Learning experience designers are under pressure to be creative on demand. Under stressful conditions, it's difficult to know where to turn and where to find inspiration. There are methods for energizing your designs by borrowing creative ideas and modifying them to meet the needs of your audience, content, and messaging. There are ways to develop your own visual style that is both creative and consistent.

Get ready to expand your horizons. In this session, we'll explore the components of a visual style framework. We'll discuss where to find visual styles, what it takes to modify them for varied audiences, and how to use repetition and contrast to create a unified design. Our examples will come from modern graphic design trends. We will evaluate the characteristics of each trend in the context of its use. We'll look at how designers create a visual style in terms of form, space, harmony, and contrast. Then we'll find ways to modify and develop the style into our own unique approach for learning design. Whether you create graphics yourself, work with a graphic designer, or manage a team, it pays to have a consistent visual style as your framework. You don't need any graphic skills to gain new insights and benefit from this session.

In this session, you will learn:

• The connection between aesthetics and learning
• The elements that make up a visual style
• The pros and cons of relying on graphic design trends
• Where to find visual inspiration
• How to apply the characteristics of a style to your work
• How to use a visual style to improve learning effectiveness
• About the many resources for finding inspiration