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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.

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176 - 200 of 4,554 Reviews for Fundamentals of Graphic Design

By Aidana M

May 23, 2020

Even if you have some experience with design, then anyway this course will help to learn or consolidate your knowledge! Very interesting and easy to follow. At the beginning of the course, the teacher said the phrase “I want you to get your hands dirty” so that everyone will try their best at actually creating. It really brought a lot of benefits and a pleasant pastime over creating and developing each and every task!

By Lori N ( C U

Feb 24, 2023

A great refresher for the experienced designer and phenomenal course for the beginnger. Michael Worthington teaches in a relaxed and open manner so that everyone feels confident in their design process. Solid examples of acceptable designs, and quizzes that challenged my learning (I want to learn more about fonts) and an overall feeling of accomplishment while collaborating with other students around the world.

By Patricia A

Jan 11, 2017

Amazing Course! I loved every minute of it. The videos are well done, helpful to understand the process and a big part of understanding each element. The practice exercises are a great way to apply what I learned. Leaving Feedback on my peer's work was also very helpful. It forced my mind to analyze the design in ways I was not used to. I've am excited to keep on learning.

I would recommend this course to everyone!

By Jonathan C A

Jan 2, 2021

Enjoyed the class overall- videos were informative and detailed. Personally for me I felt as if I was back in a high school art class, (which is a good thing, please note) in which the environment was fluid and (more or less) was up to me on how quickly or how slowly I wanted to move through the entire course.

I'd definitely recommend this course to a couple of my friends and family who're interested in the arts.

By Ann-Marie C

Apr 18, 2021

This course forced me to think creatively. To consider what I was trying to say with each design I put together, and to really analyze what was working and what was not working in each piece and to try again where necessary. I liked reviewing the work of my peers and being able to make an honest suggestion where I felt I could. I was grateful to have others review my work and give me new ideas and suggestions.

By Faria M

Jun 21, 2021

I love this course as it starts from the root of graphic design. I have learned alot from those videos and by submit those assignments. I thought leatning fundamentals of graphic design would be so complicated, but it is so easier than my thought. Every part was broken down so simple and now I think that I have a clear definition of what garphic design is. I more confident to move forward with graphic design.

By Sreng S

May 6, 2020

The course is useful for beginner to explore the creatively in working on graphic design. This is the fundamental course that all students in any field of studying should take in order to enhance their regular designing since sense of having good image is essential is the future. However, it would be more nice if the course has more preparation material like powerpoint or doc that we could review or practice.

By Anna T

Jan 14, 2020

Thanks for a very interesting course Fundamentals of Graphic Design.

Information is broken into small pieces and it is very convenient. All the information that you provided was important and necessary. I did not hear anything superfluous or unnecessary. I easily managed to complete my homework. Your team perfectly thought out the program of this course! Thanks to all! (Sorry for possible grammatical errors)

By Etienne M

Apr 15, 2020

Just finished the course, and it's been a blast. Not what I expected maybe, but definitely what I needed to get to the core foundations of graphic design. It helped me understand graphic design principles & "science". I got to build on my skills and creativity with exciting accessible exercises. And now, I know where to look next to go forward on my learning journey! Thanks CalArts and Michael Worthington :)

By Maria P

Mar 13, 2019

For someone who has always been a little bit afraid of Graphic Design for lack of completely knowing what it was about, this was a great course to tackle those fears while really understanding that to start entering the world of Graphic Design the only thing one needs is taking the time to learn the basic concepts, try thinking about them and then apply them. Thanks for a really great and eye-opening course.

By Vandana c

Jun 21, 2019

The content of this course is really crisp and clear . Good examples are used to explain the concepts. This course has really made me believe that i have a hidden sense of art and creativity. I have learned to use various tools to learn and practice typography, sketching, water color art, logo and pattern making. I would highly recommend this course to people who wants to learn the basic of graphic design.

By rachel

Jun 23, 2024

The "Fundamentals of Graphic Design" course on Coursera was an exceptional experience. The instructors' expertise and engaging teaching style made complex concepts accessible and exciting. The hands-on projects were invaluable for practical skill development. I highly recommend this course to anyone looking to deepen their understanding of graphic design. Thank you for an inspiring and educational journey!

