WORKSHOP BIG IDEAS
(RE-)DESIGN STUDIO
DESIGN JOURNEY
COURSE / DEGREE
INDEPENDENT ADVICE
TEACHER TRAINING
OPEN STUDIO: RESOURCES
FREELANCER POOL
CLIENT PORTFOLIO
ABOUT
CONTACT

(RE-)DESIGN STUDIO

—



Are you curious for more? Would you like to get in touch? Feel free to contact our lead directly for any questions or inquiries you may have. tikvah@studioblended.com +31 6 42 47 29 69

Image: “Architectural Sketch by Cazú Zegers © Cazú Zegers – all rights reserved.”

The (re-)design studio is a space, in which we (re)imagine with you a concrete output: a technically resilient ‘fit for purpose framework’ for the curriculum of your envisioned course or degree. So easy to handle as a basis for your further curriculum development.

Imagine a season (or two) in which you and your academic team, enter various Design Studio (half)days, to together, hands-on visualise, dialogue, debate, discuss, align and create. 

The output is just a 2-3 pager really, a manifesto of the body of knowledge, skills and capabilities of your envisioned course or degree - and the proposed modules (in a course) or courses (in a degree).

You will need a learning journey, a narrative, through the content, which we approach, by design, in a modular way.

This is something we can only do in co creation with the core team of researchers/professors. There is a level of unpredictability included that makes this Design Studio unique, and where our technical approach in the 2-3 pager, and the pedagogy we align in a bespoke way for your content, comes together with your deep context expertise. We need a true combination of expertises here.

We are actively stimulating this collision with your core team, and actually welcome a sense of urgency so that you feel all the adrenaline and emotion to perform at your top ability, and realise what it is that you truly want and need for this course or degree. We walk alongside you until we have this epiphany and transformation. We will dialogue, meet as long as needed to get this outcome.

We are also pragmatic, you shouldn’t move from here, until the direction is crystal clear. Not only so that you only start to develop material once you have the curriculum in all its simplicity. Also, because if you start to develop prematurely, you may get attached to the material, whilst a more deep transformation would have otherwise still be possible.

That’s what the Design Studio is about: brining you to this point of epiphany and transformation.

Why don’t we dive right into what you want now, and to the modules? This is exactly where our Studio is cutting edge: we first want to scope with you the horizon of big ideas and give you a whole new perspective of a time robust curriculum well into the next decade.

It is so rewarding to have this 2-3 pager curriculum. Once you have this, you can give it to an educational developer, or why not enter a Design Journey with us - it would definately be a smart investment because we already dived deep into your content and are a good sparring partner.

How do you get there?

Getting things done

At StudioBlended we enjoy helping you to actually get things done.

A curriculum design can be an endless process, with a lot of dynamics coming in, from inertia, to typical academic or organisational stuff - as well has just an enormous mountain of material. The need to redesign, create or innovate the curriculum, can just become dragging or even never be realised.

Instead, by hiring an external senior advisor, something fresh is possible. We take all the alignment required with a research / lecturing team, partly out of your hands. We come in lightly, in between people and departments.

One experienced challenge is that a learning journey in a course/degree has a wholly different scope than that of an entire (research) program. We help you to say what you mean, and be dedicated to conclusions to create a learning journey that speaks to the targeted audience.

We don’t shy away from bringing in a draft manifesto for the course/degree, from provoking you, from bringing other perspectives - all whilst building on your own material.

We equally come alongside and partner with you as a project manager, or coordinator, to get things done within your team. Certain academic or organisational cultures can be challenging in terms of ‘cutting cord’, making the decision, and moving forward. We are dedicated to conclusions, and can do it also on your behalf.

The reward of having just a simple 2-3 pager in your hands, a manifesto of a course of degree, a product of the participation of all, and robust well into the next 10 years - cannot be understated.

We advise and equip you to teach with clarity and effectiveness, and in all simplicity and true enjoyment.
 

Simplicity

Our goal is simplicity - by design. We see a tendency around us of ever more ‘exciting’ education. We dare to be provocative and state that content that is really well designed technically, and coupled with subject relevant deep world class pedagogy - is education at its best, and highly effective.

The ‘fit for purpose framework’ allows (intellectual/academic) freedom and space for the coordinators involved to contextualise the approach for their own setting and values.

We never tell you what to teach - we come alongside and partner with you, to bring out best, what you envision to teach. Thereby we don’t shy away from provoking you, and inspiring you - our independent senior advisor is well-versed with a spectrum of subjects, which offer her a lens to suggest to you, new ways of seeing and giving direction to your content, in a way that is decade-proof. 

2-3 pager output

Find below an example of the 2-3 pager output we co-create with you. If you’re curious for more, go to our page on technical resilience.

Importantly, as part of the outcomes and outputs, we’ll show you a proposed way to translate the fit for purpose framework, into content modules. This is a co-creation with the decision makers in your core team. It must adhere to the time boundaries of the course/degree, and the envisioned audience. All to ensure, you are left with true practical understanding of how to take things forward.

