This document explains why the Brand curriculum is structured the way it is, how it connects to the other two orientations (Motion and Interactive), and how the micro-studio team model works across the 12-week cohort. It is written for anyone who needs to understand the full logic of the program: Tyden Rickard (Executive Director and Cohort Lead), the orientation leads, program evaluators, and potential Year 2 funders.
The cohort runs 12 weeks of client work, bookended by two in-person experiences and preceded by a structured pre-work package:
The opening sets the craft and the standard. The closing builds the path forward. The 12 weeks in between are where the work happens.
The cohort is 12 students plus 3 teachers. Across the program the cohort rotates between three group formats, each with a distinct purpose:
Each studio delivers a complete creative overhaul for each client engagement. Brand identity, motion content, and digital experience all ship together as one integrated system.
This structure is intentional. It mirrors how professional creative studios operate: strategy drives identity, identity drives experience, and experience drives content. The cohort members learn to work as a functioning creative team, not as individuals producing isolated deliverables.
In Cycle 1, the lead instructor serves as team lead and has final authority on what gets locked. This protects the quality of the first engagement while the team builds trust and working rhythm.
Starting in Cycle 2, each team votes to select a team lead from among their three members. If the team cannot reach a decision, the lead instructor selects one. The team lead coordinates internal deadlines, runs team-level syncs, and ensures the three orientations converge into a unified delivery.
There is no client kickoff meeting. The Discovery Workbook is the structured client intake. It is sent to the client on Monday of Week 1 and Week 7, and returned by end of that week. While the client works on the workbook, all three orientations run independent research in parallel: category, competitors, audience, and digital landscape.
Monday of Week 2 (and Week 8) is the team's strategic positioning meeting. The team meets with both the completed Discovery Workbook and the Week 1 / Week 7 research dossier in hand and decides positioning together. Interactive and Motion contribute audience and experience signals during that meeting; the discussion is not a one-way handoff from Brand.
Brand is responsible for locking the official strategy and positioning at the Friday Office Hours of Week 2 and Week 8. Once Brand locks strategy, that document becomes the foundation that Interactive and Motion build on for the remainder of the cycle. The strategy is not revisited unless a fundamental insight surfaces that changes the positioning.
The week has the same shape across all 12 weeks. Three touchpoints — Mon Studio Convergence (studios meet amongst themselves), Wed Video Update (1-minute async progress update), Fri Office Hours (15-minute mentor check-in, as needed, for up to 8 cohort members). Heavy synchronous load is reserved for Presentation Weeks (Wks 4 and 10) and Delivery Weeks (Wks 6 and 12). Mentor commitment outside of Boot Camp is light: weekly Friday office hours as needed.
The orientations are collaborative throughout, but the official output flows in one direction:
SHARED DISCOVERY (all three orientations receive the same client input)
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v
BRAND locks strategy and positioning (end of Week 2 / Week 8)
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+-----> Brand develops visual identity system
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+-----> Interactive begins digital experience design
| (informed by brand strategy + identity)
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+-----> Motion begins animation and video content
(informed by brand strategy + identity)
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v
ALL THREE converge in integrated client delivery (Week 6 / Week 12)
Brand is the upstream anchor. The positioning statement, visual identity, color palette, typography, and brand guidelines are the shared foundation. Interactive and Motion do not develop their own visual languages. They extend the one that Brand establishes.
