Learning Lab

This 5-part workshop series is your roadmap to building a successful small business website that stands out. We’ll cover all the technical aspects, from claiming your domain and choosing the right platform to mastering website design that showcases your unique brand. You’ll also gain crucial insights and practical techniques for driving consistent customer traffic to your site, including tips on content marketing, local SEO, social media integration, and online promotion. Our interactive classes ensure you leave with a clear strategy to turn clicks into customers and differentiate your business.

This workshop series will take place virtually on Zoom. Participation in all sessions is required.

Learning Outcomes
* Define key elements of a small business website (e.g., domain, hosting, platform).
* Choose cost-effective website platforms that align with your business needs and budget.
* Apply design principles to create a website that showcases your unique brand.
* Understand fundamental SEO strategies to improve website visibility.
* Develop strategies for driving website traffic attracting target customers to your website.
* Leverage your website to convert visitors into leads or paying customers.
* Employ website branding and content strategies to stand out from competitors in your niche.

Session Breakdown
1. Digital foundation & brand storytelling: Understanding the basic building blocks of a website and how to integrate your unique brand identity.
2. Designing for impact & user experience: Creating an appealing, user-friendly website that clearly communicates your brand and guides visitors.
3. Creating content that connects & converts: Developing effective website content that resonates with your target audience and drives desired actions.
4. SEO basics: getting found online: Understanding the fundamentals of SEO to increase website visibility and attract organic traffic.
5. Driving traffic & measuring success: Exploring various strategies to bring customers to your website and understanding how to track their journey.

In a visually driven digital world, makers need more than just great products— they need stories that captivate, content that connects, and visuals that convert. “Shoot to Sell: Visual Storytelling for NYC Makers” is a three-part workshop series designed to help NYC-based makers and small business owners build their brand presence through powerful, DIY visual storytelling. This program teaches participants how to plan, shoot, and edit commercial-quality video content—using tools they already have. Whether you’re promoting a new product or elevating your brand’s narrative, this workshop provides actionable skills to increase visibility, engagement and ultimately sales.

This is an in-person workshop series and sessions will be held at Pratt Institute’s Manhattan campus. Participation in all sessions is required.

Learning Outcomes
* A custom branded video content strategy
* Knowledge of basic cinematography using smartphones
* An edited 1-minute brand or product video
* Confidence using TikTok, Instagram and Reels to market effectively
* Clear steps for creating on-going content in-house.

Session Breakdown
1. Digital Footprint & The Foundations of Visual Storytelling: We’re kicking things off by getting real about our online presence. Participants will audit their current platforms, uncover what’s working (and what’s not), and start building a content foundation rooted in their brand’s identity and goals. By the end of the session, they’ll walk away with clarity, confidence, and a game plan for creating content that connects and converts.
2. Content Planning and Creative Direction: This session focuses on planning content like a visual storyteller. Participants will learn how to outline a compelling brand or product video, create a simple storyboard, and select shots, locations, and props that best reflect their brand identity. By the end, they’ll have a detailed shoot plan ready for production.
3. Production & Social Media Integration: In the final session, participants will shoot and edit a 1-minute brand or product video using their smartphones. They’ll apply visual storytelling techniques learned earlier and walk through simple editing workflows. The session concludes with guidance on how to effectively share content across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Reels to maximize reach and engagement.

Looking to gain brand exposure, find new customers and develop a loyal clientele? Digital marketing is an indispensable tool for business owners today, but the competition for an online audience is fierce and marketing technology is changing rapidly. This workshop series will teach you how to effectively implement and manage a digital marketing strategy to reach your target audience – using powerful tools that are available for free online.

Learning Outcomes
* Essential tools for building and assessing your digital marketing strategy
* An understanding of SEO, email and social media marketing
* A data-driven approach to monitoring your marketing efforts
* A roadmap for future digital marketing plans

