100 Days

A slew of student projects that will make you want to start your own. Plus The Heard

Today, a quick enthusiasm/inspiration post. I am so dazzled by and jealous-in-a-good-way of 100 Days, a project of the School of Visual Arts’ Masters of Branding program.

Here’s how it’s described:

Each year, the students of the school’s Master’s in Branding Program spend 100 days documenting their process with a chosen creative endeavor.

I wasn’t quite sure what that meant, and at first glance even the descriptions of individual student projects can be a little hard to parse. But when I dug in, I realized there’s some very cool stuff — lots of well-observed subjects, creative ideas for exploring them, and impressive details revealed.

Best way to explain is with an example:

Min Sun Yoo’s “100 Days of Culture Bites” project “seeks to unravel the rich tapestry of cultural nuances” that quietly reveal every culture’s “distinct taste.” She does this by collecting 100 examples of how specific objects and communication — posters for the same movie, Lego sets, cigarette packaging — are expressed in a range of cultures. She shares results on the @culture.bites Instagram account. “Take a bite of culture for 100 days.”

Some examples from her project via Printmag:

When I say this makes me jealous-in-a-good-way, I mean that as a sometimes teacher. One of my assignments involves identifying something overlooked and devising a project that makes others take note of your subject. So many of these 100 days projects do exactly that. The 100 Days project is a Michael Bierut enterprise, and I don’t know what precise directive and parameters he sets out, but they’re really working.

Below I’ll mention a few more of my favorites if you’re interested, but you can browse them all on your own here. Lots of inspiring work that blends astute observation with fresh and fun ideas. It will make you want to dream up your own 100 Days project!