Graphic Design Short Course

During this course, students are given an intensive and practical introduction to the key graphic design principles. By completing practical and realistic projects, students become familiar with the techniques for working with images and fonts, designing layouts, and crafting logos and visual identities. The course covers: • Layout design • Typography • Kerning, tracking, and leading • Working with images • Scale, spacing, and positioning • Using grids to enhance your work • Logo design • Visual hierarchies, integrating each element and the role of white space • Decoding / constituting typefaces and designing typography • The visual relationship between words and images • Experimenting with kerning, tracking, leading and bleed • Exploring symmetry, consistency and colour The course does not cover the use of graphic design software, but students are welcome to complete projects using any software they wish, or none, as all projects can be completed working with hand tools (pens, pencils, paper, scissors, glue etc.). By the end of the course, students will have gained an understanding of what graphic design is and what graphic designers do, become familiar with technical graphics terminology and the techniques that can be applied to each graphic specialism. Students will have completed a diverse range of exercises designed to strengthen their visual skills and have a clear understanding of how graphic design is used to communicate ideas.