ART 418 10: Brand: Storytelling

Monday, September 28, 2026 · Lecture

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.

Read before this class

- Davis, Creative Strategy and the Business of Design. chapter 8, Finding the Gold: turning data and insights into creative business solutions, 14 pp. - Brown, Practical Design Discovery. from chapter 3, Set the Direction: assertions, principles, concepts, and Focus on a Solution, 10 pp. - Mark and Pearson, The Hero and the Outlaw: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes. chapter 1, the archetype argument, 10 pp.

Assigned today

- Reading for Creative Brief Studio, read by Wednesday, September 30, 2026. - Reading for Aesthetics and the Moodboard, read by Monday, October 5, 2026.

Materials

- [The lecture slides](/lecture/art418-s10.html). What 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. - [The lecture slides as a PDF](/lecture/art418-s10.pdf). The same deck, one slide per page. - [The creative brief template](/practice/creative-brief). Where today's three sheets go on September 30.

---

Class 10 of 28, ART 418, The Business of Design, Charleston Southern University, Fall 2026.