Have you taken an online graphic design course or certificate?
April 25, 2022 8:35 AM Subscribe
I am allowed to spend up to $3000 from work on a professional development activity. I have never had any training in graphic design at all, but would love to use this money for some beginner level graphic design training. I'm leaning towards doing some sort of online community college certificate.
I am aware that there are many free or nearly free online options through sites like Coursera. I am not great at sticking to these, and would greatly prefer taking a more structured series of courses potentially leading to a certificate. Also, work does not reimburse me for courses from things like Coursera or Udacity.
I am able to access most of the standard Adobe design software through work (InDesign, Illustrator, etc) but I mostly rely on Canva when I have to toss something together.
I have never had the opportunity to learn about graphic design at all, and mostly am interested in learning foundational concepts, things like color, fonts, layout. I mostly work on things that are print when I end up doing graphic design at work (reports, two-pagers, infographics, scientific figures and tables, and some social media content) and would really like to just up my game.
I was thinking an online community college certificate may be the best bang for my buck (a professional certificate at my local community college is just under $3,000 compared to almost $3,000 for a single course at the private art school near me), but I was hoping someone had done something similar and might have some first-person recommendations.
I am aware that there are many free or nearly free online options through sites like Coursera. I am not great at sticking to these, and would greatly prefer taking a more structured series of courses potentially leading to a certificate. Also, work does not reimburse me for courses from things like Coursera or Udacity.
I am able to access most of the standard Adobe design software through work (InDesign, Illustrator, etc) but I mostly rely on Canva when I have to toss something together.
I have never had the opportunity to learn about graphic design at all, and mostly am interested in learning foundational concepts, things like color, fonts, layout. I mostly work on things that are print when I end up doing graphic design at work (reports, two-pagers, infographics, scientific figures and tables, and some social media content) and would really like to just up my game.
I was thinking an online community college certificate may be the best bang for my buck (a professional certificate at my local community college is just under $3,000 compared to almost $3,000 for a single course at the private art school near me), but I was hoping someone had done something similar and might have some first-person recommendations.
Can you take the first class in the certificate program to see if you like it before committing to the whole program?
(For what it's worth, I think using professional development money for this sort of thing is a great idea.)
posted by bluedaisy at 2:27 PM on April 25, 2022
(For what it's worth, I think using professional development money for this sort of thing is a great idea.)
posted by bluedaisy at 2:27 PM on April 25, 2022
If you want to learn about visualization specifically, Edward Tufte's class is pretty cheap for what it is and comes with his books. It won't teach you the basics but might be worth it to compliment another class or set of classes.
posted by Candleman at 5:50 PM on April 26, 2022
posted by Candleman at 5:50 PM on April 26, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
Online, I have learned a lot, especially getting hands on with a lot of tools. The instruction has generally been very high-quality. Compared to non-online courses, I have missed the peer-to-peer feedback a lot. For design things or really anything comms related, getting those various perspectives is great. That said, doing it online has been way better than nothing! I'm still hoping to do some in-person courses for the next phase.
posted by warriorqueen at 9:04 AM on April 25, 2022