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

4.8
stars
17,005 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.

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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251 - 275 of 4,397 Reviews for Fundamentals of Graphic Design

By Melinda N

Jan 25, 2016

Nice short course with the right balance of theory and practical assignments. Only two assignments are required for completion but there are several assignments that are optional and to get the full benefit of this course, the optional assignments are important, if you have the time for it. The course covers all the basics and it's fun.

By Sunan F

May 31, 2016

This was an excellent course that was well taught and offered practical and real usable assignments. I highly recommend this course to anyone looking to learn about graphic design while learning how to apply concepts. The professors lectures were clear concise and very well organized and gave great examples for each concept discussed.

By Michelle R

Feb 6, 2022

Este curso me ayudó a aprender de una manera sencilla y estratégica lo básico del Diseño Gráfico, o al menos de una buena parte. Es excelente, y a todo aquel que esté interesado en comenzar en el Diseño les recomiendo 100% el curso. Es teórico, práctico y a parte tienes los consejos de compañeros en los proyectos que vayas elaborando.

By Kathryn

Mar 9, 2016

This was a great introductory course. I appreciated how much the lectures were chunked down--to make it easier to move through the information each week and that there was a good mixture of required and optional exercises. I had fun!

I also liked that this course did not require software such as Indesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop.

By Natasha G

Dec 27, 2016

Dear Teacher, I really enjoyed the first part (module) of the Graphic Design. It was more than introduction and i really loved the practical work at the beginning. I will recommend this course further. The start is very important and that's why i decided to enroll al 5 modules. THANK YOU!

Continue with you great work in the future!

By Erhan D

Feb 14, 2016

If you want to be designer, get your hands dirty on the job! I really liked this course. It really showed a new perspective for making designs and I have learned new terms and concepts during the course. I would like to continue different graphic design courses in following days in Coursera. Really appreciated it. Thanks for all :)

By Deleted A

Sep 16, 2021

Assalamualaikum. Alhamdulillah the course was really helpful for me as a beginner to graphic design. I am more confident than past to start doing projects on graphic design. It empowers you with necessary knowledge and practice to get started. It was totally a different experience doing course on graphic design. One of the best!

By Jennifer H

May 16, 2017

I very much enjoyed this course. I feel like I got alot out of the student reviews and the instruction was very well done. I can't imagine feeling like one had accomplished this course without doing all the recommended exercises, so I strongly urge any participant to do them all. I will be taking all the classes in this program.

By Hareem B

Jan 31, 2022

I like this course so much don't think that how much we have to learn, how con we do that I were so scared all about but It's so easy to learn I like it and the assignments were so creative it's so creative field L chose graphic design because I love to draw & create animation & The good thing is, this field has no any scope

By Prachi

Sep 24, 2020

Thank you California Institute of the Arts for making this course available online. Michael Worthington is a fantastic instructor. I was glad that the course covered the basics and that it was so well structured. It did not feel overwhelming at any time. I feel encouraged to continue with the next course in this specialisation.

By Chryssa M

Apr 9, 2017

As this was my first course on graphic design, I WAS FASCINATED! I learned so many things- which our prof. made clear-and for the first time I used the graphics and did things I had never thought I could do. Our Prof was excellent, no unanswered questions, a lot of creative work, it was really a great experience

Thanks a lot!

By Smriti K

Feb 24, 2017

Thank you Michael Worthington for this fun course! I loved the classes and all of the assignments we had to do, especially helps that they were peer graded. Getting these sort of insights help you make critical choices of you are as a designer and what is your personal style.

Looking forward to taking up more of such courses :)

By Karen M

Jan 18, 2021

I thoroughly enjoyed this course. Excellent presentations and exercises. Just what I needed to start this creative journey--it's been a life long passion to become a graphic designer. I am excited to continue in the series of courses lined up. Thanks to all involved, and for making graphic design learning more accessible :-)!

By aritra g

Jun 21, 2020

It was indeed a very pleasant experience learning the fundamentals of graphic design. I was really excited to be a part of this course and in the meantime I learned a lot of new things. And the exercises were designed so well, that no one can ever feel bored. What I liked the most about this course is, the system of reviewing.

By Mag D

Jul 18, 2019

Excellent course as others offered in this specialization. It provided me with very strong basics of graphic design. The content of the course is very practical. I highly recommend all the courses in this specialization as moving on to the next ones will provide you with very good introduction to graphic design and its rules.

By Simone E

Sep 9, 2020

I have never before had this much fun while learning something new. It actually made me look at the world around me in a different way; suddenly noticing lines, compositions, typography, colours, and more. The fact that you get to put what you have learned into practice make this course extra engaging. Great teacher as well!

By Preeti S

Nov 27, 2023

Although this course is for beginners, it is designed to force everyone out of their usual, comfortable way of doing things and to look at creativity and design in ways you may not have imagined before. The course delivery by the instructor is pretty candid and relaxed. The pace is also easy - I would recommend the course!

By Anastasia R

Aug 21, 2016

Briiliant course! It gives you very solid fundamentals for all other courses of the Graphic design specialization. The teacher is very passionate, loves his subject and can make all ideas very understandable. The course helps to believe in inner strenght and creativity. I loved it so much! Thanks for this amazing 4 weeks!

By Samantha M

Mar 22, 2016

This course was very easy to follow along with, making learning the fundamentals of graphic design easy and fun. The assignments required and optional challenged both your understanding of the material and your creativity. I loved every second of this course and I would recommend it to anyone interested in graphic design.

By Jennifer B (

Feb 9, 2016

This was my first attempt at a MOOC, and I think I'm spoiled. This is the just right format and just right medium for learning these skills. The class demonstration videos are simple enough to really demonstrate the concepts. The exercises are also well formulated to help get the concepts across effectively in this medium.

By Fred R

Jan 21, 2017

I found the lessons very interesting. I've read lots of design books and used Photoshop and Illustrator for a while in my job (web writer / marketer / developer) and this courses bridges the gap between all the information in my head and the hard question : how to use all that in a creative way ? I really appreciate it !

By Sherelle K L

Mar 9, 2016

I had an absolutely wonderful doing this course. I always wanted to do a graphic design course and this one sure did help me with learning all about the fundamentals of graphic design. I do hope to complete the entire specialisation later on. Great job, Coursera and CAL Arts! I look forward to your other art courses.

By AUDU E O

Mar 2, 2020

This is a great course for someone new to graphics designing and doesn't have a good background knowledge of design. It goes a long to explain a lot of things you see in professional design work without knowing the designer is using them. I will recommend it to anyone that wants to have good basics in graphic design

By Mary A V

Jul 10, 2019

Really solid foundation - The course is definitely what you make of it though, I often times felt like a lot of my peers didn't want to give any kind of feedback that could be perceived as negative, so the peer review wasn't as helpful as I had hoped. The actual course material and the professor were extremely good.

By Tilman H

Dec 27, 2021

This course gives a good introduction into image making, typography, color theory and composition. The tasks were fun and enabled me to perceive and think about a topic (basic household object) from many different perspectives - enabling me with new ways to come up with ideas for creative representation of a topic.