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:

4451 - 4475 of 4,554 Reviews for Fundamentals of Graphic Design

By Jane P

Jan 23, 2016

This was a great introductory course to graphic design. It made me think of many ways to represent the same image. I

By Hugo E

Jun 19, 2016

Thats a good course for beginers.

In my opinion should be more illustrative with more real and nice examples.

By Fedotovskikh M A

Mar 21, 2019

It would be better to see some feedback from teachers, than from people who are also studying to designers

By Dr. E L

Aug 11, 2024

It is an academic course with an enormous amount of content. I wanted more of a skilled based course.

By Jose A

Jul 31, 2024

It is good for beginning. It has some good basis exercises. The format is got quite boring at the end.

By Kiersten H

Jun 6, 2021

I found the content really valuable but the format is a bit too slow and hard to engage with at times.

By Muhammad a

Jan 13, 2018

very basic .... like a really basic ... I will commend this course to a robot start his AI training .

By Anoushka S

Jul 1, 2023

It is a very fundamental course and i wish that it had more creatively challenging work to it.

By Angel A A D

Nov 25, 2015

Very basic, but some things are useful, the course is worth it if you are a total newbie

By Promise O

Sep 12, 2022

It was A Great Experience, Learned the fundamentals of Graphic Design and Composition.

By Deleted A

Jan 5, 2022

Подходит прям для совсем новичков только, система базовая и метами немного устаревшая

By Alyson C

Feb 18, 2017

Great course to introduce you to basics of graphic design and basic design language.

By Olivia W

Jul 30, 2022

It was interesting, but I could not see this course actually taking me somewhere.

By TANIA M

Aug 3, 2020

A basic idea of a tool to employ skills of graphic design would have been helpful

By Infornography

Nov 6, 2023

A little bit basic and obvious, but always a must in building a solid fundation.

By Allison W

Jan 29, 2019

Needs to be much more fleshed out. Create subsidiary courses for each topic!

By Marcella S M S

May 23, 2020

Nicely done and fun to follow. With useful practice, but very basic indeed.

By Egle K

Nov 27, 2020

it was way too basic for me , but after all its fundamentals course right.

By BOBBY L

May 5, 2021

A bit basic for anyone with experience. Perfect for anyone without

By Mi Z

May 6, 2018

It teaches you the basic processes and techniques of image making.

By Pratishtha A

Apr 28, 2020

I would prefer a few tutorials on how to implement digital design

By Jackie F

Oct 4, 2017

Very basic overview of graphic design, learned some new things!

By Julia G

Mar 28, 2019

The course is good but the actual lectures could be more fun.

By Lara B

Aug 16, 2023

could be a little advances and build a stronger foundation

By Kathleen L

Aug 20, 2021

These courses were much more elementary than advertised.