Building Your Creative Identity

This class explores how personal identity shapes creative voice and visual design. Students reflect on where they come from, share their stories, and learn how the instructor’s background—rooted in the Polish School of Poster tradition—shaped her perspective. Through discussion and a short presentation, they begin defining what makes their point of view unique. Students are also introduced to the fundamentals of design as emotional communication, using contrast, tension, scale, and juxtaposition. For homework, they choose a favorite poster and analyze why it speaks to them, marking the first step in identifying their personal taste.

The second class focuses on connecting personal emotion to visual communication. Students present their favorite posters using design vocabulary, then learn about the history of protest posters. They identify what currently upsets or motivates them, develop three poster ideas based on those feelings, and observe a demo of the concepting process—from research and sketching to moodboards and typography. For homework, they create nine poster designs across three concepts.

The third class focuses on refining ideas. Students bring their nine poster sketches, receive feedback, and choose one concept to move forward with. Through group discussion and optional mentoring, they develop and strengthen their direction. For homework, they finalize the selected poster.

The fourth class is about experimentation and pushing creative boundaries. Students review all posters, then work in groups to swap concepts or techniques and explore unexpected visual approaches. They study examples of posters and branding that balance familiarity and surprise, with a focus on expressive typography and visual language. The homework is to redesign their poster using an unexpected technique and prepare for their final presentation. The class ends with a demo on how to effectively present concepts — including storytelling, visuals, timing, and voiceover.

The final class is dedicated to presentations and reflection. Each student reintroduces themselves, shares their story, and presents their original and redesigned posters—explaining their concept, process, what inspires or upsets them, and how their work could live in the real world. They reflect on what they learned about their creative voice and identity. Classmates then describe each person’s style in one meaningful word to help them understand how their work is perceived. The class ends by reviewing all posters together and emphasizing the key lesson: what makes work memorable is not trends, but personal voice, story, and emotional impact.