By Helene C

Oct 12, 2017

This course is a great starter to Graphic Design and its basic principles. The tutorials are clear, well paced and effective. The assignments are an opportunity to manipulate those principles and to create composition with much depth and control. I definitely recommend this course to novice and to intermediate that need to strengthen their skills. Peers reviews are also important so everyone can be active.

By Rhonda C

May 17, 2019

Great instruction with plenty of practice. I got a good start on my very first graphic design portfolio. This course gave me the perfect introduction to graphic design and left me with the desire to continue. I just recently have become more interested in art and design. It might be a little late in life for me but I am a lifelong learner. I want to learn more about this fascinating artistic concept.

By Alabún'mí J (

Oct 31, 2017

Professor Worthington's videos were absolutely fantastic! I took this class seeking refuge from the disorganization and disappointment of a competitor's course. Now I wish I had come here first, like I intended in the first place. This course does such a great job of explaining theory while also giving plenty of opportunity to put that learning into action. It's really got me thinking like a designer now!

By Nimra

Oct 20, 2022

Firstly I'm thankful to my Allah for giving me this oppertunity and than I'm thankful of this platform. It's a fantastic course on Graphic design specialization for beginners and professionals too. It's my fortune that I'v got a chance to do this course. A big Thanks to all my Teachers who guided me and help me to achieve this course cirtificate and helps me to learn new skills. Once again thanks a lot.

By Elizabeth R

Dec 4, 2019

I enjoyed this so much that I'm going to do more courses. It was presented extremely well and the way the content flowed made it easy for me to follow along. At first I didn't bother submitting assignments, but when I got into it more I went back through them all again and decided to submit them because it all became so much FUN. No hard work here - just pure joy in learning and experimenting. Thank you.

By Babita N

Feb 22, 2018

Excellent course for beginners or people who are just experimenting with Graphic Design. The instructor is clear and concise and the assignments are interesting.

In peer-assignments same person might evaluate all of your assignments which kind of defeats the point which, I think, is variety of opinions. That can also get irritating/discouraging if the reviewer does not care to leave useful feedback.

By Akbota N

Aug 22, 2019

This course allows students to 'get in touch' with some of the basic Graphic Design concepts. I liked assignments a lot, especially because they provided guidelines, but did not very limit what you can submit, and also reviews from peers were very helpful.

I am not sure if those with experience will enjoy this course, as it is very basic and minimal, but maybe reviewing a base theory could be useful.

By Trinity C

Apr 1, 2017

Fantastic course, gives a concise yet specific survey of all the basic graphic design skills you will need, presented in such an interesting and fun manner and at the perfect pace for beginners and more skilled designers alike. Thank you to Dr. Worthington and CalArts for creating this course and making it available to students worldwide who aren't able to relocate to Southern California just yet.

By Green B

May 4, 2024

Great course. Graphic Design is best when you can be well versed in typography, have a good process for ideation, and working with your hands helps you conceptualize and create good compositions. It all brings context to the work and without it the work isn't as meaningful or hold the same value. This course does all of those things and will help you connect the dots. Thank you for offering this!

By Viktoria H

Jun 21, 2020

Loved the course - informative and thoughtful. It was quite evident that a lot of effort was put into making this course accessible and understandable by everyone, regardless of previous experience. However, I would have wished for more hands-on assignments to be compulsory/required - I believe every graphic designer-to-be should have more practical activities and get encouraged to complete them.

By Kamila P

Apr 18, 2021

The course was really interesting and gave me a lot of knowledge about a variety of graphic design aspects. A good basics course for a start, to organize your theoretical knowledge, but also a lot of practical assignments that make you immediately use the knowledge in practice. I recommend the course and I recommend to take part in all the assignments, even (or especially) the optional ones.

By Charmayne J B

May 25, 2020

This class is amazing! It's very easy to follow for people like me who have absolutely no experience with Graphic Design. I like how they break it down into small segments and then go through it until it makes sense and comes together. I plan on taking the entire Specialization because i'm so excited to learn all there is to learn about Graphic Design and really use this for a career change.

By Rehema K

Oct 5, 2016

I am a Communications professional based in Nairobi, Kenya and have repeatedly seen the importance of the role of graphic design within my department at work. This, coupled with an interest in design, led me to sign up for the course. Getting an introduction to some of the theoretical aspects in this course was extremely worthwhile. I look forward to completing the specialisation. Thank you!