When looking for a visual design course, either online or offline, you should prioritize courses that allow peer interaction and design criticism.
This benefits you as a student in two ways.
First, when you show your work for criticism and you get to explain why you chose a certain approach to the design, using design principles. This lets you get a better understanding of how to apply design principles to your work.
Secondly, you get to criticize your peers’ designs as well. Over time, you will find it easy to use design principles to analyze a design. This will go a long way if you work for big tech.
What is visual design?
Visual design uses visual components such as color, typography, layout, and space to communicate with users. Good visual design ensures that user interfaces are functional and visually appealing for users.
Visual Design Courses to Gain Fundamental Knowledge
1. Visual Design and Branding Course by SuperHi
Work with real-world projects and gain access to a community of designers with this self-paced course by SuperHi.
Skill level: for beginner and intermediate learners
Price: $299
Certification: Yes
2. Visual Design Course by General Assembly
Build a professional network with General Assembly’s design community. Employer scholarship packages are available if you would like your company to pay for your tuition.
Skill level: for beginner and intermediate learners
Price: will be communicated during application
Certification: Yes
General assembly offers a Bootcamp as well. Go for it to get advanced visual design skills training.
3. Interaction Design Foundation’s Visual Design course
Aside the opportunity to join meet-ups with other students in your city, you gain permanent access to course materials upon registering for this course.
Skill level: for beginner and intermediate learners
Price: Free for members
Certification: Yes
4. Open Learning Initiative Visual Design Course (Carnegie Mellon University)
This free course by Open Learning Initiative introduces you to the basics of visual design and typography. The course offers audiovisuals for learning along with self-assessments to help you evaluate your knowledge.
Skill level: for beginners
Price: open and free
Certification: No
5. Visual Design course by Codecademy
This course by Codecademy offers a self-paced learning opportunity to learn the basics of visual design principles.
Skill level: Beginner
Price: Free
Certification: Available for paid plans
Visual Design Courses to Gain Advanced Knowledge
1. The Art of Visual Design by Elizabeth Lin
Go from beginner to pro with this visual design course. Learn to access your design work yourself and gain access to an active community of designers.
Skill level: Beginner – Advanced
Price: $700
Certification: Yes
2. Learning Path for Visual Designers by Interaction Design Foundation
Interaction design foundation offers a learning path to learn visual design from foundational level, beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Skill level: Beginner – Advanced
Price: Available on website
Certification: Yes
3. Adobe Certified Professional Visual Design Course by Georgia Southern University
Become a professional with major visual design software with this Adobe-certified visual design course.
Skill level: Intermediate – advanced
Price: $1,995.00 ($97 a month)
Certification: Available
YouTube Video Courses on Visual Design
- The Basics of Visual Design by Design Chillout
- Visual Design Basics for eLearning Development | How-To Workshop by the Elearning Designer’s Academy
Let’s wrap it up
It is great that online courses offer learning flexibility, however, look for courses that encourage group discussions and critiques. By explaining your design choices and analyzing your peer’s design, you’ll develop a strong foundation in design principles, develop a critical eye for analyzing design and improve your communication skills through design.
Feel free to explore the free resources listed here to gain prior visual design knowledge.
