Free Graphic Design Courses
Free graphic design courses and tutorials are offered at these websites and schools, listed below. Topics address the fundamentals of graphic design and how to approach your own work in a professional manner, among other areas of study.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT provides interested individuals with a variety of options for graphic design courses. Students can study things like digital typography and computational media design. Course topics include mass culture and new media.
- Art of Color
- Digital Typography
- Modern Art and Mass Culture
- Fundamentals of Computational Media Design
- Common Sense Reasoning for Interactive Applications
About.com
About.com offers a free online tutorial on graphic design for desktop publishing. Topics covered include text compositions, page layouts, and principles of graphic design. Also available is an online tutorial on graphic design portfolios, which is an in-depth discussion of creating a design portfolio of your work.
PhotoLesa.com
This website offers many different graphic design tutorials. Subjects include intensifying color, classic colorizing, Photoshop, using texts, and retouching photos.
Quark.com
QuarkXPress is a software program used for graphic design and page layouts. This website offers students the chance to learn about the software's applications via webinars and tutorials, in addition to online forums. These video tutorials are also offers from the YouTube channel QuarkXPressTV.
Planet Photoshop
This website provides students with tutorials on Adobe Photoshop. Topics covered include using layers, quick production for companies, and opacity versus flow.
Video-tutes.com
This website offers students with the opportunity to learn about Adobe Indesign via online video tutorials. Areas of study include setting up business cards, linking text boxes, and paragraph style.
DesignTalkBoard.com
Adobe Illustrator tutorials are available on this website. Topics covered include gradients, drop shadows, crop marks, and OpenType font problems.
Free Online Graphic Design Courses and Tutorials At a Glance
Course & School | Program Level | Format | Assignments | Quizzes & Exams | Downloadable |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Art of Color course from MIT | Undergraduate | Textbook/projects | No | No | Yes |
Digital Typography course from MIT | Graduate | Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Modern Art and Mass Culture course from MIT | Undergraduate | Texts/lecture notes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Fundamentals of Computational Media Design course from MIT | Undergraduate | Texts | Yes | No | Yes |
Common Sense Reasoning for Interactive Applications course from MIT | Undergraduate | Lecture notes/projects | Yes | No | Yes |
Graphic Design for Desktop Publishing tutorial from About.com | Beginner | Online tutorial | No | No | No |
Graphic Design Portfolio tutorial from About.com | Unspecified | Online tutorial | No | No | No |
Step By Step Graphic Design Tutorials from PhotoLesa.com | Unspecified | Online tutorials/screenshots | No | No | No |
QuarkEd Training from Quark.com | Unspecified | Webinars/video tutorials | No | No | No |
Photoshop Tutorials from Planet Photoshop | Unspecified | Online tutorials/screenshots | No | No | No |
Adobe Indesign CS2 Video Tutorials from Video-tutes.com | Unspecified | Online video tutorials | No | No | Yes |
Adobe Illustrator Tutorials from DesignTalkBoard.com | Unspecified | Online tutorials/screenshots | No | No | No |