Good design is part of strong organizing. Reports on both digital and print communications consistently show that strong visual content generates more engagement. Running grassroots campaigns requires communicating effectively across many platforms, and good design can dramatically activate and broaden your base.
Artbuild preparing for massive climate march. Photo: J.Ratner
This 16-session Graphic Design for Organizing Apprenticeship will rapidly scale up your visual communications skills. From building a visual identity for your organization to applying time-tested graphic design techniques to navigating industry-standard (and emerging!) software, you will be able to efficiently create designs that inspire action. You’ll also be able to lead your organization to support distributed design by volunteers and staff who are not designers.
Learning model: The program is designed to apply your learning by trying your hand at new design skills and getting direct feedback on your work from experienced designers. The pedagogical approach includes large group live sessions, supplemental resources via recorded presentations, and design assignments meant to support campaigns you have underway. The 16 live sessions include four required small group sessions (up to 15 participants) for coaching, problem-solving, questions, and feedback from instructors with deep experience in design for movements, and for peer support. They also include 4 office hours sessions to complete design assignments and get personalized support. After the small group session and critique, participants seeking to further improve their designs may revise and resubmit their assignment for additional written feedback.
To receive the Certificate, participants must attend and be an active participant in at least 75% of required live sessions (9 of the 12) and complete all assignments. Assignments will be completed each week and will as much as possible relate directly to the participant’s current campaign work.
The curriculum will include sessions and recordings covering: design principles, design psychology, visual identity, accessibility, design and photography ethics, and building design templates and supports so that non-designers in your organization can do their own design work. Live sessions and recordings will also introduce or deepen the use of tools like Canva, Photoshop, and Illustrator. See the full curriculum here.
The program builds on SMT’s design programs held in 2019, 2021, and 2022, making a powerful library of resources and design examples available to participants. In response to requests, we’ve deepened skill-building with libraries of recordings and resources in Canva, Photoshop, Illustrator, accessibility, and more.
The program’s goal is to enable participants to level up significantly in their design skill level and in their ability to scope out the design needs of an organizing moment. It is also to build a community of practice in this design work. Participants will be paired up for support if they want, and they will engage with each other and instructors via an ongoing Slack channel.
Micky Jordan, SMT Staff Partner: Micky is a Black queer and genderqueer visual artist and organizer who has called Richmond, Virginia home for over 20 years. He’s a mostly self-taught designer who has developed his design work with a range of organizing groups. He is currently Graphic Designer at NDWA and previously worked with Southerners on New Ground (SONG). He loves art, media, stand up comedy and dreaming about building a safer, beautiful, more affirming world for trans and queer people of color to not just survive in, but thrive in.
Cécile Pillon Hue, SMT Staff Partner: Cécile is a feminist artist and communicator. Working with international non-profits and local groups for over 10 years, she has experimented with various digital design tools to mix her passions for visual arts, social & environmental justice into her work. She uses design as a way to connect people across regions, cultures and technologies as she believes this is the key to a more respectful and inclusive world.
David Perrin, SMT Staff Partner: David is a graphic designer and illustrator. At SMT he serves as a resource to the social justice community and for people who look like him. David’s ultimate goal as a black creative is to produce powerful imagery that is wholly representative of his culture and community. He also works as the lead graphic designer for a progressive think-tank, Dēmos, where he produces visual assets for social media and reports.
Jules Cowan, SMT Staff Partner. Jules has developed creative strategy and designed accessible user experiences for over a decade. Their design direction has supported grassroots political candidates, the Green New Deal, sanctuary cities, racial justice ballot initiatives, oil pipeline blockades, union worker co-ops, tenant protections, Palestinian human rights, LGBTQI2S+ liberation, incarcerated journalists, Puerto Rican independence, and ending gender-based violence. Jules advocates for the full spectrum of human-centered design. They specialize in design systems, research, testing, and leading trainings. Just as much a part of their creative process, Jules plays soccer with the Left Wing Fútbol Club, meditates, and cuddles their dog Wonder.
Sophia Andreazza, SMT Staff Partner. Sophia is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Brazil. For over 8 years, she’s been working on LGBTQI+ and women’s rights campaigns. Her illustrations and design have helped justice-oriented institutions and organizations, such as the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), the Marielle Franco’s Institute and the Brazilian Ministry of Racial Equality to communicate with more color and efficiency. As a recipient of the 2022 Adobe Advocates Program, she has provided 375 illustrations to Adobe Stock portraying queer and Latinx people, increasing the diversity on the platform. In her free time, she likes to read books, go to the beach and hang with her wife and cats, Lina and Bartolomeu.
All sessions will be held in English, with captions in English. The program will hold small group sessions in additional languages with the registration of at least 10 participants per language. Session recording captions and simultaneous interpretation in these or other languages may be available with sufficient demand per language. Contact us at [email protected].
Sessions will be 90 mins on Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon ET (See this time automatically converted to your timezone.) Small group sessions will be available at noon Nairobi time / 4pm Jakarta time to be more accessible to participants in the Middle East, Africa, Oceania, and Asia. (See this additional potential time in your time zone.)
See testimonials from some of the more than 300 alums of previous years of this program from across the world.
In order to support a movement organization learning space, SMT trainings are for staff of non-profits – NGOs, unions and electoral campaigns. Trainings are not for consultants or agencies. Consultants & agency staff who register will have their registrations refunded. Alternatively, on demand trainings are available to all on SMT’s course platform.
Region | Organizational Budget (USD) |
Early Bird Rate (ends August 11, 2023) | Outreach Partner Referral (thru Aug 11, 2023 only) | Regular (cost after August 11, 2023) |
North America & Western Europe
|
$2M+ | $1,000 | $900 | $1,100 |
$500K-2M | $900 | $800 | $1,000 | |
Under $500K | $800 | $700 | $900 | |
Global**
|
2M+ | $800 | $750 | $900 |
$500K-2M | $700 | $650 | $800 | |
Under $500K | $500 | $450 | $600 | |
Additional person from the same organization (same email domain) |
$600* | $600* | $675* | |
Group Rate – North America & Western Europe (up to 10 seats) – designed to help networks and funders make this program accessible to their communities. |
$6,000 | $6,000 | $7,000 | |
Group Rate – Global** (up to 10 seats) – designed to help networks and funders make this program accessible to their communities. |
$5,000 | $5,000 | $6,000 | |
Groups with subscription memberships for coaching and support get a significant discount. Contact your coach about this. | ||||
*Cost for 2nd person from an organization should not be higher than the first person cost. For example, if first person cost is $500, that will also be 2nd person cost. | ||||
**Global: all regions outside of North America and Western Europe. |
Groups referred by outreach partners can get $75 to $150 off specific levels (see table above). Please name the outreach partner in your registration and forward the email you received to [email protected]. The outreach partner discount does not apply to group rates or 2nd person rates, which are already steeply discounted to represent an organization’s investment in SMT training. Outreach partners pass along opportunities for training and coaching to lists of organizing groups. This helps SMT as a non-profit reach more groups that could organize more powerfully with SMT support. Interested in being an outreach partner? Contact [email protected] and describe the size and type of groups you’d reach out to. Typically, this is a list of chapters of a network; allied organizations across a country, state, region; or some other cohort or grouping of many organizations.
In order to support a movement organization learning space, SMT trainings are for staff of non-profits – NGOs, unions and electoral campaigns. Trainings are not for consultants or agencies. Consultants & agency staff who register will have their registrations refunded. Alternatively, on demand trainings are available to all on SMT’s course platform.
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