LIVE WORKSHOPDesign Brands That Last
A live workshop that will help you master branding in an innovative, story-led way. Together, we’ll use a powerful combination of design techniques and AI tools to develop strong strategic and critical thinking – the kind that brings unique and compelling results.
Monday, April 20th - Thursday, May 14th, 2026
4 Live Sessions and dedicated Q&A.
Limited seats available.
I will teach you how to recognise patterns and understand different challenges. You’ll also learn how to solve problems, in creative ways that put the audience first and get stakeholders on side.
It all starts with creating a solid brand promise (from identifying the audience, the purpose, and the resolutions) and ends with tying everything together in a consistent brand experience.
Meanwhile, strategic brand storytelling helps you craft a narrative that converts clients into loyal brand supporters.
Throughout the workshop, you will understand the importance of building a strong ecosystem to create brands that stand the tests of time and change.
This workshop will teach you how to design brands, collaborate with your client, and become the most important person in the stakeholder meeting room.
This workshop will help you understand how branding really works: whether for yourself, a client, or a digital product.
My teaching method is creative, memorable... and fun! We will analyse case studies to deconstruct story patterns, use popular movies to understand different brand narratives, and apply everything we’ve learned in a practical review.
Better still, everything you learn can be easily reused and adapted to different situations and requirements in your branding career – making Design Brands that Last a valuable long-term investment.
Anyone can start a company, but you already know that a company is not a brand. Neither is a brand a logo, or even a product. A brand is the sum of interactions with your audience.
You also know that many brands fail. Yet some have become an important part of our lifestyles. Others defined our childhoods, and some as-yet-unknown brands will shape the future of generations to come. How is this possible? What are the magic brand ingredients?
In this live workshop, we will break down the core elements behind successful brands and learn how to apply them in real, practical scenarios.
You’ll create future-proof brands.
I have worked closely with many startups, witnessing their rises, and in some cases, their falls. Their stories have taught me to adopt diverse methodologies and refine creative lessons that worked so well, I knew they should be shared with other designers. That’s what Design Brands that Last is for.
We will deconstruct some of the world’s most well-known brands, presenting interesting case studies to help you recognise how a brand's life – and its story – evolves. Then we will use AI tools to test brand stability and apply the all-important future-proof test.
You’ll use storytelling strategically.
Storytelling is a mere buzzword to some people. Not in this workshop!
You will learn the importance of building a strong narrative that connects with your customers, just as we see in successful movies. They depict genuine and authentic stories, which matter far more than their poster designs.
In the same way, this workshop will teach you how aesthetics (logo, product design, UI) play a small role in a brand if they’re not part of its wider ecosystem. In other words, fancy visuals will help, but only if they support the brand’s story and values.
You will also learn how to ensure visuals become a tangible representation of the brand and its personality. We’ll dig into choosing a name (or learn to validate an existing name), the psychology of colours and the characters of font and imagery, looking closely at how they each support the brand narrative.
You’ll transform UX into valuable brand experiences.
Excellent customer experiences don’t happen by chance. They are meticulously planned, painstakingly mapped, and enriched through constant interaction and feedback.
Understand how to connect what is said in words with what customers experience in real time is the most critical component of a brand’s success.
By mapping an experience through the lenses of consistency, emotional impact, differentiation and values, we understand how the brand responsible can leave a lasting impact, whether on or offline.
During the workshop, you will learn how to assess brand experiences and analyse customer journey maps of successful touchpoints. You’ll then transfer them into new touchpoints that expand your own brand, and report back to stakeholders on the resulting impact and awareness.
You’ll learn real-life skills.
This workshop is based on my experience as a brand designer working on the field more than 15 years. It includes real-world examples of what worked and what didn’t.
What does that mean? We won’t be sitting quietly, reading theories in books. The content is dense, diverse, practical, and requires a generous amount of commitment from me – and from you. It’s for that reason that the current workshop cohort is limited to 50 students.
Main workshop sessions are recorded (and available to students only), but the best part will no doubt be our lively Q&A sessions! These are live, and not recorded to protect the privacy of the students. They’re designed to review concepts, network with other designers, share experiences, and work through different exercises together.
The workshop is structured across four information-packed days. Here’s what will happen on each day:
WEEK 1Define the brand promise and narrative
We’ll begin by discovering three core components of a successful brand: your Audience, Purpose, and Resolution. You’ll learn to think like a storyteller and set the foundation of your brand.
Live session (2 hours):
Monday, April 20th 5-7 pm (Athens time)
Q&A session (1 hour):
Thursday, April 23rd 5-6 pm (Athens time)
WEEK 2The visual story
We’ll learn how to translate your story into eye-catching visuals using colour, typography, and imagery that reflect your brand narrative and values, to connect with your audience emotionally.
Live session (2 hours):
Monday, April 27th 5-7 pm (Athens time)
Q&A session (1 hour):
Thursday, April 30th 5-6 pm (Athens time)
WEEK 3Build the brand experience
We’ll examine how to design consistent touchpoints and assess them, so your brand interaction is consistent across a variety of on and offline platforms.
Live session (2 hours):
Monday, May 4th 5-7 pm (Athens time)
Q&A session (1 hour):
Thursday, May 7th 5-6 pm (Athens time)
WEEK 4Brand strategies to connect and grow
We’ll look at how to evolve your brand over time, adding novelty while also staying true to your brand values. You’ll assess, test and understand the success of strategies for engagement and long-term impact.
