Teaching experiential design: the AUB master's module Tom wrote

Arts University Bournemouth runs an online MA in Graphic Design. Tom Le Mesurier, our Principal, was one of a team of six who designed and wrote its modules. His module, Collaboration in Practice, is about how designers collaborate across disciplines, explored through brand and sensory experience. He wrote it in 2024 and now leads it.

Why was Tom asked?

AUB wanted someone who works across digital design and architecture. Tom does both. That mix shaped how the module approaches brand experience: how a brand carries from a screen into a room and back again.

What does the module cover?

It moves from how designers collaborate, through branding and brand guidelines, to sensory experience and branded environments such as shops, hotels and pop-ups. A thread runs through all of it: how to honour a brand's guidelines while bringing something of your own.

Who did the students hear from?

Three practitioners:

• Steph Horan, Course Leader and Creative Director of the branding studio Blue Walnut, on how brands are built.
• Emma Bice, Creative Director of Emma Bice Interior Design, on designing interiors that fit a brand's values.
• Sonnaz Nooranvary, of House of Sonnaz and the upholstery expert on BBC's The Repair Shop, on using a brand's guidelines and ethos in physical work for high-end brands.

What did it change for us?

Writing the module made us set down how we think about brands people experience in person as well as on screen. That thinking carried into client work that connects the physical and digital brand. Our work with Priory Wareham, where the website had to feel like arriving at the hotel, came about through the module. In our view, being part of the course has also helped us make the case for larger projects.

Our Brand Architecture page explains how we design brands for people, or you can email studio@mouriaux.com.

Written by Tom Le Mesurier, Principal, Mouriaux.