---
title: Smash into Bourbon with Our New Design Course
teaser: 'It''s hard to figure out where to start with modern Sass. Our new course
  walks you through our process step-by-step.

  '
tags: upcase,bourbon,news,sass
author: Gabe Berke-Williams
published_on: 2016-06-01
---

A lot of web developers are comfortable with the backend, but struggle to create
a cohesive visual style and layout.  What are modern best practices? How do web
designers think about and structure a site's CSS?

thoughtbot's designers use our [Bourbon suite], a very popular set of tools to
help designers and developers write clean [Sass]. It includes **powerful mixins
and functions** to solve common problems and **a responsive grid framework** to
create a mobile-ready grid right out of the box.

We're very happy to announce [Bourbon Smash][course], our newest course on
Upcase. [Bourbon Smash][course] is a complete tour of every single tool in the
Bourbon suite: Bourbon, Neat, Bitters, and Refills. Not sure what a grid
framework is, or why it's a good thing to use? Need a refresher on Sass? This
course, hosted by Bourbon maintainer [Tyson Gach], is exactly for you.

It starts with Sass syntax, then moves onto Bourbon's mixins, how and why to use
the Neat grid framework, and how Bitters' styles help you jump-start new
projects. Finally, watch how Tyson organizes and thinks about a real project.

The full course is available now to all [Upcase] subscribers, but we've made the
first two videos available as free samples so everyone can check it out.

<div class="post-cta-section">
  <div class="cta-image-wrapper">
    <img class="cta-image" src="https://images.thoughtbot.com/blog-vellum-image-uploads/ih043xLRGWgwOZat23Ar_bourbon%20smash.jpg"
    alt="Bourbon Smash title card" />
    </div>

    <div class="cta-content">
      <p>
        Ready to write clean, maintainable Sass with Bourbon?
      </p>

      <a class="cta-button" href="https://thoughtbot.com/upcase/bourbon-smash?utm_source=giantrobots&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=bourbon-smash-announcement">
        Get Started Now
      </a>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

[course]: https://thoughtbot.com/upcase/bourbon-smash?utm_source=giantrobots&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=bourbon-smash-announcement
[Bourbon suite]: http://bourbon.io/
[Sass]: http://sass-lang.com/
[Tyson Gach]: https://twitter.com/tysongach
[Upcase]: https://thoughtbot.com/upcase