DORUK KUMKUMOĞLU Teaching

VCD 323

A branding and visual development workshop: students invent their own brand or business concept and build its identity from strategy and ideation to a full visual system.

2025-2026 Fall

Overview

Coordinator-Mentor & Instructor: Doruk Kumkumoglu. Industry Partner & Mentor: PostOfis / Ufuk Baris Mutlu. Mentor: Z. Ozum Ak.

This branding and visual development oriented project course constitutes presentations, technical demonstrations, workshops and feedback sessions.

The course guides students in coming up with their own brand or business concept and developing a visual language and set of deliverables for it. The first half strictly focuses on branding; in the second half students choose a project direction suited to their interests and skills.

Outcomes / Required Texts

Learning Outcomes

  1. Understanding visual strategy and visual development in a commercial context.
  2. Getting up to date on contemporary approaches in branding.
  3. Improving presentation skills.
  4. Improving project development skills.

Required Texts

  1. Creating a Brand Identity: A Guide for Designers - Catharine Slade-Brooking
  2. Hello, My Name Is Awesome - Alexandra Watkins
  3. Start With Why - Simon Sinek
  4. Designed by Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda - Unimark
  5. The NYC Transit Authority Graphics Standard Manual

Assessment / Modules

Assessment

  1. Attendance: 10%
  2. Assignment 01: 10%
  3. Assignment 02: 15%
  4. Assignment 03 / Midterm: 25%
  5. Final Project: 40%

Modules

  1. Module I: Branding basics & defining your business
  2. Module II: Ideation & concept
  3. Module III: Development & deliverables

Projects

  1. Assignment 01: Brand strategy analysis and comparison
  2. Assignment 02: Imaginary brand / business category, name, audience and offer
  3. Midterm Assignment: Logo, typography, color palette and stationery
  4. Final Project: Website/app, packaging, wayfinding & signage, or social media materials

someting

  1. Week 1: Meeting / Orientation. Introduction to course structure and objectives.
  2. Week 2: Introduction to branding workflow with Ufuk Baris Mutlu.
  3. Week 3: Visual design strategy for brands. Assignment 01 announced.
  4. Week 4: Student presentations, feedback session and group discussion.
  5. Week 5: Logo workshop. Assignment 02 announced.
  6. Week 6: Logo Workshop II. Students begin developing a logo for their brand or business.
  7. Week 7: Brand guidelines workshop. Midterm assignment announced.

Course Outline Continued

  1. Week 8: Midterm presentations and feedback session.
  2. Week 9: Introduction to final project. Examples of brand websites/apps, packaging, wayfinding, signage and social media materials.
  3. Week 10: Final Project Part I presentations and feedback session. Final Development announced.
  4. Week 11: Progress review and feedback session.
  5. Week 12: Packaging mockup workshop.
  6. Week 13: Progress review and feedback session.
  7. Week 14: Final presentations with StudioMutlu / Ufuk Baris Mutlu.

VCD 320

An advanced project development workshop: complex design challenges carried from concept to finished work through presentations, technical demonstrations, and feedback sessions with industry mentors.

2024-2025 Spring

Overview

Coordinator-Mentor & Instructor: Doruk Kumkumoglu. Industry Partner & Mentor: PostOfis / Ufuk Baris Mutlu. Academic Mentor: Z. Ozum Ak.

This advanced project development course constitutes presentations, technical demonstrations, workshops and feedback sessions.

The course helps students approach complex design problems in a structured and analytical way while still allowing them to pursue their own creative vision. It encourages students to draw on the design skills and technical expertise gathered so far in their studies to tackle advanced design challenges.

Outcomes / Required Texts

Learning Outcomes

  1. Developing an analytical approach to solving complex design problems.
  2. Maintaining a unique creative vision while considering practical constraints.
  3. Using design knowledge and skills to tackle advanced design challenges.
  4. Improving problem-solving, critical thinking, presentation, and project development skills.

