Top 15 Best Free Resources For Learning Design

4 years ago

Are you looking for learning graphic design and brushing up your skills online? In the world of visual importance you can learn and work on various skills online during these hard times. For creative people they need to learn basic skills of design and softwares such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and for product designers they need to learn 3D modeling softwares such as Rhino and Fusion 360. Graphic design is the fundamental part of the job of many designers and it is the mere reason for learning design and skill. 

Improving your graphic design skill is important and to learn the skills here are 15 free resources that could be useful to learn different elements of design, logo designs online, fashion design or graphic design. You can learn it faster and from free education resources online.


Veerle’s Graphic Design Blog:

Veerle Pieters is a Belgium based graphic designer and have a website of graphic design where she has posted from logos, brochures and stationery. She also includes wide variety of articles and tutorials which could be helpful for the people who want to learn design and that too from an expert of that field. She also has experience of Website making and UI/UX of the websites. 

She can give a helpful insight as to what a budding designer could do and learn starting from the basics to an advance level. She offers various tutorials and tips and tricks for using design software. You can grab some inspiration by looking at her well design and thoughtful website design she has managed and designed. She also gives insight to portfolio making tips and solutions and how to make it on your theme. 



Envato Tuts+ Illustration And Design Courses:

They help in creating beautiful and very deep learning video tutorials for all the design softwares such as Rhino, Cinema 4D, Photoshop, Illustrator and design process. There are so many graphic design courses available such as How to make a professional invoice or resume. Over one thousand courses in Envato’s design database. They have various categories of specifications to choose from such as specific softwares or design process by putting filters for easy selection and refinement.


Creative Pro:

It is an online magazine with How to section that is useful for graphic design learners. There are many articles written on challenges faced by designers and they provide tips and tricks to avoid them. The issues and tips include topics such as how to make logo, how to choose color palette, find imagery and create graphics that suit your brand.


Each lesson is formulated in long articles and provides helpful information, design examples, and various link to other resources. It is an ideal place to find tips and tricks to learn and find inspiration to many design projects. Although the articles are not organized so it is not very convenient. You have to search for related topics you have in your mind. It is good for beginners and for graphic design learners.


Coursera:

They provide online graphic design course from the University of Colorado. You can access all the great tutorials and videos for free and could do readings and exercises. It can be a good choice for the ones who are an inexperienced graphic designer and are still learning. It aims at amateurs and offer easy learning with some design tricks. Coursera offers practice exercises as well. It is good for the ones who are unsure about it and learning it for short but quick information. 


Kadenze:

It is an online platform similar to Coursera and is offered by the Maryland Institute College of Art. The categorization is however difficult to browse lessons and database. Few of the courses are free and rest requires payment for materials like exercises and assignments. They cost around $30 to $50 for each course which are not free. The topics that are covered are graphic design, liberated styles and subjects including typography, product design etc. 

It involves multiple video lessons and gives access to class discussions.


Cornish College Of The Arts Offered By Kadenze:

It focuses on integration of design skills and you should have some understanding of fundamentals of design to pursue this course. They offer courses on design theory and cover hand on topics including digital tool demos to show the skills of Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign and various instructional design software free. It includes multiple video sessions as well as assignments. Offers logo design online, tutorials like how to learn logo design free, learning graphic design, and tips for creating logo online, etc. 


Creative Live:

It is an online learning platform by Stanford University that offers massive online courses for professionals, specializations and is geared towards designers and artists. However the full course is not free but there are wide range of free video lessons available that are helpful in Graphic Design. 


Canva Design School:

It offers free lessons, tutorials and resources as well as articles that are helpful to new designers. They also cover a variety of topics that help beginners to grow. They include one main topic and have several lessons and videos available online which helps in step by step learning. 


Alison Online:

It calls itself “new world of free certified learning.” Actually the goal is to make learning possible from anywhere and all levels for free. It also offers premium subscription plans. There are all walks of courses available here and test is done and certificate is granted. Certificates from this website can be beneficial for grabbing a freelance opportunity. There is charge when you want to take the certificate. However, the courses are free to learn. 

They offer various software courses on new and fresh topics and are categorized nicely. Courses like Visual graphics skills, Photoshop essentials, etc are offered for free. 


DesignLab:

E-learning industry is helping designers and artist to learn from free resources online. DesignLab an online learning platform where you can get hands on projects to complete and grasp designing concepts. You are taught with expert faculties and mentors and include Skype mentoring sessions also. It can be a one stop solution for all design problems and an excellent learning platform.


Hackdesign.org:

It is one of the most structured online learning courses for newbie in graphic designing. It offers online tutorials and videos for free without investing anything. They provide with number of articles and links that are related to a particular topic for deep insight and learning. It is well structured as explains very nicely to the designers and artists.


Skillshare:

It is an online community for creative designers and artists. It offers plenty of resources for learning with subscription for collective courses. You don’t have to pay individually for each course and can get access to all the content. It offers dedicative learning.


Udemy:

It is the most widely used and is widespread among professionals and creative people. This online learning platform caters courses created by experts and is filled with amazing courses. You can judge the quality before watching by seeing number of reviews or rating for that particular video. 


Book Cover Archive:

It is a perfect place where you can get inspiration and ideas for your design projects. The website offers a catalog divided into genres such as art, photography, etc. It also offers educational tips and tricks on various categories of design and style.

It also offers professional logo design online and tells which is the best logo design software to create your own logo. 


Grain Edit:

Grain edit revolves around the style of 70’s and 50’s vintage aesthetics. There is a variety of talks, reviews and tips and tricks are available on this website that can refine your graphic design skills free of cost. It is beneficial for the ones who have a vintage style of designing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Online courses help in distant learning when you cannot physically go to that place. It offers a wide variety of courses which you can access freely anytime, anywhere.

Udemy, Coursera and Alison are best online resources for learning with certification.

Design skills like design fundamentals, elements, design softwares, logo designing, graphic designing and product designing fundamentals as well as advanced courses also.