Sessions28
  1. Part IBrand from Business Data
  2. 01Mon Aug 24Kickoff and Introductions
  3. 02Wed Aug 26Design Practice and Process
  4. 03Mon Aug 31Version Control, and Design Practice in the Age of New Mediums
  5. 04Wed Sep 2Discovery Workshop
  6. Sep 7No class
  7. 05Wed Sep 9The Process So Far
  8. 06Mon Sep 14Pitch Studio
  9. 07Wed Sep 16Pitch Studio: the recording
  10. 08Mon Sep 21Should designers design?
  11. Part IIBrand as Foundation
  12. 09Wed Sep 23Process: Definition
  13. 10Mon Sep 28Brand: Storytelling
  14. 11Wed Sep 30Creative Brief Studio
  15. 12Mon Oct 5Aesthetics and the Moodboard
  16. 13Wed Oct 7Standing Apart
  17. Oct 12No class
  18. 14Wed Oct 14Milestone 2: brand explorations
  19. 15Mon Oct 19Design Systems
  20. 16Wed Oct 21Brand Systems: Tokens and Rules
  21. 17Mon Oct 26Brand Systems: Voice and Language
  22. 18Wed Oct 28Testing the System with AI
  23. 19Mon Nov 2System Review Studio
  24. 20Wed Nov 4Milestone 3: the brand, presented
  25. 21Mon Nov 9Design for Meaning: Storytelling, Mythology, and Meaning
  26. 22Wed Nov 11Product-Market Fit
  27. 23Mon Nov 16Brand Book Studio
  28. 24Wed Nov 18Build Session 1
  29. 25Mon Nov 23Guest speaker, to be announced
  30. Nov 25No class
  31. 26Mon Nov 30Build Session 2
  32. 27Wed Dec 2Milestone 4: the brand book and the landing page
  33. 28Mon Dec 7Milestone 4, day two, and Wrap-Up

ART 418 · Session 13 of 28 · Part II · Brand as Foundation

ART 418 13: Standing Apart

Wednesday, October 7

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.

0 of 2 read

Click the slides, then arrow keys. F for full screen.Open in its own tabThe slides as a PDF

Read before this class

  1. The brief
  2. Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapter 12, Sell Without Selling, 14 pp.

Due

Materials

  • Think SmallThe 1959 Volkswagen campaign by Doyle Dane Bernbach, and why it was named the best of the century.
  • Being No. 2 and trying harderThe Avis ads from 1962 on, and the Hertz reply, collected in one place.
  • The Big SqueezeCathy Erway, TASTE, 2025. How Graza's squeeze bottle spread across the olive oil aisle.
  • Fishwife's illustrated tinsCreative Review, 2026. Danny Miller's drawings and how they turned canned fish into a gift.
0:00–0:00