School of Visual Concepts

Quickly and effectively identify design flaws with the tools you acquire in this fifteen-hour intermediate class. Participants learn to utilize this safety net and ensure that consumers respond favorably to website and app features. Specific topics include an end-to-end usability study overview, test plan selection, testing methods, results communication, and special testing variations.

Bring your artistic vision to life in this four-hour course. Using Furuta wood type scans, instruction combines vintage technologies, such as printing and letterpressing, with advanced design tools, such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Specific topics include merging letterpress assets into your digital workflow, building a letterpress library, modifying the designs for digitization, and digital masking techniques.

Transfer your ideas from your mind’s eye to your sketch pad in this twelve-hour UX Sketching course. Rough sketching is an excellent way for digital designers to better manage their workflow. Specific topics include the link between sketching and the UX process, common sketching techniques, storyboard creation, communication through whiteboard sketches, and interdisciplinary tips.

Learn to create powerful brochures, magazines, catalogues, and other printed materials in this fifteen-hour Adobe InDesign overview. Participants also use their newfound skills on digital canvasses, largely by importing copy and art from other sources. Specific topics include document setup, image and graph preparation, typography, pagination, numbering, layout design, and exporting.

Take your Adobe After Effects skills to the next level in this fifteen-hour intermediate course. Add motion effects to images, graphics, and copy to create eye-catching documents which add value to the reader. Through a combination of live instruction, hands-on learning, and class discussions, participants cover areas like keyframing, compositing, masking, mattes, kinetic typography, and GIF animation.

Rediscover the lost art of hand lettering for designers in this beginner-level, six-hour course. Participants learn to design lettering based on their imaginations instead of the available fonts and typefaces, so they can emotionally connect with users. Specific topics include calligraphy, sign-painting, and other pre-digital arts, examining letterforms, creating an alphabet, using tools, project planning, and some experimental techniques.

Learn to truly think outside the box and consider various perspectives in this three-hour beginner design thinking course. Leading organizations like Google, GE, Stanford, Apple, Harvard, and MIT have all embraced this way of thinking. Students examine real-world problems in areas like the design thought process, data user analysis, rapid and effective brainstorming, making evidence-based decisions instead of jumping to conclusions, resource utilization, and overcoming common objections to design thinking.

Create and manage fully accessible apps and websites in this three-hour beginner course. Most people agree digital accessibility is important, yet most people also lack the skills to make such designs a reality. So, this course covers practical design areas, such as how accessibility barriers affect people with disabilities, available accessibility tools, applicable legal and technical standards, like the Americans with Disabilities Act and WCAG Accessibility Guidelines, common issues, and building an inclusive design practice.

This three-hour beginner class focuses on the commercial aspects of a freelance developing, strategizing, writing, or designing business. You may have the creative tools you need, but you have bills to pay. In addition to general concepts like developing a business plan, participants learn some nuts and bolts like developing prospect lists, advertising through social media and artistic portfolios, building a solid profitability plan, compensation methods, and managing timesheets, RFPs, contracts, and other such documents.

Learn to create designs that are as diverse as your users in this 4.5-hour beginner course. Participants become intimately familiar with Design Swarm, a platform which empowers people of different backgrounds and skill levels to collaborate on a given project. Specific topics include overcoming obstacles, watching for business opportunities, enhancing creativity by serving a wide swath of users, and incorporating the latest inclusive design techniques.

Get the tools you need to preserve the elements of letterpress typography in this beginner, two-hour class. Using forensic techniques, participants do their part to pass on a cherished art to future generations. Specific course topics include the background of letterpress typography, metal identification, expanded letterform knowledge, creating a collection, and sharing that collection with others.

Produce stunning four-color designs that are easy to work with in this two-hour beginner class. Participants learn techniques that overcome some common photorealistic challenges and also make your creations commercially and artistically successful. Specific topics include using Adobe Photoshop to select and edit images, using InDesign to soft proof images, and executing the design.

Stop snapping random photos and learn to effectively document the world around you in this six-hour beginner urban sketching course. Using nothing but a sketchbook, pen, and pencil, participants go onsite and cover topics like choosing a location, mentally composing a scene, beginning with line drawings, enhancing sketches with watercolors, connecting with other urban sketchers, and building a studio inventory.

Master the final job acquisition step in this six-hour beginner interview practice quick camp. Participants learn the skills they need to ace live and online interviews. Tech and non-tech professionals alike benefit from course areas like social influence, interview psychology, research and preparation, differentiating among different job titles, developing some answers to frequently asked questions, portfolio presentation, and videoconferencing tips.

This six-hour beginner class teaches students how to write the most effective creative briefs. Additional effort at the initial creative brief stage puts everyone on the same page and significantly improves project results. Specific topics include gathering required data, defining an agenda, motivating a team, extending your thought process, exploring alternate formats, presenting the brief, and using the brief.

Explore the basic principles and tools of website and app development in this six-hour beginner course. Overall concepts include conceptualizing the design, managing the workflow, and overcoming some common obstacles. Specific topics include UX and design collaboration, comparing the Waterfall and Agile platforms, becoming comfortable with design tools like Jira, Wordpress, Github, Drupal, and Joomla, understanding different programming languages, and creating accurate redlines.

Get to know Figma, one of the most practical prototyping tools available, in this beginner-level, four-hour class. This cloud-based platform is easy to use and therefore accessible to almost all front-end developers. Through a combination of live instruction, class discussions, and hands-on learning, participants explore topics like Figma design tools, workflow management tools, collaboration, reviews, plugins, importing data, and exporting files.

Transform note-taking from a personal chore into a shareable work of art in this beginner-level, three-hour course. Participants use pencraft and other techniques to transcribe, preserve, and share ideas. Specific topics include note-taking and hand-lettering backgrounds, practicing different techniques, developing stylistic variations, building a toolbox, using layouts and grids, and maximizing some shortcuts.

This intensive 33-hour class helps users create functional and expressive typography layouts. Through a combination of hands-on learning, live instruction, and class discussions, participants explore topics like letter anatomy, word choice, sentence hierarchy, paragraph tracking, system concepts, and the artistic qualities of typography.

Add the finishing touches to your UX design skills in this intermediate, 33-hour course. Instruction focuses on solving the real-world digital problems of two or more local organizations through both individual and group projects. Specific topics include developing the creative brief, setting team parameters, data collection, validating conclusions, presenting these conclusions, and developing a follow up plan.