Professor: Rebeca Méndez rebecam (at) ucla (dot) edu
TA: Zach Blas zblas (at) ucla (dot) edu
Class meeting: Tuesday, Thursday, 2-5 PM, Broad Art Center, Room 4230
Office Hours: Tues 5–6 pm in the class meeting room
Office location: Broad Art Center, Room 4240
Studio, six hours; outside study, nine hours. Enforced requisites: courses 25, 154A. Development of design research and strategy in areas of organization, culture, and identity. Study of how complex organizations are defined by their public identities and how those identities can be strategized and designed. Topics include following phases of brand identity development: research, brand strategy and planning, communication strategy, implementation guidelines, and design development of specific communication material in all appropriate media (Web, print, and environment). P/NP or letter grading.
This course sequence (150A and 150B) focuses on the development of research, strategy, and design in particular, in the areas of organization, culture, and identity. Students will study how complex organizations are defined by their public identities, and how those identities can be strategized and designed. This course is dedicated to the generation of design discourse, and is structured to further the development of design as both an intellectual and a professional discipline.
Original research on the positioning and communication strategy of a given organization will yield a rigorous form of cultural history and analysis. The course interest is not merely to further the practices we study, but to employ design and design research as a means with which to intervene in the social and political life of the organization engaged. Research methodologies are intrinsically critical and will lead us to understandings of considerable intellectual value to those with a stake in study of organizational culture and identity.
- Branding the Species
- Designing an identity for the human race to be beamed into space as a record of what it means to be alive in the 21st Century.
- Inspired by Carl Sagan's Golden Disk commissioned by NASA for the Voyager mission.
- An experimental project open to the Brand class students as well as all members of SpaceCollective's Community of Ideas.
Each project is evaluated for its concept, aesthetic qualities, execution and presentation. Feedback and a grade will be given weekly. All phases of the project must be completed on schedule in order to receive a passing grade. If the project is turned in late, one letter grade will be deducted each week it is late. Work must be uploaded onto the website prior to the class meeting, otherwise the work will not be considered as complete. Each class you will be evaluated on the following:
80% project (all phases)
10% presentation
10% class participation and concentration
Research
Concept
Creative Direction
Design Direction
Communication Strategy
Design
Production
Final Presentation
PDF of Project Description [56KB]
Led by visiting lecturer Benjamin H Bratton, DESMA 150A has conducted extensive research on the subject of Branding the Human Species and arrived at four strategic directions for DESMA 150B to take into consideration for the class project and to bring to life through creative direction, design and to propose appropriate media and a comprehensive communication strategy. You should study the research and findings of DESMA 150A this week. You can find the research at: http://spacecollective.org/projects/The-Voyager-update-project The project will culminate in an event where the entire project, together with that of the Space Collective community, will be beamed onto Space. Event Date tbd.
Zach will give you specifications on how to format your work for uploading it to the site.
RESEARCH (week 1 - 2)
Read all material from 150A and the links supplied (see attached list). We will discuss your research in class. Your research should be uploaded onto the class website and to the Space Collective Website.
CONCEPT (week 3)
Each strategic direction is a pool of visual potentialities. Explore ideas, image what this can be and make notes, both
verbal and visual. Ideas are the images of thought. What is the story you will tell? Foster serendipity by exposing yourself to the visualization of your research, to imagining and daydreaming, by trusting your intuition.
Deliverables: Present three different concepts on Tuesday (Week 3).
One concept will be selected for refinement and presented on Thursday (Week 3). Present your concepts with as much reference material as needed. Upload your work to both sites according to the instructions.
CREATIVE DIRECTION (week 4)
In this phase, you define the event and its surroundings, the mise en sceÌne, the ethos â character, mood, feeling, essence,
principles, rationale, attitude, voice, looks â of your idea. If in your idea there is a horse, here is where you choose it to be an Appaloosa, for itâs semiotics â the signs and the symbols, their use and interpretation. This is when you create mood boards â a physical manifestation of what the research looks and feels like, and of what your thoughts and imagination looks and feels like. Take photographs, video, magazine scraps, draw, collect materials, textures, abstract forms. Literally paste them up on your walls, and you may classify them by kind.
Deliverables:
DESIGN DIRECTION (week 5)
The creative direction determines an overall direction whereas in this phase, you become more specific. If in your story
there is an Appaloosa horse, what color and size are the dots on what tone of light hair of its pelt? Is the typography
upfront and severe, or upfront and serene, what font? If the idea is about emptiness, what does that look/feel like? In this phase you edit your mood boards to arrive at the aesthetic you are looking for. You commit to a visual vocabulary. You refine your decisions and you simplify, but make sure you do not weaken the vitality of the idea.
Deliverables:
COMMUNICATION STRATEGY (week 5)
How is the idea going to reach itâs audience? How and when will it launch? How will it stay relevant and vibrant? What is
the point of enunciation? What is the appropriate media to disseminate these messages, this story, this myth? Is the message to be enacted in an art intervention, or an advertising campaign, or a virus on the internet, or all of the above?
Deliverables:
DESIGN (week 6 - 7)
During this phase you design each one of the elements of your visual vocabulary, from graphic elements â color palette, typography, logotypes, symbols â to photo/videography, illustrations, to installations, products, etc...
Deliverables:
PRODUCTION (week 8 - 9)
During this phase you will continue to refine the design and you will produce each one of your elements. Most important is to plan ahead and be realistic of the amount of work you can produce with good craftsmanship.
Deliverables:
FINAL PRESENTATION (week 10)
Deliverables:
PRINT BASED
images online:
png files, no larger than 2500×2500, 150 dpi
images printed:
tiff or eps file, 300 dpi, at least 6×9 inches, silhouetted (no background)
INTERACTIVE / SCREEN BASED
online: quicktime or
flv files at 240×180 pixels, bit rate 200, "best" quality
--also provide a jpeg "poster frame" at 240×180 to be used as a thumbnail
print: tiff or eps file, 300 dpi, at least 6×9 inches
--if done digitally, only 72 dpi can be provided, which will be accepted
WEBSITE
online: complete url and screens of the project
--png files, no larger than 2500×2500, 72 dpi
print: tiff or eps file, 200 dpi, at least 6×9 inches, no browser chrome (e.g.: toolbars, navigations bars, scroll bars, etc.)
ACTUAL SPACE BASED / INSTALLATION
online: png files, no larger than 2500×2500, 72 dpi
print: tiff or eps file, 300 dpi, at least 6×9 inches
