Future Designers for Hawaiʻi Keiki

Create, Not Consume

Online — 8-Week Core Program

A live online design program where keiki learn to create with purpose, kuleana, and care. Children build creativity, empathy, communication, and future-ready thinking through invention, storytelling, design challenges, and beginner AI exploration. This is not more passive screen time. It is a structured, supportive studio where kids learn to notice real needs, think beyond themselves, and explain their ideas with confidence.

Future Designers for Hawaiʻi Keiki
Future Designers • June 26 to August 14, 2026 • Fridays
Future Designers • June 26 to August 14, 2026 • FridaysFuture Designers • June 26 to August 14, 2026 • FridaysFuture Designers • June 26 to August 14, 2026 • FridaysFuture Designers • June 26 to August 14, 2026 • Fridays

Future Designers • June 26 to August 14, 2026 • Fridays

$399.00

A live online design program where keiki learn to create with purpose, kuleana, and care.

June 26, 2026 — 5:00–6:30 PM HST
July 3, 2026 — 5:00–6:30 PM HST
July 10, 2026 — 5:00–6:30 PM HST
July 17, 2026 — 5:00–6:30 PM HST
July 24, 2026 — 5:00–6:30 PM HST
July 31, 2026 — 5:00–6:30 PM HST
August 7, 2026 — 5:00–6:30 PM HST
August 14, 2026 — 5:00–6:30 PM HST

In this guided class, children build future-ready creative skills through invention, storytelling, design thinking, beginner app design, and thoughtful AI exploration. Instead of passively consuming technology, they learn how to notice real needs, ask better questions, and shape ideas that can help people, places, and communities.

Keiki will practice sketching, problem-solving, empathy, communication, and presentation while developing a simple design concept they can proudly share.

Best for ages 8–12. No design, coding, or technology experience needed. Just curiosity and willingness to try.

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Future-Ready but Grounded

Technology with judgment, imagination with purpose

Participants get weekly, project-based sessions designed to grow creativity and practical design skills, not just follow-along crafts.

For Hawaiʻi families, the deeper question is often not only "Will my child learn technology?" It is "Will they learn to use it with care?" Collaboration is built in: kids share ideas, give feedback, and solve problems together as part of every challenge. Families purchase the program directly.

Kuleana in Every Idea

Keiki learn to think beyond themselves

Future Designers is built for that gap. Instead of rushing through projects, children slow down enough to notice problems, ask better questions, and explain their ideas clearly.

Week by week, they learn how ideas grow: from a rough sketch, to a concrete question, to a solution they can test, to a presentation they can proudly share. Peers collaborate throughout, building teamwork and shared problem-solving into the creative process.

The work feels playful on the surface, but underneath it is serious training in structure, empathy, independent thinking, and care for the people affected by what we create.
Care for people and ʻāina, while building future skills

Care for people and ʻāina, while building future skills

This is design education for children who are growing up with technology, but still need grounding, judgment, and a sense of responsibility.

Create, not consume: kids use screen time to sketch, question, design, and explain.

Kuleana: every project asks who is affected and what responsibility the designer carries.

Confidence without pressure: children are taken seriously without being forced to perform.

Aloha ʻāina mindset: children practice thinking about resources, impact, and care for place.

Voice: keiki learn to explain what they see, why it matters, and how their idea can help.

8-Week Program Flow

A structured, calm, meaningful path from idea to prototype

Every session has a clear purpose. Children move from playful invention to human-centered design, accessibility challenges, storytelling, app thinking, and a final prototype they can proudly share.

Purpose

To spark imagination and introduce creative problem-solving by asking how an elephant could live in space. Activities are fun and engaging, helping children start thinking like young inventors—identifying real needs and translating abstract ideas into drawings.

Class summary

  • Brainstorm how an elephant might survive in space and list what it would need to stay alive.
  • Discuss essential needs like oxygen, food, movement, temperature, and waste.
  • Encourage students to show, not just tell, by sketching space suits or habitats, or by creating related crafts as part of hands-on exploration.
  • Share early ideas, give gentle peer feedback, and notice what still needs solving.

Homework

Research how elephants eat, drink, and sleep, and how long they can survive without food or water.

Benefits

  • Visual communication
  • Scientific curiosity about biology and space
  • Early systems thinking
  • Confidence presenting imaginative ideas

Purpose

To shift from wild imagination into structured design. Children learn that design is not just about looking cool; it is about making something work for a real user. This week emphasizes design education as a way to build problem-solving skills, creative thinking, and kuleana.

Class summary

  • Revisit Week 1 sketches and identify which problems are still unsolved.
  • Discuss the difference between art and design, and what makes a design simple, functional, and user-friendly.
  • Break down everyday challenges for users like an elderly person using a TV remote.
  • Redesign a cluttered remote so that only the essential buttons remain.
  • Return to the space elephant and redesign communication or support devices with more realistic details.

Homework

Interview a family member about a tool or device they struggle with. Redesign your space elephant communication device to be simpler and more realistic, focusing on the minimum features it really needs.

