an 8 week experience design masterclass
whatever you’re creating
— from your wedding to your annual team retreat to your upcoming comedy show —
let's make it exceptional
learn the art and science of crafting experiences that will both move people and blow their socks right off
designing unforgettable experiences
next cohort: spring 2026
join the party
⚡️
whether you’re designing something for your work-life, your life-life, or your creative-life — how it feels matters
In your work-life…
You’re on the hook to create something good — a retreat, a strategy session, a brand experience, a new product. But rather than good enough, what if you could make something extraordinary?
What if it could be the moment that changes the course of your entire career?
In your life-life…
How we spend our days is how we spend our lives. Build more moments of awe, of ritual, of full-bodied delight, of tender care — for you and your people. Because why save the good stuff for later?
What if it was allowed to be more beautiful than this?
In your creative-life…
Your strange, edgy, unruly project dreams need nurturing. And while you spend so much of your energy creating moments for others, you deserve the same.
What if you had the right hot-tub-playground to make something that surprises even yourself?
what you get at this party
🌀
weekly deep-dive workshops
🧠
collaborative open studios
🛠️
our 120+ page interactive playbook
🙌
a community of co-conspirators
join the next cohort
1️⃣
pick a project to workshop over the 8 weeks using our frameworks and methods
2️⃣
join the live weekly immersive workshops (or catch the recordings)
3️⃣
get feedback on your project in our open studio sessions
4️⃣
keep using our tools for everything you design from here on out
course schedule
📆
March start date
the course starts in March and runs for 8 weeks
🌀
weekly immersive workshops
Tuesdays from 9 am - 11:30 am pt (sessions are recorded)
🧠
open studios
three Thursdays from 12 pm - 1 pm pt — dates TBA (sessions are recorded)
by the end of our 8-weeks together, you will:
⚡️
have designed a meaningful experience of your choosing — from the overarching journey to the final details
🪄
walk away with repeatable frameworks and dozens of tools you can use again and again
💪
feel confident in strategically designing for connection, transformation, and delight across diverse experiences
🌱
have gathered inspiration to seed your experience design practice long into the future
👁️
see everything you make — from potluck parties to board meetings — through a new experiential lens
this is the party you’ve been looking for…
At The Design for Feelings Studio, we know you want to design the holy-wow experiences — the kind people talk about for weeks, and decades, afterward.
But fear not, you don’t need to rely on crossing your fingers, hoping “good vibes” can carry the day, or be stuck cobbling together something that feels… fine.
You, and your people, deserve way better than fine.
You need inspiration, clear frameworks, and tangible tools for making magic. That’s where experience design comes in — it’s the secret sauce to making the exceptional. It’s how we transform ordinary moments into the oh hot damn ones.
And it's not just for marketing campaigns, massive events, or app development. Experience design is for everything we’re making out in the world: workshops, gatherings, celebrations, rituals, stories, moments of connection.
We believe the world needs more of the beautiful, the weird, the surprising and the strange — which is why we’re building, and teaching, the tools of experience design in real time.
This course will make you an expert in the art and science of crafting awe. And we’re here to be your ally and your guide in dreaming up more good chaos.
I’m here to help you build good things
I know what it feels like to be burnt out, uninspired, and stuck in a cycle of building things that are mostly meh. To be buried under a million decks and emails and project meetings, playing victim to urgency, feeling like you're on a hamster wheel, rather than in a nice hammock.
And...I know what it’s like to want the holy-shit moments. More smelling the trees. More play, ritual, and sweet absurdity in all the sticky corners of our lives.
I’m Olivia Vagelos and that’s why I built The Design for Feelings Studio — where we get to marry the left-brain rigor with the right-brain magic.
After years at IDEO, Stanford’s d.school, and inside big philanthropy, I helped build the very frameworks that shape how we design experiences today—then left to push them further and bring them to more humans in need of creative inspiration.
Through The Studio I’ve helped thousands of people, and dozens of companies, re-find the energy and the bravery to make the types of unforgettable experiences that they’re really frickin’ proud of. If you’re ready to make sh*t that matters, you’re in good company.
💸 let's talk dollars 💸
tuition: $2500
scholarship price*
$1500
let's make it happen
email us to request your preferred payment plan
*scholarships:
Scholarships are available for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, folks with disabilities, and those doing community-centered, social justice, or environmental work. Email us to request your preferred payment plan (one-time or monthly).
want to use your professional development budget?
Email us and tell us about your company and role and we'll provide a custom program summary to submit for funding.
designing unforgettable experiences
next cohort: spring 2026
join the party
⚡️
what others have designed in the course
A retreat in the woods for school superintendents
A new family Christmas morning
A founder's circle for a VC fund
A song release
A team’s process for designing a 1,000+ person convening
A gallery opening
A storytelling program for c-suite execs
A mister softee city-wide parade
A midnight magic show for the Sutro Baths
A portfolio website
A composting program for high schoolers
A land-based ceremony
A capoeira retreat in Brazil
A neighborhood installation
A library’s summer program for middle schoolers
A friendsgiving
And (so many!!) weddings
"Whether you deliver experiences for one person at a time or a thousand folks, this is for you.
If you feel like what you do, or the service you deliver, doesn't really count as 'design', rest assured this is for you.
The retreat opened my eyes to the sheer depth and detail you can design for.
If you're looking for learning that's playful, inspiring, and a workout for your imagination...and you're tired of phrases like 'optimise', 'customer acquisition', and 'digital first' (insert your favourites here!)...
this is for you."
