ADV 207: Creative Concept Development
Creative tools for an artist or designer
Where do creative concepts come from? In advertising, illustration, and design, you need to be able generate many ideas for your clients and projects. You can have all the skills in the world, but unless you can develop creative concepts, your products and content will get lost in the sea of what's out there. This online creativity course provides you a training in identifying the needs of each project, brainstorming solutions, challenging your assumptions, and testing/evaluating your ideas until you have a winner.
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About This Course
Project-Based Learning
Take a product rebranding project from soup to nuts, with project that include concept development, creative brief, slidedeck and video presentation, visual redesign, and implementation report.
What Skills Will I Develop?
Students in this course can expect to learn to:
- Apply strategies for creative meetings with clients.
- Craft an effective design brief and incorporate required collateral into your creative projects.
- Research and develop a brand matrix.
- Explore techniques for audience research that mitigate perspective bias.
- Determine your ideal creative environment needs.
- Beneficially incorporate different strategies for brainstorming into project development.
- Apply steps for reviewing and editing creative concept content that challenge assumptions.
- Apply an editing checklist to a project concept.
- Create effective concept presentations in different types, styles, and formats.
- Plan concept development workflows and schedules and overcome challenging workflows.
- Test and revise roughs by skillfully receiving and applying feedback.
- Troubleshoot the final design stages and plan for implementation issues before a concept launch.
- Skillfully launch and follow up with concepts, including applying post-project debriefings.
- Rebrand a client with a creative brief, brainstorm presentation, goal map, concept presentation, and final project (either a Web site or a suite of print collateral).
What Software and Supplies Do I Need?
- Computer with Internet connection.
- Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator
- Basic experience in the above software packages
Course Instructor(s)
The course is taught by the following instructor(s):
Kristen Becker
Kristen Becker is an educator and a graphic and business designer specializing in e-commerce. With over 12 years of experience as an award-winning educator, Kristen has developed curriculum and taught courses in graphic design, multimedia, and e-commerce/marketing.
Course Outline
Planning for Creativity
This course will be a dedicated look at how to get the most out of the creative concept development process. We'll start Lecture One with strategies for meeting clients, developing briefs, and researching using techniques like a brand matrix. Then we'll move onto brainstorming and getting the most out of our creative environments.
Inspirations, Brainstorms, and Solutions
We've all heard of writer's block, but what about designer's block? Spring boarding the design inspiration process starts by simply putting one foot in front of the other. There are many things you can do to help ignite the process and set your creative brainstorming on fire, and in this lecture we're going to try to ignite a few!
Keeping the Design Process Fresh
In this lecture, we'll look at the steps of the design process in depth. We're going to learn techniques for editing, reviewing, and refining creative concepts in ways that keep things exciting by challenging assumptions and promoting fresh thinking.
Concept Presentation
It's essential that your presentations convey all of the key elements of your concept to the client so there are no surprises down the road that might stop the process in its tracks. This balance is why concept presentation is just as much of an art as concept development, and we're going to spend this lecture exploring some techniques to help you make sure you can communicate how great your great ideas really are!
Workflow and Revision
At this point in your studies, you've worked on a lot of projects already, and in terms of technical skills, you've got a pretty big toolbelt. We're going to use this lecture to discuss how to chisel our process. Specifically, how to develop efficient workflows, gather and combine collateral, test and revise, and skillfully hear and apply feedback.
Final Design and Production Launch
In this last lecture, we're going to look at how to deal with the final stages of the design process and how to prepare a successful launch, one that really brings your concept to life and helps it live for a long time.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How Do The Courses Work?
Our courses are project-based and instructor-led. In each course you’ll complete a series of lectures, projects, discussions, and critiques designed to stretch your creative skills. Weekly assignment deadlines keep you on track, and with no set-logins or Zoom meetings, you can build your studies around your schedule.
Who Are The Instructors?
Our courses are developed and taught by our industry-leading faculty of creative professionals. This means that you’ll learn in-demand skills, get feedback on your work, and build a portfolio of creative work. View our Student Gallery for featured student projects.
When Can I Start?
Classes start January, April, and August, and this course is completed in a 15-week term. College credit from this course can be applied to a range of Degree and Certificate programs at Sessions College. You can enroll in this course on an individual basis or as part of a program.
Explore our Programs: Bachelor's Degree | Associate Degree | Undergraduate Certificate
How Do I Register?
To register for a program, complete our program application. To register for this course on an individual basis, please contact our admissions team at admissions@sessions.edu. An Admissions Advisor will contact you to setup your enrollment.
| Course Tuition and Fees | |
|---|---|
| Tuition | $300/credit |
| Registration Fee* | $200 |
| Total Course Price | $1100 |
Registration fees are nonrefundable after 5 days from enrollment.
Is Sessions College Accredited?
Yes. Since 2001, Sessions College has been accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC). The Distance Education Accrediting Commission is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a recognized accrediting agency and is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).