Would like us to take things forward for you? Embedd the Design Studio in a Design Journey.


Image: ‘fit for purpose framework’ - example. Click to expand, and get a full illustration of our ‘fit for purpose‘ framework for technical resilience in your course curriculum. Such a framework allows for ‘open building’ such as with modular approaches to education.

Location

Ideally, we can use a spacious physical room for the Design Studio days and work in-person and hands-on in the same time and space. We gather around a large table, with paper and pen and sit around it for deep dialogues. This resonates best with our philosophy around craftmanship (after Sennett 2008). The hand and brain coordinate optimally to think and imagine in the most open-minded ways. We digitalise only later.

Alternatively, we can partner with you fully remotely, using technology for the visualisations.

Partnering

We come alongside a client, and operate as equal partners throughout the project duration of an advisory assignment.

Our senior advisors expect to have an equal partner relationship with the client’s main focal point (i.e. a coordinator), whereby client and advisor work together, combining the advisor’s specialist knowledge with relevant knowledge about the content, the organisation and access to the relevant departments.

Shared responsibility and joint decision making for the sake of ownership, allow the success and relevance of the identified outcomes and outputs.

Timeline

The Design Studio comes in phases than span 1 season for a course. A degree will need more Design Studio Days.

Pre-design: the independent senior advisor prepares a deep scoping of literally all the material your team has produced, to prepare a draft output. We take literally every article, podcast, webinar, blog etc. you ever produced - and synthesise it for you. We make use of AI in smart ways for this, coupled with deep experience of educational design, and our own general expertise and network in your subjectfield.

Design Studio days (2 half days): The independent senior advisor (supported by your projectmanager for practicalities) leads the days, with unstructured time. The senior advisor brings in the draft output, intended to provoke and inspire, and the dialogues start and are geared towards carefully crafting every sentence. The main outcome is, how we strategize big ideas in paradigm shifts. Have a look at our workshop big ideas for more.

In our experience with clients, the act of crafting and seeing the actual draft ‘fit for purpose framework’ (2-3 pager) creates a lot of insight about the knowledge domain of the course and the envisioned learning journey, which is exactly its purpose. This is especially the case if the process started quite open.

Therefore, it is pivotal to follow through with the decision makers, and have another Design Studio day, this time only with a core team who has decision power over accepting the deliverable. Importantly, we make a proposed translation into modules within the course/degree, based on the audience and time span of the course/degree. Again, this is deeply rooted in the knowledge domain and pedagogy of the team.

In a final round with the core team, the final scope of the curriculum for your specific course/degree is set.

Price

Our Studio gives you the desired result and impact, with a package price for your bespoke assignment.

Depending on what you need we use the following set-up.

Based on the information you provide we scope the form of the work and result needed (and your deadlines). We offer you a quotation for the entire package.

Depending on your needs, we may source external experts for this assignment, as this step should be done carefully.

Prices are dependent on the required impact for a course or even comphrehensive courses/degrees/programs. Feel free to contact us to start a dialogue on what it is you need exactly, and we can draft a quotation for you that’s bespoke for you.

The Design Studio can be a stand alone component, but is best interwoven in a design journey so that we can clearly visualise for you what the implications of the outcomes and outputs are in concrete terms such as modules, lectures/videos, activities and beyond.

Key projects

StudioBlended is currently partnering with an institute for capacity building within a European University, to co-create an impactful MOOC for this client (2025 - June 2026). The Design Studio has been pivotal in laying the foundations of the knowledge domain of the MOOC, and the behavioral change we wish to see in participants - creating the ‘fit for purpose’ framework, through which we are invigorated with the ability to design in a modular way, and have the realm of possibilities open building offers.

European funded program.

More information follows soon.



If you’re curious about how ‘decade-proof’ works, have a look at a workshop we did on ‘big ideas’ for the academic team of a Masters Degree.


As early as 2013, the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) was an early adopter of MOOCs, and invested in experiments.

Upon invitation by the head of Education, our independent senior advisor (then academic staff member) delivered a proposal called ‘Training as a product - A suggestion’.

The proposal included a suggestion for an ‘open building’ training product offered by this institute for capacity building/development.

The proposal dates back to 2014, but is still decade strong and relevant today, and resonates in all our technical desgn and modular approaches as well as financial health.

Our Audio Podcast

🎙 Keynote: Big ideas and modular curriculum design.
Prefer to read? Transcript
Listen on: Acast Spotify Apple
Release summer ‘24  

Listen (or read) to discover more about the ‘fit for purpose’ framework.

References

Richard Sennett 2008 The Craftsman. Yale Univeristy Press New Haven & London.

Design angles we use

Technical resilience
Human resilience
Modular
Time dimension
Evidence-based design
Financial health and resilience by (re)design
Innovative and deep pedagogy
Multi- Inter- and transdisciplinary
Blended
Bichronous
Designed to be green (and technological simplicity) Nature and aspirations
Flexibilisation and personalisation
Simplicity and decluttering