Visual communication design is the art of visual communication through the use of images, words, and ideas to disseminate information. Activate brands and to solve visual communication design problems. Graphic design can be used for advertising, or just for entertainment intended for the mind. This course encompasses key design elements and principles. Design elements include line, shape, form, and texture, and design principles cover composition, balance, contrast, and focal point.
Overview
Levels: Essentials Intermediate Advanced
Course Outline
Working with Colour
- Colour theory
- Additive and subtractive color models
- Device independent color
- Successful color combinations
- Colour for web and devices
- Colour for print
- The world of hexadecimal colors
- Colour combination considerations
- Colour theory for graphic designers
- Colour harmonies
- Colour psychology
- Monochromatics
- Harmonious sets
- Triads, tetrads, and pentagrams
- Complimentaries and split complementaries
Typographic Design
- An introduction to typography
- The typographic anatomical study
- Ways to improve your typographic designs
- Elements of typographic style
- Designing for different age groups
- Five principles for choosing the type
- Typographic considerations for print
- Type on the web
- Type when working with devices
- An introduction to designing type
- Stop stealing sheep
- Type weights and their implications on your design
- Find the right type
- To kern or not to kern
- The seven deadly sins of typography
- Typographic toolkits
Design theory
- Democratization of the design landscape
- The “templated” design mind
- The impact of tech
- Collaborating locally and globally
- Authorship
- Metaphorical references
- Designer, client relationships
- Keep it simple
- Designing for men and women
- The golden Mean
Principles of layout
- Grid-based design
- Web Design Fundamentals
- Understanding grid systems
- Making and breaking the grid
- Grid based design for devices
- Grid based design for print
- Negative and white space
- The proximity principle
- The rule of thirds
- Gestalt principles in graphic design
- The laws of simplicity
- The Golden Canon
- Accessibility
Visual Communication Design Principles
- Exploring balance
- Using rhythm as visual poetry
- Proportion and why it affects your design
- Focal Point – what are you trying to communicate?
- Unity in design
Visual Communication Design Elements
- Linear qualities
- Organic and geometric shapes
- Open and closed direction
- The size relationship
- Texture and surface quality
- Hue and color
- Value and tone
Principles of Photography
- Photographic composition
- Shape and Line
- Pattern
- Volume and lighting
- Texture
- Contrast and framing
- Basic Lighting techniques
- Finding your view
- The background and foreground dynamic
- Getting in closer
- Flash like a pro
- Chasing the light
- Photographic composition