New Degree from School of Visual Arts Bridges Business, Science and Design

“A new one-year advanced degree program focused on the intellectual link between leadership and creativity will be offered at the School of Visual Arts (SVA), New York City, beginning in the fall of 2010.

The Masters of Professional Studies in Branding will examine the power of design thinking as a way to combine creative skills with problem-solving and decision-making processes. The department will be chaired by Debbie Millman, partner and president at Sterling Brands, who conceived the program withSteven Heller, a design historian, New York Times columnist, and co-chair of the MFA Design Department at SVA.

"From Apple to Starbucks, from Rachael Ray to Tiger Woods, corporations and individuals alike are immersed in brands," says Millman. "As a result, branding has become one of the most significant influences on both public consciousness and the contemporary visual environment. Branding has more impact on our culture than any other creative medium."

The faculty will include: Pamela De Cesare, executive vice president of design management, Sterling Brands, and former director of global packaging resources, Kraft Foods; Dan Formosa, PhD, product design and design research consultant, and co-founder, Smart Design; Rob Giampietro, designer, writer, and former principal, Giampietro+Smith; Tom Guarriello, PhD, chief idea officer and principal, TrueTalk, Inc., psychologist and former clinician; and Joshua Liberson, founding principal, Helicopter.

Guest lecturers will include: Malcolm Gladwell, staff writer, The New Yorker, and author, The Tipping Point (Little, Brown and Company, 2000), Blink (Little, Brown and Company, 2005) and Outliners (Little, Brown and Company, 2008); DeeDee Gordon, co-creator, L Report and Look-Look Magazine; Jonah Lehrer, contributing editor, Wired, and author, Proust Was A Neuroscientist (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) and How We Decide (Houghton Mifflin, 2009); Grant McCracken, PhD, anthropologist and author, Transformations (Indiana University Press, 2008); Daniel H. Pink, author, A Whole New Mind (Riverhead, 2005); Virginia Postrel, contributing editor, The Atlantic, and author, The Substance of Style (Harper Collins, 2003); Cheryl Swanson, founder and managing director, Toniq; Gong Szeto, designer and former director of design and product design, PEAK6 Investments, LP; and Rob Walker, "Consumed" columnist, The New York Times Magazine, and author, Buying In (Random House, 2008).

The one-year, 36-credit curriculum will offer a unique course of study in four distinct but related disciplines: cultural anthropology, behavioral psychology, commerce and creativity. Students will gain a broad understanding of branding as taught in leading MBA programs including diverse branding strategies, brand valuation, and brand development life cycle. Areas of study will include brand theory, cultural and behavioral science and market research methodologies. Courses will explore package design, cross-cultural demographics and corporate-level discourse. Through a summer thesis project, students will develop and launch a real world brand, either with an existing organization or as a sole proprietor.

Prospective students may contact the MPS in Branding Department by calling 212.329.4609 or via email at gradadmissions@sva.edu.”

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