Social Entrepreneurship and Graphic Design: Create, Develop, Brand, Manage and Sustain a Change-Making Startup

In this three-quarter program, we will develop an interdisciplinary approach to imagining, building, managing and sustaining social enterprises. Social enterprises can be non-profit or for-profit. What defines them is their mission of serving the public good. Combining social entrepreneurship, graphic design, and design thinking, students will learn what it takes to found, fund, run, and brand a social enterprise. Students will become effective social entrepreneurs and learn how to harness design and design processes to envision exciting, effective, and lasting start ups for the social good. 

Each quarter, students will develop a new set of skills to support their social start-ups. (We welcome new students in winter and spring.)  Topics covered in this program will focus on the following aspects of social entrepreneurship, namely: Business Planning, Financial Management, Marketing, Networking, Negotiation, Passion and Commitment, Leadership, Staffing and Organizational Development. Students will also learn Visual Communication Strategies, Graphic Design Fundamentals, Branding, and Social Media Development, as well as how to access digital design technologies to deepen and maximize the impact of their design thinking. 

Each quarter, along with reading, reflective and creative writing, individual and team design exercises, and seminars, students will actively apply their learning in projects, exploring key issues in social enterprise development and financial management, developing branding strategies, brand development and style guides, and more. 

Students signing up for 12-credits will have the opportunity to perform an in-program internship project for 4 credits with a local social enterprise you engage or through an in-program Independent Learning Contract (ILC) developed with your assigned faulty.