Learn the fundamentals of design in less than 6 weeks

A no-fluff course for developers to learn design principles

Thank you so much for putting together this course. It has completely changed my business for the better. —Jessica L.

28 LESSONS

28 video lessons with downloads and extras

NO-FLUFF

Super actionable with a
‘no-fluff guarantee’

AT YOUR OWN PACE

Access the course forever with free updates

As a developer, you’re likely involved in design decisions on a daily basis. Maybe you’re being asked to add a new feature to your company's web app, or you’ve had an idea for a side project that you want to look half-decent. Many tasks you work on involve some level of design skills.

And so design becomes that thing that you can’t seem to get away from. It’s always there: something you wish you could do but don’t know how to start.

I’ve been there. I appreciated good design but could never seem to replicate it, despite having invested over 5 years into design college and university. Every course I took was insightful and technically ‘made sense’, yet when I was left to design something on my own, I hit a brick wall.

Now, after almost a decade of self-taught designing, I finally feel like I can call myself a designer. And the way I taught myself was a far cry from what I learned in design school. That’s why I’ve created this course. I’m going to give you the shortcuts I wish I had when learning design and leave you with a solid foundation in everything from colour to typography to imagery on the web.

This course will help you get to a stage where you can not only be confident in your abilities (and trust me, you have plenty of ability to learn design) but it’ll also teach you all the tricks I’ve learned in the last 10+ years of professional design work

Just wanted to let you know. This is so friggin’ awesome. A perfect way to learn on my part.
Mark Buskbjerg

What will I learn?

The goal of this course is to give you a solid design foundation to start building upon. It’s not going to teach you everything under the sun about design but it’ll teach you the most important things you can do to improve your designs today -- no matter how “artistic” you are (or, more likely, aren’t!). Some highlights include:

EASY TO FOLLOW PROCESS

My workflow I use for almost every project from finding inspiration to colour and typography

THINK LIKE A DESIGNER

How you can train your eye to spot what’s wrong in a design and, most importantly, fix it

WORKSHEETS AND CHEATSHEETS

Useful downloads to help you keep track of your progress and apply what you're learning to real projects

VISUALS MADE EASY

Image and illustration treatment that anyone can do - even if you can’t draw a wonky line

6 Modules, 28 videos

You can binge watch all these videos in one go, or come back and reference them at any time throughout whatever project you’re working on.

Module 1

Planning

In this module you will learn the best way to begin any design project. You’ll gather the assets you need so when you start, you won’t be helplessly staring at a blank screen. You’ll learn:

The importance of good content and how to write it
Which design style to use and why not to simply rely on personal tastes or trends
How to gather inspiration that you can actually use to build up your design

Welcome to the course!

How to use this course

Which tools should you use to design?

Getting your content ready for a design project

Different design styles and which one to use

Gathering (useful) inspiration

MODULE 2

Layout

In this module you will learn my process for getting your content into a workable layout. This will form the foundation of your design. We’ll also go through the most common layout mistakes and how to fix them. You’ll learn:

How to come up with a layout that will fit your content perfectly.
The most important – but most overlooked – aspect of good design.
Common layout mistakes and how to fix them.

Sketching layouts

Filling in your content

Grids and alignment

Mastering spacing

Breaking the rules

MODULE 3

Typography

This module is all about choosing and using fonts in your designs. Typography plays a huge part in design and you’ll be surprised to see how the details can make a huge difference. You’ll learn:

How to choose the best typefaces for headings and body copy.
How to format typography and give it a clear hierarchy.
Typographic details that will take your design to the next level.

How (and where) to find great typefaces

Evaluating typefaces

Using fonts in your design

Typographic details

MODULE 4

Colour

In this module you will learn how to choose and use colours in your design. Choosing and applying colours can be tricky but I’ll show you my process and, more importantly, what to do when your colours don’t look quite right. You’ll learn:

Some tricks to choosing a colour palette that works for your design.
How to apply colours and make your palette stretch further.
What to do when your colours look ‘off’.

Choosing a colour scheme

Refining your brand colour

Expanding your colour palette: tints and shades

Expanding your colour palette: accents and extras

When your colours look ‘off’

MODULE 5

Imagery

This module is going to give you everything you need to know to use imagery effectively in design. This is a stumbling block for so many people and can really make or break your design. You’ll learn:

How to source photography, illustrations, and icons.
How to edit photography so it doesn’t look like generic stock photography.
How to manipulate illustrations and icons so they look custom designed for you.
Tips and tricks on how to edit and display screenshots from your app or software product.

Sourcing photography for web design

Photo editing for web design

Cutting out images

Using icons in web design

Illustrations in web design.

Displaying app screenshots

MODULE 6

Polish

In this module you will be polishing up your designs. You will go back and identify what the problem areas are and come up with ideas on how to fix them. You’ll learn:

A simple exercise you can use to critically analyse your design.
Some responsive tips, tricks, and considerations as you start to build out your design.
How to ensure your design will stay consistent throughout iterations and updates.

How to identify and fix problem areas

Responsive design tips and tricks

Consistency in design

Multicolour icon set

A set of beautifully illustrated icons organised into categories such as Avatars, Computing, Space, Sport, Art & Design, and more.

Single colour illustration set

Non-stock-looking illustrations for your website or app project. Using a single accent colour which can be changed to fit your brand.

Mini icon set

Everyone needs a set of mini UI icons. Comes in both solid and outline styles. Perfect for both websites and apps.

UI Components

UI components for you to use and tweak in your projects. Or just to get an insight into how they’ve been designed.

Downloadable cheatsheets

Downloadable (and regularly updated) cheatsheets for you to keep on hand as you’re working on future projects.

