More branding in Swiss design education
While the overall level of design education in Switzerland remains high, the strategic use of design for branding purposes seems to be a minor matter at best. In the portfolios of recent graduates we find rather few hints of branding competence. Our experienced brand designers here at Scholtysik all acquired their branding skills ‘on the job’ in specialized agencies. We would like to bridge this gap between academy and industry and bring more branding to Swiss design education. Currently, our co-founder and partner Fabian Sander is teaching in a Branding module at the renowned Basel School of Design.
The title ‘Speedbranding’ is setting the tone for the whole module: a group of five students emulates an agency team and creates a complete visual identity from scratch in just nine sessions. The mandate is fictional but the case is an existing large international company. The output includes logo development, logo animation, colour system, and design concepts for long-distance signage, vehicle fleet, web and print applications. The main benefits for the students lie in a strictly collaborative working style, honest and sometimes tough discussions of all drafts and ideas, giving plausible reasons for design decisions, dealing with time pressure, presentation-ready visualisation and above all: thinking in scenarios.
Reactions from students and course management are great and give us hope that alongside the various formal, cultural and marketing aspects branding can play a bigger role in Swiss design education.