A rebellious, potentially life-changing design course by Jack McDade, creator of Statamic.
Are you an aspiring designer, developer, marketer, or gourmet donut maker? Do you need to find a way to make your designs way less boring and more memorable? Well then, this course is for you.
I’m Jack McDade. I designed and created Statamic, designed Laravel.com, Laracon (a few times), Justin Jackson’s highly acclaimed site, and a whole pile of others.
I think the web has become too boring. There are too many fill-in-the-blank websites full of derivative content, lacking in personality. I've made a living zigging when everyone else zags. Design helps a site or brand stand out and be remembered, and applies equally to your personal portfolio or sophisticated, high-profile client project.
In this course I'm going to help you take your work from bland to grand. Bleak to chic. Boring to really quite very remarkably good. I'll turn you into a designer.
It's time to call bull@#$% on bad advice, show you shortcuts over here, delightful detours over there, and give you permission to get weird. This course is gonna get real. It’s gonna get practical. Silly and serious at the same time, even. I’m gonna teach you everything I know before I forget it all and have to mow grass for a living. Again.
To the leftUp above is a person with a donut head drinking a cup of coffee.
Down below is a list of things you will & will not learn as a part of this course.
“We can't be copyin' nobody else's style – we have our own style! If we look Jamaican, walk Jamaican, talk Jamaican and IS Jamaican, then we sure as hell better bobsled Jamaican.
No, I’m not Jamaican, but this course is kinda like that awesome scene from Cool Runnings. You’re not gonna learn how to design exactly like Jack McDade (that’s me!), Dann Petty, Steve Schoeger, or Rogie. You’re gonna learn how to design like you. I'm here to release your inner spirit designer. Mine is a pygmy Tony Hawk wearing a Steve Urkle mask and red Baywatch shorts. Who is yours?
You’ll learn how to take advantage of stock assets in creative ways, how to remix anything and everything to create original concepts, blend old with new, and tap your hobbies, interests, and personality for inspiration.
We’re gonna work on your Fundamentals. We’re gonna get radical. And when I’m done with you, you’re gonna be a force to reckon with. Or at least your side-hustle will have a kickass and memorable landing page you’ll be proud of — and that alone is worth the price of admission.
It's worth noting that this course isn’t focused on a specific design tool like Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD. I’ll cover some of the basics in each and jump into Photoshop too because every designer should always also always have Photoshop and if you disagree with me that's okay, I'll win you over by the end.
It's not a book, and it's not a step-by-step video course either. It's a self-guided, Choose Your Own Adventure™ style hub that dives deep into many different areas of design. Yes, it includes (many) videos, articles, and tutorials, but also downloads, example design files, elements, components, hand-crafted SVGs, and all sorts of other good stuff. I’m going to share all my resources, secrets, and my personal treasure trove of hot links (the bookmarks, not sausages), font recommendations, and more.
I'll show you how to design in a few popular and timeless design styles (Brutalism, Swiss, Minimalism, and Hasselhoffian) to get you going while you develop your own individual style.
You'll also get access to the private Radical Design Discord server so you can collaborate, share ideas, give each other feedback, and all that stuff. I'll be in there every week or so to help in any way I can.
Plus, I'll be regularly updating this course and the included resources. It's like the giving tree. It'll just keep giving.
Reading is awesome!
I don't love tooting my own horn so I enlisted the help of some other people to do it for me.
“I'm often asked ‘where do I go after Refactoring UI to continue learning about design?’ Jack is the only person I know with a wicked sense of design that also understands how developers think.”
“Jack McDade taught me that turtles can breathe out of their butts. Oh, and he’s also THE stand-out designer in a world of internet same-same’s. Jack has a knack for mashing up his unique style with what each website needs in terms of it’s own visual language. Stop thinking about turtle butts and buy this course already!”
“My friend Jack is multi-talented. He rolled a CRT monitor through Times Square better than anyone I’ve ever seen. But he’s also truly a master at unique, powerful designs that have lovable personalities.”
“Nobody proves how different two Tailwind sites can look better than Jack McDade.”
(Yes, there's going to be a lot of Tailwind in this course!)
“Multiple times I’ve been looking at a website and thought, ‘Who designed this? It’s so dope!’ I’ll look in the credits and EVERY SINGLE TIME it says: Jack McDade.”
I've designed literally hundreds of bad websites & dozens of really good ones. I spent my time in the trenches to get good at this. I've had to make the logo bigger 410 times. I've been forced to work with both Comic Sans and Zapfino on the same project. I used to round corners with 4 separate gifs. I’ve been a designer for 15+ years in a whole pile of roles and companies. I've been...
So yeah, I've been there and done that.
When you purchase Radical Design you’ll get instant access to the course, dozens of videos and tutorials, all the bonus resources, and updates for forever and ever and ever.
Each purchase includes a buddy pass for you to give to a student. They’ll have the same full access to everything forever, just like you. If you don’t know any students, you can donate the pass into a first-come-first-serve pool of all students.
If you don’t like this course you can have your money back. Life is too short for buyer’s remorse and there’s always something else important to spend money on. Like fonts and Stranger Things lunchboxes. If you don’t think this course is worth whatever you end up spending on it, so be it.
I know, and there's so much more I want to say but I'll save it all for later. All except this closing remark: If you're worried you're not "good enough" or "creative enough" — let me tell you now that you are. I can teach design to just about anybody who can use a mouse, trackpad, or alternative accessibility-focused input device who is willing to put a little time into it. It's a learnable skill. You can do this.
If you're even remotely interested at this point and are willing to share your email address, I'll keep you in the loop.
© 2023 Radical Design
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