A framework that structures creativity.

This platform is ground zero—a community and a home for designers to sharpen their design process, free from outside influences and challenges.

It’s a space where the focus is on clear direction and precise feedback, empowering you to grow stronger and more confident as a designer, rather than just guessing your way through the process. To master the skills and the resilience needed to thrive in any environment.

We help you become a strong designer

Spatial Thinking Framework is built around four core processes: Design Process, Personal Process, Everyday Process and the Ideas Process.

Each of these processes address different aspects of a designer’s growth, nurturing both the creative development and personal ideas that shape the tenacity and resilience needed to drive design innovation.

What you get from the Framework

The ideas within the Spatial Thinking Framework and its Core Processes are unique—you wouldn't have heard these ideas elsewhere... or perhaps you recognise some of them but it was taught in a different way. By the time you go through the processes within Spatial Thinking, you might find yourself saying,

Why have I not heard of these ideas before even though they feel obvious and familiar?

In many ways, Spatial Thinking is so basic that it can feel wrong that you haven't heard it before. Creativity is so simple, and yet it is often explained in the worst possible way and sadly, many seem to grow out of creative activities because it is deemed useless for their career. And years later, the same people might question why they have no passion, why they can't come up with an original idea, or a startup idea, or why they can't find their life's calling.

Learning the Spatial Thinking Framework, develops your creative and design process. It makes you resilient and your process robust. To learn and master Spatial Thinking can be done quickly, but as with anything worth learning, it requires practice and effort. The Spatial Thinking processes feel universal because they are designed to be as close to the core of things as we can get and this core is common in all of us—it's called creativity.

The four Core Processes listed below are designed to encompass the entire growth that is needed to be a strong designer and creative person. Outside of your Design Process, everything needs a Personal Process. It is impossible to improve creativity without something personal. After these more intentional process, the Everyday Process encompasses your habits, and Ideas Process structures how you can think about design.

Design Process

(Project Process)

Core Ideas: Observe, Abstract, Translate

The Design Process relates directly to a project and is roughly split into 3 Core Principles: Observe, Abstract and Translate. To Observe (and converse) is to observe your surroundings. To Abstract is to ideate and create a concept. And to Translate relates to the physical design outcome.

These three core principles are universal for any creative project. Whilst each profession will have different terminologies, it would be difficult to argue against the fact that all design projects require some form of observation, ideation and production. Mastering these Principles requires a focused approach to Spatial Thinking, incorporating specific concepts and processes. Without this structured framework, the vague and unfocused ideas often encountered in other courses can take hold and produce weak design processes.

Personal Process

(Internal Process)

Core Ideas: Move, Honest, Believe

Without something personal, I can't imagine how anyone can be creative. And yet any design course, leaves the personal process out. Even novice designers can vastly improve with a better Personal Process and this is what Spatial Thinking seeks to hone.

Like the Design Process, we use simple core ideas, that seem almost too basic—Move Honest Belief—words that almost feel like there is little to learn from. And yet, if I asked you to continually perform these three words, at the same time, every second of the day, could you do it? Simple as it sounds, it is difficult to always move, believe and be honest in every action you perform. Simple personal words like love are anything but simple. Even the word happy can be complex. What we think we can achieve in life often is undermined by the simplest of things. To be a designer, or a master of anything, loneliness is the single most determining factor to success.

To Move is easy, but to always move regardless? And always prioritising effectivity? Spatial Thinking defines Honest differently, and within the context of design, it is the only way to innovate. Belief is a word that is used very rarely in a design project, but is present in every single one of them. Design can be likened to staring into an abyss yet remain hopeful, and the only way to keep moving within the darkness, is to believe. That is design.

Everyday Process

(External Process)

Core Ideas: Everyday, Beauty, Efficiency

Outside of projects and personal challenges, is the every day life. This process can often be the great determinator of success—what are your habits every day? What are some principles that can affect daily rituals that make you a stronger designer?

In architecture, the Everyday is a significant concept. Day in day out, people's behaviour as individuals or within groups, how the sun and wind moves, every season, every year, sunrise to sunset, a plethora of phenomena occur which play dynamically into an architecture system. Designers can fortify the everyday process by shifting the way they think, adjusting the goals they make, inside and outside of personal challenges or design projects. Un-thinking time, is as powerful as thinking time and even the baseline of this everyday existence defines a strong designer.

Ideas Process

(Knowledge Process)

Core Ideas: Global, Meaningful, Professional

Without a collection of ideas, a designer is worth little. Some ideas form the foundation of design movements, life goals, and personal journeys—they are called ideals or visions. What are yours?

In this process, we present a curated set of ideas that work together to shape a dynamic ideation process. Often, knowing what others have said in the past, can shift entire projects and life journeys. Knowing where your ideas lies within the boundaries of idea of the past, can help situate the way you design more quickly. Re-inventing the wheel, albeit fun is tedious. Knowing is harmless and means little until it takes root and over decades becomes wisdom.

Some ideas are simply too easy and useful to forget, like "Work harder during the good times, because during the bad times you have no time."