Brand Communications Foundations.
Learn brand and communications over four weeks, online, built for people starting out. Applications for cohort one have closed.
Learn how brands actually work.
At the end of this training, you will be able to brief a designer, write a position that holds up in a meeting, and plan the communications that follow.
Most short courses cover execution. This one covers judgement.
The work runs on one real brand for four weeks, from the first read to the showcase.
Two sessions a week.
The course runs twenty-one contact hours across four weeks. Budget four to five more of your own each week for the reading and the assignment.
Online, 10 October to 1 November
Every session runs live on video. Cohort one opens on Saturday 10 October 2026.
Saturday, three hours from five
Each Saturday covers one subject properly, with the week's reading behind it.
Sunday, two hours from six
Your group works the same material, with the teacher on the call.
The showcase
The final Sunday starts at four and runs about three hours. The time is fixed before you start.
One group task
Your group drafts the skeleton of its ninety day plan between weeks three and four, so the last Saturday is spent sharpening it.
Four groups, one brand each
Twenty students form four groups in the first session. Each group draws one real brand, and every assignment lands on it.
The eight sessions.
Saturday carries the teaching, Sunday carries the group work, and the last Sunday is the showcase.
Week one.
How brands work, and how to read one.
- 01
Saturday
Learn what a brand is, why a buyer chooses, and how to critique an identity without building one.
- 02
Sunday
Groups form, brands are drawn, and each group tears down what it was handed.
Week two.
Positioning, and the brief that follows.
- 03
Saturday
Learn the job a customer hires the brand to do, and how to write a position that survives an attack.
- 04
Sunday
Groups draft positions live and take them apart in the room.
Week three.
Message, voice and audiences.
- 05
Saturday
Learn to build one claim with three supports, and the audiences a brand has beyond its customers.
- 06
Sunday
Groups build the message hierarchy, translate the claim four ways, and start the ninety day plan.
Week four.
Into the market.
- 07
Saturday
Learn channels and the four numbers worth reporting, then sharpen the plan your group drafted.
- 08
Sunday
Your group presents the brand file it built.
Built for people starting out.
Most of the room will be new to brand work. You might be finishing a degree, changing direction, or a year into a job where communications is part of it. Junior professionals are welcome.
You need no client, portfolio or design background. Each group draws a brand in the first session, so the work starts on the first Sunday.
Four weeks give you enough to hold your own with people who have done this longer.
Reasons not to apply
- You cannot give both sessions for four weeks. Your absence becomes everyone else's problem.
- You want the certificate more than the work. Three assignments and a showcase stand in the way.
- You want to watch without producing. The weekly deadline makes that hard.
- You expect to be taught software. This course is about the thinking that comes before the tool.
The rules are strict.
There are 20 seats. If you take one, you must be committed. Read these before you apply.
- 01
Attendance
The course runs eight sessions across four weeks. Miss two and the certificate is gone, though you can keep coming.
- 02
Punctuality
Sessions start on the hour. Arrive after ten past and you are marked absent.
- 03
The showcase
The final Sunday is the showcase. Miss it and there is no certificate. Four other people prepared with you.
- 04
Assignments
Three assignments, each due by nine on the Friday before the next session, as one PDF. All three must come in. One twenty-four hour extension is available across the course, and you must ask before the deadline.
- 05
Your group
Your group carries one brand for four weeks, and drafts its ninety day plan between weeks three and four. Missing a session costs four other people. Two reports of non-contribution put your place under review.
- 06
The work is yours
Submit someone else's work, or a machine draft you have not rewritten, and your place is gone that week.
- 07
Leaving
If you need to withdraw, say so early, so the place goes to someone else.
None of this exists to catch you out. One person drifting costs the other nineteen.
This cohort is free.
Applications are closed.
Cohort one starts on 10 October. Ask to hear when the next one opens.