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Padalka Guitars · Education

Design Lab

Not how to build a guitar. How to design one worth building.

You can already build. Neck pockets, fret levelling, a finish that still looks right after a year: that part is solved, and most of the information is public now. What isn't solved is why the outline is that outline.

Most builders inherit a shape and adjust it. Move a horn, deepen a cutaway, redraw the headstock. That works until someone asks why, and the answer is taste.

This is design as a discipline: how a functional constraint turns into an aesthetic decision, and how composition behaves on a carved surface rather than on paper. Not a style to copy. A method you run again on the next instrument.

Ten weeks. Five people. You finish with one instrument designed from the brief up.

It's for you if
  • You build. Not necessarily for a living, but you make the whole instrument.
  • Your guitars play well and you still can't say why they look the way they do.
  • You want a method, not a shape to trace.
It isn't if
  • You play and don't build.
  • You're after construction technique. Nothing here covers joinery, fretwork or setup.
  • You want templates.
What you get
  • Nine illustrated sheets, one a week, yours to keep.
  • Ten live sessions, recorded for your cohort.
  • Written feedback on your work, every week you hand something in.
  • A one-to-one design review.
  • Four other builders in the room.
  • Everything stays open to you afterwards.
The next cohort

Dates and the price go to the waitlist first. Join it and you hear before anyone else.

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The sheets

The first four weeks build the vocabulary. The next three put it on one instrument. Week 8 is about turning one instrument into a body of work, then two weeks on a final project.

Module 1Design Fundamentals

  1. 01The Design MethodologyWeek 1
  2. 02Visual Language FoundationsWeek 2
  3. 03Color Theory and Three-Dimensional DesignWeek 3
  4. 04Design Styles and Historical ContextWeek 4

Module 2Applied Design

  1. 05Design Archetypes and Shape GenerationWeek 5
  2. 06Color, Material, and Finish StrategyWeek 6
  3. 07Design Integration and CritiqueWeek 7

Module 3Professional Practice

  1. 08Design Language and Brand IdentityWeek 8

Final project

  1. 09Complete Design DevelopmentWeeks 9–10