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 whole term
Every meeting with what it reads, what it owes and what it argues. The term chart is still the way to find the next session; this is the way to see all of them against each other.
The work
- 15%Milestone 1: the pitchdue Sep 21The 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.
- 15%Milestone 2: brand explorationsdue Oct 14The 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.
- 25%Milestone 3: the branddue Nov 4The 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.
- 25%Milestone 4: the brand book and the landing pagedue Dec 2Where 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.
- 5%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.
- 10%PresentationsEvery milestone is presented, the first one on video; the last one runs across the final two class days. Graded across all four.
- 5%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.
- 100%The whole grade
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.
Kickoff and Introductions
Introductions, and a walk through the whole semester: what the course is, how it runs, and what it asks of you.
Set
- Reading for Design Practice and Processback Aug 26
Design Practice and Process
An overview of design process and design practice.
Reading
- That Was Then, and This Is Now: But What Is Next?the essay, 8 pp.
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designforeword and chapter 1 through Segmentation; the close reading is chapter 1, 20 pp.
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.
Reading
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designthe rest of chapter 1, from Segmentation to the end, 12 pp.
Due
- Personal statement, first passPersonal statement
Set
- The audienceback Sep 9
- Reading for Discovery Workshopback Sep 2
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.
Reading
- Practical Design Discoverychapter 1, Discovery Defined, 16 pp.
- The Rise of Designers Who Shipvideo, 62 min. Assigned today; watch it before the seminar on Sep 21.
Set
- Reading for The Process So Farback Sep 9
MonSep 7
No class: Labor 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.
Reading
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Due
- The audienceMilestone 1: the pitch
Set
- The problem statementback Sep 14
- The pitch, recordedback Sep 21
- Reading for Pitch Studio: the recordingback Sep 16
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.
Due
- The problem statementMilestone 1: the pitch
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.
Reading
- Design Is a Jobchapters 1 and 2, 22 pp. Read for Monday's seminar.
Set
- Reading for Should designers design?back Sep 21
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.
Reading
- Design Is a Jobchapters 1 and 2, 22 pp.
- Just Enough Researchchapter 5, User Research: interview structure and conducting the interview, 12 pp.
- The Rise of Designers Who Shipvideo, 62 min. Watched before class. Assigned Sep 2. The first of the three positions we argue today.
- 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.
Due
- The pitch, recordedMilestone 1: the pitch
Set
- Reading for Process: Definitionback Sep 23
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.
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.
Reading
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapters 5 and 6, ending with the Creative Strategy Framework, 24 pp.
Set
- Reading for Brand: Storytellingback Sep 28
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.
Reading
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapter 8, Finding the Gold: turning data and insights into creative business solutions, 14 pp.
- Practical Design Discoveryfrom chapter 3, Set the Direction: assertions, principles, concepts, and Focus on a Solution, 10 pp.
- The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypeschapter 1, the archetype argument, 10 pp.
Set
- Reading for Creative Brief Studioback Sep 30
- Reading for Aesthetics and the Moodboardback Oct 5
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.
Reading
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapter 7, the advanced strategy session, 12 pp.
- 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 fast
Due
- The creative briefMilestone 2: brand explorations
Set
- The explorationsback Oct 14
- The moodboards, in progressback Oct 7
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.
Reading
- 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 text
Set
- Reading for Standing Apartback Oct 7
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.
Reading
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapter 12, Sell Without Selling, 14 pp.
Due
- The moodboards, in progressMilestone 2: brand explorations
MonOct 12
No class: Fall Break
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 explorationsMilestone 2: brand explorations
Set
- The direction and the first rulesback Oct 19
- The brandback 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.
Due
- The direction and the first rulesMilestone 3: the brand
Set
- The rules, written for a machineback Oct 28
- Reading for Brand Systems: Tokens and Rulesback Oct 21
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.
Reading
- Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapters 9 and 11, leading the client, and aligning target, channel, and messages, 20 pp.
- Atomic Designvideo, 30 min
Set
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.
Reading
- Don't Call It Thatthe opening sections of the workbook, through the first naming exercise, 24 pp.
Set
- Reading for Testing the System with AIback Oct 28
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.
Reading
- Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Artthe essay, 25 min
Due
- The rules, written for a machineMilestone 3: the brand
Set
- The system, reviewedback Nov 2
- Reading for System Review Studioback Nov 2
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.
Reading
- This is the best time in history to be a designervideo, 55 min
- Ways of Seeingepisode 4, The Language of Advertising, 30 min
Due
- The system, reviewedMilestone 3: the brand
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 brandMilestone 3: the brand
Set
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.
Reading
- The Hero with a Thousand Facesfrom the Prologue, The Monomyth: the hero's journey in brief, 12 pp.
- 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. 265-274
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, draftedMilestone 4: the brand book and the landing page
Build Session 1
We run a build from a written system at the front of the room, then you start your own.
Set
- The landing page, first buildback 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 buildMilestone 4: the brand book and the landing page
Set
- The brand book and the landing pageback Dec 2
WedNov 25
No class: Thanksgiving
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.
Set
- Personal statement, finalback Dec 7
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 pageMilestone 4: the brand book and the landing page
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 twoMilestone 4: the brand book and the landing page
- Personal statement, finalPersonal statement
The exam window
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.