Stand out from the noise by unlocking your visual style
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“The Approachable Design workshop opened up a whole new direction for me. I always looked externally for inspiration, but with Nate’s guidance I realized that I already had a clear direction on my personal esthetics.
The two days were brilliant and so much fun. Heaps more effective than therapy.”
You don't need to be a designer to build a design system. You just need the conviction to make a few choices and adopt a few principles.
This live workshop will show you how to do just that.
Learn the fundamental building blocks of good design while creating your own design system, leading you to make better design decisions to stand out from the sea of minimalist templates.
You're only two days away from having a new starting point for all your future design decisions.
Only 15 spots are left for Cohort 3!
Aesthetics is the language of feeling, and in a society that's information rich and time-poor, people value feeling more than information.
—Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap
You're a creator, writer, freelancer, entrepreneur, or marketer who knows what great design looks like. But, you're unsure how to combine the right colors, shapes, and type into something beautiful that reflects your personality or brand.
Simply, you love design, but you don't consider yourself a designer.
Do you ever catch yourself staring at a website and wonder, “Why does this look so good?”
Design not only can look great, it's how you communicate your personality and taste without uttering a word.
Design is a superpower, which gives you an edge. Design has ROI. Design can fundamentally ooze class, it can build trust, and it can even make you hangry.
I'll teach you how to unlock and apply your own creative taste, starting from the inside out.
Design seems daunting because it feels like it's a language you don't speak. There's so much to learn, you don't know where to start. In Approachable Design, we'll only focus on the highest leverage materials, skipping all the theory for simple, solid decision making.
Understand how to pick and combine colors
Using the inside-out design process, you'll find colors based on your own personality and find complimentary colors to pair with them. You'll understand how to manipulate hue, saturation and value to get the perfect color.
Find your own typeface
You'll never look at type the same way again. 95% of the web is made up of text, and you'll want to understand why you should choose a serif or a sans-serif font, and where to find free or affordable typefaces, all based on your personality.
Choosing a grayscale palette
You'll never look at white and black the same way again. You'll learn why designers rarely use white and black, and how to add a bit of personality to an otherwise minimalist design.
Minimalism is boring
Many non-designers trick themselves into thinking they're a minimalist, but often it's because it's more difficult to know which design decisions to make. We'll show you methods that will transform how you look at minimalist templates forever.
“Nate approaches design in a way that's understandable even to the most design-challenged of us. His workshop was fun, full of wonderful people, and I was able to create something that feels like me!”
For the past 16 years, I’ve worked as a brand and product designer for early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies, like Microsoft, Target, Best Buy, and Sony.
I’m also a self-taught designer, so I know learning the fundamentals of design can be done without spending a lot of money.
The web might be boring, but you're not. In just two days, you'll gain the confidence to make better design decisions.
You'll create a design kit you can use for your own website, pitch deck, newsletter, or future company by learning the fundamentals of design. It's an investment in your own personal style.
To unlock your personal taste, we start from the inside-out, using what’s unique to you, to create a visual aesthetic you won't find anywhere else.
Over the 2-day workshop, you’ll learn and apply the inside-out design framework you can carry with you infinitely.
Whether you’re starting a business or wanting to stand out online, you’ll unlock the principles to create a personal aesthetic you won’t find anywhere else.
Learn a repeatable method allowing you to draw inspiration from your own stories and experiences
Discover your own visual style by applying imagery to your own life stories
Create visual boards to represent your individual aesthetic: instantly see your style without trying, as others' design choices take a different direction
We'll build our boards using a collaborative design tool called Figma, which is one of the best tools to design anything your mind can imagine.
Learn how to choose and create your own colors, typefaces, shapes and textures
Turn your visual aesthetic into a defined visual system, which is your new starting point for future design decisions
Lifetime access to a design community with video tutorials, Q&A, and recorded design breakdowns.
Between workshops, our creative advisors will host design sessions with past students to work on your design projects as a group. Get feedback and support on your own designs.
The creative journey can be scary. It's easy to doubt yourself when making design decisions when you're in a group, or on your own. But, we have you covered!
Heather, Hilary, and Megan all bring their creative energy to support you during the workshop. They'll be present both days to help answer your creative questions during the live sessions, as well as during the breakout rooms.
In two days, you'll walk away with a personal taste palette which you'll be able to reference when making future design decisions. You'll know which fonts, colors, shapes, textures to use when designing any future artifacts.
Nope! This course is aimed at non-designers who care about design, but don't have a traditional design background.
Both Saturday and Sunday, the course starts at 9 AM, and runs for 4 hours until 1:00 PM.
All times PST. Find your time
During the workshop, we will make room for a live Q&A, as well as offer creative feedback using breakout rooms. If more design guidance is needed after the workshop, you can purchase the Signature plan, which gives you additional 1:1 time with Nate to get personalized feedback.
We will use Zoom for the live sessions, and Figma during the workshop. One week before the workshop, we will provide video tutorials on how to use the basics of Figma for the workshop.
Between each workshop we will run (1-2) Playshops on an ongoing basis. Playshops are like like workshops but much more playful! We'll announce these well in advance. They last from 60-90 minutes in total.
One week prior to the course starting, we'll open up the doors to the design community hosted on Circle. There will be video tutorials for you to watch ahead of time, and to prepare for the workshop.
You will have lifetime access to the community.
Yes, I quit college after my second year—before graduating—and learned to design for the web as an apprentice. Most of my nights were spent drinking Mountain Dew until 2am learning to code and study design.
I was broke, but confident. I even wrote an essay about this time in my life.
Even though one can dream, we cannot teach you how to become a professional designer in two days. If you are looking to study design as a profession, please reach out and we can offer alternative courses to take.
You care about design, but have trouble making design decisions. Your personality doesn't reflect your website, newsletter, social profiles, etc. You rely on templates too much, because design feels exhausting. We understand these problems, and think our course will help you! (And it's just plain fun.)
"The workshop paid for itself in that I was able to make the changes myself, and communicate them in a level that is much more professional.
And that's going to have a huge impact on my business."
These prices are valid for Approachable Design cohort 5, starting on May 21-22.
We put a lot of effort into delivering a premium quality experience, and we don't think you'll regret it.
But, If you attend both days in full and don't love Approachable Design, contact us within 14 days after the workshop ends, and we will give you a full refund — NO QUESTIONS ASKED.
Your friend in design,
Nate Kadlac