Benefits

  • Empathy for everyday users
  • Human-centered problem framing
  • Kuleana in action
  • Clearer explanation of how things work

Purpose

To help children distinguish between art, design, and visual arts—and to ground inventions in real research about how living beings communicate—while showing how visual arts strengthen creative and design skills.

Class summary

  • Share updated designs for elephant communication devices.
  • Explore the difference between art: expressing emotion, and design: solving a specific problem.
  • Research how elephants naturally communicate using vibrations through the ground.
  • Rework earlier designs so they make sense for how elephants really sense and move.
  • Reflect on how new information can and should change an original idea.

Homework

Redesign your communication device to use vibrations, the way elephants naturally communicate. Create a separate artwork of a house that expresses a strong emotion using only shapes and colors.

Benefits

  • Clear sense of art vs. design
  • Research-informed creativity
  • Deeper empathy for non-human users
  • Balancing imagination with realism

Purpose

To connect emotional expression in art with accessibility design—showing that great design serves people with different abilities—while building artistic skills.

Class summary

  • Share emotion-based artworks and practice reading feelings from images, using techniques such as digital illustration and exploring different art styles.
  • Introduce accessibility: designing tools for blind, visually impaired, deaf, or colorblind users, with techniques to make designs more inclusive.
  • Brainstorm smart canes, emergency alert systems, and tools that translate color into sound, light, or vibration.
  • Practice simplifying interfaces so they can be used safely with minimal instructions, applying techniques that enhance usability.
  • Look at existing tools and discuss how they could be improved for real people.

Homework

Choose one challenge—supporting blind users, hearing-impaired users in emergencies, or people with color blindness—and design a realistic or slightly futuristic tool that genuinely makes life easier.

Benefits

  • Accessibility awareness
  • Empathy for people with disabilities
  • Turning research into concrete design ideas
  • Translating feelings into visual decisions

Purpose

To strengthen planning, research, storytelling, and presentation through hands-on work on big real-world scenarios and imaginative, history-inspired stories.

Class summary

  • Plan a hypothetical Mount Everest expedition, from route and gear to safety and budget.
  • Discuss what makes a plan realistic versus purely fantastical.
  • Learn the basics of story structure using the Tower of Babel as inspiration, and explore different storytelling styles.
  • Create and share original stories with clear characters, conflicts, and resolutions, incorporating a variety of styles.
  • Practice giving and receiving feedback, focusing on clarity and stakes.

Homework

Research a real ancient artifact, draw or design it, and be ready to explain what it is and why it mattered. Continue refining your Everest plan to make it more grounded and thoughtful.

Benefits

  • Project planning
  • Narrative structure and storytelling
  • Historical imagination
  • Public speaking and active listening

Purpose

To move from big historical ideas into modern app design—showing that digital tools exist to solve real problems for real people—and to practice finding creative solutions through app design.

Class summary

  • Study historical figures and monuments, learning to read meaning from poses, symbols, and materials.
  • Introduce low-fidelity app design using simple black-and-white paper sketches.
  • Map out what happens when a user taps a button, moves between screens, or makes a mistake.
  • Design app ideas that address real needs—from animal welfare to safety, health, and learning—and explore creative solutions to real-world problems.
  • Present paper prototypes and explain what problem each app is trying to solve.

Homework

Create a full paper prototype of a mobile app that solves a problem you care about. Include the home screen, key flows, and messages a user might see when things go wrong or right.

Benefits

  • Introduction to UX thinking
  • Systems and flow planning
  • Connecting design decisions to user safety and responsibility
  • Practice simplifying complex ideas

Purpose

To move from paper into simple digital prototypes and to introduce AI as a partner for brainstorming and analysis—not a replacement for human thinking—highlighting how digital tools make it easier for kids to experiment with design.

Class summary

  • Follow a structured path through digital design and AI exploration.
  • Review everyday objects and apps to define what good design actually does for a user.
  • Transfer paper app prototypes into a simple digital wireframing tool.
  • Learn a step-by-step method: sketch, wireframe, then visual design.
  • Practice giving clear prompts to AI, evaluating its suggestions, and deciding what to keep or discard.
  • Research real-world apps in the same category and compare their flows and decisions.

Homework

Rebuild your app as a black-and-white digital wireframe and analyze two real apps that solve a similar problem. Be ready to explain what you borrowed, what you changed, and why.

Benefits

  • Hands-on experience with a real design tool
  • Critical thinking about AI responses
  • Ability to learn from professional examples
  • Confidence moving between analog and digital work

Purpose

To refine each student’s app into a presentable prototype, connect modern UI to a longer history of human-centered engineering, and open future paths in design and technology.

Class summary

  • Study El-Cezeri’s elephant water clock as an example of storytelling, engineering, and design woven together.
  • Polish digital app prototypes with better layout, hierarchy, and simple color choices.
  • Apply contrast and readability principles so designs feel clear and inviting.
  • Practice giving and receiving detailed design feedback on navigation, buttons, and screens.
  • Prepare and deliver a short verbal explanation of what the app does, who it is for, and why it matters.

Homework

Finalize your prototype and script a short presentation that explains your app in clear, simple language. Optional: research design schools or programs that excite you and notice the kinds of projects students create there.

