This Studio is for students (Design Surgeons) looking to step outside of their comfort zone–for the 'design-thinker' and 'innovator'–and provides opportunities to discover and explore your thinking and process through graphic design, visual language and life expression.?It is NOT a 'course in Corporate Branding/Identity’. 
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Design Surgeons–we welcome you! Branding feeds off perception and is inherently human in its perceived necessity–right? Is this true? What, then, is Branding? Is it just a Brand Mark or Logo on a product? Is it a ‘lifestyle’? Why do we need it–so we feel we ‘belong’? How did Branding come to be and what purpose does it serve? When we undertake design surgery in this Studio–‘Cuts Deep–A Brandectomy’–we will be asking these and many more questions–whilst taking you–a human creative–straight to the core of the designing and thinking related to brand. It will be necessary to slice through brand rhetoric, elitism and historical context to get through the outer flesh of branding to its internal ‘organs’. Through the Studio ‘microscope’ we will view the DNA of important aspects such as corporate branding and strategy, political and religious branding, activism branding, elitist branding and post-branding. 

In order to understand one's own standpoint in the fields of branding and design, it is imperative we attempt to understand what has come before, and what may yet be. By taking a hands-on approach (Analogue) and considering technological advances such as publishing software and AI (Digital) we will be generating our own powerful research artefacts and documents. Interpreting that knowledge, and considering other aspects including social and economical impacts, human attitudes, globalisation, warfare?etc–and grasping its importance to us as designers and thinkers–should enable reflection leading to creation. We will aim to break rules–with purpose and with clear thinking in a ‘brand’ or ‘anti-brand’ space! 

In this studio you will be expected to deploy all of your creative thinking and design skills, indicative of a passion for creative difference. You will be required to develop outcomes with thought and skill, that concisely communicate your ideas to a broad audience. You will need to evaluate how brand/branding elements/approaches/strategies/thinking impart their messages-beyond the obvious. We will look within, through and beyond the face of brand. Your outcomes should demonstrate a deep understanding of the subject matter, allowing your work to inform and educate those residing outside of the 'design-and-brand-universes'. 

‘Cuts Deep–A Brandectomy’ Studio is calling upon you to use your hands, your heart, your soul, your creative thinking and design-based skills to look at ways in which you can challenge the standard construct by discerning, deconstructing, reassembling and creating brand or brand elements which will translate into visually interesting communicative message/s. You are expected to explore context, form, material, method and process. Expected outcomes will be in the form of visually creative materials and expressive artefacts demonstrating your understanding of the subject matter. We will undertake a series of 'senses' related experiments with the aim of delving into emotion and sensory brand application. We will also undertake a series of QuickHit projects throughout the semester–to hone your skills and aid quick design-thinking development. 

This Studio has 3 interlinked assessment tasks. Each inform the other and are a critical dialogue with the subject matter. 
1. Studio Knowledge Object (SKO) TBA (A cohesive Packaged ‘Artefact’ plus ‘Written Document’ showcasing Studio Experience, Development and Knowledge).? 
2. Design Statement with Emphasis of Understanding of Branding (600-800 Words).? 
3. Work in Progress Portfolio and Design Process eBook (approximately 100-150 Pages).?