Graphic Design Courses or Certificate

I've been really impressed by some of the offerings on Skillshare:

http://www.skillshare.com/

These are pretty inexpensive and provide a range of challenges and feedback from both class peers and industry vets.

I have taken a variety of classes offered on Lynda.com to increase and fine tune my graphic design skills.  There are software specific courses and general courses.  I first started using this site because it offers a free trail period.  But found it so usefull, I paid for a subscription which is affordable.  

Hope this helps you and good luck.

http://www.lynda.com/Design-training-tutorials/40-0.html

I'll second Lynda.com. It's just a fantastic resource.

There are quite a few places like slideshare.net which have some good, basic content:

http://www.slideshare.net/nikoutabaee/principles-of-graphic-design-basics

Another:

http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/web/50-totally-free-lessons-in-graphic-design-theory/

I taught freshman-level graphic design for a lot of years. The thing which gave students the biggest understanding of graphic design was just taking the time to expose themselves to it. Sites like Pinterest is a good way to collect design.

With a basic understanding of design principles, I asked them to try and put themselves in the head of the designer of anything they were attracted to. Break it down using design principles. Is it effective in communicating the content? Who is the target audience and would they too find it solves the problem?

The other thing to do is sketch ideas (thumbnail). Note that I don't mean sketch as in the fine arts world where it's becomes something an artist builds up (though, if you had the skills, you could do this) but as a recording device for ideas in your head. I often write notes beside my doodles just to help explain the idea. It gives you the ability to quickly explore numerous ideas and, afterwards, go back and evaluate which ones have potential for further development.

Work small. Work fast. Let the ideas flow. The more ideas you generate, the more ideas you have in which to choose. If you are like me, I have to see an idea on paper before I can truly evaluate whether or not it has potential. In this day and age of making "pretty design" on the computer, it's not natural for many to take out a pencil and sketch out an idea first but it's a big time-saver when wanting to explore multiple ideas in a short amount of time.

A pretty good book which might help is by Robin Williams (not Mork from Ork) called "Non-Designers Design Book". It hits on a lot of the core principles of design.

Good luck!

Hi Anna,

there are many graphic design courses on Udemy.com - some of them are better, some of them worse. You can almost always get a great discount if you follow the right people who are affiliates with Udemy and offer those discount codes. One of them is on twitter @intercer.

I agree that the "Non-Designers Design Book" is great! We have used it in my graduate program and I still keep it for reference.

Good luck!

Michaela