RESERVE MY SPOT

HARBOUR.SPACE 

We offer innovative university degrees taught in English by industry leaders from around the world, aimed at giving our students meaningful and creatively satisfying top-level professional futures. We think the future is bright if you make it so.

HARBOUR.SPACE UNIVERSITY

All rights reserved. 2018

Harbour.Space University
Tech Heart

DESIGN & FRICTION: CRAFTING EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES


In an era where many digital experiences focus on removing all friction between a user and an action, what is the role of the more emotional side of a designer’s craft? In this course, we’ll dissect the various components of strong brands and explore how intentional design and storytelling can make them more memorable and successful, even in metrics-driven digital environments.

In part one, we’ll study the various elements of successful branding and create our own digitally-native brands, complete with strategies, positioning statements and visual identities. Then, in part two, we’ll concept and design digital experiences that both endear our brands to users and drive business goals.


BEN HUGHES
RESERVE MY SPOT

DATE: 30 July – 17 Aug, 2018

DURATION:  3 Weeks

LECTURES: 3 Hours per day

LANGUAGE: English

LOCATION: Barcelona, Harbour.Space Campus

COURSE TYPE: Offline

DESIGN & FRICTION: CRAFTING EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES

Systematic design (and its sibling, product design) is currently ascendant and many designers now make their living removing friction of any kind from digital experiences. That makes sense if the goal is to get a user to take an action (usually a transaction of some kind) as quickly as possible, but it has serious implications for brand storytelling.

Why? Because good storytelling requires friction. There has to be something to push against to generate emotion, or a jagged edge that catches a user on their way to what would otherwise be another frictionless (and unmemorable) transaction. Brands are built on moments of friction and their continued survival depends on building them into digital experiences. 

Are these two ways of conceiving experiences at odds with each other, or is it possible that sometimes “doing the wrong thing” is the right move for both the brand and the company’s bottom line? In this course, we’ll examine this question, learn how to design with emotion in mind and workshop projects that meet the twin goals of capturing hearts and wallets.

The primary objective of this course is to prepare students to differentiate between -- and have an opinion on -- various creative philosophies they will encounter in real-world work environments.

By learning to think about the larger context of their creative decisions, they will be able to better balance short term business concerns (conversion, sales, etc.) with longer term ones (engagement, emotional investment, etc.). 

It’s not a coincidence that this kind of contextual awareness is often what differentiates creative directors and design directors from more junior staff. 

Talking about design is sometimes needlessly abstract; we’ll balance that by putting these ideas into practice in the form of projects that are realistically team-based and time-constrained.

At the end of the course, students should come away with a better understanding of the digital ecosystem, how brands express themselves in it, and the different tactics and philosophies that the most successful modern companies use to become and remain successful.

DATE: 30 Jul - 17 Aug, 2018

DURATION: 3 Weeks

LECTURES: 3 Hours per day

LANGUAGE: English

LOCATION: Barcelona, Harbour.Space Campus

COURSE TYPE: Offline

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
COURSE OUTLINE

Session 2

START A COMPANY. Concept ideas for digitally-native businesses and perform competitive research

Session 3

DEFINE THE BRAND. Create the strategic architecture of your brand by understanding why it exists, who it exists for and how it expresses itself

SHOW MORE

Session 1

INTRODUCTION. Overview of the course and introduction to the design of modern digital brands

Session 4

SKETCHING. Quickly generate and evaluate branding concepts using a variety of low fidelity techniques

A hands-on creative leader with over fifteen years of experience, Ben manages Stink Studios New York’s UX, design, copy and motion teams and sits across all client engagements. Previously, he spent time at some of the world’s top advertising agencies and digital studios, including Wieden + Kennedy, B-Reel, Mother, R/GA and 72andSunny, building a body of work that stretches from conceptually-led film storytelling to digital products and experiences.

In addition to his projects as a creative director, Ben is also an accomplished filmmaker, having helmed productions for Twitter, Cole Haan, The Washington Post and top independent record labels. 

His work has been recognised with numerous industry awards and is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Research/Academic Interests: Transmedia storytelling, interactive design, branding, organisation design, film theory, film editing, communications strategy.

SKILLS:

- Advertising

Creative Direction

- Creative Strategy

Interactive Advertising

- Digital Strategy

- Copywriting

ABOUT BEN
BIBLIOGRAPHY