Domestika’s October 2026 Live Sessions: What’s On and What It Costs

Domestika has published its Live October 2026 schedule, and it’s six sessions spread across the month — food styling, sketching, crochet, data-driven marketing, and two separate takes on AI in a creative practice. The sessions are free to attend live. That’s the whole pitch, and it’s a good one if you’re a student or early-career designer trying to see how working professionals actually make decisions.

But “free” isn’t the same as “worth your evening.” Here’s what’s actually on, what it costs to go deeper, and which sessions map onto work you’d be paid for.

What’s on in Domestika Live October 2026

Domestika‘s Lives run at 4:00 p.m. Madrid time (MAD) on their scheduled days. All six are listed on Domestika’s own October schedule post.

• October 1 — Criteria in Food Styling, with Marcela Lovegrove. Composition, lighting, framing, and what to include or leave out. Aimed at photographers and stylists.
• October 6 — How to Sketch to Build an Image, with Jorge Lewis. Preliminary sketching, how materials change the drawing, and the red-sketch approach Lewis uses.
• October 7 — The Clash Between AI and Art Direction, with Chack Robles and Emigdio González. AI’s effect on art direction for print and digital, plus how to pick tools and platforms per material type.
• October 8 — Data-Driven Marketing, with Gabriel Perelman. Which metrics matter, how to find where a funnel breaks, and when to optimize, scale, or pause.
• October 8 — Create with 3 Basic Crochet Stitches, with María Jesús Labbé (founder of Relmü Tejidos). Single crochet, double crochet, slip stitch — and how yarn and hook choice changes the result.
• October 13 — Integrating AI into Your Creative Processes, with Nicolás Madoery. Case studies on where AI adds value and where it doesn’t.

The two AI sessions are the ones to clear time for

If you’re a graphic designer, the October 7 session is the most directly useful thing on this list. Robles and González are covering art direction for print and digital, the real limits of prompts on print projects, and how to choose a platform per material type. That’s the decision most studios are fumbling right now.

The October 13 session with Madoery is the follow-up. He’s walking through his own practice — what changes when AI enters the process, what breaks, and where he found value. Domestika has also published a companion piece on using AI without losing your creative style, which makes the same argument the session will: AI can execute and explore, but direction stays with you.

The practical takeaway from both: the tool isn’t the problem. Using it without a clear purpose is. Generic prompts produce generic output, and the speed of the response tempts you to accept the first version. If you’ve been quietly worried that your AI-assisted work looks like everyone else’s, these two sessions are aimed squarely at that.

What it costs — and where the free part ends

The Lives themselves are free. The paid layer is Domestika’s course catalogue, and that’s where you should think before you buy.

Domestika sits in a crowded field. Here’s how the options compare for a student or early-career designer:

IxDF announced in September 2026 that Design League membership would drop to $99/month, including an hour of 1:1 coaching monthly and unlimited AI Tutor access, while master classes would rise from $5 to $10 each, effective September 29. IxDF says the $5 price signalled low quality to potential members and didn’t cover production costs. That’s a useful data point for anyone weighing a Domestika course against a membership: the new master class price is still a fraction of what comparable content costs elsewhere, but the membership is a recurring commitment.

Prices checked October 2026.

Which sessions actually earn your evening

Ranked by how much they change what you’d do on a paid project:

1. October 7 — AI and Art Direction. Directly relevant to anyone producing print or digital work for clients. Highest value.
2. October 13 — Integrating AI into Creative Processes. Case studies beat theory. Watch if you’re already using AI tools and want to use them better.
3. October 6 — Sketching to Build an Image. Useful for illustrators and anyone whose work starts on paper. Lewis’s material-dependent sketching approach is the specific thing worth seeing.
4. October 8 — Data-Driven Marketing. Only if you run your own campaigns or a freelance practice. Skip if you’re purely on the craft side.
5. October 1 — Food Styling. Narrow. Excellent if that’s your niche, irrelevant otherwise.
6. October 8 — Crochet. A craft session, not a design one. Fine, just not for work.

How to get value out of a free live session

For the October 1 food styling session, Domestika invites questions in advance so Marcela Lovegrove can address them live. That’s the single highest-leverage thing you can do — a specific question about your own project gets you a specific answer, which is more than you’d get from a course module.

Two other things worth doing:

• Check the time zone before you commit. 4:00 p.m. Madrid is mid-morning on the US east coast and early morning on the west. If you’re in Asia or Australia, these are late-night sessions.
• Take notes on process, not tools. The value in a live session is watching someone decide — what to include, what to cut, why this material and not that one. Tool names you can look up later.

Should you pay for anything after?

Only if a session showed you a skill you actually need for work you’re already being asked to do. The free Lives are a low-risk way to test whether a teacher’s approach clicks with you before you spend on their course.

If you’re weighing a broader commitment, the certification comparison is worth reading before you buy — the difference between a $10 master class and a $99/month membership is a decision about how you learn, not just what you spend.

The honest version: watch the October 7 session. If it changes how you brief AI on a real project, then consider paying for more. If it doesn’t, you’ve lost an afternoon and learned something about where the field currently stands.

Sources

• Domestika — Live Events in October 2026
• Domestika — How to Use AI Without Losing Your Creative Style
• IxDF — Design League Savings, AI Tutor, and Pricing Updates