Becoming a Climate Designer
A 7-week course for practicing designers & related creative professionals on making a meaningful impact using your current skillset. For designers and design thinkers passionate about climate action.
- Create a new portfolio project
- Design case studies
- 100% online
- 3+ guest lecturers
- 7 weeks / 5 hours per week
- Financial aid available
Step into climate leadership through design
Find your place as a creative professional passionate about climate action
Understand the role creatives have in shaping culture and social norms. How can you move the status quo towards a healthier, equitable, more resilient, life sustaining world? Learn where you personally can fit in and how to effectively channel your energy & talents to create positive change.
Learn the most effective frameworks & tools to shape our shared future
Apply methodologies and fresh perspectives that will help you truly create the impact you desire. Learn about effective action, re-writing narratives, designing for systemic changes and more to create measurable and sustained change.
Elevate your career to apply your skills to impactful work
Create a climate-focused portfolio piece that can attract future employers while establishing yourself as a leader in climate action. Connect with creatives around the globe to help you expand a strong professional network that will support you as you build your climate career.
UNMATCHED FACULTY
World-class instructors and guest lecturers
Sarah Harrison (she/her) spent over a decade designing software & brands in San Francisco’s tech startup industry before burnout led her to start over, with no choice but to apply her skills for positive change & social impact. She co-founded The Determined in 2016 & Climate Designers in 2019 and also co-teaches a social entrepreneurship class in the interaction design graduate program at California’s College of the Arts every summer.
Our Guest Lecturers
Katie Patrick
Engineer, Designer, and Author (USA)
Katie Patrick is an Australian-American environmental engineer, designer, and author of How to Save the World: How to Make Changing the World the Greatest Game We’ve Ever Played. and hosts the podcast, How to Save the World, where she investigates academic research in environmental psychology. She specializes in what she calls “Fitbit for the Planet” design – which means applying data-driven gamification and behavior-change techniques to environmental problems. Katie has worked on environmental gamification projects with NASA JPL, Stanford University, UNEP, Google, the University of California, Magic Leap, and the Institute for the Future.
Katie is the founder of UrbanCanopy.io, a map-based application that uses satellite imaging of urban heat islands and vegetation cover to encourage urban greening and cooling initiatives. She is also the co-founder of Energy Lollipop, a Chrome extension and outdoor screen project that shows the electric grid’s CO2 emissions in real-time.
Evan Hynes
CEO and Founder, ClimateBase (USA)
Evan Hynes is CEO and Founder of Climatebase, the platform for the climate workforce. At Climatebase, we’re mobilizing talent for a climate-positive world. We’re a venture-backed startup focused on solving the #1 challenge faced by organizations working on climate: Hiring. Our platform helps talented professionals discover climate job opportunities and transition into the space — and in doing so, we help climate-focused organizations hire the mission-driven talent they need to succeed. Prior to working on climate, Evan spent 3 years working as Head Of Community at Make School, an edtech company back by Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, and other top investors, which pioneered the income share model for higher education. Evan studied Fine Art, Communication, and Technology Entrepreneurship at UC Santa Barbara. He’s originally from Berkeley CA and now lives in SF, where he enjoys time outdoors with friends.
Rollie Williams
Comedian, Writer, Climate and Policy Expert (USA)
Rollie Williams is a comedian, writer, and climate science and policy expert with a masters degree from Columbia University. He is the creator of the award-winning comedy series Climate Town and has been featured in College Humor, Funny Or Die, Splitsider, Vulture, HuffPo. He is also the creator and host of the long-running live show An Inconvenient Talk Show. Rollie hosts a show about billiards on YouTube which you can google if you’re curious. He is from Colorado and BOY will he not shut up about it.
Sadie Red Wing
Designer and Student Coach, American Indian College Fund (USA)
Sadie Red Wing is a Lakota graphic designer and advocate from the Spirit Lake Nation of Fort Totten, North Dakota. Red Wing earned her BFA in New Media Arts and Interactive Design at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She received her Master of Graphic Design from North Carolina State University. Her research on cultural revitalization through design tools and strategies created a new demand for tribal competence in graphic design research. Red Wing urges Native American graphic designers to express visual sovereignty in their design work, as well as, encourages academia to include an indigenous perspective in design curriculum. Currently, Red Wing serves as a Student Success Coach for American Indian College Fund (Denver, CO) where she specializes in student retention and resource building for the Native American demographic in higher education spaces. Her work has been featured on AIGA’s Eye on Design: “Why Can’t the U.S. Decolonize Its Design Education?” (2017), Communication Arts: “Decolonizing Native American Design” (2017), and The World Policy Journal: “United Nation’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” (2018).
