Austin Center for Design

Gain autonomy through design: make products and services that change the world!

Why choose AC4D?

Austin Center for Design (AC4D), an educational non-profit in Austin, Texas, is a unique school intended to help you develop autonomy through design.

Make an Impact

Our focus is on addressing humanitarian problems that matter. Students learn to re-contextualize design in the space of large-scale “wicked problems” to change human behavior and improve the world.

Build Community

Our small cohort sizes provide extensive face-time with instructors and mentors, providing learners the opportunity to form lasting relationships with a growing, robust support network.

Engage Experts

Founder Jon Kolko is recognized as a thought-leader in advancing the role of interaction design in product development and social entrepreneurship. Our faculty are all world-class working practitioners.

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What you'll gain in our programs

In a word, students who complete our programs gain autonomy. This is a sense of entrepreneurial freedom—that your choices are not set or constrained, and that you have concrete skills to shape the world around you. These skills include qualitative research, synthesis and interpretation, sketching, the creation of storyboards and wireframes, entrepreneurial business modeling, service design blueprinting, and complex system diagramming. These skills represent the foundation of a career in product management, design strategy, interaction design, and social entrepreneurship.

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The types of people that join our programs

Design is for everyone, and our learners have a variety of backgrounds. Some of our learners are already designers, but most aren't. Our typical applicants have experience in marketing, engineering, fine arts, finance, or the service industry. Our program teaches design fundamentals in addition to advanced topics, in a rigorous, intense environment. There is no expectation that our students enter the program as designers; we take care of teaching that.

Featured Programs

One-Year Immersive:
Interaction Design and Social Entrepreneurship

10 Months, ~40 hours per week

Austin, Texas / Remote

From Novice to Design Professional: A One-Year Journey to Autonomy and Impact.

AC4D’s signature one-year immersive program transforms students into high-value creative problem solvers who go on to lead successful and fulfilling careers in design, social impact, and beyond.

Not for the faint of heart, we designed our full-year program to force students to navigate ambiguity and tame the chaos of wicked problems in the world and themselves.

Graduates become part of a close-knit and well-regarded network of global design practitioners and leaders who serve as invaluable lifetime resources, references, and advocates.

Duration: 10 months (480-course hours in total)

Time Per Week: 40+ hours per week; (8 class hours ~32 out-of-class hours)

Tuition: $23,000 $16,000

Texas Workforce Commission Certified: Yes

Remote Studio in Design Research

12 weeks, 15 hours per week

Online/Remote Friendly

For those new to design or teams wanting oversight for a specific design research & strategy project. A 12-week program focused on a single project with pre-identified activities and deliverables.

Duration: 12-weeks

Time Per Week: 10-15 hours estimated

1:1 Coaching: 2 hours per week

Cost: $5,000 $3,000

Texas Workforce Commission Certified: Yes

Learn how qualitative design research leads to design strategy and new innovative products and services.

In this comprehensive course on Design Research for Strategy & Innovation, students will dive deep into the world of qualitative design research and design synthesis, gaining the necessary skills and knowledge to tackle complex problems in the domains of technology, behavior, and society.

Duration: 3.5 Hours

Self-Guided Remote Studio in Design Research

3.5 hours

Self-Paced Online

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