Required Texts

  1. Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
  2. The Design of Everyday Things - Donald Norman
  3. Visual Methodologies - Gillian Rose
  4. Design Studies - Andrea Bennett

Assessment / Modules

Assessment

  1. Attendance: 10%
  2. Assignment 01: 15%
  3. Assignment 02 / Midterm: 25%
  4. Assignment 03: 15%
  5. Final Project: 35%

Modules

  1. Module I: Symbols & Pictograms, weeks 1-5
  2. Module II: Advanced Challenges, weeks 6-10
  3. Module III: Speculative Design, weeks 11-14

Projects

  1. Design Challenge 01: VCD Course Pictograms
  2. Design Challenge 02: Fictional Nation Flag
  3. Design Challenge 03: Game-Inspired Experimental Clock
  4. Design Challenge 04: Reimagining the Golden Record

Course Outline

  1. Week 1: Meeting / Orientation. Introduction to course structure, plan, and objectives.
  2. Week 2: Visual Semiotics - signs, symbols, and pictograms. Lecture and in-class exercise.
  3. Week 3: Pictograms. Communicating action through graphical representation, pictogram sets, style consistency, and primitive graphics. Design Challenge 01 announced.
  4. Week 4: Pictograms II. In-class project development.
  5. Week 5: Design Challenge 01 presentations and feedback session.
  6. Week 6: Nation Flags. Symbolism and construction, with an in-class exercise recreating rejected EU flags.
  7. Week 7: Fictional Flags. Design Challenge 02 / midterm project announced.

Course Outline Continued

  1. Week 8: Midterm presentations and feedback session.
  2. Week 9: Time Telling & Experimental Timepieces with StudioMutlu / Ufuk Baris Mutlu. Design Challenge 03 announced.
  3. Week 10: Design Challenge 03 presentations and feedback session.
  4. Week 11: The Golden Record with StudioMutlu / Ufuk Baris Mutlu. Design Challenge 04 / final project announced.
  5. Week 12: Holiday. No class.
  6. Week 13: Final project workshop.
  7. Week 14: Final jury with StudioMutlu / Ufuk Baris Mutlu.

Student Works

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VCD 337

An advanced photography course carrying a self-directed project from start to finish, combining theoretical lectures, technical demonstrations, shoots, and critique.

2024-2025 Fall

Overview

Coordinator-Mentor & Instructor: Doruk Kumkumoglu. Mentor: Z. Ozum Ak.

This course provides students with the knowledge, tools and experience necessary to develop an advanced photography project from start to finish. It includes theoretical lectures, technical demonstrations, roundtable discussions and feedback sessions.

The course expands students' understanding of contemporary photography, helps them develop photography-based projects, and asks them to design novel presentation and showcase experiences for photography projects.

Outcomes / Required Texts

Learning Outcomes

  1. Creating opportunities to merge photography with other mediums and techniques.
  2. Improving presentation and project development skills.
  3. Expanding theoretical knowledge in contemporary photography.
  4. Getting familiar with exhibition design.

Required Texts

  1. Fotograf Olmedi Ama Tuhaf Kokuyor - Nazif Topcuoglu
  2. The Photograph as Contemporary Art - Charlotte Cotton
  3. Photography Theory in Historical Perspective - Hilde Van Gelder & Helen Westgeest
  4. Towards a Philosophy of Photography - Vilem Flusser

Assessment / Modules

Assessment

  1. Attendance: 10%
  2. Assignment 01: 15%
  3. Assignment 02: 15%
  4. Assignment 03 / Midterm: 20%
  5. Final Project: 40%

Modules

  1. Module I: Novel approaches in contemporary photography, weeks 1-6
  2. Module II: Photography project development, weeks 7-9
  3. Module III: Photography project exhibition development, weeks 10-14

Projects

  1. Assignment 01: 2D to 3D
  2. Assignment 02: 3D Mashup
  3. Midterm Project: Photography Project Development
  4. Final Project: Developing a solo exhibition proposal

Course Outline

  1. Week 1: Meeting / Orientation.
  2. Week 2: Post Photography - material and sculptural photography. Case-study based introduction to contemporary photography in the age of post-photography.
  3. Week 3: 2D to 3D assignment idea development. Assignment 01 announced.
  4. Week 4: Student presentations and feedback session.
  5. Week 5: Photogrammetry workshop. Assignment 02 announced.
  6. Week 6: Post Photography - automated photography, AI photography, computational photography and related case studies.
  7. Week 7: Student presentations and feedback session. Midterm project announced.

Course Outline Continued

  1. Week 8: Proposal reviews. Individual student meetings.
  2. Week 9: Midterm presentations and feedback session.
  3. Week 10: Curating and exhibiting photography. Final project announced.
  4. Week 11: Proposal reviews. Individual student meetings.
  5. Week 12: Guest workshop - Cyanotype.
  6. Week 13: Feedback session and group discussions.
  7. Week 14: Final presentations and feedback session.

Media

Advanced Photography image 1
Advanced Photography image 2
Advanced Photography image 3