Graphic Design Classes Live Online
Graphic design is the art of communicating with a mass audience through purely visual means. Graphic Designers use color, images, iconography and text to communicate and rhetorically persuade an audience and graphic design skills are employed in every field, from advertising to political campaigning. If you want to turn your artistic passions into a career or are interested in digital art as a form of expression, learning graphic design philosophies and tools is a great way to position yourself for long-term success. One excellent way to learn these skills is to enroll in an online course, either one that teaches graphic design skills broadly or one that narrows its focus to teach specific tools, like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.
Advantages of an Online Course
Over the last several years, the general quality of online training courses has increased by leaps and bounds, and online classes shouldn’t be immediately disregarded as inferior to their traditional in-person counterparts. There are several advantages and disadvantages to online classes that students will want to consider when they are deciding on the graphic design course that best suits their needs.
The most common form of online training is a live, online graphic design course. These classes are taught by live instructors over telecommunication platforms, and they mirror the style of instruction you would expect to receive in an in-person graphic design course. The major advantage to these kinds of courses is that they give students far more options for what kind of classes they want to enroll in than in-person classes. Unlike traditional in-person classes, where students are limited to the courses they can physically attend, you can enroll in an online course for anywhere in the country (time zones being the only major burden), so if a provider doesn’t have a campus near you, you can still enroll in their training programs. This can be especially helpful for students who don’t live in major metropolitan areas since that is where the bulk of training centers are located. Learning from home also has the benefit of cutting out a commute and letting you learn skills on your own devices, which can be especially advantageous if you are self-employed or working from home. The drawback to these classes is that students will need to handle their own tech set-up and will need to acquire the licenses to utilize graphic design applications. In addition, some students may find it harder to remain focused when they are in a digital classroom environment.
Another option for students looking to learn graphic design online is in a self-paced, on-demand, asynchronous training program. These courses, which are primarily composed of recorded lessons that students engage with at their own pace, are a good alternative to live training courses for students with time or schedule constraints. These classes give students control over when they engage with the lessons, and they give students the opportunity to more easily shift the pace of their training on a regular basis. The drawback to these classes is that because they don’t have live instructors, students won’t be able to get up-to-the-minute feedback or support. In addition, since these courses are less structured, it is easier to fall behind or put off working for too long, resulting in the students retaining less information and needing to spend even more time working on the course.
Live Online Graphic Design Courses
Students looking for a quality, career-focused online graphic design training program should consider NYIM Training’s Graphic Design Certificate program. This program, which is offered in partnership with Noble Desktop, provides students with a robust and immersive education in the theories, principles and practices of graphic design. Students will start by learning important theories of design and composition, including color theory and principles of typography. Once students have this theoretical background, they will learn practical design skills using Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. All of these lessons are delivered through hands-on instruction provided by graphic design experts. All of the projects that students work on will mirror the kinds of projects they can expect to encounter as part of their regular workflow as professional Graphic Designers. Since this is a career-focused training program, students will spend the course developing a portfolio of sample designs that they can add to their job materials, and they will attend discussions with industry experts. All students will be able to take advantage of one-on-one career mentoring seminars that they can use to help strengthen their job materials and prepare themselves for the market. Everyone who enrolls in this course will have the option to retake the course within one year, giving them even more opportunities to get hands-on experience.
If you are looking for a more focused training program or you aren’t invested in starting a new career (you want to expand your existing professional skill set or learn a new design hobby), NYIM also offers immersive Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator bootcamps that will teach you how to use the advanced features of the programs. These are all beginner-friendly courses that aim to introduce students to the specific features and functionalities of a given Adobe application and how to apply those tools to the graphic design tasks they are best suited for. These courses will, for example, teach students how to manipulate pixel-based images in Photoshop or how to create vector-based illustrations using Illustrator, and lessons will focus on the primary functionalities of these tools. In these classes, students will learn valuable career skills, but anyone looking to start a new career in graphic design will need further training.
