I’m guest lecturing at the School of Visual Arts in New York City in the Evolution of Marketing Class, a seminar for the school’s top graphic design students that is being taught by film and television director Bob Giraldi. Bob is probably best known for making the Michael Jackson “Beat It” Video.  Bob asked me to share my thoughts on where social media is going, how it’s disrupting advertising, and what it means for designers entering the job market.

Before we started the class, each person talked about their own social media preferences and habits.  The most interesting commonality was that none of the students read or really seemed to care about the NY Times.

Bob also asked me to give the students an assignment.  So back at SnapDragon, we put together two assignment briefs for the students: one is for a new client, Marblehead Greens. This company is the maker of gorgeous green khaki boating pants that are being positioned as an alternative to the uber preppy Nantucket Reds. The other brief was for a somewhat controversial political organization that we are in talks about doing a social media project with. We set budgets for each assignment and asked the students to come up with both strategies and designs.

I’ll share more about what the students put together—and hopefully will be posting some of their work on the blog.