Login
Apply
Inquire

FAQs

For Career Transitioners and New Students

We are glad you are interested in exploring design as your next career! It is a wonderful field with many opportunities, as you can read up on our Career Paths page. Job growth is optimistic and salary range is on the higher end compared to many other industries.

With that being said, you will have to actually learn and work hard in order to find out 2 things – do you like it and are you good at it. No one can tell you if this is for you, but yourself. Our job is to provide the right guidance with our industry expertise and a high-quality pool of instructors.

You can expect to complete our Certificate of Design in 6-8 months depending on the number of hours you commit to every week. We generally recommend at least 10-15 hours per week.

Unlike many “bootcamps”, we do not encourage an accelerated program approach because design is a serious craft that cannot be learned in a few weeks. Rather than fast and furious, we’d rather make sure you learn it well and learn it right.

With our flexible financing options, we’d like to make your career transition as easy as possible with full support as fewer financial hurdles.

Yes we sure do! We regularly update our student work and success stories in our Student Outcomes page.

Yes, no matter where you are in the world, the language of design is universal. You might find yourself needing to learn a few local customs and practices that are particular to the region you live and work in, but the general principles of design is the same everywhere in the world in the digital space.

While we do not have a job guarantee or job placement due to the reasons we specified in the “Why don’t you have a job guarantee like other design schools” below, we do provide on-demand career support during the job search process to help our students navigate the job market effectively. We also help students develop a highly-customized career search plan before they graduate so that they are ready to put their best foot forward immediately after graduation.

General Questions

We actually guide you through the latest design tools in easy-to-understand manners in our courses. This approach provides you with a dynamic learning rhythm that balances practice and theories. So no, you can come fresh without any prior knowledge of design or design programs.

No, you do not have to invest anything upfront, because we are teaching digital visual design, you have the option of choosing to use programs such as Figma that provides a free online version.

We do recommend that you get a student discount for Adobe programs (you can simply enter that you are a student in the sign up process) because they are still industry standards and should be used by a professional designer at some point.

You don’t have to use a Mac. Most design programs have a PC version as well (with the exception of Sketch).

We get the appeal of a degree. It is fantastic if you have the time and money for it, but the design field is unique that employers care more about your portfolio and what you can do than your degree. Would you rather have a stellar portfolio and strong personal brand with no debt than tens of thousands of dollars in debt? The smarter answer is apparent to us, who build creative businesses for a living, but we leave it up to you to decide.

The best part is, our curriculum is actually designed by current and former college professors who are tired of the outdated ways universities teach. They brought years of industry expertise and teaching experience to the course design so that students can get the best of both worlds – solid foundational knowledge of design and up-to-date, practical instructions that will help students stand out.

As much as we want “guarantee” in life, there is no such thing. We are aware that many online design bootcamp programs “guarantee” their students jobs after graduation with certain prerequisites. We want you to know the truth behind such “guarantees”. It is simply a marketing tactic to put you at ease of enrolling. While a great number of students enrolled in these programs do secure jobs after graduation, there are some who will pursue their creative paths differently.

We design our curriculum with a goal that is different from most other schools – we want you to learn solid foundations while being trained to not only be qualified job candidates but equipped with strong business skills so that you can pursue any creative career, including starting your own business. Simply put, we don’t believe in fluff and marketing tactics that paint a rosy picture that isn’t always realistic. We want to train you to reach your highest potential, but we want you to know the truth.

We have a Career Paths page dedicated to explaining the most popular career options after our programs.

To reference our complete financing and refund/dropout policies, please refer to the refund policy page for all details.

School of Design Questions

Yes! Our School of Design program is designed for students without any prior design knowledge. Our admission interview is to make sure scheduling and career goal fit between yourself and our program. Come with zero knowledge and graduate 100% ready for design jobs.

It depends on how much knowledge you already have in each topic. We recommend filling out our email form above to obtain the full syllabus and schedule a call with us if you want to get the full picture of the entire course. We make every effort to recommend the right level of courses to each student so that they get the most out of the learning experience.

