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

4.8
stars
17,701 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

EJ

Sep 5, 2021

I had a lot of fun in this course. I learnt some extra bits of information related to graphic design and I think it's a great start for beginners as well as good practice for intermediate and experts!

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.

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4376 - 4400 of 4,539 Reviews for Fundamentals of Graphic Design

By henid y

Feb 15, 2023

good

By Ayan M

Mar 4, 2021

good

By Manisha

Sep 11, 2020

good

By DINESH K K

Jun 14, 2020

good

By preksha m

May 20, 2020

good

By Invader

Jan 22, 2022

UwU

By Baher A

Oct 14, 2022

ر

By Amir B

Feb 14, 2019

N

By Rebecca W

Feb 9, 2022

This was a great overview of the fundamentals, useful, interesting assignments and a lot of opportunity to practice. It was highly enjoyable and I like how the professor chose to explain things. Knocking off two stars for two reasons:

- The peer review system is broken. I rarely received useful feedback. In general, I think a paid course should have a professional give professional-grade feedback, but in the absence of that possibility, the least they could do is place a minimal word limit on the review sections so that people have to type more than one word to qualify as a review. In addition, people who don't pay attention to the rubric mark down your assignments and can screw with your grade as a result

- The quality of this course was not matched by the next in the specialization, which is Intro to Typography. So people who signed up for this course and then pursued a specialization based on the quality of this course will likely be let down by the very next course in the track. Intro to Typography is totally self-guided, is not at all dense with content (could be done in two weeks EASILY), and is almost completely grade reliant on peer reviewers, which as I pointed out, are of questionable quality. There is really no quality control for the work you complete in this course and it should be free as it currently exists.

By 翠花

Oct 5, 2016

The last assignment caused me CONFUSION. I mean, due to the unclear assignment requirements, we cannot review composition for composition's sake. For example, I did use two squares as the assignment asked, but I changed the transparency of them, so they form a new square when overlapping. And people think I used three squares and thus not following the instructions. And many people used a small circle and a large circle putting at the center vertically to form a scale composition, and you have to give them 3 points because they followed the instructions, but they actually did not do much in terms of composition. Though I got 3.5 scores by two people ( not very bad), I'm still frustrated, and I hope the assignment requirements could be clearer.

By Andreas S

Apr 5, 2023

Die Kursinhalte sind zum großen Teil lehrreich. Trotz Vorkenntnisse konnte ich einige Inhalte sinnvoll aufnehmen. Jedoch empfinde ich das Bewertungssystem komisch. Mir fehlt hier eine gewisse Ernsthaftigkeit. Ich würde vorziehen von Profis, wie Dozenten in relevanten Tests bewertet zu werden, da ich nur so abschätzen kann, wie ernst ich das Feedback nehmen soll. Die Vergabe der Punkte ist für mich schwer nachvollziehbar: 50 % allein für das Einreichen einer PDF mit der korrekten Anzahl an Seiten! Zudem ist man der Gefahr ausgesetzt, andere Teilnehmer nicht korrekt zu bewerten oder selbst unfair und haltlos oder zu positiv bewertet zu werden. Welchen Mehrwert hat dann ein solches Zertifikat?

By Annie H

Aug 31, 2020

I really enjoyed this course. I learned a lot and there were plenty of opportunities to use my new skills immediately in projects.

My only complaint is that I would have liked to get real feedback from an instructor on at least one of the assignments. I understand why the system is peer-graded and that it would be an immense commitment to actually grade the assignments, but maybe it's not the right system for a design course.

I felt the class was valuable for dipping my toes into graphic design, but could never replace a real class with an active instructor. For this reason, I don't think I'll be continuing with the specialization as originally planned.

By Linda M

Sep 27, 2024

I appreciated all of the content. The part I wasn't a fan of was reviewing peoples work form years or months ago. They already finished the course and it doesn't feel like a good use of time giving them feedback they will not read. At times feedback I received was just one word like great. I don't feel like the feedback I received at times helped me grow. There should be a limited response you should have to be able to submit. I also don't feel like its fair for students that are learning to have such an impact on some of our submitted work grading. I accidentally added a duplicate of a page and got knocked down 3 points by someone for doing that.

By Audrey C S Y

Nov 24, 2023

I work as a graphic designer and enrolled in this course with the hope of picking up new skills. However, I've found that the content caters more to beginners seeking fundamental graphic design knowledge. Despite this, I've managed to gain fresh insights through peer feedback on my assignments. Understanding others' perspectives on my work has motivated me to enhance my design skills. Overall, while I'm enjoying the course, I feel it's better suited for beginners. For individuals seeking a deeper dive into graphic design, this course might not provide the necessary depth as it predominantly focuses on basic concepts.

