ABOUT THE COURSE

The Advance Graphics Design Certificate course is four weeks intensive practice-based live sessions that teach participants the principles of graphic design, the concepts of visual creation, approach and methodology. The course also covers key graphics design software, such as CorelDraw, Photoshop and InDesign, their features, tools and applications. Learners will be all rounded graphics designers with proficiency in graphics design, photo editing and desktop publishing.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week I:  The Principles of Graphics Design

Day 1.  Introduction to Typography

• What is Typography?

• The Importance of Typography

• The origin of Typography

• Types of Typefaces

• The Application of Fonts

• How to choose a Font for a Design

Day 2. Understanding the Colour Scheme

• The main type of colours

• Colour schemes and their Codes

• The correct application of colours

• The act of choosing a Colour scheme for your design

• Gradients and Colour Mixture

Day 3.  Backgrounds and Virtual Concepts

• The Importance of Backgrounds in graphics design

• How to create a background

• Sources of background and their adaptation

• Creating a synergy between your background and the design

Day 4.  Copyright and Anti-piracy Protection

• What is Copyright?

• Understanding the local anti-privacy laws and use of public materials.

• How to avoid violating copyright

• Obtaining permission and Model releases.

• How to safeguard your work from theft.

Day 5.  Cost Evaluation Methodology

• How to cost a job?

• Time-writing

• Pricing Mechanism

• Billing additional services

Week II:  Editing with Photoshop

Day 1.  Get Started with Photoshop

• A tour of the Photoshop Menu

• Photoshop Tools and their Application

• Workspace dimension and measurement

• Understanding the Tool bar

Day 2.  How to Select Images/Photographs

• Creating shapes and objects with Freehand

• How to use the Pen tool

• Combining images in Photoshop

• Using the mask to select human hair

• How to clean up images.

• Create amazing typography

Day 3. Retouching and Editing Photographs

• Create engaging visual styles

• Create distorted images

• How to create graphics from scratch

• Retouch of photographs like a pro

• You will create a postcard.

• Create posters.

Day 4. Producing Visual Content

• Create advert banner

• Resize Images

• Build a flyer

• Change the color or images

• Fix the colors in photographs

• How to change eye & hair colors

Day 5. Apply Effects to Photographs

• Combining two or more photographs

• Create a storm effect in a tea cup

• Create text textures with stone effect

• Create a logo with type with wrap around effect

• How to super-impose photographs on an object

Week III:  InDesign Application

Day 1.  Get Started with InDesign

• Creating a new newsletter or brochure,

• What are spreads pages

• Setting up Master Page

• Adding automatic page numbering

• Removing a master page and deleting parts off the master page

• What is Effective PPI & Image resolution in the links panel

• How to add drop shadows to an image

• The use of TypeKit

Day 2. Setting up your page Layout

• How to add the Copyright, Registered & Trademark symbols

• Using different versions of letters in Ligatures

• Adding placeholder text

• Using the word count feature

• Importing Text document and retaining or discarding the formatting

• Creating Columns in a text box

• Justifying text and turning off hyphens

• Setting up line spacing and leading

Day 3. How to Create Paragraph Style

• How to underline text with a full width

• How to create paragraph style and update it

• Using Find and Change to remove double spaces after full stop

• How to use colours format painter

• Placing long continuous text into a publication

• Importing paragraph styles from another document

• How to insert completely blank pages

• How to create a gradient

Day 4. How to Use Layers and Masking

• How to use layers

• Using opacity, water marks and transparency effects

• Adding rounded corners to an image or box

• How to add Drop Cap

• Creating text wrap around an image or shape

• How to draw an arrow or star

• Cropping an image or shapes like a circle

• Where can I find free images & icons that I can use for my business?

Day 5. Formatting your Document

• Adding bullets and numbered lists in a publication

• Creating a table and convert tables from Microsoft Word or Excel

• Creating a Line Break, Column Breaks and Page Breaks

• Creating an automatic table of contents

• Setting ruler and tabs in a publication

• Changing page numbering so 1 starts later

• Exercises and Review

Week IV:  Designing with CorelDraw

Day 1.  Get Started with CorelDraw

• What is Graphics?

• Understanding the Tool bar

• Understanding the use of the workspace

• Use of the ruler, grids and guidelines

• Setting up the a new workspace

• Setting up a Master Layer and Page Numbering

Day 2.  Setting

• Starting with a template

• Alignment and Measurement

• Setting up a new page

• Navigating a multi-page document

• Creating Master Layer and Page Numbering

• Understanding various File Formats

Day 3.  Use of Fonts and Colour Palettes

• Introduction to Fonts and Typography

• Creating a unique color palettes

• Understanding colour scheme

• The application of colour

• Distort and apply drop shadow and 3D effects to objects

• Organizing a brochure layout and how to manage pages

Day 4.  How to Manipulating Objects

• Grouping and Ungrouping

• Importing bitmaps

• Aligning Objects

• Setting the order

• How to Weld, Trim and Intersect objects

• Combining vector shapes to create logos and graphics

• How to retouch photographs like a pro

• Cropping and resizing images

• Aligning Objects

• Setting the order

Day 5.  Creating your own Designs

• Creating a graphics from scratch using the Pen Tool

• Create distorted images

• Grouping and Ungrouping

• Design clean and professional business cards

• Creating posters

• Creating a postcard

• Creating a backdrop and rollup banners

• Exercises and Review