We design each individual course with multiple levels in mind. We start each course with introducing the foundation, which provides a much-needed refresher for even the seasoned designers if they have been away from theory for a while.

We then go into intermediate to advanced topics for deep dives, where multiple levels of designers might find them helpful.

Our goal is to make the course as approachable as possible while still getting into advanced topics for students who are ready to take the leap.

This is one of the biggest difference between our program and most other programs teaching UI/UX. Our curriculum team consists of academically-trained designers who have worked many years in the UI/UX design industry. Through extensive experience in practical application and student instructions, we have found that building solid visual design foundation is critical in achieving success as UI/UX designers. We are not in the business of quickly churning out graduates with subpar foundational skills like one may experience elsewhere. We are here to teach you the real deal – visual design first then UX frameworks that you will apply in the portfolio building phase.

Books are great! We will never say don’t buy a book. However, design is a highly practical field. Reading books will give you the surface level understanding. You need more examples, interactive demonstrations, exercises and personalized feedback from expert designers to achieve the level that you need for your career. These other components can only be obtained from a well-designed educational program. Books are great supplements for your courses.

YouTube is a great platform. We say go watch as many YouTube videos as you’d like, but we have yet to find a complete series of courses that go in to so much details and depth as our course on YouTube. While YouTube can provide a surface level foundation for you, it isn’t likely to help you get to the level you need for your career. We recommend scheduling a call with us if you are interested and ask questions to make your informed decisions.

Absolutely! We believe in learning by doing. That’s why we designed exercises for each unit with intention. Students are expected to complete every exercise and quizzes in order to complete the course. This is not a passive learning experience – it’s active. We also wrap up the program with 3 portfolio-level projects, so you can be sure to take away with you polished pieces that actually stand out and a tailored career search approach that’s hyper targeted and effective.

School of Design On-Demand Questions

The Basic plan gives you access to all course materials except advanced, specialized topics. It is more expensive to book individual instructor sessions than the Advanced plan. It also qualifies for less in tuition discount when upgraded to the full School of Design career program or Portfolio School program. It also receives fewer discounts for other career events or programs. 

If you are looking to test out the full School of Design career program before committing, this is absolutely the right way for you to start. You can get access to most of our course material in addition to booking sessions with one of our instructors to see if it’s right for you. 

It could also be the right fit for you if you are looking to learn design at your own pace and a career transition isn’t your immediate priority right now. 

You cannot receive the same immersive and hands-on support as the full School of Design career program with the School of Design On-Demand subscription, but you can access a lot of the course material and learn at your own pace. 

No, you must either upgrade to School of Design full career program or apply to Portfolio School once you have achieved visual design proficiency. But the good news is you receive a tuition discount (see the pricing table on the School of Design On-Demand page) if you upgrade to either career program. 

Please refer to our “Refund Policy” page for refund issues.

Portfolio School Questions

We require every student to sign an enrollment agreement which stipulates the suggested length of each course. We ask that students commit to the course period they agreed to when they enrolled. We do have flexibility that requires a separate written request from students if special circumstances arise that necessitates a course extension. We will evaluate each circumstance on a case-by-case basis. Our goal is to help students graduate as soon as possible so that they can reach their career goals in the shortest timeframe possible while remaining flexible enough to accommodate special circumstances. 

You should expect to produce a visually-polished and completely customized portfolio website with 3 portfolio projects, including 1 real client project, that have been reviewed, critiqued and iterated during your assigned coaching sessions.

Unlike many other programs, we emphasized on individualized coaching for portfolios. We hold students to the highest standards in terms of their work, especially the visual quality, the case study presentation and the storytelling of their personal brand.

Expect to have a stunning portfolio that wows anyone who comes across it, but you have to work hard under our guidance to achieve that.

We require that students either 1) already completed a design education program at another institution or by self-study, or 2) complete our School of Design certificate program first before enrolling in Portfolio School. You cannot produce the level of portfolio that we require for this program if you are starting from 0. Luckily, we have the exact design education program to help you meet the requirements of this program.

After a student applied to Portfolio School, we require them to complete a short design assessment to make sure they are fully-skilled in design foundation. If you did not pass the assessment, we will suggest you take our School of Design program, which is designed for students with 0 foundation or students whose design skills need improvements. 

