From movie posters, advertisements, and book covers to websites, graphic design is everywhere, making this an essential and sought after skill. If you’ve ever wondered how the masters of the craft create stunning designs, Skillshare can be a great start.
However, there are so many options available that you might end up spending more time browsing the site than learning new graphic design skills.
We’ve put together a list of the best graphic design courses on Skillshare to make it easier for you to get started.
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How to Choose the Best Graphic Design Course
The online graphic design courses you choose will largely depend on the skills you want to learn.
Someone looking to improve their creativity and learn design basics will be better off with an introductory class. The modules are typically short, often less than a half-hour, and showcase the general ideas of design and how to build from the artist’s imagination.
On the other hand, there are also more skill-oriented and software-bound classes. Their value will largely depend on what areas you plan to work on in your career as a graphic designer Creating book covers will be different from designing company logos or new animations.
In general though, when it comes to graphic design, practice makes perfect. That’s why it’s best to select courses that include assignments and projects. These allow you to interact with your peers, showcase your growth as an artist, and receive valuable feedback.
Best Graphic Design Courses on Skillshare
There are roughly 1,000 graphic design courses available on Skillshare. The classes can be loosely separated into technical courses that teach software specifics like the Adobe CC Suite, Canva, or Blender, and design-specific courses which teach the underlying techniques and industry fundamentals.
Here are some of the best courses you can use to further your understanding of graphic design:
1. Graphics Design Basics: Core Principles of Visual Design
- Cost: Included in Skillshare Premium ($180 per year, paid annually, or $15 per month)
- Duration: 36 minutes
- Qualification: Shareable class project
This introductory crash course in graphic design takes you through the fundamental principles of design. The course explains what makes art good and how to apply each core concept to existing work.
If you’re new to graphic design and don’t know where to start, this course is an excellent opportunity to learn from one of the best experts in the field. This course is taught by Ellen Lupton, a long-time curator for temporary design in the Smithsonian Museum in New York. She has written extensively on graphic design and is widely considered one of the best teachers on the subject.
The class itself is relatively short and is spread over seven short video lessons. The first five lessons touch on design basics, while the remaining lessons instruct the viewer on how to practice their newfound knowledge.
2. Adobe Essentials by Daniel Scott
- Cost: Included in Skillshare Premium ($180 per year, paid annually, or $15 per month)
- Duration: +-10 hours
- Qualification: Shareable class project
If you plan on using Adobe Essentials to bring your designs to life, this course created by Daniel Scott, one of the most prominent Adobe suite teachers, comes highly recommended.
The course is separated into easy-to-digest video lessons that introduce one concept or feature at a time and how you can put it into practice. This is one of the most comprehensive Adobe Photoshop courses available on Skillshare.
Daniel Scott is the face behind BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop), one of the world’s most popular Adobe teaching centers. As an Adobe certified expert and instructor, his lessons teach you modern digital design best practices and how to implement them to create stunning designs.
3. Graphics Design Masterclass: Learn GREAT Design
- Cost: Included in Skillshare Premium ($180 per year, paid annually, or $15 per month)
- Duration: 18 hours
- Qualifications: Shareable class project
This course offers a comprehensive approach to design, starting from the theoretical basics through to the most popular Adobe tools in digital design.
This course is an excellent starting point for someone who is just starting out, but can also be valuable for a self-taught artist looking to improve their grasp of the fundamentals and standard industry practices.
With over 140 lessons that span over 18 hours, this course is among the lengthiest on the list and requires a significant time investment. The course also contains plenty of reference and practice material and a community-driven feedback system for students to develop their abilities through active learning.
The course teacher is Lindsay Marsh, who has over 11 years of experience in graphic design. Her portfolio and course reviews speak volumes and make this lengthy course a valuable start for aspiring creators.
4. Logotype Masterclass With Jessica Hische
- Cost: Included in Skillshare Premium ($180 per year, paid annually, or $15 per month)
- Duration: 1.5 hours
- Qualification: Shareable class project
Logos and logotypes are among the most prominent aspects of modern graphic design, and who better to teach you all about it than one of the industry greats?
This logotype graphic design course introduces all the fundamental facets of the discipline. It uses the teacher’s distinct logo style as a base, giving the viewer a lesson in consistency and how to polish existing designs. The course was designed to help creators improve their abilities by using their past work as a reference.
With about an hour and a half of feature-packed content and a downloadable checklist with examples to work on, this course is an excellent way to improve your logotype skills or brush up on the basics.
Jessica Hische is well-known in the world of digital design, working for companies like the New York Times, Target, Penguin Books, Tiffany & Co, and Wired Magazine. She was also named one of the Forbes 30 under 30 in Art and Design.
5. Introduction to Book Cover Design: Making Stories Visual
- Cost: Included in Skillshare Premium ($180 per year, paid annually, or $15 per month)
- Duration: +-1.5 hours
- Qualification: Shareable class project
While digital design has reduced our use of paper, book covers are still essential, and it’s what this course focuses on.
This introductory course on book cover design combines the essentials of design work and best industry practices. Lasting a little over an hour, this course is intended for learners of any skill level who want to incorporate the best book cover design practices into their existing skillset.
Students will learn from Chipp Kid, one of the designers responsible for what is considered the industry standard in modern book publishing. His portfolio includes work for Alfred A. Knopf as well as original and graphic novels. Kid’s TED talk in 2012 was widely considered the funniest of the year.
The course provides plenty of examples from Chipp’s portfolio, as well as some of the most popular and groundbreaking book covers to inspire and push designers to view the deeper meaning of their work.
6. Learn to Draw: Daily Practices to Improve Your Drawing Skills
- Cost: Included in Skillshare Premium ($180 per year, paid annually, or $15 per month)
- Duration: +-1.5 hours
- Qualification: Shareable class project
If you’re a fervent believer that the pencil and paper are at the core of graphic design, then this introductory course might be just up your alley. Focusing on the basics of drawing in pen and paper or the Procreate App, this course breaks drawing down to the essentials.
This class is an excellent starting point for a beginner who wants to improve their pen/pencil and paper abilities and translate those fundamentals to digital work later.
The course doesn’t last particularly long, but the lessons include studying, replicating, and adapting existing drawings to develop a personal style that improves your drawing abilities.
The teacher, Gabrielle Brickey, is a freelance artist with a vast online portfolio focusing on portraits and character sketches.
Conclusion
With a plethora of online graphic design courses, Skillshare is one of the best repositories for designers who want to hone their skills and expand their creativity.
These six courses cover graphic design basics, from pen and paper drawings and logotypes to learning technical skills required for modern digital work. And at the end of each course, you will have something new to add to your portfolio.