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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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351 - 375 of 4,398 Reviews for Fundamentals of Graphic Design

By Greeshma N

Jul 10, 2020

It was really amazing to learn from this course. Got to learn something new and many interesting facts about designs in a broader perspective. Would surely recommend this course to someone who needs to build a base in Graphic Design before practically getting into the field.

By Tae C

Feb 12, 2016

Great course for anyone!

Excellent learning and hands-on for those in any field and creative interests, also non graphic/visual designer like me. Lessons inspired me and helped applying to other projects I am working on by stimulating creative thinking and ways to experiment.

By khadiga e b

Feb 10, 2016

wonderful course, very helpful with basic knowledge of graphic design usage of elements and forms and terminologies. Thank you, the videos were very helpful and very insightful and easy to follow. I'd so love to carry on taking more courses that can help broaden my knowledge

By Dennis C B

Jul 17, 2021

The content is very clearly explained, with examples at every step of the way. Assignments are hands-on, and optional assignments are a fun challenge to do. I really enjoyed and learnt a lot from this course. I intend to take the other graphic design courses in this series.

By Aaron M

May 8, 2021

I am such a huge fan of this course! You are given all of the fundamentals you need to get an in depth understanding of Graphic Design. It’s challenging and fun all in one course, I highly recommend anyone who might be on the fence about learning the basics to give it a go.

By Rahul B

Jun 7, 2020

This course was easy yet very helpful building the basics of my skills, Thanks to Coursera to provide such platform to develop our skills with so much of ease & convenience. This course was very easy to understand cuz of such an organized interface & great interface. thanks

By Julie W

Mar 24, 2020

I appreciated the bite-sized video lengths, which made it easy to pop in and out of the content to handle life. Excellent audio and production, and fun, engaging assignments and I look forward to working through the remaining courses in this specialization. Would recommend!

By Temitayo O

Sep 13, 2019

I was so surprised at how much I didn't know. I really appreciate the design process. I always looked forward to learning new things and also loved rating people's assignments too. It was indeed eye opening. Looking forward to what the next course has to offer. Thanks guys.

By zairi s

Mar 24, 2023

I'm very proud of myself for obtaining my first design certificate. Coursera is a fantastic self-learning resource; I had a great time taking the course and found it to be beneficial. I'm excited to complete the remaining four courses in the Graphic Design Specialization.

By Rhea

May 5, 2020

This course was excellent. The instructor presented the information in a way that was accessible to both novices and experienced designers. Each project built upon the previous one, and by the end of the course I felt that I had retained knowledge and developed new skills.

By azmina a

Jul 26, 2020

I have enjoyed this course and learned various aspects of graphic design. I look forward to the next course. This was an amazing course and I would recommend it to all who would like to pursue a career in this field and as well those who have an interest in arts as I do.

By Uzair A

Nov 3, 2020

To start with graphic designing this is one of the best course. I have learned from various platforms but this course is the best for beginners. The best part of this course is the exercises given which help you understand better by practically doing everything yourself.

By Simran K

Jul 15, 2018

I absolutely loved this course! With the use of examples, quizzes and assignments I was able to understand and practice what I learnt. This course taught me a lot about how you can employ simple, small tactics to make a piece of art more sound and aesthetically pleasing.

By Bria C M

Feb 21, 2016

Very clear and not too complicated! I really appreciate how Michael Worthington gave us the history behind each term to give us an in depth understanding of how it functions. This lesson was very thorough and I will definitely apply everything I've learned to my designs.

By Norman K

Jun 22, 2020

The instructors are very clear in their communication. The use of videos, quizzes, and assignments goes a long way in ensuring that the message gets home. The practicality of the course makes it exciting in a good way and every lesson is always one to look forward to.

By leny j r

Apr 10, 2021

its such an exceptional learning for a newbie like me. Thank you so much for helping learners like us to easily catch up on the subject we take. I always felt excited to do activities in this field because I wanted to pursue my dream on being a graphic artist someday.

By Wadhah Y

Jan 26, 2021

I always relied in my design choices on my outlook and some personal skills in it, but after this course I understood the scientific basis for these options and how design becomes more acceptable when looking at it when these basics are taken into during installation.

By Claudia M L T C

Sep 19, 2020

This course helps you visualize clearly the primary concepts you need to control to be a designer. Best part is that, since it's just the fundamentals, you can apply these basic concepts to any type of creative work you might want to give a better look and appeal to.

By RICARDO R

Aug 29, 2020

Very good course. All of the fundamentals are explained thoroughly and with examples. Being a practical course makes it also much better than others I watched. This course makes us think activelly about design and create pieces, exploring our creativity. I loved it!

By Rose G

Jun 28, 2019

Watching the videos helped a lot to understand the fundamentals of graphic design, I really enjoyed doing all the assignments. I recommend to do the optional assignments as well. Looking forward to the next course! Great program to learn the very basics, thank you :)

By Rossy G

Dec 28, 2015

Love the course and the teacher was awesome, I am college graduate in Advertising and Graphic Design and happy to say I learned new things, as well as new ways to see composition and every other aspect of graphic design. Thank you a lot for this and keep them coming!

By Jarrod S

Jan 23, 2022

Very educational. Especially helpful if you have a good artistic ability and need to learn how to use that in the real world. Also very helpful if you don't have any artistic talent but maybe need to learn how to format marketing materials or other things like that.

By Ludwig L

Jun 7, 2019

Awesome course to gather the basics of design. I am so glad I learned these skills because it will help me to grow and change my actual situation: living in Venezuela. Calart Instute and Coursera gave me a chance to survive Socialism. For that, I am plenty thankful!

By Цыгунова М М

Apr 9, 2018

Very thorough, yet totally comprehensible. Discusses and explains the fundamentals step by step, opening a whole lot of possibilities for broadening the skills and gaining new ones. I'll definitely take up the other parts of Graphic Design specialisation by CALARTS!