Illustrating Complex Ideas with with Sara Londoño
A workshop on turning what you see (and feel) into visual systems — from everyday objects to abstract ideas, distilled into simplified, symbolic forms. Through hands-on sketching and Illustrator refinement, you’ll build a cohesive visual language and leave with a framework for illustration, branding, and identity work.
Upcoming workshop dates
We believe in the power of real-time collaboration, so no recordings—just hands-on learning. Limit: Strictly limited to 20 participants to ensure individual mentoring.
If you have any questions about the course, feel free to email us at franziska@schoolofsystems.org.
Fri, 9 & Sat, 10 October 2026
17:00-20:00 CEST
Location: Live online, Google Meet
Please note: This workshop will not be recorded.
Language: English
Price: 250€ + VAT
About the workshop:
This workshop explores illustration as a tool for building visual systems through observation, abstraction, and repetition. Using everyday objects and abstract concepts as source material, participants will learn how to translate what they see and feel into simplified forms and develop a cohesive visual language across multiple illustrations.
Rather than focusing on realistic drawing, the workshop introduces techniques for identifying essential forms, reducing complexity, and creating consistency through a shared set of visual rules. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a practical framework for creating illustrations through abstraction, along with methods for making intentional decisions around form, structure, and composition. These tools can be applied to illustration, branding, editorial design, iconography, and visual identity systems.
Day 1 | From observation to visual language
In this session, participants will explore abstraction through observation, using everyday objects as a starting point for illustration. Beginning with direct observation, we will examine how visual information can be reduced, simplified, and translated into a cohesive set of forms. Through a series of guided exercises, participants will develop a consistent visual language by identifying what is essential, making intentional decisions around form, and refining illustrations through abstraction. The session will move from sketching by hand to digital refinement in Adobe Illustrator, culminating in a poster composition that brings individual illustrations together into a unified visual outcome.
Day 2 | From meaning to visual language
The second session shifts from tangible objects to abstract ideas. Using concepts, emotions, words, or short texts as prompts, participants will explore how meaning can be translated into visual form through symbolism, association, and abstraction. Building on the methods introduced in the first session, we will investigate how illustration can communicate ideas that cannot be directly observed, developing visual responses that balance interpretation with clarity. The session will combine conceptual exploration, sketching, and digital refinement in Adobe Illustrator, culminating in a poster composition that demonstrates how abstract thinking can be transformed into a coherent visual language.
Outcome: Participants will leave with a practical framework for creating illustrations through abstraction, along with methods for making intentional decisions around form, structure, and composition. These tools can be applied to illustration, branding, editorial design, iconography, and visual identity systems.
Audience: This workshop is open to students, professionals, and curious creative minds interested in illustration, graphic design, and creative processes. No advanced drawing skills are required. Basic knowledge of Adobe Illustrator is recommended. The workshop is suitable for beginners as well as experienced designers looking to explore abstraction and illustration through structured visual approaches.
Required: Pen and paper, Adobe Illustrator.
About Sara:
Sara Londoño is a shape designer working with form and structure to create visuals that make complex ideas simple and direct. Her practice explores form as a way of thinking, not just appearance. She cares deeply about substance, focusing on what is essential in her graphics in order to make space for meaning.
With a background in industrial and interaction design, she is interested in functionality, systems, and how people engage with objects and environments. This perspective informs her approach to illustration and graphic design, where meaning is not fixed but suggested, allowing space for interpretation and reflection, and opening a dialogue between the work and the viewer.
She is interested in how structure and simplicity can coexist with expression, and how restraint in form can still allow for emotional and conceptual depth within visual work.
