GD 3040 - Design Systems

Credits: 3

This intensive course focuses on the principles and elements of brands and identity systems. Students work as individuals and in teams to engage in long-term projects that address the significance of brand design, applications, and identity management. Company mission, goals, and objectives are researched, investigated, and presented in detail. Content hierarchy, complex grid systems, typographic hierarchy, text/image integration, and color identification are explored in depth. Students also examine 20th century and contemporary branding systems. Upon successful completion of this course via long-term projects, students demonstrate the conceptual and technical ability to understand, establish, define, and create a complex design system.

Prerequisites: GD 2510 - Sign + Symbol

Notes: The required textbook for this course is also used in GD2510.

Course Learning Outcomes:

The ability to solve communication problems.
Research and information gathering, analysis, generation of alternative solutions.
Prototyping, user testing, and evaluation of outcomes.
The ability to describe and respond to the audiences and contexts which communication solutions must address. Recognition of the physical, cognitive, cultural, and social human factors that shape design decisions.
The ability to create and develop visual form in response to communication problems.
Translate customer experience into recommended design deliverables.
Interpret the stakeholder’s needs and objectives.
Translate brand attributes into original design concepts.
Research the stakeholder’s needs and objectives.
Exploring the differences and similarities between identity and brand.

GD 3040 Course Learning Outcome Rubric

Required Textbooks:
ON-CAMPUS: Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team (5th) edition - ISBN: 9781118980828
Required Course Materials:

Sketchbook
Pencils/Pens
Computer with Adobe CC Suite and a word processing program