Become a Green Graphic Design Expert with our Comprehensive Course
Accessible pricing, 40+ hours of content (lectures + detailed Q+A content from coaching calls), lifetime access, optional certification and more.
We hope you've been enjoying the educational content and resources so far. We just wanted to let you know about our Green Graphic Design course that we offer to further your learning about Green Graphic Design and running a green design studio. The course is the most comprehensive curriculum for becoming a sustainable designer that's available.
THE OFFICIAL TRAILER FOR THE COURSE
The course is broken up into nine units, covering every facet of our years of research into green design, sustainability, recycling, and running a green design studio! Three times a year, we run biweekly free coaching calls for 9 weeks–these calls are for past and current students! We want to build community and support your learning. We've had some fantastic conversations where someone asked a studio related question and everyone in the call came together to discuss their experiences as freelancers and designers. The calls are usually run Feb-April, June-Aug, September-Dec, although this is subject to change to pay attention to our Instagram if you want to know when the next set of calls is launching!
The course is always available for registration year-round and is $300, featuring over 12+ hours of dense lecture content, 30+ hours of valuable coaching call Q&A replays, and an optional Green Designer certification. Additionally, there are a number of resource guides, templates, workbooks and reference notes for units that are particularly technical (after all, why make everyone write down the same thing?).
We've also created this certificate for the completion of the course–if you complete each weekly quiz on the content, we'll send you the certification at the end which you can use to start conversations with clients about green design and use to market your sustainable values to the world!
Course Curriculum
Unit 1: Understanding Climate Crisis
In this unit, we cover the foundations of sustainability, a brief look at the mechanisms behind how the climate crisis is occurring, the effects of climate change and human activity on the planet, and finally some of the solutions that are currently being considered to help remedy these problems. We think it's important to provide these topics to bring anyone joining the course up to speed with some of these contemporary issues so they don't feel uncertain discussing these complex topics with us. Having a knowledge base around these issues also helps when communicate to clients the importance of making sustainable choices.
Unit 2: Green Design Techniques: Forestry & Impact
In this unit we cover basic forest biology, talking about why forest diversity matters and how that relates to the importance of avoiding deforestation. From there we start talking about the kinds of choices designers can make to minimize their reliance on unsustainable paper sources and how to navigate the fairly complex space of certifications, paper types, and supply chains.
Unit 3: Green Design Techniques: Materials & Vetting Suppliers
In this unit we go into more depth about specific paper stock options, inks, coatings, whether font choice really matters, and how to choose printers. We also talk about how you can influence your printer to offer more sustainable options.
Unit 4/5: Sustainable Packaging
Here we talk about how packaging can function as an effective piece of marketing and way to communicate a clients values to their customers. We also explore some of the myths about plastic recycling, and explore how the unsustainable life-cycle of plastics intersects with environmental racism.
Expanding on the previous week, we talk about a range of common materials that are used in packaging, the pros and cons of each, and appropriate use conditions. We try to emphasize materials that are commonly considered as sustainable and explore what's truly sustainable, and what's irredeemably greenwashed.
Unit 6/7: Running a Green Design Studio
In this week we cover studio policies, contracts, environmental guidelines and more. We also talk about marketing yourself as a sustainable designer and how to communicate with clients. This section includes information about conducting an Environmental Impact Report on your company and has a template for you to use! We also discuss screening and ethics with clients.
Unit 8: The Business Case for Green Design
Here we really go in depth into how to explain to clients why and how sustainability can be an effective choice for them. We talk about the portion of market share that is currently being untapped due to (we argue) a lack of sustainable options, and how to expand the concept of sustainable branding beyond just reusable home-goods.
Unit 9: Becoming an Expert & Industry Leader in Sustainable Design
We take a critical look at examples of greenwashing, and how you can avoid committing the same sins. We also explore the legal requirements around green marketing language established by regulatory bodies. We also look at how you can establish yourself as creditably sustainable through carbon offsetting, and how to decide what kind of certifications are right for your business.
Curious for more detail?
Please let us know if you have any questions about the course – we're more than happy to answer them!