Senior Capstone
Location & Date
Ringling College
Role
Student Researcher
Duration
8 months
For my thesis project, I am analyzing branded experiences and how can we improve them?
Core Argument
The most durable outcome a designed experience can produce is collective belonging; the condition in which people leave changed together, as a part of an ecosystem that develops outside of the main experience.
Big Ideas, Real Impact.
Big Ideas, Real Impact.
Starting Point
The Casual Explanation:
I wanted to understnad how designed/branded events and built, how can we imporve them. I wanted to understand what made GENESIS a success from an academic prespective. I started interviewing industry professionals and the scope of the project grew exponentially leading to developing my own creative philosophy centered around community, authorships, and symbiotic relationships between
The Academic Explanation:
My thesis positions itself at the intersection of art direction, event production, and cultural research, exploring how the next generation of audiences, particularly Gen Z and Gen Alpha, engage with immersive experiences. Through theoretical inquiry and applied experimentation, I aim to define a methodology and a system for crafting environments that are culturally relevant, environmentally friendly, and strategically designed.
Progression of economic value:
Commodity → Good → Service → Experience → Transformation
Collective Belonging
An ecosystem
The 5 principles
Five principles, born from research and observation, that guide intentional world-building
One sentence. What does this world believe? Also, What would be impossible here?
Every decision is a position. What you refuse speaks as clearly as what you include.
Where does this world come from? Borrowed or inhabited?
From the invitation, to the experience to post-event. Every element throughly designed.
Does the world outlast the room?
Our Work in Numbers
Of Gen Z say brand trust matters more than ever
79%
Edelman, 2023
$12T
Gen Z projected spending power by 203
NielsenIQ & World Data Lab, 2024
18%
of organisations use brand to inform experience strategy
Motta-Filho, 2021
REGENERATIVE NOT EXTRACTIVE
KIDSUPER
One of the core casestudies behind the thesis project. High-fashion is an inaccessible and elitist form of commodified art that is yet accessible and influences the world around us. I was facinated by how Kidusper approached that space giving it back to the people and centering it around community.
A regenerative ecosystem gives back more than it takes. It deepens the cultural communities it draws from. It creates conditions for the next generation of makers and participants to form and flourish.
JAIPUR RUGS
Jaipur Rugs is a reputable example of this philosophy's regenerative ecosystem. The community referenced is the community building the product; cultural knowledge is living, practiced, and owned by the people who hold it.
LOEWE
One of the preominent case for world building. Anderson’ at Loewe began with a question: What does Loewe actually believe? It is that luxury is the product of attention to material, and that the most sophisticated objects are those in which the labor of making is most legible. This governed all elements from show sets to packaging to show notes written as genuine cultural essays
What I am trying to achieve in simpler terms
La dance, Henri Matisse.
The People Who Shaped This
Elijah Hatem
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Nike, Mercedes,
Yohannan Terrell
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Tia Kassim
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Samantha Balikowa
Amanda Caldrea
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Anabella
Alfredo Rivera
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+ Plus 57 survey respondents across 6 regions. Real people. Real answers.