HSOC-210: Branding Strategies

The purpose of this class is to gain a more thoughtful and critical understanding of a brand, its history, current trends, social and ethical implications, and cultural context, as well as the brand's relationship to our individual and generational identity. We will explore sustainability and its impact on brand value, and what it means to create truly responsible design. Students will conduct and evaluate various forms of research and develop brand platforms and creative briefs to inform and inspire innovative solutions within their current design projects. Through class discussions of design thinking, critiques of design work, guest speakers, presentation and analysis of case studies, and development of branding strategies and strategy diagrams, we will examine how a brand is defined and translated through environmental design, product, graphics, advertising, and communications. We will work in multidisciplinary teams in a design charette format to created branded projects to directly implement what we have learned over the term.