Most of you know me from the work I’ve done for StudioPress and Rainmaker Digital. After nearly 8 years, I decided to move on and start a new chapter in my life.
I had a great career over at Rainmaker Digital. I started in 2010 and was almost immediately responsible for designing some of the biggest WordPress websites and had a chance to work side by side with some of the smartest people I’ve ever known.
Together, we created a number of great products that helped us to grow the company to be one of the biggest in the WordPress ecosystem.
I started as a humble designer and ended up in a leadership role as the VP of Design. I’m forever grateful for such a wonderful opportunity I got from the Rainmaker Digital founders.
As much as I loved my job and could make a great living from it, I knew I needed to finally move on and explore what more was out there waiting for me.
You may have heard about the WP Engine acquisition of StudioPress, but it really didn’t affect my decision. I chose my own route way before I learned that Brian Gardner decided to sell StudioPress.
Also, it doesn’t mean that I’m ending my relationship with StudioPress or Copyblogger! You can see we’ve recently launched a new Copyblogger design and I may be even designing some new themes for StudioPress as well.
Brian Gardner and I are good friends. We live 25 minutes from each other and we still meet almost every week at Starbucks to exchanging ideas and help each other with our personal projects.
What’s next then?
One of the biggest reasons why I decided to leave was because I needed to devote more time and energy to my own projects and continue working on the Design Class.
I was so humbled with all of the amazing reviews I got from my ebook, The Essential Web Design Handbook, and it motivates me every day to continue working on new educational products.
I keep my head down now and work hard on my courses. You can already get a small taste by reading the free content I’m releasing (expect 8 free lessons in the upcoming weeks) in the first part: Intro to Web Design.
You can read the first free lesson here: The Real Value of a Good Design.
I custom designed the entire learning experience, so go ahead and check out how it looks and works (your feedback is welcomed!).
About Design Class
Design Class is a series of courses about designing for the web that includes 6 independent parts:
- Intro to Web Design
- Discovery, Strategy and UX
- Web Typography
- Colors in Web Design
- Designing Web Layouts
- Designing in Sketch
Web Typography is next to be released (it’s already 50% done!) because it’s my favorite topic and it’s so much more to learn about it.
Doing it in parts will allow me to deliver new content more often and I can be working on it while you’re learning from the already existing lessons. Also, you’ll have a chance to buy individual parts if you feel like you’re lacking knowledge only in some particular areas.
Also, the Design Community will now be a big part of it too. I’m hoping to build a place where we can communicate, meet fellow designers, give each other design feedback, and help not only with design problems but with any questions regarding freelancing, career, pricing, jobs, and more. I’ll also be sharing some new exclusive “community-only” design resources and tools.
I’m still in the planning phase, so any ideas are welcome! You can email me directly using the contact form or post a comment below.
I’m really excited about what’s coming next and I’m hoping to build a great resource for everyone. It’ll be the first time when I can really focus all of my attention on it.
Congrats Rafal! Excited to see what you create next. The future is bright!
Thanks, Chris! Ha, it’s funny that this is the place where we met. You wrote a comment on of my blog posts and a couple days later we started working together on some themes for StudioPress and now we continue to work on many other projects 😉
I’m really glad you posted that comment back in the day!
Rafal,
I am so excited for you and your next chapter. You are SO talented and I’m sure you will achieve success in whatever path you choose. No luck needed 🙂
Ha, thank you, Rachael! I always felt like I was just lucky all the way up to here, so please don’t take that luck away for me! ;-D
Cheering you on, Rafael! Thank you for the great work you did through StudioPress—your thoughtful theme designs continue to serve me well on multiple websites. I can’t wait to learn more about your course.
Thank you, Sara! It’s great to hear that.
I think it goes without saying that this season for you is bittersweet for me. It’s been a privilege to have worked alongside you all of these years, and it’s been extremely fun to watch you learn and grow your craft. I have no doubt in my mind that you will succeed in whatever it is you do, and look forward to working with you under difference circumstances. 🙂
I’ll be forever grateful for the trust and opportunity you gave me in the beginning when nobody knew me and it was really hard to get through. I learned so much from you in all these years!
Also, looking forward to what we come up with next 😉
Rafal,
Do you use Adobe XD ? If so, do you plan to add it to your design class?
I would be glad if you do.
Cheers,
The knowledge and skills you’ll learn from the course will not depend on the tool you use. Only the last module will be about designing in Sketch, but you’ll be able to easily apply a similar workflow in Figma or Adobe XD.
Adobe XD, Sketch, and Figma are all three very good design tools these days. I chose Sketch because it’s the most popular, but all three are very similar in the way they work and even have a similar user interface.
Congratulations Rafal. I wish you the best.
Regards, John Eze