Chevron Left
Back to Fundamentals of Graphic Design

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

4.8
stars
17,754 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.

CS

May 9, 2018

An ok course for beginners. A bit too basic for someone who has already had experience in design, but is great anyway cause it breaks things back down to the simplest parts to help you remember roots.

Filter by:

376 - 400 of 4,554 Reviews for Fundamentals of Graphic Design

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!

By Nimmy C

Jul 4, 2020

The course... Yes it was a very informative and interesting session with wonderful drawing/hands on assignments..... I like this course. Being an electrical engineer it was a new experience and a new opportunity to learn this course. Thank you the coursera team. 👍

By David R

Jun 1, 2020

Perfect for those of us who need an introduction to the basic principles behind graphic design. I'm a writer and know next to nothing about how my work gets laid out and included in the composition of modern graphics. This course put it all into perspective for me.

By Druzhkov K

Mar 23, 2016

I enjoyed the course a lot! The information was well-structured and clear. There was great emphasis on practice that helped to understand the given material on a deeper level. Receiving feedback from students and analyzing the works of others was also wery helpful.

By Murtaza M

Feb 6, 2022

First of all, thanks for giving me the oppurtunity to study this course, it has helped me understand the design and the fundamentals that goes behind in making a good design! I would ask more people to enroll in this course and understand the basics of designing.

By Sandra B

May 30, 2020

I really enjoyed every week, and the different assignments. The professor, his instructions were clear, concise and easy to understand! I would love that the forums were more easy to participate and follow the comments, overall this class exceeded my expectations!

By PANTHANGI S

Sep 28, 2020

I loved doing this course. It gave me a clear and a broader perspective understanding on the fundamentals of graphic design. Every topic was explained clearly and relevant examples were given for each topic. Now I feel confident about my work! Thank you Cal Arts!

By Alice S

Jul 3, 2018

It isn't rocket science, but this course gave me an opportunity to ponder design, to start seeing patterns EVERYWHERE, and exposed me to student work that helped me understand concepts. My advice is to peer grade as many projects as you can. You will learn a lot!

By Ilyes S H

Dec 17, 2015

Great course, I had a lot of Graphic Design courses recently and this is the best , it's the best approach to learn Graphic Design and be a designer too, not like other courses just reading theories as a story without knowing even how to make a step in the field.

By Aya B

Mar 16, 2023

This course is amazing and worthy of your time and money, it teaches you the very basic skills that you need in graphic design, and what I loved the most is the briefs, you get to practice the skills that you've learned in the course...I absolutely recommend it.

By Stephanie M

Jul 3, 2017

This was a very interactive course. I loved that it combined practical applications of the coursework with peer graded assignments. The process of both receiving and providing feedback to classmates is very helpful in improving your work throughout the course.

By Ige B

Apr 3, 2021

I really love this program thanks alot this program as really helped me most especially in my color picking and different way of making monograms and business cards I really appreciate and I will make sure I register for the next course under this same programs

By Juachi O

Aug 3, 2017

I have an Architecture background and have done Graphic Design work on the side. It was nice to properly learn about the concepts I use intuitively and learn to apply them intentionally.

This is a really well paced program and I enjoyed the assignments as well.

By هبة ا

Sep 11, 2023

لقد أحببت هذه الدورة لقد علمتني بعض الأساسيات التي لم أكن أعرفها

والجزء الأفضل فيها الوظائف والتطبيق العملي

شكراً لهذه الدورة

I loved this course it taught me some basics that I didn't know

The best part is the functionality and practicality

Thanks for this course

By Debarati S

Jan 7, 2022

A well created compact yet so lucid course designed for beginners like me, who had no background or idea about graphic designing. I had a complete ball while doing this course, and fell in love with the subject. Thanks for creating such an inspiring programme.