Are you ready to start your career in graphic design? The good news is that in 2024, you won’t have to pay exorbitant tuition costs or spend years in design school to master design or become a professional graphic designer. Learning graphic design doesn’t have to be expensive, and you can certainly do it on your own time thanks to a few high-quality, free online courses. In this article, we’re sharing the best free online graphic design courses available in 2024. Related Best UX Design Courses With Certificates
Free Online Graphic Design Courses
1). CalArts Graphic Design Specialization
Through Coursera, the California Institute of the Arts provides a comprehensive online graphic design course at no cost. These five introductory classes, each taught by a CalArts faculty member, are jam-packed with advice from pros in the field. You will acquire the core competencies required to start a career as a professional graphic designer through this specialization in graphic design. you’ll learn the fundamental skills needed to begin a career as a professional designer. The course covers areas such as visual communication, interface design, motion graphics, and editorial design. Here’s a quick rundown of each course:
Course 1: Fundamentals of Graphic Design
Course 2: Introduction to Typography
Course 3: Introduction to Imagemaking
Course 4: Ideas from the history of Graphic Design
Course 5: Brand New Brand
2).Logo Design Fundamental
Logo Design Fundamentals Branding is a basic part of graphic design that many designers specialize in. If you want to go further into the subject of brand identification design, Udemy’s Logo Design Fundamentals is an excellent place to begin. In this fifteen-lecture course, you will learn what constitutes a great logo design, how to understand your client’s needs, and how to create a brand identification system that can be used in a variety of applications. This branding crash course will teach you all you need to know to create an effective logo design from beginning to end.
3). Canvas Design School
Get a solid foundation of graphic design in this quick, jam-packed course offered by the folks Canva. Canva’s Graphic Design Basics class is comprised of twelve bite-sized lessons, each covering a foundational element of graphic design along with an activity that puts your new knowledge into practice.
You’ll get a taste of invaluable design know-how from defining your intended message, crafting moodboards, color wheel and typography essentials, and plenty more. This course is perfect if you don’t have a lot of time to invest in learning a new skill, or just want to dip your toes in the water to get a better understanding of how to think as graphic designers do.
4). Adobe Illustrator For beginner
Learning the fundamentals of graphic design should form the basis of your education. But what good is it if you can’t put these concepts into action? To truly develop and create exceptional design work, you’ll need a few hard talents, such as understanding of specific design software. Many designers prefer Adobe Illustrator, and in this three-hour Adobe Illustrator crash course from Envato Tuts, instructor Dan Scott covers everything you need to know about the tool to get started bringing your ideas to life.
Learn the fundamentals of designing custom shapes, lines, and brushes, as well as how to use and modify text, and walk through the process of generating bespoke logos and icons. You’ll also learn hidden techniques about creating stunning color.
5). Graphic Design Basic
Skillshare also provides a fully free session that covers the five fundamental concepts of graphic design in just 35 minutes. This course is designed for anyone who wants to study and experiment with images and text to convey a message. Learn concepts and principles that may be used to any visual layout, including books, magazine spreads, online pages, posters, and more.
The workshop is taught by the directors of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art, therefore there will be lots of examples of graphic design projects done by MICA students. Prepare for a useful crash-course in key design aspects such as symmetry, scale, framing, hierarchy, and grids, and at the end of it all, put your new learnings to the test by creating a basic page layout in the design software of your choice.
6). Creating Brand System: Combining Logo and type
In this twenty-minute free Skillshare course, the creative team at True Hand takes you through their step-by-step approach for navigating a client brand identity project. You’ll learn all about how to define a brand narrative for a client while diving into the design process and learning how to generate custom assets like illustrations and typography.
Rather than focusing on creating a single logo, you’ll learn the value of creating a family of assets that can be used in a variety of settings, including business cards, signs, clothes, and more. This modern method to creating a comprehensive brand identification system will also show you how to effectively cooperate with customers and give you a taste of what a successful branding process should be like.
7). Veerle’s Graphic Design Blog
Veerle Pieters is a graphic/web designer located in Belgium who runs a website about all things graphic design. She has designed everything from marketing and branding to logos, stationery, brochures, websites, and intranet user interfaces. Her website contains a large number of articles with lessons, tips, and methods to help you learn graphic design. She provides practical advice on interacting with clients and establishing a portfolio, as well as straightforward answers to common graphic design issues. Related BEST DIGITAL MARKETING COURSES IN 2024
8). Creative Pro
Creative Pro is an online design magazine that has a great “How-To” section for helping to learn graphic design. Most of the videos and articles are for experienced designers’ problems. These articles focus on common challenges that designers face and they provide pro tips on how to overcome them.
One difficulty with the site is that the How-To articles are not categorized by category, making it difficult to browse. However, the list is searchable, so if you have a specific topic in mind, you should be able to find it very easily. Overall, this is an excellent resource for those looking to study graphic design for free. Beginners can supplement these more detailed how-to articles with some of the other resources provided here to get a well-rounded autodidactic education in graphic design.
9). Teach Your Self Graphics Design
This article describes all of the resources required to establish a self-taught graphic design school to replace traditional education. It was written by Sean Hodge, the Business Editor for the Tuts+ educational network. He has also built several popular blogs.
The article is divided into several subtopics, including design principles, design history, and how to create a design portfolio. Each area has a list of useful resources, such as design books, instructional blogs, job boards for obtaining design jobs, and websites to showcase your work. It’s an exceptionally extensive array of facts that might serve as the foundation for your graphic design education. At the very least, it’s a useful supplementary resource.
10). Adobe Discover Graphic Design
Finally, if you want to dip your toes into the field of Graphic Design, Adobe’s Discover Graphic Design Course materials are an excellent starting point before moving on to more advanced concepts. While this is not a full-fledged course, Adobe’s blog entries are excellent for studying various aspects of graphic design and determining what resonates with you. There are many of insights to be learnt here, such as how to choose between serif and sans-serif fonts, where to find visual inspiration, and what a vector file is.
Conclusion
In conclusion, prospective graphic designers can now gain the essential skills and knowledge without breaking the bank thanks to the abundance of free online courses. Designed to accommodate a variety of interests and ability levels, these courses provide a thorough education ranging from basic concepts to specialized methods. People can release their creativity and start a fulfilling career in graphic design by making use of these materials.