Visual Communication: Branding and the Brief

A brand isn't a logo. It's a promise, kept the same way every time.

About This Course

Every brand starts with a brief, and a brief is a problem, not a wish list. This course treats branding as a real design discipline: reading a brief properly, researching an audience that isn't you, and building a small consistent system, mark, type, colour, that holds together across more than one surface.

What You'll Create

  • A complete brand response to a set brief: mark, type and colour system.
  • Application of the brand across at least two surfaces (e.g. packaging and a poster).
  • A written statement defending the design decisions against the original brief.

Course Details

Age Range
15-18
Term
Term 2
Schedule
Fridays, 4:30pm
Duration
10 weeks
Price
$500
Spots Available
0 of 8
This course is currently full. Join the waitlist below to be notified if a spot becomes available.

What You'll Learn

  • • You'll read a brief for the real problem, not just the surface request.
  • • You'll design a mark that works small, large, and in one colour.
  • • You'll build a small, consistent system, not just a single logo.
  • • You'll apply a brand across more than one surface and keep it consistent.
  • • You'll defend a design decision against the brief that asked for it.

The Support You'll Get

You won't be handed the answer. You'll be shown how to find it.

Your practitioner has spent years making their own work, and their own mistakes. In the studio they work alongside you: asking the right questions, pointing out options you hadn't seen, helping you push through the moment you get stuck. The ideas stay yours. The decisions stay yours. They're there so you're never finding the way through alone.

Week by Week

Week 1: What a brief actually is, and why the client isn't the design.

Week 2: Reading a brief. Finding the real problem underneath the wish list.

Week 3: Research. Understanding an audience that isn't you.

Week 4: Logo fundamentals. What a mark has to do before it can look good.

Week 5: Typography and voice. Choosing type that sounds like the brand.

Week 6: Colour and system. Building a small, consistent palette.

Week 7: Applying the brand across more than one surface.

Week 8: A first full response to the brief.

Week 9: Critique and refinement against the original brief.

Week 10: Exhibition. Public showing, families attend.

Every course ends with an exhibition

Celebrate what you created with the people and our community. Every term concludes with a presentation or exhibition of your work: a chance to share your process, your ideas, and what you've made.

Your Instructor

Andrew Chew

Andrew Chew

Visual Communication & Photography

Andrew studied Visual Communication, majoring in Photography. Twenty years on, he's worked as a designer, photographer and gallery director, running No Vacancy Gallery and later directing YAVA. He built Assembly because the system around young people kept treating creativity as decoration instead of discipline. He teaches the way he's worked: try, fail, try again. Back your ideas. Test them. Push through when it's not working yet. He's spent years making his own work and his own mistakes, and in the studio he works alongside you, showing you how to look, how to frame, how to decide what matters, then make it.

Want to join?

This course is full. Join the waitlist above to be notified if a spot opens up.