Shirley Paden: Online Course Design
Work Type
Video editing & structure · Animation · Visual direction · Deck creation · Cross-team collaboration
Overview
Shirley Paden is a renowned knitwear designer whose work has inspired generations of makers. For a Vogue Knitting Live event, she taught a rare in-person workshop on designing lace knitwear, and our goal was to transform that experience into a paid, self-paced online course that knitwear designers of all levels could take through her website. This was one of the most creatively layered projects I’ve worked on. I had to balance multiple perspectives, maintain brand consistency, and build a visual language that made technical lace concepts feel approachable.
Turning a Live Class Into an Online Experience
Our Focus
Turn several hours of live teaching into a structured online course with clearly defined modules, thoughtful pacing, and a visual approach that supported learning. It needed to be educational, lively, and true to Shirley’s legacy, while offering clarity to both new lace knitters and more experienced designers.
My Role
I began by reviewing the raw footage and assembling it into rough cuts under ten minutes each, shaping the material into four core parts that each expressed a complete idea or technique. Since the live class wasn’t filmed with detailed close-ups, I sourced diagrams and references from her textbook to incorporate in added overlays to bring clarity to the techniques being discussed. To ensure the entire team was aligned, I built a comprehensive creative treatment outlining the course structure, the themes, the motion style, the color and type direction, and a breakdown of what each video would teach. It served both as production guidance and as a presentation piece for Shirley, helping her visualize how her in-person teaching would evolve into a polished digital learning experience.
What I Learned
This project taught me how to translate in-person instruction into a clear and structured online curriculum. I learned how to support technical material through intentional visual design and how to merge multiple creative visions into one cohesive direction. It strengthened my ability to organize content, adapt creatively, and problem-solve to deliver the best possible final product.