Brand to Interactive:
Brand to Motion:
Interactive to Motion (and vice versa):
Within each 6-week engagement cycle:
| Cycle Week | Phase | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Client Discovery + Independent Research | No kickoff meeting. The Discovery Workbook is sent to the client Monday and returned by end of week. All three orientations run independent research in parallel (category, competitors, audience). End-of-week state: completed workbook + research dossier in hand. |
| Week 2 | Strategic Positioning + Strategy Lock | Monday Studio Convergence: team reviews workbook + research and decides strategic positioning together. Brand drafts the official strategy document and presents at Friday Office Hours, where the mentor confirms the lock. Strategy is shared with Interactive and Motion immediately. |
| Week 3 | Exploration (Divergence) | Brand explores divergent color, type, and logo directions. Interactive and Motion explore in parallel using the locked positioning. Standard cadence: Mon Studio Convergence, Wed Video Update, Fri Office Hours. |
| Week 4 | Presentation Week · Convergence | Brand narrows to one direction, refines logo suite, locks color and type, generates baseline collateral. Wed Mentor Presentation to Ben/Tyden over Zoom. Fri Client Presentation directly to the client. |
| Week 5 | Final Convergence | Brand incorporates client feedback from Wk 4, refines collateral beyond baseline, builds brand guidelines and social framework. Pre-delivery rehearsal with the team. |
| Week 6 | Final Delivery | One integrated presentation to the client. The three orientations present as one vision. Brand file package shipped. Debrief and reflection close the cycle. |
The brand curriculum uses the same six-phase arc twice: Client Discovery, Strategy Lock, Exploration (Divergence), Convergence, Final Production, Delivery. This is deliberate. Repetition is how non-professionals build professional instincts. The phases do not change. The standard does.
By the second time a brand director runs through the arc, the mechanics should be automatic. Discovery is no longer a process they follow because the checklist says to. It is something they do because they understand that the quality of everything downstream depends on the quality of the discovery.
The orientation lead's involvement decreases across the two cycles:
| Cycle | Lead's Role | Director's State |
|---|---|---|
| Cycle 1: Calibration (Wks 1–6) | Heavily present. Models the thinking. Asks the questions out loud. Reviews everything before it ships. Holds the strategy lock at Wk 2 Friday Office Hours and the mentor presentation at Wk 4. | Raw instinct. Learning the language. Absorbing the framework. |
| Cycle 2: Studio (Wks 7–12) | Oversight and coaching. Responds to self-critique. Sends back vague work. By Week 12, advisory only — intervenes only when the standard drops. | Building fluency, then emerging independence. Initiates the right questions. Manages own process. By Week 12, defends decisions unprompted and operates as a practitioner. |
This arc is the core design principle of the program. If the lead is still running critiques the same way in Week 12 as they were in Week 1, the transfer has not happened. The goal is not for directors to produce work the lead approves of. It is for directors to produce work they can defend without the lead in the room.
Cycle 1 uses a nonprofit client at no fee for two reasons:
Cycle 2 activates revenue share because the quality bar needs to be real. Cohort members who have completed one full engagement cycle should be capable of producing work that a paying client values. The financial stakes reinforce the standard.
Each engagement follows the same six-phase arc across six weeks: Discovery (Wk 1), Strategy Lock (Wk 2), Divergence (Wk 3), Convergence (Wk 4), Final Production (Wk 5), Delivery (Wk 6). The structure does not change because the structure is not the variable. The standard is.
A director who can execute the six-phase arc at Cycle 2 quality with no scaffolding has internalized a professional workflow. That portability is the real outcome of the program.
The Brand Curriculum Conceptual Framework introduces two layers of first principles that run through every week of the program:
Layer 1: Strategy First Principles
Layer 2: Visual First Principles
These are not just brand tools. They are the shared diagnostic language across the entire micro-studio. When a Motion director asks whether their animation treatment serves the strategy, they are using the same first principles framework. When an Interactive director evaluates whether the digital experience hierarchy is right, they are applying the same visual first principles.
Brand introduces the language. The whole team uses it.
Across all 12 weeks, every cohort member produces a required weekly vlog. The vlogs serve three purposes at once:
The assessment rubric evaluates six categories: Strategic Thinking, Visual System Quality, Creative Process, AI Fluency, Client Communication, and Team Integration. Each is scored at two checkpoints (end of each cycle, Week 6 and Week 12) on a 1–4 scale.
The assessment is designed to measure growth, not absolute quality. A director who moves from Level 1 to Level 3 across two cycles has demonstrated more growth than a director who starts at Level 3 and stays there. The narrative assessment at the end of Cycle 2 is required because numbers alone do not capture what changed in how someone thinks.
The question at the end of the program is not "did they produce good work?" The question is: "can they walk into a room, diagnose a brand problem, and build a system that solves it, without someone telling them how?"
At the public showcase on Sat Oct 17, each brand director should be able to articulate three things:
That clarity is the real deliverable of the program. The brand systems they produced are the evidence. The clarity is the outcome.