Session Breakdown
1. Digital Footprint: The workshop series begins with an overview of the landscape of digital marketing and how to assess your own digital presence. Participants will share their current digital strategy and goals, as well as identify the accounts and tools they will need during the course of the workshop.
2. SEO & Website Optimization: In the second session we will begin to explore the framework for optimizing your website, specifically looking at how to manage your site for top ranking in search results. This session also addresses on-site accessibility and user experience, and how to use keywords to speak to your customer.
3. Content Marketing: The third session of this series looks at content marketing as one of the key pillars of effective digital marketing strategy. This session examines the types of content you might employ, as well as how to use content to move prospective customers toward conversion.
4. Email Marketing: The fourth session focuses on email marketing – still the primary marketing channel for sales and conversions. In this session we explore how to build a healthy and engaged email list, and how to use your website and content to drive effective email strategy.
5. Social Media Marketing: In this session we will examine the primary social media channels as digital marketing tools and identify the best use cases for each business. We will also look at creating and managing a social media content schedule and tools for saving time and effort.
6. Metrics for Success: In the final session of this series we will review the core principles discussed throughout the workshop and examine the concept of ROI (return on investment) for digital marketing strategy. Participants will come away with tools and frameworks to assess their own unique marketing plans going forward.

This workshop series will be offered again in spring 2026. Dates and application information will be made available the week of January 5.

This hands-on workshop guides participants through the fundamentals of logo design with a focus on small business branding. From concept sketching to digital execution, makers will learn how to create or refine a logo that captures their brand’s values, stands out in the market, and works across platforms—from packaging to social media. The session welcomes both participants starting from scratch and those looking to improve an existing logo. We’ll explore strategies for expanding visual identity systems, including logo variations for different uses (such as submarks, icons, and lockups), ensuring a cohesive and versatile brand presence.

Learning Outcomes
* A draft or final version of a custom-designed logo (vector file or digital format)
* A logo usage guide (colors, fonts, variations)
* A worksheet or checklist for integrating their new logo into social media profiles, packaging, and websites

Session Breakdown
1. Concept Sketching: The workshop series begins with an overview of the fundamentals of logo design, types of logos, negative space, scales, and applications. Participants will share their company goals and target/current audience and conduct visual research on competitor logos. A guided brainstorming and hand sketching session will conclude the first session.
2. Digital Execution: In the second session we will begin to explore free tools (Adobe Express, Canva) for digitizing your logos. Participants will need to bring their own laptop. We will also be optimizing the logo for different scales and applications whether it’s packaging, a website, or social media.

Forging relationships with bigger brands can be intimidating, and for smaller businesses, it’s difficult to know where to start. These partnerships can be a game changer for up-and-coming brands looking to expand their distribution channels and sales opportunities. In this interactive workshop series, makers work together over three weeks to assess their business’ strengths and weaknesses and build a roadmap to create marketing opportunities through working with other brands. This is a deep-dive opportunity to openly discuss, ideate, get feedback, and strategize on collaboration strategies.

Learning Outcomes
* Identification of potential collaboration partners
* Deep assessment of business strength and weaknesses
* Custom strategies and action plans for identified collaboration partners, along with methods to replicate collaboration opportunities with other partners down the line

This workshop series will be offered again in spring 2026. Dates and application information will be made available the week of January 5.

As a small business owner, appropriate, consistent design can sometimes seem hard to achieve. Some of that is down to simply not having the time or skills to make good design work. Other times it’s because visual design seems less critical in comparison to more traditional business metrics, such as cost per sale, customer satisfaction, or new client acquisition. However, the simple fact is that without good design, you have no way of efficiently organizing or marketing what you do in the best possible light. In this course you will learn how to use free and simple design tools to create a visual design system for your business. By the end of the course, you will have a set of design tools and templates to help you streamline and grow your business.

Learning Outcomes
* Understand how visual design systems work and can be applied to your business
* Assess and audit your existing businesses design language
* Developing a system of design components in an easy to use library
* Applying your new visual system to identified priorities for your business

Session Breakdown
1. Introduction to visual design for small businesses: The importance of a consistent design language for a businesses. Basic visual design principles and best practices. Review of examples/models. Let’s conduct a visual audit. Organize and evaluate your business design language. Introduction to free online visual design tools (Figma, Stencil, Milanote).
2. Building a system of design components: Creating your new, consistent visual design language. Let’s build a system of components. Logo, color, composition, iconography, photography, typography and tone of voice. Building and sharing your visual design library/document using (Figma, Stencil, Milanote).
3. Applying your visual design system: Applying your visual design system to designed outcomes. Let’s create a printed card, a photographic element, a marketing email and a social media post. Working further with online visual design tools (Figma, Stencil, Milanote)
4. Refining your approach: Exploring design trends and inspiration. Adapting designs for different platforms and audiences. Creating a set of design templates for future use. Course review and final presentation.

This workshop series will be offered again in spring 2026. Dates and application information will be made available the week of January 5.