Breaking in. Repositioning. Building up. Scaling. No matter where you are in your career, you can learn from people who’ve actually walked where you’re going—not from theory, but from lived experience.
This month, we’re exploring how AI is changing the designer role itself, and what it means for your specific path forward. We’re inviting Andrea Nguyen to share about her leap from corporate to agency founder. We’re coworking alongside each other, because lasting progress happens together, not in isolation.
The designer role is shifting. It’s impossible to see the big picture if you are in a silo. Keep connecting with other designers. Build your network and connections to see the shift and navigate it from where you are right now to where you want to go. Let’s figure it out together.
– Eunji, Editor and Founder
When: Mondays @ 11-1 PM EDT/8-10 AM PDT and Fridays @ 1-3 PM EDT/10 AM-12 PM PDT
RSVP: https://luma.com/designedminds
Whether you’re building your portfolio for that first role, establishing your voice as a junior designer, scaling your impact as a senior leader, or planning your next move—you don’t have to do it alone.
Show up. Work alongside others. Share what you’re building. Stay accountable.
When: Thursday, June 11 @ 6-7:30 EDT/3-4:30 PDT
Hosts: Michelle Yi Hsu, Dhrumil Shah, Parys Khazaie
RSVP Required: https://luma.com/7ww5lh78
The design process is transforming in real time. Some tools are amplifying your abilities. Some aren’t. What matters is understanding which is which—for your workflow, at your stage.
This workshop takes everything you’ve learned about AI fundamentals and prompt writing and applies it to the bigger question: How is AI changing what you do as a designer?
What we’ll do:
Map real design workflows with AI integration
Discuss what’s amplifying your abilities (and what isn’t)
Build a collective artifact: a snapshot of AI in design today
Share findings with the community afterward
Join if you want to:
Understand AI’s role in the design career
Learn how other organizations integrate AI into their workflows
Strategically integrate AI for career advancement and leadership credibility
When: June 16 @ 2-3 PM PT / 5-6 PM ET
Hosts: Sara Barber & Moyai Fujimura
Guest: Andrea Nguyen
Andrea Nguyen went from full-time employee to founder of Koi Studios—not with a leap of faith alone, but with both boldness and a deliberate, risk-aware plan.
In this conversation, she pulls back the curtain on the real story: what pushed her to leave, what she focused on in year one, how the business has evolved, and the honest tradeoffs between freelancing, in-house, and agency life.
What we’ll explore:
How to assess whether freelancing or entrepreneurship is for you
What to expect and how to set yourself up for success
A concrete 30-day action plan for designers ready to make the jump but unsure where to start
Whether 2026 is actually a good time to go independent
Why this matters: Whether you’re thinking about independence in 5 years or 5 months, hearing from someone who’s actually done it—messy parts included—is invaluable.
You can learn so much more from real conversations with peers than any expert webinar ever could.
Michelle, Dhrumil, and Parys facilitated a workshop that was light, fun, and full of real design thinking in action. A group of designers recreated their workstations using AI tools of their choice. Someone sketched a quick layout on paper, photographed it, and fed the photo back into the prompt. Someone else just uploaded a photo of their desk directly. Someone added her own flavor and described the style she wanted—and ended up with a super cute illustration of her office.
Designers don't communicate through words alone. We sketch, wireframe, annotate, and prototype because making thinking visible is how we move ideas forward. You don't need "better" prompts—you need to understand how to direct, refine, and decide when interacting with AI.
Watch the recording | Full resource library 💖
Sadhana Pakala shared her story about designing your own path—whether that’s through building personal projects, starting ventures, or redefining what success means for you.
Sadhana is a New York-based designer and creative project manager passionate about visual storytelling and building brand experiences that feel intentional and human. Her work spans branding, visual identity, and systems that help ideas scale. Coming out of corporate, she's now deep in a career transition — taking the skills she honed in-house and applying them to the freelance world, where she gets to combine all of her passions into something sustainable.
Send Sadhana a message and connect!
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