Graphic Design for Beginners Online Short Course
Course description
Course overview
This course gives you an intensive and practical introduction to 20 key graphic design principles.
Each week you will gain experience applying these principles, by completing practical and realistic projects. Through this project work you will become familiar with techniques for working with images and fonts, designing layouts, and crafting logos and visual identities. The four projects can be tailored to your needs and can be related to current professional projects if required.
Who this course is for
This course is suitable for those wishing to discover and practice the fundamental principles of communication via the combination of text and image, perhaps as a first step into a new area of study, or simply to exercise an enquiring mind in a two-dimensional arena.
This course is designed for individuals interested in exploring the endless possibilities of how words and images interact. Perfect for small business owners, creative individuals working in a corporate world and those keen to craft a graphic identity online. This is an opportunity to expand your portfolio and become familiar with the 20 key graphic design principles.
Each of the four projects can be tailored to your needs and could be used for professional endeavours if you wish. Perfect for those wishing to study the subject at a high level or for those who eager to widen their skills and exercise an enquiring mind.
Key information
Topics covered
- Layout design
- Typography
- Kerning, tracking, and leading
- Working with images
- Scale, spacing, and positioning
- Using grids to enhance your work
- Logo design
- Exploring the notion of the 'graphic idea'
- Communicating words and feelings through images
- Fusing physical and digital processes
- Found objects: creating an overlay
- Scale, spacing, and positioning
- Visual hierarchies, integrating each element and the role of white space
- Pastiche, appropriation and creating visual puns
- Decoding / constituting typefaces and designing typography
- Executing the double-page spread
- The visual relationship between words and images
- Experimenting with kerning, tracking, leading and bleed
- Exploring symmetry, consistency, and colour
The course does not cover the use of graphic design software, but you are welcome to complete projects using any software you wish, or none, as all projects can be completed working with hand tools (pens, pencils, paper, scissors, glue etc.).
Learning outcomes
- By the end of the course, you will have;
- Attained an understanding of what graphic design is and what graphic designers do
- Become familiar with technical graphics terminology
- Studied techniques that can be applied to each graphic specialism
- Completed a diverse range of exercises designed to strengthen your visual skills
- Have a clear understanding of how graphic design is used to communicate ideas
- Gained knowledge of typefaces and fonts prior to designing your own typography
- Learned how magazine layouts are formed and devised your own with creative freedom
- Discovered what makes an effective logo and created several of your own
- Had your worked reviewed weekly by the tutor and received personalised feedback
- Receive a digital badge and certificate of attendance
Materials
Course Specific Materials
- Black ink pen
- Sketchbook (A4 size)
- Coloured pens and pencils are useful
- A camera (any sort, a camera phone is fine)
- 1 x USB webcam (external), to easily show work in progress
- A printer (any sort, basic black & white laser printer is fine)
For those who wish to work by hand (not computer) it is also necessary to have:
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- A3 tracing paper (around 6 sheets)
- To neatly trim printed out work, and for more precise cutting when creating compositions, the following is useful:
- Scalpel knife
- Cutting mat
- Metal safety ruler
Please see our Guide to taking online short course.
Tutor
Shernette Daly
Shernette Daly is a graduate from London College of Printing in 1998 (LCP). She has spent over 15 years practicing as an Art Director and Designer, working on an array of projects including; Music Packaging, Branding and Identity, Advertising, Packaging, Editorial Design, Book Publishing, Illustration and Photography for brands such as Sony Europe, Sony BMG, Sanctuary Records, Universal Music, ITV Publishing, EMAP Media Group, and Channel 4. Currently Shernette is an Associate Lecturer for the University of the Arts London and works across curriculums in a broad capacity, delivering specialist theoretical and practical workshops at London College of Communication, Central St Martins and Chelsea School of Art Undergraduate and Foundation courses, this includes; BA Graphic Media Design, BA Graphic Branding and Identity, BA Graphic Design Communication, Pre-Degree in Art and Design, and Cert HE Preparation for Design, Media and Screen. Alongside practicing as a freelance consultant, she also works in radio broadcast.Book a course
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