Brandcenter Agent of Change Scholarship Fund

Driven by the shared belief in the importance of diversity, supporters of the VCU Brandcenter, the country’s premier graduate program for branding and advertising, came together over the summer to create the Agent of Change Scholarship Fund.

“This scholarship is designed to attract a greater number of students with diverse backgrounds – something our industry is critically lacking," said Kristen Cavallo, CEO of The Martin Agency. "We are honored to help promote this vital initiative to help change advertising for the better.”

Creative Q&A: Vann Graves’ homecoming

After 25 years of agency work that took him to advertising powerhouses in New York and Atlanta, Richmond native Vann Graves has returned home.

The Army veteran, Harvard graduate and Open High School alum has taken the helm of the VCU Brandcenter, starting earlier this month as the school’s fourth executive director after stints at ad giants J. Walter Thompson and McCann, and a 15-year run at BBDO.

Executive Creative Director Vann Graves quoted in Adweek on brands and creativity in the age of Trump.

Since Trump took office, brand marketers and agency creatives have largely gone quiet. Those who have continued to make provocative, challenging work have reaped both awards and boycott threats, but overwhelmingly, some industry observers say, today’s political polarization has had a numbing effect on creativity.

“Some companies do not view entering the political discussion as a way to move their brand forward, so they stay the course,” noted Vann Graves, VCU Brandcenter executive director and former CCO at JWT Atlanta. “I felt similarly for a while, but it has since become clear that it is simply not possible for brands to remain on the sidelines.”

Made in RVA: Chad Hilton Designs

Watch the beautiful graphic design and laser cutting artistry of Chad Hilton, 2nd year experience design student and owner of Chad Hilton Designs, featured on Virginia This Morning.

Ad industry supergroup forms to battle climate change

The powerful idea of a commencement speech takeover campaign was originated by Brandcenter alums Karen Short (AD, 2008) and Casey Rand (CW, 2008), Group Creative Directors at Droga5.

More than 250 students around the country used 60 seconds of their commencement speech to make a pledge to vote for action on climate change as well as equality and safety from gun violence.

Brandcenter grad designed augmented reality tool to aid breast health

2018 Experience design graduate Berfin Ayhan (currently working at frog design) designed an augmented reality app to help women achieve better breast awareness and detect changes.

In this Q&A, Berfin delves into the design challenges she faced, such as figuring out who she was designing for (anyone with breasts?), heightened privacy challenges (the app works in airplane mode to guarantee no data is entering or leaving the app), and how to make users feel comfortable using it regularly.

Fall information session dates set

Register now for an information session at the VCU Brandcenter this fall. Come learn about our Master's program and five tracks from admissions representatives and current students and/or alumni.

Brandcenter summer happy hours: July 19th

At 6pm on Thursday, July 19th, alumni, current and incoming students will meet up around the country for happy hour. The Brandcenter Class of 2019 has coordinated the events in the cities where they are interning so that #BrandFam in each city can reconnect, meet new alums in the area, and welcome the newest class of students. 

The Hull Foundation Establishes Scholarship at VCU Brandcenter

The endowed scholarship was created to benefit a student demonstrating strong interest in entrepreneurism.

Recent grad's "Nastybot" featured in FastCo.Design

Berfin Ayhan, 2018 experience design graduate, designed a bot that uses facial recognition tech to automatically respond to internet creeps with snarky comebacks, or block or report them. 

“I think defusing situations with humor can be very helpful,” Berfin says. “You feel like you can be safe behind having fun with it, especially when you’re feeling threatened.”

Three Brandcenter alums make Adweek's Creative 100 list

Blake Winfree (AD, 2003), VP and Creative Director at MullenLowe, and Kevin Weir (AD, 2012) and Chris Colliton (XD, 2012), Creative Directors at Droga5, were named to Adweek's Creative 100 in the category of "rising agency stars who are keeping advertising relevant, fresh, and fascinating."

How This Unconventional Duo Changed A Conventional Industry

Hannah (AD, 2014) and Jade Sullivan (UX, 2014) sit down with Forbes to talk about Pogo.co and how they're turning the insurance industry on its end.