Course content

Introduction to Graphic Design

• What is Graphics Design?
• Graphic Design Principles and Best Practices
• Design Foundations: Building Brand Guidelines and Consistency
• Designing and Building Graphics
• Areas Of Graphic Design To Explore

Visual Communication Fundamentals

• What Makes A Design Visually Pleasing
• Organizing Information In Your Layouts
• Using Alignment To Your Advantage
• Setting The Design’s Rhythm
• Letting A Design Breathe With Whitespace
• Creating Visual Interest With Contrast
• Designs That Work And Don’t Work

Building Successful Layouts

• Determining The Design’s Message
• The Terminology Of Type
• Typeface Styles & Resources
• Choosing A Typeface Hierarchy
• Understanding Color’s Psychological Impact
• Building Your Design’s Colour Palette
• Understanding Colour Spaces
• Sourcing Imagery For Your Layouts
• Raster vs Vector Graphics

The Tools To Put It All Together

• An Overview Of The Tools Of The Trade
• Alternatives To Standard Industry Tools
• Web Design Tools & Software
• HTML & CSS:

Starting A Career As a Graphic Designer

• Getting A Job As A Graphic Designer vs Going Freelance
• Getting Started And How To Land Work
• Joining The Design Community
• Finding Continued Inspiration

Getting Started with Photoshop For Graphic Design

• Understanding Raster Graphics
• Graphic File Formats

Getting Comfortable In The Photoshop Environment

• A Tour Of The Photoshop Interface
• Customizing & Saving Interface Workspaces
• Opening & Creating New Documents
• Zoom & Navigation Techniques
• Multiple Undo With The History Panel

Resizing & Cropping Images

• An Introduction To Resizing Images
• Cropping Your Images
• Using The Canvas Size Command
• Introducing Free Transform

Creating & Working With Selections7 lectures • 36min

• Getting Started With Selections
• Creating Elliptical Selections
• Adding To & Subtracting From Selections
• Transforming Selections
• Floating Selections And Duplicating
• Creating Selections With The Quick Selection Tool
• Free Transforming Selections

Working With Layers

• Introducing Layers
• Pulling An Image Off It’s Background
• Combining Images Together
• Rearranging, Resizing & Renaming Layers
• Selections & Multiple Layers
• Blending Modes, Opacity & Fill Layers
• Getting Organised With Layer Groups
• Introducing Text Part 1: Artistic Text
• Introducing Text Part 2: Paragraph Text
• Filtering Layers By Type

Retouching & Color Correcting Photographs

• Removing Red Eye From Photos
• Removing Blemishes With The Clone Stamp Tool
• Additional Touchup Tools: Spot Healing, Healing Brush & Patch Tool
• Using Photoshop’s Toning & Focus Tools
• Using Photoshop’s Auto-Correct Commands
• Using Brightness/Contrast
• Additional Colour Correction Commands
• Non-Destructive Correcting With Adjustment Layers

Retouching & Color Correcting Photographs

• Getting Started With Photoshop Filters
• Working With The Filter Gallery
• Using Filters Non-Destructively
• Introducing Layer Styles

• Photoshop for Graphic Design Summary

Getting Started With Illustrator CC

• Understanding Raster & Vector Graphics

Getting Comfortable In The Illustrator Environment

• Opening, Creating & Working With Multiple Documents
• The Illustrator Interface
• Customizing The Illustrator Environment
• Saving Interface Workspaces
• Zooming And Navigation Techniques
• Using Illustrator’s Outline Mode

Working With Selections

• Using The Selection Tool
• Using The Direct Selection Tool
• Free-Handing Selections With The Lasso Tool
• Selecting Objects Based On Colour
• Advanced Selection Techniques
• Saving & Reloading Selections

Drawing Shapes & Paths

• Drawing Rectangles & Squares
• Drawing Ovals & Circles
• Drawing Rounded Rectangles, Polygons & Stars
• Drawing Lines, Arcs & Grids
• Drawing With The Pencil Tool (And Erasing Mistakes)
• Understanding Vector Paths
• Introducing Illustrator Brushes
• Using The Blob Brush

