Advanced Branding: Educational Brand System

During their spring semester, juniors in the Visual Communication Design program take Advanced Branding, a course which focuses on a system-based approach to branding and identity. Students conceptualize and strategize multi-touchpoint brand systems for two major projects: an educational entity and an event. 

Students ideated and created a brand experience for an educational entity based on a topic of their choosing, with the main product of the brand being knowledge of the topic. 

Students described various elements of their educational entity brand, such as its history, target audience, and competitors. This project was formatted like a freelance assignment in which the student created a proposal, then developed and pitched two visual approaches for their entity. Once their final direction was approved, the students created three touchpoints for their brand: an online presence (a website or app), a printed story-telling piece (such as a catalog or brochure), and another design extension of their choosing (such as social media or environmental graphics.)

Jordan Bethea (Visual Communications Design ‘24) created Herblab, a DIY brand that teaches holistic herbal medicine as a true, natural means to heal ailments as opposed to readily accepting mainstream products and ideas. Consumers take a quiz on the Herblab app to identify their health wants and needs. They are then able to browse the diverse and personalized Herblab product solutions and have a “lab” kit sent to their homes to build and test these products themselves. Bethea communicates both the “herb” and “lab” sides of the Herblab brand in her design system by contrasting earth colors with a scientific aesthetic of  metallic, white, and gray tones and lab materials.

Visual Identity System (Logo + Color Palette)

Customized Herblab Kit and Mobile App

Social Media Promotions

Customized Herblab Kit

Inspired by the explosion of sneaker culture in the early 2010’s, Nicole Mambuscay (Visual Communications Design ‘24) created Kultur’d, an app focused on teaching new sneaker enthusiasts (a.k.a sneakerheads) about the history of sneaker culture while creating a community for sneakerheads of all levels. Kultur’d’s mission is to create this community while continuing to educate and encourage creativity. Users of Kultur’d primarily interact with the brand through its digital app and “Kick Kreations,” which allows the user to design and purchase their own sneaker. Kultur’d pays tribute to the sneakerhead subculture through its aesthetic and shoelace motifs, inclusivity, and education.

Visual Identity System

Mobile App

Sections from direct mailer for new members