Build Your Creative Empire

Class Project

Define your creative throughline

This class is for anyone looking to get a creative idea - any creative idea - off the ground. Whether you’re pursuing a career in music, food, art, fashion, writing or performance this class will help you figure out the message at the core of your brand.

Over the past two decades I’ve launched a number of successful creative ventures - from my streetwear line Bergdorf Hoodman to my New York City restaurant BaoHaus. And to think it all started with bartering homework for Transformers in elementary school. To the naked eye these might seem like a handful of disparate enterprises but the truth is they’re all connected by an invisible thread that ties my story together: a creative throughline.

Your brand - personal or professional - lives and dies by its messaging, with a throughline at its core. In this class, you’ll learn how to define the throughline that builds your creative empire.

We’ll deconstruct popular cultural icons to identify the throughlines they’ve used to build their empires. Learning from a breadth of case studies across all different art forms - Lady Gaga, Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial, or even BaoHaus - you’ll articulate the throughline for your own venture.

We’ll brainstorm ideas for what our throughlines should be, dissect our creative visions to separate motifs from pillars and begin composing draft after draft of our core storylines. You’ll use the media that speaks to you: make a poster, shoot a video, write a manifesto. The more creative the better.

You’ll leave this class with the clear, concise, powerful messaging your brand (personal or professional) can rely on to scale your wild idea into a successful business. You’ll also leave with the skills to construct a throughline for any future venture.

Award
I’ll choose the most creative project to be featured on my blog, Fresh Off The Boat.

Prerequisites

This class is for anyone looking to get a creative idea - any creative idea - off the ground. Whether you’re pursuing a career in music, food, art, fashion, writing or performance this class will help you figure out the message at the core of your brand.

Beginner Difficulty
10

Student Projects Submitted

Project Guide by Eddie Huang

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Eddie Huang is a writer, chef, entrepreneur and TV personality based in New York City. He is best known as the chef and owner of BaoHaus, which has received critical acclaim and coverage from The New York Times, The New York Post, CNN, NBC, CBS, The Village Voice, Town & Country, XXL, The Source, C... view full bio