12 Weeks | Free
Studio Cohort
Studio Cohort is a multi-disciplinary accelerator for commercial creatives working across Brand, Motion, and Interactive. Twelve creatives per cohort. Twelve weeks. Two real client projects, in service of Alabama organizations whose work deserves to be told further than it has.
Built for Real
Experience
What it is
Studio Cohort exists for commercial creatives who are ready to operate at a professional level but don't have the infrastructure to get there alone. Mentorship from working professionals. Real client work. Production discipline. A peer cohort that becomes a network for the rest of your career.
The program is multi-disciplinary by design. Each cohort mixes creatives across Brand, Motion, and Interactive, forming small studios that ship work together. You develop your craft alongside people developing complementary crafts, which is how working creative teams actually operate.
Train. Collaborate.
Ship.
What you'll do
Each cohort runs on a structured cadence of training, project work, and critique. The briefs are real, from Alabama organizations, businesses, and civic initiatives doing work worth knowing about. Nonprofits running uncommon programs. Companies building things that haven't been built here before. Civic projects whose stories need to reach further than they have. Cohort members work in small multi-disciplinary teams to help those stories reach the audiences they deserve.
Curriculum covers craft, judgment, business discipline, collaborative production habits, and AI-native production fluency. The expectation is that graduates leave as client-ready creative operators, not tool-dependent technicians.
By the end of each cohort, every participant has shipped work for two Alabama clients and built a portfolio of personal creative work alongside it.
Track 01
Brand
Identity, design, art direction, and the systems that make a thing recognizable. Brand-track participants work on identity systems, campaign design, packaging, and visual systems for Alabama clients.
Track 02
Motion
Commercial filmmaking, video, animation, and the production craft behind them. Motion-track participants work on branded content, short-form video, and creative production for Alabama clients.
Track 03
Interactive
Product design, web, app, and immersive experience design. Interactive-track participants work on digital products and platforms for Alabama clients.
Multidisciplinary is the
structural advantage.
Brand designers learn to work with motion editors. Motion editors learn to work with interactive designers. Everyone leaves more useful than the sum of their disciplines.
Every graduate leaves with four things.
01
Portfolio
A portfolio of shipped work for two real Alabama clients. Not student projects or spec work, but work that exists in the world, with a client's name on it, in service of Alabama initiatives whose stories matter.
02
Network
A peer network of fellow creatives who have shipped together. The Studio Cohort alumni community is structured for ongoing collaboration, freelance referral, and joint pitches after the program ends.
03
Path
A path forward, whether that's a freelance practice, a micro-studio with cohort peers, or a staff role at an Alabama creative business.
04
Paycheck
A paycheck, earned through a shared revenue pool from the client projects, paid out on program completion. Studio Cohort isn't tuition. It's professional work, and the work pays.
Eligibility
Studio Cohort is selective. The inaugural cohort admits twelve creatives. Applications for the first cohort are open now through July 1.
Studio Cohort is a hybrid program. Three in-person convergences in Birmingham across the twelve weeks, with the rest running asynchronously between studio teams.
There is no program fee. Studio Cohort generates revenue through the client work cohort members produce, and that revenue is shared with participants on program completion. Money shouldn't be a barrier to creative work in Alabama.
