Central Saint Martins

Graphic Design For Beginners

This course is aimed at beginners to graphic design who are keen to experiment and produce an inventive portfolio, either for an application for further study or for those who just want to refresh themselves and exercise an enquiring mind.
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Length 3 to 4 weeks
Effort 3 hours per week
Price £ 360
Subject Design
Level Beginner
Languages English
Video Transcripts None

This short online graphic design course gives you an intensive and practical introduction to 20 key graphic design principles.

Each week you will gain experience applying these principles, by completing practical and realistic projects. Through this project work you will become familiar with techniques for working with images and fonts, designing layouts, and crafting logos and visual identities. The four projects can be tailored to your needs and can be related to current professional projects if required.

The course is also suitable for those wishing to discover and practice the fundamental principles of communication via the combination of text and image, perhaps as a first step into a new area of study, or simply to exercise an enquiring mind in a two-dimensional arena. The course does not cover the use of graphic design software, but you are welcome to complete projects using any software you wish, or none, as all projects can be completed working with hand tools (pens, pencils, paper, scissors, glue etc.).

What you'll learn

By the end of the course you will have;
  • Attained an understanding of what graphic design is and what graphic designers do
  • Studied techniques that will allow you to create effective and provoking layouts
  • Completed a diverse range of exercises designed to strengthen your graphic design skills
  • Had your work reviewed by your tutor and received feedback
  • Learnt how to make typography, layout and images work together to communicate ideas
  • Produced work that can be added to a portfolio that can be used to enter further study

Course syllabus

  • Layout design
  • Typography
  • Kerning, tracking and leading
  • Working with images
  • Scale, spacing and positioning
  • Using grids to enhance your work
  • Logo design

Meet the instructors

Ruth Sykes Ruth Sykes is a graduate of Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art. In 2003, Ruth co-founded graphic design partnership REG (www.regdesign.co.uk) and began teaching on the graphic communication design programme at CSM where she continues to work. Her design work encompasses exhibition, visual identity and publication design for arts, education and charity sector clients such as The Crafts Council, Central Saint Martins and Amnesty International. Ruth’s writing on graphic design history has been published in Eye magazine, the London Transport Museum’s book ‘Poster Girls’ and the American Institute of Graphic Artist’s journal ‘Eye on Design’.