Fundamentals of Graphic Design

I was looking for a graphic design course and I was undecided between this one and "Graphic Design" from Colorado Boulder... so I took both! I hope this review helps you pick one of them or maybe take both as well.

"Graphic Design" is a lot more pragmatic and to the point. It provides a lot of rules of thumb, practical advice and practical exercises.

While there is some overlap, this course is a bit drier and more theoretical. It also provides unique value specially in the final week when you start analyzing a picture and decomposing elements.

I would say "Graphic Design" brings all of its concepts together a bit better, but anyone taking either course is gonna cover the basics well enough that they could start designing some nice things!

Overall, if I had to recommend a single one, that'd be the course from Colorado Boulder, but if you can take both I'd say that's even better.

Even though the course gave me some food for thought, I would call it overall a disappointment. I really loved the first week's assignment and the first week's content in general. CalArts team provided us with some interesting design techniques and some design theory. I expected the course to continue to be as thorough and demanding, but instead, the following three weeks were bland, banal and really shallow, not what you'd expect on an introductory course from such an institution.

The first week's assignment was really about creativity, but the fourth week's task was extremely boring and useless. The middle weeks' assignments were just tests! I don't exactly understand how you can qualify for a certificate in "Foundations of Graphic design by clicking on answers and not designing stuff.

Anyway, I expected the final task of the course to be something that would've combined all the previously learnt knowledge. Alas, it required 10 minute tops to complete and almost no creativity at all.

The last thing that I want to talk about is Peer Review. I realize that these courses are done purely for commercial purposes to promote an institution and to have more actual students enrolling. However, given that some people actually pay for the course, it is a shame that they don't have access to a professional review from the instructors. In my first peer-review assignment things went smoothly, however in the last assignment a person who clearly didn't understand the task gave me a low point, not providing any explanation for this mark. So I resubmitted the exactly same assignment and different people reviewed it and I passed.

I don't think it is a fair system to review design students, given that the course doesn't really give enough fundamentals. We only saw examples of good design during the first week and later only the theory.

I'd like to see the content of the rest of specialization, but I don't have high hopes for it.