If you already have at least 3 finished portfolio projects, we recommend the Portfolio Express track where you spend 6+ weeks learning no code website building tools, working on your personal brand, designing your portfolio website, building it yourself and receiving rigorous feedback for iterations.

If you already have a solid design foundation but do not yet have any portfolio projects, or if you are unhappy about your current portfolio projects and want to work on new ones, we recommend the Portfolio Kickstart track, where you have an additional 6-7 weeks to work on new projects under our guidance. You will also receive the bonus opportunity to be paired up with a startup founder for an optional month-long startup project if you choose to.

School of Design is our main design certificate program where we take students from 0 to 100 on learning how to be a great digital-first designer. We created a well-rounded curriculum that builds a solid foundation for students who do not yet have experience in design. The certificate program includes 9 courses with in-depth focus on topics that are most relevant to becoming a successful designer. We recommend students who have no design background to enroll in the full program and take all 9 courses, but if you already have some experience in design, you may choose to skip over some courses. We will help you determine your custom course package once you apply to enroll.

Each course in the School of Design program can be taken individually for students who would rather build their skillsets one topic at a time, but remember that you will pay more per course if you take courses individually rather than enrolling in the certificate program.

If you decide to enroll in our certificate program and receive a reduced workload recommendation from us, you will also receive a reduced tuition rate accordingly.

Portfolio School is for students who have either 1) completed School of Design or 2) completed another education program from another school or through self-study and now wish to create a uniquely outstanding portfolio to be competitive in their career search.

For most students who completed another program from another school, you probably feel unfulfilled or unsatisfied with the outcome of your portfolio, if you are looking at this page. If that is how you feel, then yes, you will benefit from this program. In fact, a large number of our students are in the same shoes as you! We specialize in “filling in the gaps” and helping students work on parts of their portfolio that they are not confident about.

We do not abandon our students after they graduate! We are always open to hearing your career journey after you completed the program. You can always purchase additional coaching sessions a la carte if you need more support after the program. We would also invite those students who want to share their stories with prospective students back for events, workshops and even as our podcast guests! So don’t be a stranger.

To reference our complete financing and refund/dropout policies, please refer to the refund policy page for all details.

Scholarship Questions

For merit-based scholarship applications, you will hear back within 5 business days after submitting your application. If you do not hear back within 1 week, please feel free to follow up with us.

For merit-based scholarships, you will be assessed based on the quality of your submitted creative challenge. 

Can I earn additional scholarships if I produce great work during the course?

We only accept scholarship applications before enrollment at this time.

Yes, you still qualify even if you plan to pay by the monthly payment plan.

Financing Questions

No, upskilling short courses only offer the one-time payment option due to their lower costs.

Monthly payment plans work like subscriptions that have an expiration date. You are splitting the total amount of tuition evenly over a number of months. Auto payment setup is required and failure of payment methods in any given month will result in termination of enrollment after 5 days of grace period has passed. This financing option is available to students worldwide.

Compared to deferred tuition agreement, students will be paying less with this option in total but will be paying more in total compared to upfront one-time payment.

We do not conduct credit checks. However, as it works like a subscription plan with an expiration date, if payment is not submitted on any given month, enrollment will be terminated after a 5-days grace period.

If you fail to make a monthly payment for the monthly payment plan financing, you will be given a courtesy notice. After 5 days of grace period, your enrollment will be terminated until your payment is provided to us again.

While we encourage students to finish their course within the maximum course completion time specified on their enrollment agreement, we do understand that there are unforeseen circumstances that students didn’t anticipate when they enrolled. We have two flexible plans for students who need extensions to finish their study. Please check out our Extension Policy.

Yes! Please book an admission call with us to discuss your financing needs.

Upskilling Courses

We design each individual course with multiple levels in mind. We start each course with introducing the foundation, which provides a much-needed refresher for even the seasoned designers if they have been away from theory for a while.

We then go into intermediate to advanced topics for deep dives, where multiple levels of designers might find them helpful.

