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Graphic design is all around us: Fliers, advertisements, movie posters, and magazine layouts all require plenty of creativity and thoughtfulness to capture the attention of potential customers.
To produce eye-catching, effective work, clients often rely on graphic designers, who have an eye for images, layouts, and typeface, as well as the ability to strategize and create artwork that is both visually appealing and functional.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur who wants to design your own marketing materials, a creative professional interested in expanding your skills, or a graphic design beginner who doesn’t know where to start, taking online graphic design courses can provide a variety of useful tools and knowledge to take your work to the next level.
Below, you can find everything from short online tutorials to in-depth classes, including free options that are perfect for brushing up your skills or testing out a graphic design course before committing to a bigger career change.
Available on CreativeLive
Length: 5 hours and 29 minutes
Cost: $14 for the course; $13 a month for a CreativeLive subscription
Whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced graphic designer wanting to enhance your skills, this course shares instructor Timothy Samara’s creative process and what happens behind the scenes when combining technique and inspiration. You’ll walk away with a better grasp of color theory, typography, composition, and more.
Available on Coursera
Length: 15 hours
Cost: Free to audit (no certificate) or with 7-day trial; $49 per month subscription after trial ends
If you learn best through hands-on learning, you’ll want to consider this course that focuses on all the core principles of graphic design, with plenty of assignments to practice and incorporate the skills you learn.
It’s part of CalArts’ Graphic Design Specialization, a five-course certificate program.
Available on Udemy
Length: 5.5 hours
Cost: $89.99
If you’re considering a career in graphic design (or simply want to gain some quick new skills), this course is designed with beginners in mind. The basics are covered, from images and layouts to logo creation and common design issues to avoid.
Available on Skillshare
Length: 35 minutes
Cost: $8 per month or $29.88 per year for a Skillshare subscription
If you’re completely new to graphic design or need a refresher, this short class focuses on the core principles of functional design. Taught by graphic designers Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), it provides background on the importance of scale, symmetry, framing hierarchy, grids, and more.
Available on Udemy
Length: 8.5 hours
Cost: $149.99 for the course; $29.99 per month for a Udemy subscription
This course combines the core principles of what every graphic designer needs to know, including logo creation, marketing, branding, and the legalities of design. When you complete this intensive course, you’ll be ready to apply real-world skills to your business, work, or hobby.
Available on Skillshare
Length: 18 hours and 20 minutes
Cost: $8 per month or $29.88 per year for a Skillshare subscription
For those wanting a more in-depth and hands-on course, this masterclass tackles the fundamentals from color and images to designing a magazine layout. You’ll also gain an understanding of how to use some of the most popular programs geared for designers: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.
Available on Udemy
Length: 15 hours and 34 minutes
Cost: $129.99 for the course; $29.99 per month for a Udemy subscription
Sooner or later, you’ll need to know how to use different Adobe programs if you’re serious about graphic design. This course is great for beginners and creative types who want to learn new skills whether it’s making a logo, invitation, or website.
Available on MasterClass
Length: 2 hours and 7 minutes
Cost: $15 per month or $180 per year for a MasterClass subscription
Interested in learning from a famous graphic designer? In this MasterClass, David Carson, known for breaking the rules and relying on his intuition in his design, shares his best tips and tricks after breaking down the basics of graphic design. He walks you through the core principles, including typography, photography and layouts before diving into his insider advice on making graphic design your career.
Available on CreativeLive
Length: 1 hour and 14 minutes
Cost: $8 for the course; $13 a month for a CreativeLive subscription
There are lots of components to practicing beautiful design. If you want to perfect your composition as well as your understanding of what makes or breaks a layout, this class will help.
Available on CreativeLive
Length: 8 hours and 14 minutes
Cost: $14 for the course; $13 a month for a CreativeLive subscription
This course is dedicated to color theory principles, color terminology, and using color to enhance your work. If you’re a designer or creative professional interested in expanding your knowledge specifically about using color in design, this is for you.
Available on Coursera
Length: 15 hours
Cost: Free to audit (no certificate) or with 7-day trial; $49 per month subscription after trial ends
This course focuses on learning, experimenting, and playing with images through composition and juxtaposition with assignments focused on creating spreads and ultimately with your own book of images.
It’s part of CalArts’ Graphic Design Specialization, a five-course certificate program.
Available on CreativeLive
Length: 6 hours
Cost: $8 for the course; $13 a month for a CreativeLive subscription
If you want to better convey text information, then you’ll want to learn more about typography. This fundamentals course highlights the importance of aesthetics and designing through a different lens and is geared towards designers, illustrators, and many creative types who want to expand their knowledge and abilities.
Available on Coursera
Length: 9 hours
Cost: Free to audit (no certificate) or with 7-day trial; $49 per month subscription after trial ends
Understanding typefaces is an integral part of graphic design. This class provides historical and cultural context as well as aesthetics for considering all things related to fonts and sizing — but you should have basic knowledge for using Adobe InDesign before signing up since these skills are necessary for completing assignments.
It’s part of CalArts’ Graphic Design Specialization, a five-course certificate program.
Available on Coursera
Length: 10 hours
Cost: Free to audit (no certificate) or with 7-day trial; $49 per month subscription after trial ends
Understanding the past can provide plenty of inspiration. This course focuses on the history of graphic design and provides perspective on how design evolved throughout the years, from the 1850s through the 1960s.
It’s part of CalArts’ Graphic Design Specialization, a five-course certificate program.
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