Where Future Founders Bring Original Brands To Life
At Squizzle, middle and high school students learn how to build their own original businesses from the ground up, working on real-world creative challenges like naming, logos, packaging, taglines and more, developing critical life and leadership skills, including:
Brainstorming & Ideating
Designing & Production
Persuasion & Storytelling
Presenting with Confidence
Why Branding?
Branding isn’t just about designing a cool logo.
It teaches students how to communicate clearly, creatively, and persuasively across multiple touchpoints.
Business Strategy
Understand audiences, analyze competitors, and make intentional creative decisions
Visual Communication
Learn the power of layout, color, typography, and storytelling through design
Persuasive Writing
Write taglines, headlines, and brand stories that persuade and inspire
Collaboration
Brainstorm, give feedback, and build together (just like in real-world creative teams)
Presentation Skills
Share big ideas clearly and confidently in front of peers and parents
Creative Problem-Solving
Learn how to take an idea from spark to story, with prototyping, iteration, and feedback
Strategic Thinking
Understand audiences, analyze competitors, and make intentional creative decisions
Visual Communication
Learn the power of layout, color, typography, and storytelling through design
Persuasive Writing
Write taglines, product names, and brand stories that persuade and inspire
Collaboration
Brainstorm, give feedback, and build together (just like in real-world creative teams)
Presentation Skills
Share big ideas clearly and confidently in front of peers and parents
Creative Problem-Solving
Learn how to take an idea from spark to story, with prototyping, iteration, and feedback
Branding is the Business of Differentiation
From college applications to first jobs and future ventures, Squizzlers learn what it takes to make something (or someone) stand out. From messaging hierarchy to visual storytelling, Squizzlers are building valuable critical thinking and communication skills, including:
Squizzlers bring
their big ideas to life quickly
and fearlessly, experimenting and iterating with colors, typography, layout, copywriting, and brand voice.
Choco Loco
Loops & Scoops
Pint-sized Revolution
From mood-boosting juices to better-for-you energy drinks, this week is all about dreaming up the next big beverage brand.
Move over Willy Wonka™. There’s a new chocolate in town. This week you’ll create a crave-worthy chocolate brand from the inside out.
It’s cereal time! Complete with wild flavors, colorful packaging, surprising prizes inside, games
on the back, and
a cool mascot.
Wild
Card!!!
Face First
Popstar Apparel
Perfect Scents
This category is for campers who already have something brewing, whether it’s handmade jewelry, pet treats, or an exciting nonprofit. Bring it on!
From t-shirts to hoodies, this category is all about creating your own iconic apparel brand, complete with tags and totes to turn people's heads.
Beauty products—from lip gloss to face masks—will get a glow-up. Get ready to bring your concepts to life, one shade at a time.
Sweet, spicy, woodsy, or fresh? In this category, Squizzlers craft their own signature scent brand, designing bottles and crafting names.
We all scream for ice cream! By the end of this week, you’ll have an ice cream brand that’s cold, bold, and ready to scoop.
Choose Your Brand Adventure
Choco Loco
CATEGORY 2
CATEGORY 1
CATEGORY 3
Loops & Scoops
Pint-sized Revolution
From mood-boosting juices to better-for-you energy drinks, this week is all about dreaming up the next big beverage brand.
Move over Willy Wonka™. There’s a new chocolate in town. This week you’ll create a crave-worthy chocolate brand from the inside out.
We all scream for ice cream! By the end of this week, you’ll have an ice cream brand that’s cold, bold, and ready to roll.
SHAMPOOS
& GOOS
CATEGORY 6
Snack Attack!
CATEGORY 5
restaurant row
CATEGORY 7
CATEGORY 8
Pizza Supremacy
This week, you’ll create your own self-care brand for soaps, serums & shampoos. A brand so good, people will want to stop and sniff!
Ready to build the next Flamin’ Hot™ chip or cracker brand? Whether it’s salty, sweet, or savory, things are sure to get spicy!