Our goal is to make the course as approachable as possible while still getting into advanced topics for students who are ready to take the leap.

It depends on how much knowledge you already have in each topic. We recommend filling out our email form above to obtain the full syllabus and schedule a call with us if you want to get the full picture of the entire course. We make every effort to recommend the right level of courses to each student so that they get the most out of the learning experience.

Books are great! We will never say don’t buy a book. However, design is a highly practical field. Reading books will give you the surface level understanding. You need more examples, interactive demonstrations, exercises and personalized feedback from expert designers to achieve the level that you need for your career. These other components can only be obtained from a well-designed educational program. Books are great supplements for your courses.

YouTube is a great platform. We say go watch as many YouTube videos as you’d like, but we have yet to find a complete series of courses that go in to so much details and depth as our course on YouTube. While YouTube can provide a surface level foundation for you, it isn’t likely to help you get to the level you need for your career. We recommend scheduling a call with us if you are interested and ask questions to make your informed decisions.

Absolutely! We believe in learning by doing. That’s why we designed exercises for each unit with intention. Students are expected to complete every exercise and quizzes in order to complete the course. This is not a passive learning experience – it’s active. We also wrap up each course with a portfolio-level project, so you can be sure to take away with you a polished piece from every course you finish. If you enroll in our School of Design certificate program you will have 3 portfolio projects that stand out from the crowd at the time you graduate and a tailored career strategy that’s effective and unique to you.

Yes, we provide discounts for certain courses if they care purchased together. They are usually courses that are related to each other, each time you enroll in a course, you will see which other courses you can enroll in for a discount in the checkout page.

If you want to receive a bulk discount for purchasing 3 or more courses, please contact us in the contact page. We can provide a custom discount for you.

It depends on your needs. If you are already working as a designer and would like to uplevel your skillsets, we recommend taking individual courses as you need.

If you are a new designer looking to break into the field and get your first job or client as a designer, we recommend our School of Design career program or combine an upskilling course with Portfolio School if you want to build your portfolio with the knowledge you learned at the course – you do not want to show any knowledge gap in your interview and portfolio.

Ongoing Mentorships

Our mentorship program is designed for working designers currently employed in full-time, contract, or part-time roles, or designers who are looking to get into freelancing, or current freelance designers who are trying to get more clients. 

Our other programs all have a designated amount of sessions available and completion deadlines, while the ongoing mentorship program is billed by month and remains active as long as you want. The number of sessions you are entitled to each month is based on your mentorship tiers. 

“Working designers” mean designers who are currently employed full-time, part-time or by contract. “Freelance designers” are those who want to get into freelancing for different clients or current freelance designers who are looking to get more clients. 

Our esteemed team of instructors will be your mentors. You can read through their profiles and choose who you think works best for you. We can also recommend one if you don’t have a preference or can’t make a decision.

Yes, if you wish to change your mentor, you can reach out to us to assign you a mentor who is a better match.

You will benefit from the ongoing mentorship program in the following ways:

For working designers employed in full-time, part-time or contract roles:

  1. Gain clarity on career roadblocks.
  2. Learn to better manage your work relationships with stakeholders, your colleagues, your supervisors or your direct reports.
  3. Improve your chances of promotion and getting pay raises or finding a new job.
  4. Get expert guidance on any questions you might have about your career.

For freelance designers or those looking to get into freelance:

  1. Develop the right skillsets to start freelancing.
  2. Understanding the freelance market.
  3. Learn tricks to get more high-paying, long-term clients.
  4. Learn the ins-and-outs of being your own boss.
  5. Learn insider tips from our instructors, some of whom are successful freelancers and studio owners themselves.
  6. Learn how to properly charge clients.
  7. Learn to resolve client issues.
  8. Learn how to manage work-life balance while freelancing and working remotely.
  9. Learn how to deal with clients who are late on payments. 
  10. Learn proper ways to set up your freelance practice with the right structure.

Yes, you can cancel your subscription at any time.

Please refer to our Refund Policy page for all refund issues. 

Contact Us
Scroll to Top
Close

Can we help you?

Path Unbound Inquiry Form