Dawn Danby
Co-founder and Principal Strategist, Spherical (USA)
Dawn Danby is co-founder and principal strategist of Spherical, an integrative research and design studio offering cosmovision remediation and ontological repair services. She conducts design research programs across scales, spanning materials, manufacturing and the built environment. Her current work supports regional-scale circular economics and integrated watershed management. Dawn spent ten years leading Autodesk’s sustainable design initiatives, advancing the development of digital tools for reducing the ecological and human impacts of design and engineering. Additionally, she served for many years on the board of National Design Award-winning Catapult Design, co-authored the bestselling Worldchanging: A User’s Guide to the 21st Century, and has taught and lectured extensively around the world. Dawn has an industrial design degree from the Rhode Island School of Design, and an MBA in Sustainable Business from Bainbridge Graduate Institute (now Presidio).
Exceptional Alumni
You’ll join exceptional alumni from all our programs, who have accomplished careers in industry, policy, and more, and have all made a commitment to focusing their career on sustainability and decarbonization. Expect a similarly accomplished peer set from the world of design, product, photography, UI/UX and the like.
Carly Schonberg
Senior Product Designer at Climate Club (USA)
Course breakdown
Sign up to get a detailed syllabus in your inbox, or check out a week-by-week outline below.
Try our FREE class: Getting Started as a Climate Designer
Get to know the course creators as they walk through their 3-part guide to building your career as a designer taking climate action.
Personalized and relevant instruction
The founders of this course bring years of experience working at the intersection of design and climate action. Since 2019, they have been supporting designers with resources, training, & helpful tools through a podcast, an 1800+ member online community, virtual events, and classes in higher-education.
Two-week design sprint
After the first four weeks you’ll split into small teams based on personal interests and:
- Collaborate to apply the concepts you've learned towards your local community or context
- Develop your climate voice and create a portfolio-ready climate project
- Push your design & execution skills with new techniques
Climate action lab groups
Once a week, you will meet with your instructors in live, small-group sessions for:
- Energetic discussions on the topics of the week
- Presentations & Q&A with guest speakers
- Opportunities to connect with classmates & grow your professional network
Latest course material
We update our learning material to stay cutting-edge:
- Latest developments on the science, climate impacts, and market solutions
- Future-focused perspectives and new approaches emerging from design leaders, climate experts, and culture-makers
- Lifetime access for fellows
Personal attention
We track every fellow’s progress closely and ensure people get the support they need:
- Optional weekly 1-on-1 sessions with your instructors
- Personalized career transition training
- Intensive peer support from your fellow learners
Pricing and expected commitment
US$ 799 / 7 weeks
or 7 installments of $114/mo.
Intensive Program
7 week duration, with 5 hours of time commitment per week.
Community Learning
Each class has fellows split into groups of 20-25 with extensive skills, background, and passion.
Exclusive events
3+ guest lectures from design and climate experts, also available for later viewing.
Online Content
100% online, with instructors available via Zoom, Slack, and email.
Our fellows say it best...
Petja Doukova
It was an enriching experience. I learned so much, only to find out there's so little I know. As a designer, it's so important to think and rethink the impact of our designs so that we create a just world. I think this course is a great place to start.
- Graphic Designer, Menuu Software (Bulgaria)
Elisha Hardy
Marc and Sarah are genuine human beings who share a passion for creating and teaching others how to create the better, more livable world that we all need.
- Principal UX Architext, MetroStar (USA)
Sydney Schwindt
This class was so helpful in giving resources and examples of various climate design projects. It also was great for getting to know other like minded people in the community! Looking forward to further work through all of this!
- Artist and Founder, True Edge Art (USA)
Isobel Davis
Treasured community experience of faculty, mentors and fellows. Action focus here was very supportive of next goals. The program is interdisciplinary, equity focused, international, enriched & empowering for adapting my work for the climate space & for more impact with current projects.
- Owner Isobel Davis Art and Design (USA)
Who is this program for?
A deep dive on impactful design for climate makes the program perfect for practicing designers & related professionals who want to contribute to a larger positive change with their work.
Designers of all kinds
Industrial designers, graphic designers, UX/UI designers, UX writers, service designers, design strategists, illustrators, videographers, design-centric product managers, and so many more than we can list here.
Community-first Experience
You want to network with other creative professionals who are passionate about building a climate-focused career.
Time Commitment
You have sufficient time (5 hours/week) to dedicate to the program.
Still learning design
You’re not a practicing design professional and want a comprehensive design program (these kinds of programs are typically 6-months to 2+ years of full-time study).
Too Busy
You don’t have the time to commit to a deep dive right now (you can always apply for later cohorts).
Frequently asked questions
Kickstart your climate action journey
Join our community of professionals, experts, and educators working on climate change.
