The 2024 Information Design Summer School

The 2024 summer school will be online. Starting on 3 September, there will be twice-weekly 3-hour sessions finishing on 26 September. Each session includes short talks and discussions, with homework between times (video lectures, and practical exercises). The cost is €460 / £400 / $510).

Expert tutors

At the summer school you will meet with experts in information design with a depth of experience in design practice, research and education, and who cover a range of different specialisms: diagramming, typography, clear writing, content structure, design education, health information design, financial information, government information, management communications and legal information design.
Meet the tutors

Of course, there's only so much we can teach and you can take in, in a short programme. But we introduce you to the field, explain key concepts and point the way forward. You'll go away with contacts in the field, and ideas to pursue. Past summer schools have inspired people to enrol in a degree course, work on projects together, write books and start businesses.

When the summer school is face to face, we hold many critiquing sessions to share our work. When we're online we use Mural whiteboards instead (below).

Who should join?

  • Information designers who want to explore the theoretical basis for their work, and extend their range.
  • Graphic designers wanting to specialise in information design.
  • People without a design training, who want to learn more about information design, and apply it to their own area of work. Participants regularly include technical writers, lawyers, civil servants, medical researchers, and academics.
  • Students who would like additional tutorial support and access to a like-minded peer group. We have a limited number of discounted places for students.

Past summer schools have been attended by people from as far afield as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Lebanon, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, and USA.

How we deliver the programme

There are sessions devoted to design critiquing, visualisation, typography and layout, design patterns and genres, and user testing.

There are also practical exercises. Learning about design can’t be done just by listening to lectures – it comes through the struggle to find order in complex information, and to create new ways to communicate it to users.

We provide a Certificate of Participation to all those who attend. This is not a qualification and the course is not assessed.

Cost, and how to apply

The summer school costs €465 / £400 / $510. There a few student places at a discount, and we also offer lower prices for people in low income regions – see the Fees page for more information.

To apply, fill in the application form. When we accept you, we will send you an invoice which can be paid by Paypal or bank transfer.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about the 2024 summer school, email us:
info@simplificationcentre.org.uk

IIID logo

The summer school is organised in partnership with the International Institute for Information Design (IIID).

The summer school theory cards

We send you a set of theory flashcards to underpin our teaching and our design critiquing, together with basic tools for design sketching. We ask you to bring good and bad examples of information design, and we put key theories into action to explain why your examples work well, or fail.

We use short projects and exercises to put concepts into action. This team is working in the Vienna Designforum where we held the 2023 summer school.

What is information design?

When we travel, information designers help us find the way. When we buy things, they help us to make informed choices.

When we pay tax or claim benefits, they explain our rights and responsibilities and make the process run smoothly.

They reveal what data means, they help us find information quickly, and they explain how complex systems work.  

Information designers help us understand health and healthcare systems. When the pandemic came, they helped experts to explain it and they showed us how to keep each other safe.

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