Spot the Difference. Design Better.
Design Fundamentals
Develop A Design Eye
A practical, small group design workshop for entrepreneurs and creative professionals who want to make more intentional visual decisions .
The idea:
You have felt it. You look at a flyer, a website or a post and something is off. You cannot say what. Or you make something yourself, and it just does not look right, and you do not know where to start.
Design is not a gift you are born with. It is a way of seeing, and it has a history. Everything around you was decided by someone, for a reason. Learn the reasons, and you can see like a designer and decide like one.
In Person Workshop. Maximum 10 participants.
The Learning Journey
From idea to visual direction
A one-day, in-person course that teaches you to see like a designer, using the history of design to sharpen your eye for today.
01
Honesty
From Arts & Crafts to the Bauhaus, learn why “less, but better” still decides what looks confident today.
02
Order
Discover how the brain groups and aligns before it reads, and why a clean layout earns trust.
03
Voice
See how type and colour speak before your words do, and choose them with purpose.
04
Rules Broken on Purpose
Learn the rules first, then find what makes your own work stand out in an age of AI sameness.
Course Content
What you’ll explore
Honesty
In the 1800s, factories filled homes with cheap, over-decorated goods. William Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement pushed back. A generation later, the Bauhaus asked what an object is actually for. Dieter Rams later boiled it down to three words: less, but better. Today our feeds and brands are louder than ever, which is why calm now reads as confident. You will practise stripping a piece back to its one job.
Order
Gestalt psychologists showed that the brain groups, aligns and completes before we read a single word. Swiss designers turned that into the grid. This is why a clean layout feels trustworthy on a phone, and a cluttered one feels like a risk. You will sketch a messy layout into order.
Voice
Type and colour speak before the words do. From Gutenberg’s movable type to Helvetica to the fonts on your phone, letters carry personality. Itten and Albers showed that colour is never fixed; it changes with what sits beside it. Today, many brands have drifted into the same plain sans-serif, and colour carries different meanings across cultures and screens. You will choose a type and colour personality for a brand, and defend your choice.
Rules Broken on Purpose
Designers like Carson and Sagmeister broke every rule, but they knew the rules first. Desktop publishing and templates then put design in everyone’s hands. Flat design cleaned up our screens. Now AI can produce endless polished images that all look strangely alike. In 2026 and beyond, what stands out is the specific, the human and the made-on-purpose. You will find the one thing that makes your own work yours.
Audience
Who this is for
Develop A Design Eye is a one-day, in-person course for anyone who makes or approves visual work: entrepreneurs, small business owners, and marketing and production teams. No design background needed. No software needed. Just a notepad, a pen and a willingness to look properly.
Learning Experience
A considered learning experience
You will spend the morning travelling through a hundred and fifty years of design, from William Morris’s workshops to the Bauhaus and the Swiss grid, hearing the stories and the reasons behind the images we now take for granted. Each idea comes alive on your own notepad, as you look closely, name what you see and make real decisions with a pen in your hand. Then you step into the present, where AI can produce a polished image in seconds and every feed looks a little alike, and you discover why history is your sharpest advantage.
After lunch you bring your own work and see it with new eyes, guided by the same principles that shaped the greatest designers. You leave inspired, with a lasting way of seeing, and the confidence to make visual choices that stand out in 2027 and beyond.
Details
Course details
Format
In person Course. 10 participants max
Level
All Levels
Access
Sign up to our waiting list.
FAQ
Common questions
Who is this course for?
This course is for anyone who works with ideas and wants to develop a more intentional creative process. It is suited to designers, founders, creative professionals, and curious learners of all kinds. You do not need a formal background in design or art to participate — a genuine interest in thinking carefully about what you make is all that is required.
Do I need prior design experience?
No prior design experience is expected or required. The course is structured so that beginners can follow it confidently, while those with design experience will find new perspectives and tools to add to their practice. The focus is on developing thinking skills that are useful at any level.
How does purchase work?
The course is available to purchase through the shop. Once your order is complete, you will receive details of how to access the course materials. If you have any questions before or after purchasing, you are welcome to get in touch via the contact page.
Ready to explore your ideas?
A course for designers and non-designers who want to work more intentionally with AI — and leave with something real to show for it.