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

4.8
stars
17,463 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

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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!

MB

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This course is awesome and I recommend it to anybody who is interested in making design.

I learned so many thing and I'm ready to jump through the next course.

Thank you Calarts and Coursera.

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926 - 950 of 4,507 Reviews for Fundamentals of Graphic Design

By Shannon S

May 31, 2022

Absolutely loved this course. The small videos were very helpful and easy to take in, and Michael was a terrific instructor. I was never lost or confused.

By Kaif T

Aug 27, 2020

Absolutely loved it. The videos were well made and informative. I liked the lecturer a lot. Will complete all the 5 courses. Thank you for this fun course.

By alifia n

Aug 24, 2020

Im a beginner, before i just create things depends of feeling without knowing the theory. This course is helpful to make me understand the basic. Thankyou!

By Ashley F

Aug 13, 2020

The course provides a great detail of information on the basics of graphic design and help to stimulate creative thinking for the assigned design projects.

By maria g n r

Aug 2, 2020

Es un curso muy práctico lo cual es importante a la hora de aprender diseño gráfico, aprendí técnicas de dibujo, y composición que me servirán en un futuro

By Subbulakshmi S

Jun 22, 2020

It was a very informative and fun course. I have learned the basics of graphic design which will help me in my extracurricular activities at my university.

By Akanksha S

May 6, 2020

I have got clear my all basic of fundamentals of graphic designing.. The course was well designed and easy to follow up. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Thank you

By Ivan E M H

Oct 29, 2018

Realmente fue un curso muy didáctico, no esperaba ciertas cosas, pero lo que más me encantó fue que nos dejaran practicar con los conocimientos adquiridos.

By Laetitia S A

Nov 26, 2017

Au cours de ce programme, je me dépassée en terme de créativité. C'était un défi assez intéressant. J'ai acquis tellement de connaissances. Merci beaucoup.

By Zsolt B

Jan 11, 2017

It is a great course from Michael Worthington. I learned that the best way to become a designer is to work on designs no matter how pitiful it looks first.

By Maru H

Aug 19, 2016

Me gustó la variedad de conceptos cubiertos en este curso, así como la realización de actividades, ya que estas me permitieron conocer mas sobre el diseño.

By Madalina H

Mar 18, 2022

Very useful, easy to understand for begginers, very well structured, nice homeworks that you can use to build your portfolio or to explore the field more.

By mariana b

Jun 25, 2021

I loved the course. It explains the fundamentals in a way that teaches you about the thought process. I enyojed it very much! Would deffinitly reccomend.

By Sushmita M

Jun 11, 2021

This was such a great fundamentals course. All the major components were covered and it was incredible how much I got to learn in such a short time span.

By Miada A

Mar 28, 2021

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Assignments were interesting and challenging enough, pace was very good, and it was perfect for a newbie like me. Highly recommend!

By JAVIERA F B

Sep 13, 2020

Muy interesante! Me gustó mucho, empieza desde lo más básico y eso me acomodó mucho pues tenia cero conocimiento previo. Muy bien explicado y entretenido.

By Kizong L (

Aug 3, 2020

It's amazing, it helped me to learn new things and also brush up few things I had forgotten.

It was fun learning and aslo putting my creativity to the test

By Basile G

May 19, 2020

Wonderful course, and a fantastic way to delve into the wonderful world of graphic design! I'm very much looking forward to continuing the specialisation.

By Artem A

Oct 31, 2016

This course is very useful and good. Cool, interesting tasks and beutiful lecture. I gained valuable experience and knowledge in the performance of tasks.

By Newsha M

May 20, 2023

I loved this course very much and i learned many things that change my point of view in artistic subjects. i recommend this course to every art students.

By Youssef B

May 7, 2023

An Amazing Course for a beginner and someone who wants to learn the basics of Graphic Design.

Easy going, Enjoyable and the Instructors are really good!!!

By Djacson

Sep 21, 2022

This was a great introduction to graphic design and definitely removed some of the concerns I had about possibly pursing this as a career in the future.

By Abdu E

Mar 10, 2022

The course is very beautiful, interesting and very useful. This is a course that helped me love graphics more than before. Thank you for a beautiful work

By Sheikh M s

Aug 29, 2020

It was a good course to gain fundamentals. It would be great if a course on Photoshop will be added. I am eager and curious to learn this specialization.

By Bethany M

Jul 9, 2020

I learned more in this short course than I did in my college class that cost significantly more! Awesome material and very easy to follow and understand.