Nature of Identity FA16 (and SP16)... Lots of Awesomesauce

The fall of 2016 found Nature of Identity busting at the seams insofar as student count. A shift in the program meant that more students needed to take the class that semester than ever before and the seat count more than doubled.

At the same time, I had just made a major shift in the class by altering the flow and number of deliverables. The latter was great news as the change found 100% of the work the students were doing past week-1 finding its way directly into the final project in the final format — which meant no reformatting was necessary. Also, by separating the project into three smaller books (+ a website), it not only allowed for production throughout the semester, but the stack of books was a good bit more robust than a single book. It also gave more room to showcase process... as well as made the set more modular should they only want to show the process or the strategy during an interview. So, all good things... just a lot of change at once.

That said, we also had a record success rate at over 97% passing... which, for an advanced studio is quite good. Kudos go to the students who did absolutely fabulous work.

The basics of the class remain the same. We've added some exercises along the way and sharpened a few elements, but the idea that the students are looking deep into the heart of a brand to uncover what they're truly about is still a core element. This isn't a class about wingdings on coffee mugs and the students emerge ready to tackle some pretty high-level shiznit.

So, without pause, and in no particular order, let me throw some links your way: (I'll hot-link them soon... there's lots of cutting/pasting involved and there's just not enough coffee.)