A hands-on grid, type, and color foundations course for new brand designers — the exact exercises that turn a good hire into a mentor-ready designer in one quarter.
Weeks 1–6Grid · Type · ColorStudio CritiqueFor New Hires
Cover. The square-triangle-circle device is the deck's signature mark — every accent in the deck stays inside the red/yellow/blue primaries on an aged-canvas ground.
Agenda
Three modules
01 · Why
Untrained eyes ship inconsistent work — fundamentals are the shared language every senior review depends on.
02 · The Rules
Four numbers every junior designer should know cold: grid unit, type scale, contrast ratio, palette size.
03 · Studio Workflow
The four-step critique loop we run every Friday: Look, Measure, Rebuild, Critique.
Three chapters, each card carrying one primary as a thick top rule — the only decoration this style permits.
01
Module one
Why: train the eye first
Section divider. The chapter number is rendered as an outlined display numeral — stroke only, no fill — a classic constructivist device.
Why fundamentals first
Four habits, not opinions
Every senior designer at this studio started with the same four habits. Skip them and every later review turns into a fight about taste instead of a check against the rules:
Grid — every layout maps to an 8px baseline unit
Type — three sizes, one weight ramp, nothing improvised
Color — a 60/30/10 split, checked against WCAG AA
Critique — describe what you see before you say what you'd change
Two-column: claim left, geometric composition right. The diagram is inline SVG colored only with the three primaries and ink.
Module two · The Rules
Four numbers to know cold
8px
baseline grid unit — every margin, padding, and component height is a multiple
1.333
the type-scale ratio (Perfect Fourth) driving all six heading sizes
4.5:1
minimum contrast ratio for body text against its background, per WCAG AA
3
max accent colors on any one screen, on top of ink and paper
KPI grid. Numbers set in Archivo Black; each card takes one primary top rule, the fourth stays ink-only for rhythm.
The exercise that sticks
100
hand-traced grids before a junior designer touches a real brief — the studio's oldest rule, still the fastest way to make an 8px baseline instinctive.
Stat highlight. The giant numeral wears the hard three-band gradient — the one place the tri-color split shows at full size.
Module two · Evidence
One cohort, four weeks
42%Week 1
61%Week 2
78%Week 3
96%Week 4
AA contrast-pass rate on first-brief submissions, Fall 2025 cohort of 14 juniors — same rubric, same reviewer, four weekly critique loops apart.
Bar chart rebuilt in pure CSS: solid primary fills, 2px strokes, 4px offset shadows. Q4 goes ink-black to close the sequence at the canonical 60K+ figure; the per-quarter split is demo data.
Module three · Studio Workflow
The Friday critique loop
Look
Describe the layout in plain language before naming a fix — grid, type, color, hierarchy.
Measure
Pull the real numbers: baseline unit, type sizes, contrast ratios, color count.
Rebuild
Redo the weak component from scratch using only the four rules — no eyeballing.
Critique
Present the before/after to the pod; defend every measurement, not just the vibe.
Process steps. The counter chip sits flush in the card corner — square, blue, white mono numerals.
“You don't have taste yet. You have measurements.”
— Studio creative director, week-one orientation
Big quote, set in the display face, uppercase. The tri-color gradient lands on the final phrase only.
Homework.
Before next Friday's critique: trace 10 grids from real shipped work, then rebuild one weak component using only the four rules above.
Due · Next FridaySubmit in #critique-podBring the before/after
Closer. Repeat the cover mark, restate the assignment in one line, and hand the audience the CTA: trace, rebuild, bring the before/after to Friday's critique.