DesignX is a studio-based design education company, serving youth across the San Francisco Bay Area.
DesignX exists to embolden each child’s unique creative voice. Through studio-style design programs, young people are taught to dream it, design it, and make it—working with real materials, real constraints, and thoughtful processes to bring ideas into the world with imagination and care. Our pedagogy is grounded in nearly two decades of experience in K–12 design education.
As technology accelerates and the world becomes increasingly automated, human creativity is not just valuable—it is essential. DesignX provides an intentional space where young learners engage deeply with the world around them, developing the skills that are inherently human: curiosity, problem-solving, craftsmanship, collaboration, expression, and care for the planet.
We believe that when students are trusted to create, they don’t just make projects—they develop confidence, judgment, and a lasting sense of purpose. DesignX prepares young people to shape their world thoughtfully, creatively, and with meaning.
Our Philosophy
The DesignX philosophy begins with a simple belief: we learn best by engaging fully with the world—through our hands and senses, our ideas, and with one another. Creative confidence in young people grows when they work with real materials, real constraints, and real tools, supported by a studio community that helps them feel capable, curious, and encouraged.
01The Human Experience Is Physical
We embrace technological progress, and we also recognize that our home is in the physical world. When young people work with their hands—shaping materials, testing ideas, and making something real—they develop focus, patience, and presence. The act of making grounds imagination in the body and turns ideas into something that can be felt, held, and understood.
02Creativity Is Our Human Advantage
In a world shaped by efficiency and powered by artificial intelligence, creativity keeps us human—curious, expressive, and open to possibility. While systems can generate and optimize, humans create with purpose, choose with care, and give form to new ideas. At DesignX, we invite students to explore, experiment, and originate—learning to create with intention and care.
03Craftsmanship Is Care
When students learn how things are made—and how to make them well—they develop attention to detail, patience, and pride in the process. Craft teaches that quality takes time, effort, and intention, and that how something is made matters as much as the result. In caring for the work, students learn to care for the work, the process, and the world it shapes.
04Confidence Comes From Completion
Finishing a real project—a garment that fits, a toy that works, a model that stands—gives students a deep sense of capability. Through follow-through and revision, they build resilience and the belief that their ideas can be carried through to something real. Completion teaches that ideas gain power when they are carried through with care.
05Design Is a Way to Understand the World
Design gives form to thought and shape to feeling. Through themes such as nature, emotion, and the senses, students learn to pause, observe, and translate both their inner and outer worlds into something tangible. In doing so, they discover design as a language for meaning, connection, and expression.
06We Meet Each Student Where They Are
Our curriculum introduces students to the full spectrum of design and grows in complexity as their skills deepen. By nurturing curiosity, capability, and individual voice, we create a learning environment grounded in care, relevance, and real-world connection. Learning is designed to begin where students are and unfold with intention.
At DesignX, we teach children not just to make things, but to think deeply, feel fully, collaborate generously, and create with intention. Our philosophy shapes not only the work they produce, but the people they are becoming.
Team
Durga Kalavagunta
Founder, CEO
Richa Krishna
Brand StrategyMarketing, Media, Community and Partner RelationsHope Patricia Daly
The DesignX teaching team consists of a diverse cohort of thoughtful up-and-coming talent, from schools local and away including San Jose State, Stanford, UC Berkeley, USC, SFSU, Parsons, RISD and many more. We are honored to put our students in the hands of those creating the future of our designed world!
Partners
DesignX partners with schools, community organizations, and educational institutions to bring meaningful design experiences to youth across the country.
School Partners
Community Partners
DesignX Student Fashion ShowHosted by State Street Market, Los Altos
Hair & Makeup by Halo Blow Dry Bar, Los Altos
Specialty Drinks by Murdoch's, Los AltosSeptember 2025DesignX began with a simple idea: that young people could experience real design—long before college, long before anyone expects it of them. A chance to imagine boldly, work with their hands, and bring their ideas into form with care and intention.
That idea comes from the lived experience of our founder, Durga Kalavagunta. Growing up in India, she spent summers in her grandfather’s textile mill, immersed in the rhythm of machines and the skill of practiced hands. Watching raw materials become something purposeful and beautiful left a lasting imprint — shaping her early career as a leather garment designer at TATA Exports, her formal training in apparel design and manufacturing at Virginia Tech and her enduring belief that thoughtful design is a blend of creative expression and purposeful form.
When Durga moved to Silicon Valley in 2000 as a young mother, she observed a growing absence. Creative programs disappearing from schools, and opportunities for children to build, experiment, and learn through making becoming rare—just as the wave of digital technology was rising.
In 2009, along with her friend, she began creating the studio she wanted for her own children: one that balanced joy with rigor, trusted students with real tools, and treated making as a meaningful modality to learn and become. Over time, that vision deepened and evolved.
In 2017, Durga founded DesignX, fully stepping into that vision. The program expanded, curriculum sharpened, and standards refined year after year—grounded in hands-on work, thoughtful technique, and respect for the creative process.
Today, DesignX is a studio learning environment where students move from sketch to finished piece, working with real materials and real constraints. They learn to make decisions, solve problems, collaborate, and stand behind their ideas—guided by emerging designers who model both skill and care.
More than what students make, we focus on who they become. Through practice and persistence, they develop creative confidence—the capacity to make decisions and see ideas through.
In an increasingly digital world, DesignX offers space to build something tangible—to make choices with intention, to create with meaning—because that is how we believe young people will learn to move through the world with clarity and purpose.
DesignX exists for that future.