Have an idea for a flavor fusion taco truck or a musically-inspired burger bar? Get ready to dream up menus, merch, and more!
It’s time to level up the freezer aisle or the pizza delivery world with a pizza brand so good, they’ll know your name in Napoli.
Fizzy & Refreshing
CATEGORY 4
It’s cereal time! Complete with wild flavors, colorful packaging, surprising prizes inside, games on the back, and a cool mascot.
Choose Your Brand Adventure
Our weekly workshops are modular. Campers work in small groups and get to choose from existing categories (see below) or suggest a category of their own. Best of all? If your camper signs up for multiple weeks, they'll never repeat the same category twice (unless they want to).
FIZZY &
REFERESHING
SHAMPOO
& GOOS
restaurant row
Snack Attack!
Pizza Supremacy
This week, you’ll create your own self-care brand for soaps, serums & shampoos. A brand so good, people will want to stop and sniff!
Ready to build the next Flamin’ Hot™ chip or cracker brand? Whether it’s salty, sweet, or savory, things are sure to get spicy!
Have an idea for a flavor fusion taco truck or a musically-inspired burger bar? Get ready to dream up menus, merch, and more!
It’s time to level up the freezer aisle or the pizza delivery world with a pizza brand so good, they’ll know your name in Napoli.
Popstar Apparel
CATEGORY 10
Face First
CATEGORY 9
Perfect Scents
CATEGORY 11
CATEGORY 12
Wild
Card!!!
From t-shirts to hoodies, this category is all about creating your own iconic apparel brand, complete with tags and totes to turn people's heads.
Beauty products—from lip gloss to face masks—will get a glow-up. Get ready to bring your concepts to life, one shade at a time.
Sweet, spicy, woodsy, or fresh? In this category, Squizzlers craft their own signature scent brand, designing bottles and crafting names.
This category is for campers who already have something brewing, whether it’s handmade jewelry, pet treats, or something totally unexpected, bring it on!
CatEGOrY 12
CatEGOrY 11
CatEGOrY 10
CatEGOrY 9
CatEGOrY 8
CatEGOrY 7
CatEGOrY 6
CatEGOrY 5
CatEGOrY 4
CatEGOrY 3
CatEGOrY 2
CatEGOrY 1
Squizzle Summer Camp is Proudly Hosted at Mariposa Montessori
Squizzle is excited to partner with Mariposa Montessori in South Austin.
Mariposa Montessori is a beautiful, inviting campus (located at 3338 Paisano Trail near Brodie Lane and William Cannon) with light-filled classrooms and collaborative workspaces designed for hands-on, student-centered learning.
Squizzle is run by a team of passionate parents, experienced designers, and creative directors who love helping kids bring their big ideas and brand stories to life.
Who's Behind Squizzle?
After developing award-winning campaigns at some of the world's largest and most respected ad agencies like BBDO New York and GSD&M, Chris started Gallant Branding, where he and his team helped dozens of regional startups become national brands. With his experience teaching creative writing at Johns Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth and UT Austin (Pop Culture and Advertising), Chris began speaking at schools and universities about creativity and insights, which ultimately led to the idea for Squizzle: a fun workshop environment where middle and high school students could get hands-on experience with brand storytelling, so they can apply the principles of entrepreneurship and brand differentiation to their own lives. He’s also a proud dad.
Chris KOCEK
Sara Kocek is the founder of Yellow Bird Editors, a national editorial agency that has helped hundreds of authors shape and refine their books across fiction, nonfiction, and memoir. With a background in creative writing and a passion for education, Sara has taught writing workshops at schools and conferences around the country. Her experience mentoring young writers, combined with her editorial eye, brings a thoughtful and story-driven perspective to Squizzle — helping campers shape their brand stories with clarity, creativity, and heart. She's also a proud mom. ;)
SARA KOCEK