- Nneka Chukwurah, Content Designer & Community Organizer
"Before the retreat, I felt like something was missing in my approach to workshop design. I had years of experience, but it was a constant struggle to articulate my vision and get others on board.
Olivia's program was a revelation.
For the first time, I had the language and frameworks to clearly communicate my design intentions and get buy-in from my team.
This retreat has fundamentally changed how I approach experience design. My work is more intentional, spacious, and user-centered, and the results speak for themselves. The workshop I designed during Olivia’s retreat received the highest participant ratings I've ever seen.
If you're even considering any of Olivia’s offerings, just do it! She is a gifted facilitator and an inspiring human being. She'll push you to think differently, expand your creative boundaries, and you’ll have a blast in the process!"
- Alison Guglielmo Kerr, Design & Facilitation Partner @ Transcend
"The retreat felt like a respite from the thinking world that we are in, transporting us into a feeling world that's soft, gentle and human.
I now have frameworks to articulate and connect the dots between what were once fragmented thoughts on what good experiences are made of. Plus levers through which I can add that additional oomph.
But most importantly, the 8 weeks helped me lean more confidently and keenly into feelings, and to embrace feelings as the anchor of all experiences, be it a marketing campaign, a dinner club, or a Christmas gathering.
It's a feelings world, people! "
- Agalia Tan, Senior Strategist, Community Builder, Musician
"The sessions were warm and cozy and deeply human. I loved the rhythmic immersion of storytelling, reflection, and sharing.
I spend so much time on Zoom, but the immersive workshops felt different — Olivia is a kickass facilitator.
So nice to drop into soul nourishing spaces with other humans and remember that creating wonder and delight is as crucial as the rest of it."
- Karrah Phillips, Program Manager @ AirBnB
what you'll learn in this course
design for
connection
Week 1: Seed Your Purpose
Choose the offering you'll design during the course. Define the purpose of your experience, articulate the most critical shifts, and identify your audience.
Week 2: Design for Feelings
Learn how to anchor your design in a desired feeling. Map the emotional and energetic journey of your participants across time.
Week 3: Weave Relationships
Dive into relational design. Explore power dynamics, inclusion, and connection across roles, participants, and environments.
design for
structure
Week 4: Architect the Containers
Design the emotional, spatial, and temporal structures that support your experience. Choose metaphors to guide your design.
Week 5: Create the Journey
Map the narrative arc of your experience. Design for pivotal moments, emotional beats, and textures of time.
Week 6: Bring It to Life
Translate your ideas into memorable, sensory moments. Use artifacts, environments, and detail to activate your metaphor and deepen impact.
design for
play
Week 7: Invite Play
Explore how to design for emergence, agency, challenge, and experiential re-enchantment. Invite risk, courage, and fun.
Week 8: Playtest the Tools
Identify the tools and touchpoints your experience needs. Learn how to test, refine, and prepare your offering for real-world implementation.
Aftershocks
You'll just have to wait to find out.
designing unforgettable experiences
next cohort: spring 2026
join the party
⚡️
"Olivia is a world-weaver, spinning together meaning, myth, ritual, language, and the full spectrum of the sensorial into spaces and experiences that unlock new possibilities.
When we speak of “magic,” we mean delight in the unexpected, the joy of wonder, emotional care, and a full-bodied sensorial immersion we are happy to surrender to.
Quite simply, Olivia is a magician."
Mitch Carter Jafery
Co-Founder of Friday Gallery, former Chief Creative Officer at IDEO
"Olivia is a phenomenal experience designer at the top of her craft, who is taking the rigor of the design thinking processes that she rocked at IDEO and combining it with the intangible art of experience design. She has created a process around the chaos of creating both the emotional and the transformational.
Run, don’t walk, to whatever she makes, or whatever she invites you to experience."
Jenny Gottstein
Creative Director and Founder of Playscapades Studio, Creator of the Climate Action Game Show
"As an executive producer of experiential marketing, I find Olivia’s approach to designing with emotions super aligned with how we should all approach creating experiences. Her ability to create safe space with intention is unique, and I find her strategies and tactics incredibly valuable and useful.
If you get a chance to spend some time in her welcoming space, definitely take it!"
Isis Arias
Executive Experiential Producer & Brand Marketer, Former Marketing Lead of Global Live Experiences @ Netflix
"Olivia challenges your existing perspectives with tenderness; brings depth, texture, and emotion to every topic, and takes participants on a gentle and provocative journey into what's next in truly beautiful ways.
Work with her! You might cry? You'll definitely feel warm and fuzzy. And maybe a little upset by the world as it is.
But that's ok, because you'll already be on your way to building what could be, instead."
Keely Adler
Cultural Futurist at RADAR & Dentsu Creative
FAQs
What if I'm not a designer? Is this still for me?
What kinds of experiences do people work on in the course?
What if I don’t know what I want to work on?
Is my project big enough to work on in this course?
What if the project I want to work on is under NDA?
Will I get feedback on my project?
Can I book a call with Olivia to chat about the course?
How much time should I set aside each week?
What if I can't make the live sessions?
How can I get my company to pay for this?
Are there scholarships available?
Is there a payment plan option?
have other questions?
in the midst of an existential crisis and wondering if experience design is the answer?
💌
send us an email at
or grab time on the calendar with Olivia!
📲 book a call with Olivia 📲