ACADEMY FOR CREATIVE CONCEPTING
Narrative Storytelling
VBrands today are so much more than just a logo, visual identity or a collection of campaigns. Strong brands create entire worlds around their stories. Worlds you can see, feel and experience.
In Narrative Storytelling, you’ll learn how to transform a compelling brand story into a cohesive and immersive brand world. Explore how strategy, storytelling, visuals, materials, spaces, behaviour and sensory experiences come together to give a brand its unique identity and meaning.
Over eight weeks, you’ll bring your own brand concept to life, step by step. Starting with the essence: What does your brand stand for? What story does it want to tell? And how should it make people feel? From there, you’ll shape its visual and material language, explore sensory experiences and design the ways people interact with and experience your brand.
Rather than focusing on individual designs or campaigns, you’ll learn to think like a creative director, shaping an entire brand world. Every creative decision connects back to one central narrative, creating a consistent experience across different touchpoints.
By the end of the module, you’ll bring it all together in your own Narrative Brand World: a fully developed creative concept where storytelling, visual identity and brand experience become one.
Combining creative thinking with hands-on experimentation, this module reflects a shift in the creative industry: from simply communicating brands to creating worlds people can truly connect with.
What you’ll learn
Brand Storytelling
Visual Art Direction
Sensory Design
Brand Immersion
Brand World Creation
Creative Direction
Concept Visualization
Module structure
Theme 1
Narrative Design
Discover how brands go beyond visual identity to become immersive worlds you can see, feel and experience. Explore Narrative Design, get inspired by powerful Brand Worlds and discover how storytelling and the 5D model shape distinctive brand experiences.
Choose a brand to work with throughout the module and start shaping your own creative direction, exploring the first ideas and foundations of your Brand World and its story.
Expert
Fabi Beijen & Alex Smith
Time investment
9 hours (approximately 6 hours of self-study)
Theme 2
Identity, Meaning & Emotion
A strong Brand World starts not with how a brand looks, but with what it means. Explore your brand’s identity and core values, discover what resonates with your audience and the emotions you want to evoke. How do you want people to feel? What impression do you want to leave? And what role does your brand play in their lives?
You’ll shape the emotional and strategic foundation of your Brand World, bringing it all together in a Brand Core & Emotional Territory that defines your brand’s identity, meaning and emotional positioning.
Expert
Fabi Beijen & Alex Smith
Time investment
9 hours (approximately 6 hours of self-study)
Theme 3
Narrative Brand Concept
How do you turn the essence of a brand into a distinctive world with a character of its own? Develop a central narrative that shapes your brand’s look, feel, tone of voice and overall experience. Explore what belongs in your brand world, what strengthens its story and what doesn't fit.
You’ll create a Narrative Concept & Brand World Direction, setting the creative foundation for a cohesive brand world where every decision connects back to one powerful story.
Expert
Fabi Beijen & Alex Smith
Time investment
9 hours (approximately 6 hours of self-study)
Theme 4
Visual & Material language
How do you give your Brand World a distinctive visual and material identity? Explore how imagery, colour, typography, shapes, composition and materials come together to create a visual language of their own. Through art direction, you’ll learn to make bold, intentional creative choices that go beyond aesthetics, bringing your brand’s story, personality and identity to life.
What you’ll create: A Brand World Board that captures the visual and material language of your brand world
Expert
Fabi Beijen & Alex Smith
Time investment
9 hours (approximately 6 hours of self-study)
Theme 5
Sensory mapping
Typography plays a crucial role in enhancing visual language. This week, you will learn about the function of typefaces and how to use graphic design to strengthen your visual storytelling. You will develop your own typography and apply it within your visual language. In the creative exercise, you will create a visual story that is powerfully supported by appropriate typography.
Expert
Fabi Beijen & Alex Smith
Time investment
9 hours (approximately 6 hours of self-study)
Theme 6
The Experience Flow
How do people actually step into your Brand World? Discover how your brand story comes to life through different touchpoints, spaces and interactions. Explore the journey people take through your brand world and how to create a seamless, meaningful experience at every stage. Shift your perspective from what your brand wants to tell to what people actually see, feel and experience.
What you’ll create: An Experience Flow that maps out the key touchpoints and interactions that bring your Brand World to life.
Expert
Fabi Beijen & Alex Smith
Time investment
9 hours (approximately 6 hours of self-study)
Thema 7
Narrative Brand World Concept
How do you bring every element of your Brand World together into one compelling experience? Connect your brand story, visual and material language, sensory elements and interactions into one cohesive concept. Bring your ideas to life through visualisation, experimentation and prototyping. Test, refine and explore how to present your Brand World in a way that people don't just understand, but truly experience.
What you’ll create: A fully developed Narrative Brand World concept and a prototype that brings your brand world to life.
Expert
Fabi Beijen & Alex Smith
Time investment
9 hours (approximately 6 hours of self-study)
Thema 8
Pitch your brand world
In the final week, it’s time to bring your Narrative Brand World to the stage. Forget traditional presentations. Create an immersive experience that invites others into the world you’ve built. Show how storytelling, visuals, materials, sensory elements and interactions come together to create a distinctive brand experience. Share the thinking behind your creative choices and let your audience see, feel and experience the power of your concept.
The grand finale: A complete Narrative Brand World, brought to life through a compelling, immersive final presentation.
Expert
Fabi Beijen & Alex Smith
Time investment
9 hours (approximately 6 hours of self-study)
Narrative Storytelling is an 8-week module
For creative professionals shaping brands, concepts and communication who want to take their ideas beyond the visual and create complete brand worlds. From art directors and brand designers to strategists, marketers and content creators.
Certificate: Narrative Storytelling
Tuesday evenings | 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Total: 72 hours (24 hours of class + 48 hours of independent assignments).
This module is taught in English
- A bachelor’s degree and/or relevant professional experience.
- Experience with digital design and visualisation tools is a plus.
It is not possible to add modules that start on the same day
Checkout
Our tutors
The Experts Who Bring Creativity to Life
Meet the experts behind our modules, the creative thinkers who make a difference. Their unique blend of vision and craftsmanship empowers you to turn ambitions into reality and take a step forward with every challenge.
Alex Smith
Fabi Beijen
Training cost reimbursement with Werktuig PPO
Werktuig PPO is a government-funded initiative that supports and helps fund your professional development if you work in the creative or cultural sector. The scheme is designed to help you grow professionally, so you can respond to changes in your field and make the most of new opportunities. It is available to both employees and freelancers.
Whether you work for a cultural or creative organisation or are self-employed in the arts, heritage, media or creative industries, you may be eligible to apply.
Find out more about Werktuig PPO here.