same way it was in August.
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 and turned in on Blackboard. There is no exam-week meeting and nothing is due after the last day. The room has already seen every part of the project.
Grades of record live in Blackboard. This is the reading and the schedule.