ILLUS-4412

WKSHP: ILLUSTRATING FOR BRANDS

Faculty: Ruchika Nambiar

Course Level: Junior, Senior, 5th Year

1 CREDIT

This workshop introduces Illustration students to the fundamentals of branding and visual identity, with a focus on the illustrator’s role in shaping and supporting brand expression. The course demystifies industry terminology around branding and identity design—tone of voice, brand values and mission, audience positioning—offering hands-on experience in developing illustrated brand elements that are cohesive and responsive to a brand’s identity. The workshop will be structured in the form of in-class, guided exercises that revolve around real and fictional brand briefs, teaching them how to understand and adapt to a brand guideline and work across a range of sectors and tonal profiles—from playful to serious, minimalist to expressive. Using Adobe Illustrator as our primary tool, the workshop will place a particular emphasis on illustrating for logos and brand marks—students will learn how to create vector-based logos and supporting brand elements that are scalable, versatile, and visually aligned with a brand’s mission and personality. Many exercises will also include designing for print production, and students will be required to engage with the RISD Print Center. At the end of the workshop, students will have adapted to a variety of identity design contexts—logos, printed stationery/merchandise, web, social media, etc—that will sensitize them to the practical constraints of scalability and legibility when it comes to producing branded artefacts.

Note: students will need a laptop with RISD-provided Adobe Illustrator installed for this workshop.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $0.00 - $50.00

Capacity: 15

Registration Restrictions: Major elective; restricted to Illustration juniors and seniors; open to non-majors pending seat availability and permission of instructor. 

Students must register for workshops before the end of the add/drop period, regardless of start date of class.

Open to Graphic Design and Industrial Design majors after initial registration period

Semester Offered: Spring