Advanced Diploma in Graphic Design

Advanced Colour Theory

Colour in design is very subjective. What evokes one reaction in a person may evoke a very different reaction in someone else. Sometimes this is due to personal preference, and other times due to cultural background. Colour theory is a science in itself and learning concepts like Chroma, Value and Saturation is key to creating your own colour schemes, which we will be creating from scratch. This is essential for your personal design projects.

Photoshop Essential

Photoshop is one part of the `Holy Trinity’ of design, the others being Illustrator and InDesign. During this lesson you will discover the shear amount of power Photoshop contains. This tour of Photoshop will touch on the many tools of Photoshop and the sub-categories within each tool choice. This lesson will also provide a deeper look into the blend modes, the layer style blending options and the image adjustments that can be used and tweaked to your liking.

Photoshop Filters

Filters are a great tool for any graphic designer. Photoshop has a large range of filters to fit every genre and to help create amazing pieces of work. During this lesson we will delve in these filters, to fully grasp the creative power they have.

Logo Design Principals

During this lesson you will discover the best principles of logo design and the what not to dos, to make sure you avoid those easily made mistakes. This Lesson will then discuss what makes a logo work before moving on to the principals contained in Gestalt theory. Following on from this, you will get a look into the design process of negative space. Finally, in the practical session, you will gain a hands on approach to logo design techniques and the all-important negative space logo creation.

Infographics

Infographics are visual representations of data and information. They are intended to help convey information faster, as the mind processes images faster than words. This lesson will touch on the history of infographics and how technology has had a major impact. We will be discussing the best practices when designing infographics before approaching our own infographic creation in Adobe Illustrator.

Grid Theory

Before approaching Adobe InDesign, we will look at the development of grid layout, the golden ratio and the rule of thirds. We will have a brief look at the layout terms needed when designing for InDesign. Based on our look at grid theory we will use Adobe InDesign to create a magazine cover spread. We will start by learning how to create master pages to make our designing life easier, before moving on to more advanced techniques to help our magazine jump to life.

Portfolio Creation

Pushing forward from our grid layout lessons, the next step is to discuss the best practices for portfolio creation. During this lesson we will discuss tips for portfolio creation that will help guide you towards that next step in your career. During our hands on practical webinar, we will try a variety of different layout types so you, as a creative individual, can tweak them to your own standards, inviting your own creative portfolio.

Creative Résumé

After creating your killer Portfolio, it is now time to take that extra step towards securing a design career. A creative CV/Résumé will help you stand out, get you the interview and secure the job, along with the portfolio of course. We will look at the best practices for creative résumés and will touch on some of the best creative techniques used during designing.

Branding & Packaging

Branding and packaging is an important tool to any business. As a designer you will need to know how to make your clients business stand out from its competitors. This lesson will teach all the knowledge you need to get ahead in the branding and packaging side of graphic design. Using the Adobe packages, we will create some stunning artwork to be used for a variety of different branding and packaging.

Advanced Typography

Typography is an art form of its own. Understanding typography and its power is a great asset to any designer. Creating your own custom fonts is an advantage every graphic designer should possess. We will look at custom fonts and how to edit already existing fonts to help your designs pop.

Idea Generation & Development

This lesson will solely focus on the process of idea generation and how to go from a simple brief to a masterpiece of work. We will go through all of the steps of idea generation in depth, allowing for creativity even in the non-creative parts of graphic design. We will also look at clichés and how to avoid them for a better end result when designing.

Career Advice

The final lessons will be based on career advice to help you ease into the possibility of designing for either a client or for yourself. We will discuss on a step by step basis what you need to know and what you need to do to become a freelance graphic designer. This lesson will give you the opportunity to ask about any worries you have concerning your next step within graphic design and to gain valuable advice from our graphic design educators.