Maybe you work full-time in another industry, you've been working hard on that creative side-hustle, and you think you're finally ready to go full-time. Maybe you've always been the go-to in your social circle for anything art-related, but you did everything for the joy of creating (read: free of charge) and now you're ready to go pro. Maybe you haven't done anything artsy in years (or ever!), and you're debating whether to dip your toe into metaphorically creative waters, but not sure how to approach reallocating time from your other responsibilities. 

Unless you're a hermit in a cave with zero human interaction (but you somehow have internet?), in which case, hello! But unless that is you, you probably have other people and responsibilities in your life who have expectations and claims on your time. Maybe your family life is structured around you being at work in an office. Or maybe your family life is structured around you NOT being at work, office or not. Maybe you used to give away your awesome works of art for free or at cost, but now that you work for yourself, every hour you're creating things for free is an hour you're not spending on your business. 

Maybe all of that is true and you, your family or your friends are all struggling to adjust to a new paradigm where you want to support each other but haven't developed the right scripts to communicate. Many of us have experienced this to one degree or another, but for those who have really struggled with this idea, this will hit very close to home.  

This semester's course in Eliciting Support will walk you though the struggle of being in a relationship or having friends and family who don't support you or struggle to do so in your pursuit of a creative career.  We'll be looking at communication cues and practices and the laws of reciprocity when working on getting your significant other or family and friends on board with your creative business. 

If anything we described above sounds like you, this is the course for you! Can't wait to see you there!

xoxo
DHPS Team

Dear Stationer Friends, this one is for you!

Commercial printing, whether you outsource or print in-house, is never as easy as just hitting Ctrl+P. Learn the ins and outs, save yourself time, money and sanity as we walk you through choosing the correct design + paper + printing method for yourself and your clients from the start. If you've ever struggled to finish a project on time due to printing snafus, last minute design changes based on printing methods, or struggled to reconcile your client's vision with your printing capabilities, this is the course for you!

In addition to the nitty gritty of actual printing, we'll also be looking at helping your clients make their paper/printing decisions correctly through education, correct presentation and bringing in some "spin" that we'll learn in the Art of Saying No. 

We love spools of dreamy hand-dyed silk ribbon from other creatives as much as anyone. Trust me, we have boxes on boxes of ribbons in the office! But sometimes you just need a few pieces for a small project, or perhaps you just can't quite find the right color to match your project. Maybe the price is too high for you and your client, or you just love fabric and would love to know how to dye it yourself. 

No matter the reason, this course will teach you the basics of sourcing, dyeing, and using fabric in your creative pursuits. We'll look at everything including how to tear fabric down to ribbons, dye fabric to match specific projects, and use fabric for large scale lettering and painting projects. 

As a bonus, we'll also touch on how to price fabric-related projects, using principles we discussed in Pricing I and II! Pricing weird projects like this aren't as straightforward as they could (we wish!) so we'll do our best to break it down in a way that can help you make your decisions about how much your fabric endeavors should cost. 

Hey lovelies, we have an exciting announcement!

Drum roll… We’ve decided to restructure how we offer the Design House Prep School courses.

Here’s the deal. Initially, we had decided to run Prep School on a true school schedule, moving on from one semester to the next and expiring courses following each semester.  We chose to structure our school this way to help teach time management and to encourage people to actually consume and finish the courses by giving them a deadline.

A year into our Prep School adventure, we’ve noticed a few things.  Firstly, for various reasons in and out of their control, people are not finishing courses within the semester time period. Secondly, as new students discover and join our school, there are previous semesters’ courses that interest them and would help them on their journey as creative business people.

We hear your concerns, we want to work together to grow everyone’s businesses, and we want our community to continue to flourish. So! We’ve decided to make the courses perpetually available for everyone. Once you buy a course, that video is YOURS--to start when you're ready, to finish at your own pace, and to go back to any time you need a refresher. We try to pack as much information into those 45 minutes (or more! …because sometimes there’s too much to talk about…!) as possible, and we love that you guys re-watch the videos to check in on your own progress. And now you can do that any time you want!

Now here’s the part we’re really excited about. Here at Prep School, we really believe in not just taking the money to invest in ourselves and our businesses, but also taking the time to follow through on a monetary investment and actually take the classes we purchase.

We’ve all been there. You read a catchy launch email, you get inspired by the beautiful pictures of what you could learn… your credit card info is saved in your browser… And then real life happens and your online course just sits out there. On the internet. Waiting for you. And worst of all, you don’t learn what you wanted to learn in the first place!

With this in mind, for our upcoming semester of Prep School, we have some super awesome perks for students who complete their coursework in a timely manner. If something happens and you can’t quite swing finishing the lessons within the time frame of the semester, no worries, you’ll still get access to the awesome courses, the Facebook group, school-wide live streams, and bonus videos. 

Sweet.

However! Students who complete their courses* by a certain date in the semester—this time that date is November 16, two months into the semester—will get some perks.
*completed an entire individual course or at least one whole course in the class pass

No. 1 - Our eyes on your work

Homework up to this point has been less of a focus that we would like, so for the first few months of this next semester, we will be putting more focus and attention on homework.  Assignments will be more interactive, and anyone who posts theirs on our private Facebook group during the semester will get direct feedback and support from the DHPS team.

