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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Fundamentals of Graphic Design by California Institute of the Arts

4.8
stars
17,117 ratings

About the Course

Graphic Design is all around us! Words and pictures—the building blocks of graphic design—are the elements that carry the majority of the content in both the digital world and the printed world. As graphic design becomes more visible and prevalent in our lives, graphic design as a practice becomes more important in our culture. Through visual examples, this course will teach you the fundamental principles of graphic design: imagemaking, typography, composition, working with color and shape... foundational skills that are common in all areas of graphic design practice. I don't just want you to watch a video of someone talking about design, I want you to MAKE design! If you want to be a designer you have to be a maker and a communicator, so this course will offer you lots of opportunities to get your hands dirty with exercises and with more practical projects. At the end of this course you will have learned how to explore and investigate visual representation through a range of image-making techniques; understand basic principles of working with shape, color and pattern; been exposed to the language and skills of typography; and understand and have applied the principles of composition and visual contrast. If you complete the course, along with its optional (but highly recommended) briefs, you will have a core set of graphic design skills that you can apply to your own projects, or to more deeply investigate a specialized area of graphic design. To succeed in this course you will need access to a computer. You can complete this course without one but it will be tougher. Access to, and a beginner's level knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite programs, such as Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign will help you, especially if you want to complete the optional briefs....

Top reviews

AR

Apr 17, 2016

very good introductory course. i enjoyed the assignments, they are not overwhelming, easy to start, and the optional ones offer great opportunity to dig little deeper into graphic design fundamentals.

FS

Jul 13, 2020

Excellent course to learn and refresh about fundamentals of design....It applies to all spheres of MULTIMEDIA..Highly recommended... As a suggestion course and notes should be available in PDF format.

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3801 - 3825 of 4,418 Reviews for Fundamentals of Graphic Design

By Melissa C

Apr 10, 2021

This course will teach you the basic skills of graphic design perfectly. It was insightful to see all the different techniques which I was able to use at my current employment straight away. I recommend you take this course because after each lesson, you will be able to use what you've learned quickly and effectively.

By Penzina-Gornefer T

Dec 25, 2021

I liked the course. A lot of useful information that is well structured. But there is one drawback. This is the assessment of fellow students, which cannot be disputed. This score affects the final score. Unfortunately, there is no way to protect yourself from the unscrupulous behavior of a classmate, if there is one.

By DIANA L A

Apr 15, 2020

I think the course is good, although I think some concepts are not clear, it is not easy to understand when your mother tongue is not English, outside of that, it is a very general context. I mean the explanations of the tasks and exercises, the rules were not clear to me, what was requested, how it was evaluated.

By Mariam T E H

Aug 19, 2020

I loved the course very much. As a beginner, I found it very clear and interesting as it covered all the basics! The only thing I struggled with is understanding some of the assignments! I would recommend adding a visual example of what is to be expected with instructions to be creative and think outside the box.

By Daphne K W

Jul 11, 2016

A lot of the material given in the lecture was intuitive, but I thought it was extremely valuable to see all of the different examples the instructor showed, and the peer review process was also helpful (not only to get feedback on your own work, but to see the way all your classmates approached the same prompt)

By Dileep D

Aug 20, 2019

Excellent teaching methodology in course every video have one creative thing please don't skip

mainly the faculty Michael Worthington he an extraordinary creative skills, I didn't get this type of interaction with students in my college.

Don't stop with this course go on do specialization in graphic designing

By Kassie S

Oct 6, 2020

It was a good course! I found I already knew much of this (I am graduating with a BFA in studio art this spring). I think it covered a lot, but I was disappointed in the feedback I got from peers, often only "good" or "good work" even in sections where it asked for them to give me something to work on.

By Leslie L

Jul 3, 2020

I learned a lot in this course. This course discuss the strong foundation of Graphic Design and I'm so happy that I grab this opportunity to be able to boost my confidence as a Designer. This is an opportunity that you should never missed. Master the fundamentals and great works will come to your way!

By Katrina F

Jan 8, 2018

Very informative class and I enjoyed the flexibility in weekly assignments. Unfortunately, some of my submissions lacked enough feedback for me to learn from other students since one student repeatedly gave a sing "good" to a couple of my assignments and therefore I lost out on informative criticism.