By Fatma M Z

Dec 10, 2019

The content of the course is good, but the real problem is the assignments that must be evaluated by others, It disables me a lot now I finished the videos and passed the exam, & submitted my assignments. Now taking my certificate that I will put in my CV depends on reviewing my work, now I can not apply for the job only after If I get the certificate of this course and this thing hurt me a lot.

Why have I been late getting the certificate because there are no people registered with me for this course at the same time? Or that no one has evaluated my work?

Please find a solution to this problem and keep this in mind.

By Dany B

Feb 22, 2017

I FIND THE MATERIAL REALLY GOOD AND EASY TO FOLLOW, THE ASSIGNMENTS ARE VERY HELPFUL TO FULLY UNDERSTAND EACH CHAPTER. I LIKE THAT THERE IS INTERACTION BETWEEN PEERS AND HOW THERE IS FEED BACK FROM EACH OTHER, BUT I DONT LIKE THAT IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO GET AN OPINION, IT DOESNT SEEM TO BE ENOUGH, IF I GET FEEDBACK FROM SOMEONE WHO KNOWS AS LITTLE AS ME OR IS BEGINNING TO EXPLORE GRAPHIC DESIGN, I WOULD HAVE LIKED AN OPINION FROM A PROFESIONAL OR A TEACHER WITH MORE EXPERIENCE. ALSO, AFTER FEEDBACK THERE SHOULD BE A CORRECTION ASSIGNMENT OR A GROWTH OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE THE FEEDBACK AND MAKE YOUR PROJECT BETTER.

By Tessa B

Mar 18, 2024

I liked the instructor , & the first couple of assignments were fun & engrossing. However, it was a little frustrating because I thought there would be instruction on computer applications such as InDesign & Photoshop, & often the Instructor would be manipulating images & not even tell us which program he was using at the time to make the manipulations. I also feel that the peer grading is not always that helpful; some peers are very sincere & provide useful feedback, but a lot or perhaps most just say "yes" or "good"

By Susan F

Jan 3, 2016

For what it was, it was a decent course. For some reason I thought it would be a little more advanced. This was a very basic class. Wording of the last assignment limited creativity as it was hard to tell if you had to limit your pictures to 2 shapes,(as in one circle and one square), or 2 shapes(as in as many circles as needed and as many triangles as you needed, but don't add any squares). Reviewing these assignments, because they were so basic, made it hard to offer much in the way of constructive criticism.

By Ben M

Aug 19, 2020

In general I enjoyed this course and thought the information provided was useful. I liked doing the exercises and they definitely introduced me to some design thinking that I wouldn't have a chance to engage in on a normal basis. The peer feedback, however, was basically useless, and unfortunately the whole class is built around it. A lot of time is required just to prepare submissions and then review others, but what you get in response as reviews for your submissions is rarely constructive.

By Emily

Jun 2, 2022

I enjoyed the overall course, however, I don't think that all of the graded projects, aside from the tests, should be peer graded. I'm not sure that my peers have the witherall and knowledge to properly grade the design projects they are asked to "grade". I understnad that it would be an enourmous amount of projects to grade for the instructor, but there should be some middle ground that doesn't depend on student's unskiled opinions or fill the schedule of one instructor.

By Abhishek V M

Apr 15, 2020

The course was interesting and the manner of teaching was good for someone beginning into this field. The assignments were well thought out, but I felt it lacked rigour since they were all reviewed by peers. I wish all the assignments were mandatory and graded by industry experts or teachers. The idea of optional assignments that are peer-reviewed takes a bit of the edge from the course.

Overall a good course that helped me think of design and its fundamentals.

By Matthew S

May 12, 2020

The overall setup and information in the course is helpful and builds a foundational knowledge of working with shapes and color. There is not a very strong concept of what makes a pleasing image, and the example images and designs are relatively cheap and childish. This leads to students doing quick, unpolished work. So I'd say there is nothing particularly special about this course, but it does the trick in many ways.

By Carina d F T

Aug 30, 2022

Well, this course is pretty basic and I've learned a few things, but the methodology it's not so good, is very hard to pay attention for more than 1 minute, the videos are monotonous during almost the whole course (it's just the teachers voice and some explanations on the screen). I thought that considering that this course was made by an education institute they would have a good methodology, but this didn't happen.

By Jennifer C

Nov 1, 2020

I really don't feel like I got any valuable information out of this course. I know this is a fundamentals course, but the lessons were all very basic and didn't touch on anything that wasn't very easily searchable. The assignments felt like busywork. Also, most of the assignments are peer-reviewed feedback only (the ones that aren't are computer-graded quizzes), so there was no real professional input at all.

By Oliver T

Nov 11, 2015

I totally liked the hands-on approach and the nice presentation of the material. On the other hand, I felt a little left alone since there was no didactically planned interaction beyond the peer reviews. Furthermore, a forum for discussion is nice, but it's a little sad if no one can answer course related formal questions, you misinterpret the instructions, and therefore receive a low grade.