DESIGN ECONOMICS
Principles for the Creative Process:
A New Workshop
Instructor: Jack Mills
🧠 Course Overview
Why does a $5 logo from Fiverr disappear into the void, while a Paul Rand mark lives on in artistic history forever?
Design Economics is a high-impact, fast-paced workshop for creatives who want to build smarter, more strategic, and more valuable work. Taught through the lens of real-world economic principles—scarcity, trade-offs, pricing power, and externalities—this course reframes how you think about design. From architecture to branding, from city planning to typography, you’ll see how good design doesn’t just look great—it makes economic sense.
Blunt, hands-on, and deeply relevant, this is not a theory class. It's a survival guide for ambitious creatives who want to do work that’s bold and bankable.
⏰ Schedule + Tuition
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Live Online Workshop
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Duration: 2 weeks
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Format: 2 hours per week (Total: 4 hours)
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Tuition: $220 USD
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In-Person Intensive
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Duration: 1 full day (5 hours including breakouts)
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Tuition: $440 USD
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+ travel & lodging for instructor, quoted separately
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Custom workshops available for schools, tuition centers and companies.
To book email jack@hongkongecontutor.com
✏️ What You’ll Learn
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How scarcity drives creativity (and limits client expectations)
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Why brand integrity is your most valuable asset
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How to compete on quality instead of price
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The economics of “ugliness” and how to fight it
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How to navigate client compromise without selling out
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How to justify your work in aesthetic and financial terms
🛠️ Featured Activities
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Lego Architecture Challenge — Explore division of labor and communication gaps
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Brand vs. Sales Simulation — Strategic choices in creative direction
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The Alhambra Redesign — Transform a grimy Kowloon tower into an urban icon
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Client Roleplay — Practice persuading the world's toughest clients
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Logotype Jam — Build a firm, sketch a brand, defend it
🎯 Who This Course Is For
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Architecture, graphic design, and urban planning students
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Working creatives ready to level up their strategy
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Designers tired of being undervalued
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Anyone interested in the economics of visual impact
No economics background needed—just curiosity, courage, and a pencil.
🧨 Why It Matters!
3. Because the world doesn’t need more pretty things—it needs design that works.
2. Because if you want to charge more, you have to think more.
1. Because Design Economics might be the most useful creative course you ever take.
You are welcome to try out the course slides for free!