learning graphic design.
15 Good Free Resources for Learning Graphic Design Online
Have you been looking for the best free resources and articles for graphics designing? As a beginner you want to learn graphics designing or maybe you have been at an intermediary level in the field for years and you want to learn more and equip yourself for greater heights without spending much or subscribing to any premium program or school.
We have a great news for you, we underwent a genuine research to provide you with the best free resource programs to help you acquire some knowledge and learn the best technical approaches for creative and graphical designs.
Here is our collection of some of the best resources you can find online to learn the basics and what is expected of you as a graphic designer:
15 Top Free Resources for Learning Graphic Design Online
1. Fundamentals of Graphic Design
This course is 4 weeks from the California Institute of the Arts. In this course, videos are uploaded to give visual examples for you to learn the principles and fundamental skills of graphics design, including typography, image concepts, color theory, shapes and compositions.
This course encourages hands-on participation through video highlights and other design and practical exercises you can do on your own.
Alison is an online course filled with various types of courses that offer you certificate that will add value to your resume after completion.
Alison terms itself a new world of free certified learning. Its goal is to avail and give anyone the opportunity to study any course, including graphics courses of any level for free, irrespective of their location.
They don’t aim at making profit from subscription plans so the site does not have any premium plan for subscribers.
The certificate issued by Alison on the course can help you secure a job as a freelancer or any other job relating to the course you studied.
Alison courses are free; however there is a fee to pay which ranges from $20 for digital certificate to over $100 for diploma if you want a certificate.
3. Udemy: Introduction to Graphic Design
Studying the course “Introduction to Graphic Design” provided by Udemy is a great free course for you to start up your study with the aim of becoming a professional graphics designer.
It offers free graphics courses that include various design processes, principles of design and basic elements of design.
Udemy teaches students what it takes to become a good designer; it makes it possible for competitions to take place amongst students and rates the quality of classes and students.
It also provides tutorial videos with prices depending on the length of the video, the course and the teacher.
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
OpenCourseWare is an online class provided by Massachusetts Institute of technology.
OpenCourseWare gives everybody the freedom to acquire any education online. It is an online free database set up by professional academic teachers and course writers to teach courses in any field.
They tutor participants in most graphic design related courses like Web coding, which is helpful mostly to Web designers.
They focus more on practical aspect of graphics designing, providing hands-on and simple techniques that help you learn graphic design concepts.
5. A Brief History of Typography
This document provides you with simple and comprehensive introduction to the history of typography with loads of information about typography and how to apply them.
Typography is a major aspect of graphic designing because information about the design is passed through typography.
Selecting a font can make or mar your project because each font has different tastes that suit a design.
6. A Self-Study Course Outline to Teach Yourself Graphic Design
This article is written by Sean Hodge to create a self-taught and self-explanatory design courses.
The article has different subtopics, including design principles, how to create your design portfolio, and the history of design.
Each of the sub topics are packaged with guidelines and compilation of materials like educational blogs, job opportunities, and websites for promotion of your designs.
Canva Design School on their website offers students various resources, tutorials, lessons, and documents on several topics that will be helpful to new participants that are learning graphic designing.
“Creativity”, which is one of their graphics design courses, is made up of seven lessons that teach how to create and maintain your own vision and style, and how to capture attention with your design.
How to Build a Brand is also one of their courses that cover topics on how to build a logo, find imagery, choose a color palette, and create graphics, and how to choose a type palette that suit your brand.
8. Key Terms Every Graphic Designer Should Know
Rob Carney, the writer of this article outlines the key terms of graphics phrases and jargons, and with brief explanations he presents those unfamiliar graphics jargons in a common language you can understand.
He goes a long way to give information on how and where to learn more so as to improve your skill.
9. The Designer’s Guide To The Golden Ratio
Golden Ratio is one of the basic design principles you will need to learn, it is a mathematical ratio that was actually observed in nature thousands of years ago.
It is not only seen as a principle, but it can be applied in arts and architecture such as the Egyptians used it to build the pyramids.
Leonardo da Vinci also applied its principle in painting of the Last Supper.
Golden Ratio is a common mathematical ratio found in nature, it can be applied to create attractive and pleasing reality composition in your design work.
This article explains more about Golden Ratio, other resources, and how you can use it to create inspirational works.
10. The Designer’s Guide To Grid Theory
This article is written by Sam Hampton-Smith and it explains all you need to know about Grids.
They are like a chain that holds design together. Having knowledge about grid is important because it theories apply in graphics designing, web designing or print.
Understanding the grid concept is a necessity.
11. Logo Design with Draplin: Secrets of Shape, Type, and Color – Skillshare
Aaron Draplin the owner of this course teaches with the aid of Adobe Illustration demonstrations which helps to instill the core skills to design a logo.
The goal of this graphic design class is to tell you about the techniques used to create simple designs which lead to creating very attractive logos.
Anyone who wants to learn graphic designing and creativity can take up this course.
12. Duke Graphic Design Principles Index
Duke University is a school in North Carolina that organizes a resource program that covers all the basic design principles.
It has a lot of chapters that give favorable insight to different aspects of graphics design. They include not limited to how to maintain Visual Consistency, Use Color and type. The courses function as a mini-classes structured in form of chapters.
13. Learn Adobe Photoshop from Scratch
This program gives a guide for learning Adobe Photoshop for beginners and intermediate learners and also a referral guide for professionals.
It is an 8 hours video sent to students on demand with a complete guide for learning Adobe Photoshop.
The course gives a basic introduction, tricks, tips, and guidelines to kick off and get started in Photoshop for beginners, and in the process they go into details on the use of various Photoshop features and tools.
14. 99 Designs
99 Design is an online platform where graphic designers meet with clients to find new gig and opportunity.
There is an extensive learning section in the blog for intermediate level designers that have over hundred tutorials for mastering of graphics designing, ranging from colors, logos, and typography.
99 Designs also has a website stocked with articles for inspiration and tips for designers.
15. Color in design: CMYK, RGB, PANTONE
Color is one of the major foundations in design, it adds essence to design and makes it attractive when you use the proper color.
RGB, CMYK, Pantone, are one of the important terms in graphics designing. The names might sound confusing if you have never heard of them.
On this blog, there are difference articles that talk about these color terms in a very comprehensive way.
Knowing these three color terms or standards will definitely help in your graphics designing, print, or the web designing career.
Conclusion
Learning graphic designing is quite easy these days as you can find very good resources online that you can use, and some of them are free.
We have provided you with some of the best graphic design learning resources you can work with online from the comfort of your home and at your convenience, do check them out.
These are free resources you can apply in starting off your graphic designing career.