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

4.8
stars
17,037 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

MN

May 18, 2022

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.

GA

Aug 20, 2018

Very interesting, I liked the format. Easy to follow, nice excercises. It's actually good to cover the basics of design, even if you are not an absolute beginner, and especially if you are self taught

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826 - 850 of 4,402 Reviews for Fundamentals of Graphic Design

By GAOUAOUI A

Oct 21, 2021

un cours de haut niveau, et des professeurs vraiment sympa qui essayent de faciliter au maximum les choses, j'ai beaucoup appris avec cette formation, merci beaucoup

By Alex L

Jul 6, 2020

Great course for beginners! I do recommend taking this because it changes your perception of different aspects of design that may have been taken for granted before.

By ZUHAINA Z K

May 7, 2020

Excellent course to improve your aesthetic skill and design aspects. I studied new things and it is wonderful experience to me. really helpful to nurture our talent.

By Manon P

Oct 1, 2019

This course is great if you're a beginner or even more advanced as you can go further in the course with the optional projects. I'm looking forward the next course !

By A C

Apr 14, 2019

I really enjoyed every bit of this course!

Awesome content and teacher. It was also nice to get feedback on my work from peers as well to view the work of others! :)

By Kara K

Feb 14, 2016

This course does an awesome job of integrating beginner's knowledge with practical graphic design projects. I'm enjoying it tremendously. I'd highly recommend it! :)

By Maria M

Nov 11, 2015

Up until now this course is really practical, well explained and a "happy" place to be! I love it and wish my University lessons were as fun and informative as this!

By Matthew C M

Feb 5, 2021

Fundamentals of Graphic Design from Calarts was a fantastic course. I recommend it to anyone looking to try out their visual image making skills in Graphic Design.

By Taraneh D

Sep 24, 2020

This focuses on simple, yet very important factors in design. I found it very helpful and it helped me to gain a more creative perspective towards graphical design.

By Vishwa P

Jun 1, 2020

Thank u sir for nicely explaining this course and being so encouraging. I have gained lots of confidence with this and I would love to study further in this course.

By Regina K

Sep 1, 2018

A great way to get your feet wet with graphic design, and see what it's about. I didn't even know what all was included in "Graphic Design" until I took this course

By Adrien G

Sep 6, 2017

Touches fundamental concepts you can apply to any type of graphic related work. The class goes straight to the point with a perfect touch of stretching assignments.

By Alejandro P

Jul 23, 2017

It's a pretty good and complete introduction to the graphic design career. I really enjoyed it, the videos were easy to watch and I didn't get bored at any point :)

By Rachael B

Jun 15, 2017

Love this course! I am not a designer and I am not going to be a designer, but I work in creative industries as a Producer and it was really beneficial for my work.

By Shumail R

Jan 27, 2024

I am very grateful to Coursera and the California institute of arts for allowing me to study and expand my knowledge of financial aid. this helped me grow so much!

By Dave T

Jan 21, 2023

This course is great option for those who want to learn the fundamentals of graphic design and have some knowledge of software for photo editing and illustration.

By Reynaldo C A

May 4, 2022

Excelente curso, aprendí muchas cosas con respecto al diseño gráfico y las clases fueron muy claras con respecto a los temas que trataron, felicitaciones Coursera.

By Ishu K

Jan 13, 2021

Thank you for providing me financial aid.Very useful course for beginners.Videos are very clear,explaining every aspect.Assignments help us in building our skills.

By Sonali S

Sep 29, 2020

It was very helpful and the teaching is up to the point with every example and I really appreciate the efforts. It was pleasure learning from CalArts and Coursera.

By Luis E A R

Sep 16, 2018

Muy informativo, realmente esta básico para gene que tiene 0 conocimientos al respecto, o también bastante complementario para gente que ya estudio algo de diseño.

By Gregg W

Nov 1, 2015

Like the format and the presentation of this course. Each topic builds on the next and then finally you are shown how to mix the fundamentals. Enjoyed this course.

By Dilanka R

Oct 25, 2021

Great starting point for the new graphic designers as well as experienced designers who wants to recap the fundamentals of Graphic Design!!! Highly recommended!!!

By Riya A

May 10, 2021

A very nice course teaching the basics of Graphic Design! All the assignments are very fun. Lecture videos are up to the mark and understandable. Overall, nice :)

By Camila D

Dec 18, 2020

me encantó el curso, bastante ompleto minucioso en sus secciones y detallado, el feedback entre compañeros funciona bien y se logra el objetivo de grupo.

un agrado

By Camille R

Apr 14, 2020

Honestly excellent! I have tried a few online Graphic design courses but this one REALLY has a University Standard approach! I am highly recommending this course!