Benefits

  • UI/UX refinement
  • Visual design basics and color theory
  • Putting ideas into a structured, shareable form
  • Confidence presenting a finished concept
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Their Voice Matters

Confidence without pressure

By the end of 8 weeks, children begin to see themselves not just as students, but as thoughtful creators who can spot problems, imagine better ideas, and express their thinking clearly.

Card image Card image

Creative Confidence

Children discover that their ideas matter. They learn how to turn imagination into sketches, stories, and prototypes that others can understand and respond to.

Structured Problem-Solving

Instead of only making things, they practice finding what is not working—for a person, an animal, or a system—and improving it step by step.

Empathy & Kuleana

From elephants in space to blind pedestrians and colorblind users, children design for someone else’s needs and learn that good design begins with understanding another life.

Communication & Presentation Skills

Each week they share work-in-progress, receive feedback, and practice explaining complex ideas in simple language, building comfort with public speaking over time.

Future-Ready Digital Awareness

Students are gently introduced to interface design and AI as a creative thinking tool: something to question, guide, and use thoughtfully, not a shortcut that replaces their own judgment.

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Purpose Over Busywork

For parents who want future-ready but grounded keiki

They are looking for a place where their child can grow in confidence, become more expressive, and learn to think independently in a world shaped by technology.

For Hawaiʻi families, that future readiness also has to feel grounded. Future Designers combines creativity, design, empathy, communication, and early AI literacy in a way that still feels deeply human. The result is not just better projects on screen; it is a quieter, steadier belief in their own voice and ideas.
Girl thinking while writing in notebook

More Time to Grow

More time to design with responsibility

The summer camp builds on the same foundation but goes further. Campers leave with a full mobile app prototype and a deeper practice of explaining who their idea serves and why it matters.

Future Designers Summer Camp — 12 Weeks
Live
Jun 8

Future Designers Summer Camp — 12 Weeks

Online · Live Classes 12-week immersive summer format

Purchase directly online
Limited to 12 kids
Purchase directly online

Led by a professional designer

Compare Programs

Choose the path that fits your keiki

See how the 8-week core program compares to the 12-week summer camp. Both programs emphasize hands-on projects and collaborative learning.

Feature
8-Week Core Program
12-Week Summer ProgramImmersive
Format
Weekly online program
Immersive online summer camp
Length
8 weeks
12 weeks
Pace
Steady, foundational, intentional
Deeper, more immersive, project-driven
Main focus
Creative thinking, empathy, design foundations, early AI
Creative thinking + full mobile app journey
Starting point
Invention, storytelling, design challenges
Starts with the same foundation, then goes further
App design depth
Intro to simple app thinking
Full guided path to a mobile app prototype
Final outcome
A strong concept, early design thinking, simple project work
A simple prototyped mobile app and final presentation
Best for
Families wanting a strong weekly foundation
Families wanting a richer summer project and bigger transformation
Experience level
No experience needed
No experience needed
AI exposure
Gentle introduction to AI as a creative tool
More integrated use of AI in brainstorming and app ideation
Child experience
Builds confidence and core thinking habits
Builds confidence plus momentum toward a substantial final project

Format

8-Week Core Program Weekly online program
12-Week Summer Program Immersive online summer camp

Length

8-Week Core Program 8 weeks
12-Week Summer Program 12 weeks

Pace

8-Week Core Program Steady, foundational, intentional
12-Week Summer Program Deeper, more immersive, project-driven

Main focus

8-Week Core Program Creative thinking, empathy, design foundations, early AI
12-Week Summer Program Creative thinking + full mobile app journey

Starting point

8-Week Core Program Invention, storytelling, design challenges
12-Week Summer Program Starts with the same foundation, then goes further

App design depth

8-Week Core Program Intro to simple app thinking
12-Week Summer Program Full guided path to a mobile app prototype

Final outcome

8-Week Core Program A strong concept, early design thinking, simple project work
12-Week Summer Program A simple prototyped mobile app and final presentation

Best for

8-Week Core Program Families wanting a strong weekly foundation
12-Week Summer Program Families wanting a richer summer project and bigger transformation

Experience level

8-Week Core Program No experience needed
12-Week Summer Program No experience needed

AI exposure

8-Week Core Program Gentle introduction to AI as a creative tool
12-Week Summer Program More integrated use of AI in brainstorming and app ideation

Child experience

8-Week Core Program Builds confidence and core thinking habits
12-Week Summer Program Builds confidence plus momentum toward a substantial final project
Purchase Program
Purchase Summer Camp

Made for Humans

Questions about helping your keiki create with purpose?

Phone: (650) 460-2411
Email: info@kraftstories.com

We are happy to answer questions before purchase or help you compare this program with the summer track.

Help your keiki create, not consume

The world your child is growing into will reward more than memorization. It will reward children who can notice what others miss, ask better questions, design with empathy, and think clearly alongside powerful tools like AI.

Future Designers was created to nurture those habits early while curiosity is still alive and confidence is still forming.

For keiki, this is not about becoming a designer overnight. It is about learning to carry an idea with care.
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