By Mustafa A K

Mar 18, 2018

Great in-depth subjective lessons. They really help me deepen into the subject (using plenty of examples) and support me with my thoughts on the assignments. I would only improve the way the lessons were organized, and maybe make the assignments a bit more challenging?

Other than that, great course!

By Carolyn L

May 30, 2017

A good course which I enjoyed but I did find the process of peer review irksome in that although I was ready to review work, I was often told there were none and it was only finding a thread on the forum which enabled me to finally review the 2 remaining I needed to finish the course completely.

By Leva V

Jan 3, 2016

Great course that teaches you what you need for graphic design.

It is a good approach to graphic design.

The reviewing system encourages you to talk to your "classmates", there is a very friendly atmosphere.

However, it is a bit difficult to get feedback from the institute and the teacher direclty.

By India W

Aug 18, 2019

This course helped teach me the basics of graphic design. I have done graphics for GCSE and currently doing A-Level but I wasn't taught the basic theories of things, like layout and composition. My favourite part was the typography section, with the extra briefs being fun and interesting to do.

By Michael H

Apr 15, 2016

I thoroughly enjoyed the class. The only reason why I did not give it 5 stars is because, I would have liked to have seen one of the design projects reviewed by the teacher or a teacher's assistant. I appreciate the peer review, but hearing from someone with experience can be very reassuring.

By NIKITA S P

May 12, 2020

I learn from this course, creative and systematic plan to solve a problem and achieve certain objectives, with the use of images, symbols or even words. Also i learn visual communication and the aesthetic expression of concepts and ideas using various graphic elements and tools in this course.

By sisichen

Aug 12, 2021

The assignment in this course is inspiring and I gain a lot and experience on how to do creative work in basic image design. It would be better if my assignment can get more feedback from teacher or mentor's professional suggestion. Although I think the opinion from classmates is helpful, too

By Bethany F

May 4, 2020

I enjoyed the course and content. I think it was split up into decent sized and manageable sections and full of lots of useful information which was presented well. I liked doing the assignments, I just wish more people would give more feedback as several reviewers only give one word replies.

By Frederik W

Jul 23, 2020

Hat Spaß gemacht und man hat noch einiges gelernt. Setzt allerdings auch wirklich bei den basics an also vieles erscheint einem auch selbstverständlich. Trotzdem hat man nochmal neue Einblicke bekommen. Besonders der Typografie Teil at mir der viel Freude bereitet, was ich nie gedacht hätte.

By Ashley R

Apr 23, 2018

I enjoyed the videos, the teacher was very clear and specific, yet offered great insights and flexibility. This course really gets your mind working and looking at things in different ways. My only complaint is that I thought this would be more geared towards using computer applications.

By Robert D

Jan 16, 2021

This course provides a very good foundation to the world of graphic / communication design. One of the most important aspects of design is experimentation, and I feel this course does a great job of encouraging students to try out new things, and not be too precious with what they create.

By Leon B

Feb 26, 2019

The course gives a good introduction to graphic design. My only concern is that the only reviews are peer reviews, but given the scale and cost this in completely understandable.

I definitely recommend this course for anyone with an interest in design who has not had any previous training.

By James H

Mar 4, 2018

Engaging, well structured course content. Appropriate/accurate work load estimates. Instructive assignments which isolate and combine concepts in ways that really help them stick. (Peer assessment is a bit hit and miss but that is just the nature of things and not the fault of the course)

By Cindy L

Mar 9, 2016

The materials and knowledge of the fundamentals from this course are helpful. However, the assignments and peer grading threw me off. I did not like the fact that your grade depended on students' review of your assignments. It is all subjective. Good course materials, poor grading system.

By Eve H

Nov 29, 2022

I enjoyed the course and as a complete beginner I found it useful and well explained. The only negative I found was the peer review assignments as a lot of people don't seem to take the course seriously, either submitting blank documents/work they have clearly made no effort with.

By T_ H

May 18, 2021

I like the breakdown of images and typography, and the instructor is very calm and engaging. My only gripe is with the peer-graded assignments. I don't receive enough feedback/criticism from the students to know what I can improve on or why I received the grade they've given me.