Components
The Nine are the applied disciplines of the Commercial Arts curriculum. They represent the technical skills students learn and practice — the tangible craft that makes creative work real.
But these nine disciplines are not taught as disconnected subjects. They are organized to reflect the arc of Intention → Ideation → Visualization and delivered through the framework of Hard Skills, Soft Skills, and Personal Process Development. Every discipline, every lesson, and every project traces back to the same question: Does this work serve the intention?
The Foundation: Disciplines 1–3
The foundational disciplines mirror the arc of Intention → Ideation → Visualization directly. They are the conceptual core of the curriculum — the disciplines where strategic thinking, idea generation, and visual direction are established before production begins.
1. Strategic Communication Principles
Aligns with: Intention · Why · Feel
This is where creative work begins. Strategic Communication Principles teaches students to think strategically on behalf of an audience and a client — to understand why a message exists, who it's for, and what it needs to accomplish.
Students learn that creative autonomy and long-term professional value come from understanding objectives, audiences, and context. Tools are secondary. Strategy comes first. Good creative work starts with research, intent, and clarity — not aesthetics, trends, or personal taste.
The curriculum approaches strategic communication with an eye toward both history and the future. Students learn where strategic communication has been and develop frameworks for understanding where it is headed as technology, platforms, and audience behavior continue to evolve.
Year 1 Topics:
- How messaging has worked historically and how it is evolving
- Identifying objectives before creating anything
- Understanding audience needs and motivations
- Framing creative work as a strategic response, not output
- Writing principles as they relate to strategic communication
- Concepting and ideation foundations
- Branding fundamentals
- Public relations basics
2. Copywriting
Aligns with: Ideation · How · Know
Words are the fastest, cheapest, and most accessible way to explore ideas. In professional creative environments, writing is often the first place where strategy becomes tangible.
This discipline is not about turning everyone into a writer. It is about teaching students how to use language functionally — to clarify intent, sketch ideas, and invite others into a creative direction. Not everyone relates to words in the same way, and that's expected. Copywriting in this curriculum serves as the connective tissue between strategy and execution, creating a shared language that designers, filmmakers, and collaborators can build from.
Year 1 Topics:
- Using writing as a starting point for ideation
- Translating objectives into tone and direction
- Copywriting for print
- Copywriting for web
- Copywriting for the moving image (video)
- Adapting tone and voice across formats
- Creating alignment before visuals or production
3. Art Direction & Look Development
Aligns with: Visualization · What · Do
Strong visual work doesn't come from templates or aggregation — it comes from process. Look Development is the stage where broad inspiration is refined into a clear, intentional visual direction.
In real projects, this happens before production. Teams explore, test, and align visually so that execution is purposeful rather than reactive. This discipline frames Look Development as an umbrella stage that applies across multiple visual disciplines, each with its own building blocks and constraints.
Year 1 Topics:
- Art direction fundamentals
- Look development for practical image making (photography, video)
- Look development for 3D pipelines
- Pre-visualization and shot planning
- How visual ideas are explored, communicated, and refined before final execution
The Expressions: Disciplines 4–9
Disciplines 4 through 9 are different expressions of the foundational logic established in disciplines 1 through 3. Each one is a way to visualize and execute strategic, idea-driven work — a distinct medium with its own principles, tools, and constraints.
4. Graphic Design — Design Principles at the Core
Graphic Design is taught through the lens of universal design principles that apply across every visual medium. Rather than learning software-specific workflows, students internalize the principles themselves and then apply them across static, motion, and interactive contexts.
Year 1 Topics:
- Design principles: balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, rhythm, unity, proportion
- Applying principles in motion design
- Applying principles in web design
- Applying principles in UI for web applications
5. Illustration
Illustration teaches visual storytelling through drawing, style development, and refinement. Students develop the ability to communicate ideas visually — from rough sketches that clarify thinking to polished illustrations that serve specific media contexts.
Year 1 Topics:
- Principles of illustration
- Illustration for video and animation
- Illustration for websites
- Illustration for web applications
- Line, form, and visual style development
6. Practical Image Making
Practical Image Making covers the craft of capturing the real world — through photography, videography, lighting, and composition. Students learn to plan, light, and capture visual assets with intention, connecting every technical decision back to the strategic and creative goals of a project.
Year 1 Topics:
- Fundamentals of visual composition
- Lighting for photography and video
- Introduction to videography
- Introduction to photography
- Camera settings and exposure theory
- Planning and capturing visual assets
7. Video & Photo Editing
Editing is where captured material becomes a finished piece. This discipline covers the post-production pipeline for both stills and motion — from assembly and pacing to color, sound, and delivery. Students learn that editing is a creative step as much as a technical one, where storytelling decisions shape how audiences experience the work.
Year 1 Topics:
- Post-production principles
- Photography post techniques
- Applying color and contrast in stills
- Editing for interview-driven video
- Editing for voiceover-driven video
- Editing for dialogue-driven scenes
- Commercial animation 101 (foundations)
- Audio 101 for editors
8. Commercial Animation — Motion Design
Motion design brings visual principles into time. Students learn how movement communicates — through keyframes, timing, 2D and 3D fundamentals, and the application of motion in branding and interface design. Animation is taught not as a specialty but as a core expression of the same design principles explored in graphic design and illustration.
Year 1 Topics:
- Principles of motion design
- Working with keyframes and timing
- 2D animation fundamentals
- 3D animation fundamentals
- Visual style in motion
- Motion in branding and interfaces
9. Specialty Post-Production
Specialty Post-Production covers the advanced finishing disciplines that bring production work to its final form — visual effects, compositing, color grading, advanced audio, and delivery workflows. Students learn that finishing is where quality becomes tangible and where attention to detail distinguishes professional work.
Year 1 Topics:
- Introduction to VFX and compositing
- Color grading theory and practice
- Advanced audio techniques (mixing and design)
- Finishing techniques for delivery
- Workflow and file management for post teams
How the Nine Work Together
The nine disciplines form a complete production pipeline — from strategy through execution to finishing. But they are not experienced as a linear sequence. Throughout the curriculum, students encounter projects and challenges that require multiple disciplines to work in concert.
The foundational disciplines (Strategic Communication, Copywriting, Art Direction) establish the thinking — the strategic, conceptual, and directional foundation. The remaining six disciplines provide the making — the applied craft that brings that thinking to life.
Year 1 Scope
Year 1 consists of five lessons per discipline, for a total of 45 lessons across the nine components. Each lesson follows the Feel / Know / Do structure and is designed to build foundational fluency while reinforcing the strategic logic of the curriculum.
This structure ensures that students never lose sight of the connection between strategy and execution. A motion design project is about communicating an idea through keyframes. A photo edit is about serving the intention through color.