Managing Objects

• Moving And Duplicating Objects
• Rotating, Reflecting, And Transforming Shapes
• Precisely Transforming And Positioning Objects
• Precise Positioning Using The Transform Panel
• Automatically Calculating In The Transform Panel
• Controlling Stacking Order
• Grouping And Ungrouping Objects
• Locking And Hiding
• Aligning And Spacing Objects Apart
• Aligning To A Key Object

Working With Colour

• Methods For Applying Fills And Strokes
• Setting Stroke Options
• Creating A Dashed Outline Effect
• Exploring Illustrator’s Swatch Libraries
• Mixing And Saving Custom Colours
• Creating, Saving, And Using Custom Gradients
• Filling Objects With Patterns
• Copying Fills And Strokes

Working With Type

• Creating Point And Area Type
• Importing Large Amounts Of Text
• Formatting Text
• Area Type Options
• Creating Type On A Path
• Converting Text To Shapes

Going Further With Illustrator

• Introducing Layers
• Using Illustrator’s Pathfinders
• Applying Special Effects
• Exploring The Appearance Panel

Saving & Exporting Your Work

• Saving Your Work In Different File Formats
• Saving Your Work For The Web

Getting Started With Illustrator CC

Getting Started With InDesign CC

• Introduction
• Launching Adobe InDesign CC

The InDesign Environment

• Touring the Interface
• Zooming, Navigating And Getting Around
• A Quick Note On Display Performance
• Creating Custom Workspaces

Working With Documents

• Creating New Documents
• Setting Up Multiple Columns
• Setting Your Document Up For Offset Printing
• Using Rulers And Guides
• InDesign’s Preview Mode
• Inserting, Deleting, And Rearranging Pages

Handling Text In InDesign

• Creating Text Frames & Importing Text
• Adjusting Text Frames
• Setting Text Frame Options
• Threading Text Frames
• Basic Text Formatting
• Advanced Text Formatting

Working With Shapes, Colours & Graphics

• Creating Shapes And Working With Colour
• Applying Strokes To Shapes
• Managing Objects In Your Layout
• Inserting Images Into Your Layout
• Fitting Graphics Within Frames

Saving & Exporting Your Work

• Saving And Exporting Layouts
• Exporting Your Work As A PDF

Getting Started With Dreamweaver CC

• Welcome To Dreamweaver
• A Look At What We’ll Build
• Web Design Fundamentals: HTML & CSS

Let’s Get Started With Dreamweaver

• A Look At The Welcome Screen
• Creating New Documents
• Touring The Dreamweaver Interface
• Dreamweaver’s Different Views
• Using The Tag Selector

Working With Websites And Browsers

• Defining A New Site
• Getting Organized In The Files Panel
• Saving Files Into Your Local Site
• Previewing Your Work In A Web Browser

Building A Web Layout From Scratch

• Getting The Layout Started
• Understanding How The CSS Designer Panel Works
• Understanding How The Layout Code Works
• Inserting The Main Menu
• Creating The Main Content Area
• Hand Coding Layout Containers
• A More Economical Approach To Layout
• Using Float And Clear
• Centre-Aligning The Entire Layout
• Nesting Layout Objects
• Spacing Apart The Layout
• Final Touches

Inserting & Formatting Text And Menus

• Inserting Text Into The Layout
• Adjusting The Layout For Text
• Inserting Structural Headings
• Redefining HTML Headings With CSS
• Redefining The Rest Of Our Text
• Working More Efficiently With CSS
• Formatting Individual Words With Class Rules
• Inserting And Formatting Lists
• Using A List To Build A Menu

Inserting & Formatting Graphics

• Inserting Images
• Resizing Images In Dreamweaver
• Controlling Graphics With CSS
• Inserting The Site Logo
• Placing A Homepage Image
• Inserting The FeatureBox Images
• Setting Up The FeatureBox Titles

Site Rollout: Building Out The Site & Going Live

• Setting Up An External Style Sheet
• Creating Placeholder Site Pages
• Setting Up The Internal Hyperlink Structure
• Creating The Site’s Pages
• Testing And Final Adjustments
• Setting The Remote Site Info
• Uploading The Local Site To The Remote Server
• Testing The Live Site

Wrapping Up | Getting Started with DreamweaverCC