No. 2 - Special access

Students who have completed their courses by November 16th will get to participate in a Live Q&A session just for them!  Less students in the Q&A means more time to go in-depth into your questions and issues with specific examples so we can really work through and try to find solutions. Prior to the Q&A, you’ll get the chance to send in your specific questions to make sure we answer everything for you!

You might ask, how is this different from our regular school-wide live sessions? We like to use those as a chance to make announcements, discuss the school, and get to hang out with you, our awesome students! In comparison, these sessions will focus on problem-solving and us being there to help you specifically.

No. 3 - Even special-er access!

Finally, finishing your classes by November 16 will automatically enter you into a random drawing for a 45 minute one-on-one mentor session with Victoria to ask or discuss anything you would like. Seriously, anything! Three lucky students will be chosen at random, and we’ll get the mentoring on the books for January.

Whew! That’s a lot of information. Thanks for sticking with us. Shoot us an email if you have any questions, we’d love to hear from you.

TL;DR -- classes are available for you forever! Awesome perks available for you this semester! We’re super psyched to launch this semester!!

All our love,
Victoria, Karen, Monday & the Menagerie

Here, have some pretty ribbons <3

Semester III is almost here! 

We have all our classes lined up and we're excited to share them with you! 

Registration will begin on September 1, so keep an eye out for our launch email! 

Dear lovely Semester I and II students, 

Courses for both semesters will expire on August 13, only days away! 

If you still haven't taken any of the courses you've enrolled in yet, this is your chance. Put it on while you're going to the gym or take a couple hours this weekend and really buckle down! 

Stay tuned for news on Semester III courses as we finalize the class offerings and syllabi. 

Cheers,

DHPS Team
Victoria, Karen & Monday

Hey everyone!!

Want an update on Semester II, when it's ending, what we have coming up this summer and the homework?? Join Karen and I for a live Q&A tomorrow night at 9:00pm EST!! We have an announcement to make, a new coupon code, and we'll be chatting quite a bit about our first bonus video (Styled Shoots!) and answer questions, concerns and experiences you've had with them.

Join us using this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtWqescwgsY

See you there!!

The Design House Prep School Team

Victoria, Karen and Monday!

Our deadline for Semester II scholarships is coming up!  Get your application, or an application for a friend to us by January 13th.  Read more about it and apply on our scholarship page.

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With our first semester well underway and second semester waiting in the wings, we at the DHPS team are excited to announce the launch of our Design House Prep School Scholarship Program! We believe that part of our responsibility as a school is to give back to our community. Since our community is defined as creatives, we feel that creating a scholarship opportunity for deserving candidates is a way to enrich the community as a whole.  

Although classes were priced to reflect the value in the lessons while remaining a reasonable investment, we understand that there can still be many circumstances under which the investment is just a bit too much for the time being. Whether you're a student who wants to move their business forward but just can't swing paying for classes, someone who has recently faced significant hardship in their business or personal life, or someone just starting out in the industry, we want to remove the price barrier to entry for two of you. The two individuals could be current students who moved mountains to pay for their course(s) or someone not yet a member of our community.  

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SCHOLARSHIP ONE

Full class passes to both semester I and semester II of Prep School as well as access to our community and additional bonus materials. 

 

SCHOLARSHIP TWO

Full class pass to semester II of Prep School as well as access to our community and additional bonus materials. 

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REQUIREMENTS:  MUST BE 20 YEARS OLD OR OLDER TO APPLY FOR THE SCHOLARSHIP AND YOU MUST BE ABLE TO SHOW YOUR WORK - MEANING YOU HAVE ENOUGH EXPERIENCE IN YOUR FIELD TO SHOW US SOMETHING TO REFLECT YOUR STYLE; IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE PERFECT OR IDEAL AND TOTAL BEGINNERS ARE MORE THAN WELCOME.  PLEASE FILL OUT THE APPLICATION BELOW AND TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR TYPE OF BUSINESS, BUSINESS FOCUS, AND WHY YOU FEEL THAT YOU (OR SOMEONE YOU'RE SUBMITTING FOR THE SCHOLARSHIP) IS DESERVING OF THE GRANT.  

Quite often, the individuals that most deserve a grant like this are the last ones to speak up and ask for help.  Please feel free to submit someone you're close to who you know would be a great fit and tell us about their story.  Note in your application that you're writing it for a friend/relative/loved one, and introduce yourself as well.  

If you don't have a website or instagram, please let us know how we can see your work.  

Applications will be reviewed by Jestoria and Karen and the final scholarship award announcement will be made on January 13th, 2017.

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Starting with our Pricing I course last semester, we offer a multi-part series on how to price your work in a creative business. Semester II brings the Pricing for Creative Businesses II. 

This second semester pricing course will dig a bit deeper into the world of pricing. We'll look at specific pricing examples in two industry categories: custom calligraphy projects, and building a pricing sheet as a paper pusher (i.e. stationer).

When we talk about pricing for custom calligraphy projects, this includes oddball projects such as large scale quotes, wedding vows, family crests, large menus, large seating charts, etc. We'll talk about how to price your time as well as the cost of product for these situations. In addition, we'll talk about building your pricing as a calligrapher and the different pricing structures that are available.

The second example we'll get into is pricing paper, printing, assembly details, and your time as a stationer. Having estimates of these costs will help to dramatically cut down the time it takes to return quotes to clients while ensuring accuracy in your pricing. 

As with all the other Semester II courses, registration will open on December 12, with class materials becoming available on January 13th!