Students looking to learn the basics of graphic design principles can consider enrolling in the online Design Fundamentals for Beginners offered through Digital Workshop Center. This course offers students with no background knowledge in design theory an introduction to the basic principles and theories required to ask and answer the question: “What does a good design look like?” Rather than emphasizing technical skills (though many technical skills courses are available online through Digital Workshop Center), this course emphasizes foundational skills that students will need to approach graphic design tasks from an informed perspective. Lessons will focus on the functions of analog and digital design tools, the vocabulary required to speak on design problems and best practices for receiving and giving feedback and critique (and implementing that critique in revisions). This is a good course for students new to design to take in order to become more accustomed to the kinds of questions and concerns that inform modern digital design projects.
Lumenbrite offers online graphic design courses that aim to teach students how to focus their design knowledge on the field of advertising in their Illustrator Training: Corporate Marketing 1 course. This program will teach students how to use Illustrator to create vector graphics images and how those assets can be used in corporate marketing projects to expand their reach and improve the persuasiveness of a given campaign. Students will learn how to create business logos, assets for branded merchandise, posters, infographics, flyers, business cards, brochures and more. These lessons all aim to help professionals working on a corporate-level marketing projects understand how to utilize Illustrator as a tool. In the Illustrator Training: Corporate Marketing 2 course, students will learn how to build 3D and motion graphics assets that can be used as part of other marketing projects. These are focused courses, but they are ideal for students who have specific reasons for wanting to learn how to use Illustrator as a creative tool for marketing projects.
NYC Career Centers offers a practical Graphic Design Portfolio Bootcamp for students looking to strengthen their portfolio and build the graphic design skills they need to find work in the industry. This course, intended for students with a strong background in graphic design tools, aims to provide students with a workshop space in which they can complete relevant, real-world design projects, receive feedback on those projects and implement that feedback into their work. In this course, students will provide critique and feedback on each other’s projects, giving them valuable experience in giving and receiving feedback and recommendations on their work. They will also work on learning best practices for revising projects once they have a stakeholder’s feedback. At the end of the program, students will have a more robust professional design portfolio to take with them onto the job market or to impress prospective clients.
Another online offering for students looking to learn immersive graphic design skills is the Graphic Design Bootcamp: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign course offered through the Borough of Manhattan Community College. This immersive, fifteen-week course provides students with hands-on training and detailed instruction in using major graphic design software applications and techniques.This course aims to be a beginner-friendly introduction to the world of professional graphic design, and enrolled students will learn the industry-standard philosophies and techniques they will need to know to find work as Graphic Designers. Students will work on real-world case studies representing graphic design projects and they will regularly have the chance to interact with industry professionals during the Zoom meetings that make up the bulk of their in-person class time.
NextGen Bootcamp offers courses for high school students looking to get trained in graphic design and digital art in their Graphic Design Summer Program. In this online summer program, students between grades 10 and 12 will have the opportunity to get hands-on experience working with Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Students enrolled in this course will not only learn important technical skills, like how to create raster and vector-graphics designs but they will also learn the principles and theories of design that go into making a persuasive, rhetorically effective project. This program is a great way for students with an interest in digital art to learn how to use the most common design tools, and it is a good opportunity to start building a design portfolio for students hoping to attend a college-level arts program.
On-Demand Graphic Design Courses
Students looking for an on-demand graphic design course may want to consider a course like Lindsay Marsh’s Graphic Design Masterclass - Learn GREAT Design, available on the Udemy course platform. This course, which includes nearly 30 hours of on-demand material, will teach students how to use Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign to create practical projects, including brand assets and logos. This course also includes lessons in techniques such as word mapping, brainstorming and thumbnail creation.
On the Coursera platform, students will find a Graphic Design Specialization course offered by the California Institute of the Arts. In this course, students will learn foundational graphic design skills, including how to leverage words and images, how to utilize typography and how to parse historical trends in graphic design. The course also covers important practical design skills, such as the technical use of digital art tools and theories of branding and image making. The course is fully on-demand and CalARTS anticipates that students who work three hours a week will complete the program in six months.