A comprehensive companion guide

An editable Google doc which highlights all of the most important pieces of information from the course so you can quickly refer back as you're working on projects.

Stop letting your lack of ‘design voodoo’ hold you back from creating kick-ass products.

Enroll in Design Fundamentals and start learning design today!

Design Fundamentals

^$299 USD

Access to 28 in-depth videos
Lifetime access to the class
Unlimited updates
Worksheets and cheatsheets
6-week accountability
UI component library
2 full icon sets
Illustration library

Enroll Now

https://lauraelizabeth.gumroad.com/l/design-fundamentals/

I didn’t even know I could come up with something like this. Your course has helped me get the confidence that I can actually create a decent design!
Steve Popoola

Have you ever wanted to see first hand how a designer works?

Sometimes the easiest way to learn is just to watch someone work. You’ll pick up tricks that you never thought to look for before! Within the course, you’ll find a number of case studies where you can see how I created each of the following websites from scratch (including all mistakes and mishaps).

CONTINOUSLY UPDATED

As I take on more projects, these case studies will be updated with new, exciting projects.

WITH FULL COMMENTARY

In each video, I’ll be articulating why specific choices were made and highlighting important bits.

THIS COURSE IS FOR YOU IF:

You want to master the fundamentals of design without spending years in design school (and don’t necessarily want to think of yourself as a designer)
You want to build, launch, and sell your own products and not have them look ugly
You have clients asking for you to add some design polish to the projects you built for them
You want to learn from “over-the-shoulder” walkthroughs of how designers really design
You want to stop feeling embarrassed when you give someone a link to your portfolio

THIS COURSE IS NOT FOR YOU IF:

You’re not willing to commit to putting into practice what the course teaches (you won’t learn just by watching the videos!)
You have the time to teach yourself design through trial and error (it is possible, but it’ll take longer)
You don’t have the motivation to start learning design just yet
You want to learn abstract design principles about movement, balance, rhythm …
You favour trends as opposed to designing for usability and conversions

Who teaches this?

Hey! I’m Laura Elizabeth and I’ve been a designer for almost a decade, I’ve worked on projects for HelpSpot, LaraTalent, RightMessage and Double Your Freelancing. I also speak at numerous conferences around the world (you might have seen me on stage at SmashingConf, Laracon, LTV Conf, Patterns Day and many more).

And now I’m here to help you level up your design skills so you can start creating products that are not only built well, but look pretty darn good!

Frequently Asked Questions

“I’m a developer who can’t design for shite. Will this help me?”

This course is aimed at complete beginners to design… but is by no means slow-paced or patronising. If you’re technically minded and consider yourself creatively challenged this course is for you. We’ll go through a simple step by step process that you can repeat in it’s entirety or pick and choose for any project you work on.

“How long can I access the course for?”

Forever and ever. You’ll have access to all the videos, worksheets along with any future updates we have planned.

“What kind of software/tooling do I need?”

This course is deliberately tool agnostic. The reason being, it doesn’t matter what you design in (Photoshop, Sketch, Chrome) - it’s a case of designing in what makes you more comfortable and allows you to focus on the principles, not the tool. That said, we do cover image treatments and vector graphics which will need some kind of software like Photoshop or Illustrator. If you don’t want to splash out on Creative Cloud, all the techniques can also be used in free software like Gimp.

“I’m not a developer but I still want to learn design. Can this course help me?”

“Is this going to just be a bunch of theory?”

Nope! This course is designed to be super, duper actionable. My biggest frustration with learning design was that the principles all made sense but I was always left with one question: “How do I actually apply this in my work?”. This course has been designed with implementation in mind. After each lesson you’ll have a new skill which you can start using in your projects instantly.

“How long does the course take to complete?”

That depends how much effort you put in but typically you’re looking at a minimum of 2 weeks to go through the fundamentals. You’ll likely be coming back to reference any aspects you struggle with.

“What if I don’t get anything useful out of this?”

If, for whatever reason, you’re not happy with the course and it doesn’t help you improve your designs, I don’t want yo’ money. Simply let me know within 30 days of when the course gets released and I’ll give you a full refund.

“Laura, will you be available if I get stuck?”

Absolutely! As a student of the course you will get feedback on your designs as you go through the course. I'll provide every student with at least one full assessment of your design and give you comprehensive feedback on how you can improve. My #1 goal is for you to come out with a design you're proud of.

If you decide the course isn’t right for you, just email in within the first 30 days and I’ll give you a 100% refund – no questions asked.

We have over 1,000 happy students... see what they have to say:

I didn’t even know I could come up with something like this. Your course has helped me get the confidence that I can actually create a decent design! —Steve Popoola

This is the best explanation of design craft I’ve ever seen. —Alex Bakoushin

You’ve made such an impression on me that at this point I know I’ll read anything that comes from you. —Gwen Ames

This is the best email series I’ve ever subscribed to. I love the details and how you’re slowly building up a whole design. —Hrishi Mittal

This email course has been amazing, so far. I’ve been doing color overlay on images all wrong and they always look horrible. Thank you for doing this course. —Jason Charnes

Thank you so much for putting together this course. It has completely changed my business for the better. —Jessica L.

Your way of explaining things is so simple, intuitive and sensible. I love it! —Muhammad Anas , Full-Stack Software Engineer

Just wanted to let you know. This is so friggin’ awesome. A perfect way to learn on my part. —Mark Buskbjerg

—Bryan Nichols

Enroll now and finally start learning design once and for all.

Enroll in Design Fundamentals and start learning design today!

Design Fundamentals

^$299 USD

Access to 28 in-depth videos
Lifetime access to the class
Unlimited updates
Worksheets and cheatsheets
6-week accountability
UI component library
2 full icon sets
Illustration library

Enroll Now

ENROLL NOW