The eLearning Center for Gatlin Education Services

Prepare yourself for high-level graphic design projects. The focus is on understanding different styles that influenced graphic design, in addition to how to conceptualize projects, reinvent clichés, create balanced layouts, distill complex information, and motivate your audience. Course projects include postage design, annual report layout, poster and book design, an art poster, and a direct mail piece.

LESSON 1 Movements in Design What is this thing called graphic design? Lesson One explores the economic, cultural, and political context of today's graphic design styles. The lesson begins with an analysis of graphic design: its role in visual communication, cultural influence, political origins, role in business innovation, and governing aesthetic principles. Then you'll take a journey through some of the major 20th century movements that shaped today's visual landscape, including Expressionism, Art Nouveau, Avante Garde, Modernism, Bauhaus, Futurism, Surrealism, and Post-Modernism. In the assignment, you'll tackle a retro stamp design project to demonstrate your understanding of a design style.

LESSON 2 Thinking Design At a fundamental level, design is about problem-solving: finding a solution to a client or employer's problem. Lesson Two examines concepts, principles, and working strategies for thinking through your designs to ensure that your projects start out on the right track. Global design principles and the role of consistency, constancy, and the exposure effect are discussed, as well as how the creative process fits into professional working practices. In the assignment, you'll tackle an annual report design that enables you to put the principles of consistency and constancy into practice.

LESSON 3 Constructing Creativity Graphic designers as the blue-collar workers of the art world. Lesson Three looks at the building blocks of a design project: investigating the nature of creativity, mapping out stages in the design process, and looking at how cliches can be transformed to create something new. You will study some tried-and-true methods used—and reused—to orchestrate design elements into a distinctive and memorable message. In the assignment, you'll tackle a book cover design that demands a creative, playful approach.

LESSON 4 Color and Composition Every graphic designer's skillset should include a mastery of color and composition. Lesson Four focuses on proportion, balance, and perspective, looking at examples of geometrical composition that have stood the test of time and are considered design classics. Architects and engineers utilize geometry throughout the planning and organization of projects, so you'll borrow a leaf from their book. Also discussed are some major concepts in effective color usage. In the assignment, you'll tackle a poster design that stretches your composition skills.

LESSON 5 Envisioning Design The true test for any graphic designer is the ability to condense a mass of complex information and graphic content into a simple message. Maps, diagrams, posters, and advertisements all require designers to "envision information" by creating a clear, aesthetically balanced communication. Lesson Five examines techniques for effective information design: catching the eye, highlighting, type design, layering, closure, figure-ground relationships, and more. In the assignment, you'll tackle a map design that involves some information design decisions.

LESSON 6 The Context of Design Graphic design derives meaning from its context. As a designer, you must apply everything you know about the physical, cognitive, social, and cultural world to create your communications. Lesson Six examines how to use social/political messages in your media environment—politics, satire, and wit—to shape your work. The course closes with a design veteran's thoughts on the core competencies for a career in graphic design. In the assignment, you'll tackle a direct mail piece that requires some passionate, off-center design approaches.