Assignments

Due dates

1. ---

   Part I · Brand from Business Data

2. August3 sessions
3. 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.

   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 ↗

4. 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
5. WedAug 2602LectureOpen the session →Card§

   Design Practice and Process

   An overview of design process and design practice.

   2 readings

6. 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 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. 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.Douglas DavisHOW Books, 2016
7. MonAug 3103LectureOpen the session →Card§

   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 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. 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 ↗

8. 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. Turned in on Blackboard.Due Sep 9

   Readingsfor Wed Sep 2

   • Practical Design Discoverychapter 1, Discovery Defined, 16 pp.Dan BrownA Book Apart, 2017Read now ↗
   • The Rise of Designers Who Shipvideo, 62 min. Assigned today; watch it before the seminar on Sep 21.Soleio CuervoDive Club ep. 78Watch now ↗
9. September8 sessions
10. WedSep 204WorkshopOpen the session →Card§

    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 →

11. 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.Dan BrownA 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.Erika HallA 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.Douglas DavisHOW Books, 2016
12. MonSep 7

    No class

    Labor Day. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.

13. WedSep 905LectureOpen the session →Card§

    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 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. 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 →

14. 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 on Blackboard.Due Sep 14
    • The pitch, recordedCheckpoint for Milestone 1Submit 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.Mike MonteiroA Book Apart, 2012
15. MonSep 1406WorkshopOpen the session →Card§

    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 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 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 →
16. WedSep 1607WorkshopOpen the session →Card§

    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 →

17. Assignments

    Readingsfor Mon Sep 21

    • Design Is a Jobchapters 1 and 2, 22 pp.Mike MonteiroA Book Apart, 2012
    • Just Enough Researchchapter 5, User Research: interview structure and conducting the interview, 12 pp.Erika HallA 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.Soleio CuervoDive 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.Jenny WenHatch ConferenceWatch now ↗
18. MonSep 2108SeminarOpen the session →Card§

    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, recordedCheckpoint for Milestone 1Submit 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 ↗

19. 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

20. ---

    Part II · Brand as Foundation

21. WedSep 2309LectureOpen the session →Card§

    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 →

22. 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, 2017Read now ↗
    • 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
23. 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. 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 →

24. Assignments

    Readingsfor Wed Sep 30

    • Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapter 7, the advanced strategy session, 12 pp.Douglas DavisHOW 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 fastMarty NeumeierNew Riders, 2006

25. 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 textMargaret Mark, Carol S. PearsonMcGraw-Hill, 2001
26. WedSep 3011WorkshopOpen the session →Card§

    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 briefCheckpoint for Milestone 2The 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 ↗

27. Assignments

    Project

    • The explorationsCheckpoint for Milestone 2Your 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 progressCheckpoint for Milestone 2Two 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
28. October7 sessions
29. MonOct 512SeminarOpen the session →Card§

    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 ↗

30. Assignments

    Readingsfor Wed Oct 7

    • Creative Strategy and the Business of Designchapter 12, Sell Without Selling, 14 pp.Douglas DavisHOW Books, 2016
31. WedOct 713WorkshopOpen the session →Card§

    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 progressCheckpoint for Milestone 2Two 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 ↗
32. MonOct 12

    No class

    Fall Break. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.

33. WedOct 1414CritiqueOpen the session →Card§

    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 explorationsCheckpoint for Milestone 2Your 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.

34. 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
    • 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
35. MonOct 1915WorkshopOpen the session →Card§

    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 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.

    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 ↗

36. 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 ↗
37. 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.

    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 ↗

38. 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
39. 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.

    1 reading

40. Assignments

    Readingsfor Wed Oct 28

    • Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Artthe essay, 25 minTed ChiangThe New Yorker, 2024Read now ↗
41. 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.

    1 reading · due: The rules, written for a machine

    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.

42. 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 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 minIan SilberLenny’s PodcastWatch now ↗
    • Ways of Seeingepisode 4, The Language of Advertising, 30 minJohn BergerBBC, 1972Watch now ↗
43. November8 sessions
44. 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.

    2 readings · due: The system, reviewed

    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 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.
45. 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 on the wall too: where the machine already follows your brand, say so.

    due: The brand

    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.

46. 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 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
47. 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.

    2 readings

48. 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.

49. 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: The brand book, drafted

    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.
50. 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.

51. 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
52. 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: The landing page, first build

    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.

53. 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
54. WedNov 25

    No class

    Thanksgiving. The university is closed; the ledger skips the day.

55. 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.

56. Assignments

    Project

    • Personal statement, finalCheckpoint for Personal statementThe 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
57. December2 sessions
58. 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: The brand book and the landing page

    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.
59. 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 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 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 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.
60. 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 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.