Live session (2 hours):
Monday May 11th 5-7 pm (Athens time)
Q&A session (1 hour):
Thursday, May 14th 5-6 pm (Athens time)
I want you to leave fully inspired and with a clear understanding of branding, so you can confidently apply the learning to different projects – for yourself and clients
4 Live Sessions and dedicated Q&A.
Limited seats available.
Design Brands that Last is designed for people who want to go beyond surface-level decisions and understand what really makes a brand work, and last.
If you’re willing to question assumptions, think critically, and apply what you learn to real projects, you’re probably in the right place.
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Young designers who want to learn from practical, real-life branding experiences.
Experienced designers who wish to learn how to develop a brand through storytelling techniques, enrich what they already know, and get ahead by introducing AI into their design process.
Startup owners who want to understand how to align brand and product.
Brand managers who want to ensure the company’s culture and actions are built around their brand (and/or ensure the brand can absorb what already exists and amplify it for good).
Anyone looking to build a personal brand, learning from corporate experience and a mature approach that goes beyond “who you are” and “what’s your passion?”.
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expect frameworks to work without adaptability or flexibility.
want simple reassurance that your current methods are the best.
need a shortcut to setting up a brand quickly. Speed is not a component of this workshop, because every brand has its own pace and rhythm.
treat design as the company’s ‘shock absorber’, or use deceit to appear credible and authentic.
expect to learn how AI tools can think (instead of work) for you.
Meet your tutorChiara Aliotta is a brand and experience designer, and the founder of Until Sunday Studio.
For more than 15 years, she has worked with startups, tech companies, and not-for-profit organisations across industries, helping them shape brands that are not only visually coherent, but strategically grounded and built to evolve over time.
Her work sits at the intersection of brand strategy, storytelling, and UX design, with a strong focus on responsibility, clarity, and long-term thinking. Rather than chasing trends or rigid frameworks, Chiara’s approach is based on recognising patterns, asking better questions, and designing systems that can adapt to change.
Alongside client work, she teaches and mentors designers and founders internationally, bringing real projects, real constraints, and real decisions into the learning process.
This workshop is a direct reflection of how she works in the field: practical, reflective, and deeply connected to the idea that branding is not about control, but about meaning, consistency, and trust built over time.
This isn’t just another workshop about brand storytelling.
It’s is a live and interactive event that values community and networking. Four live sessions + Four dedicated Q&A. Exclusive group on Slack for student discussion.
Workshop
Experience
Full access to the live
workshop experience
€ 350
It includes:
Four informative live sessions with practical advice, fully interactive and recorded
One-hour review session to discuss ideas and review exercises/concepts
Exclusive Slack channel available to students
Quality, attention and care (there are only 50 places available*)
Toolkits and AI tools, created to be used inside the course and on real projects
Access to session slides and other workshop materials
A certificate of completion
Workshop
& Consulting
Includes the full workshop
plus a 1:1 strategic review
€ 430
It includes:
Four informative live sessions with practical advice, fully interactive and recorded
One-hour review session to discuss ideas and review exercises/concepts
Exclusive Slack channel available to students
Quality, attention and care (there are only 50 places available*)
Toolkits and AI tools, created to be used inside the course and on real projects
Access to session slides and other workshop materials
A certificate of completion
1:1 consulting (1 hour)
Special discount for students
and Smashing Magazine Members
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If so, you will receive a special discount for this workshop. Just send me a snapshot of your course certificate, and I will send you a personalised code.
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Send me your university card (or other proof that you are a student) and I will send you a special discount code.
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I am too! As such I appreciate this beautiful community, so you will receive a special workshop discount too. Simply check your membership page to retrieve the code.
FAQs
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Not at all! The course is designed for anyone interested in storytelling, branding and digital presence, even if you’re not a designer by trade.
You may cover some ground on your own, but this is why we have live discussions and a Slack channel: to chat with others, deepen your understanding, or ask for clearer explanations as needed.
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The lessons are live online for two hours every Monday, followed by a one-hour Q&A session every Thursday to review the exercises and participate in group discussion.
Slack will be open during the duration of the course, to help students network, support each-other and review their learning together.
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Sessions are recorded, but the live Q&As are not, for privacy reasons.
Recordings will be sent to all participants the day after each live session.
Recorded or not, participating in all sessions will help you get the best from this workshop.
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Yes, if you ask for this during the QA session. You can also post comments and ideas in Slack for the community to review.
If you’d prefer a personal review, choose the Workshop+Consultation option. This includes a 1:1 consultation (workshop + 1:1 review is priced at 430 euros).
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The Workshop option covers all four live lessons, four Q&A sessions, access to slides and extra materials, exercises with feedback, and a certificate of completion.
The Workshop+ Consultation option includes the above, plus a 1:1 consultation of one hour (worth an extra 180 euros).
There are no hidden or extra fees, and a clear invoice will be sent to each participant.
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If you cannot attend the course, you may request a full refund up to one week before the start date (Monday, April 13th, 2026). No questions asked!
After the course begins, refunds will not be available under any circumstances.
If the course is cancelled, you will be informed and fully reimbursed.
If you have more questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
