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    • Visual Design

    Visual Design Courses Online

    Study visual design for creating compelling visuals. Learn about color theory, typography, and layout design for print and digital media.

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    Explore the Visual Design Course Catalog

    • Status: Preview
      Preview
      C

      California Institute of the Arts

      The Language of Design: Form and Meaning

      Skills you'll gain: Design Reviews, Design, Graphic Design, Design Elements And Principles, Visual Design, Peer Review, Typography, Creative Design

      4.6
      Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
      ·
      895 reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 3 Months

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      C

      California Institute of the Arts

      Graphic Design

      Skills you'll gain: Typography, Design Elements And Principles, Graphic Design, Graphic and Visual Design Software, Photography, Design, Visual Design, Logo Design, Design Software, Photo Editing, Digital Design, Creative Design, Color Theory, Adobe InDesign, Graphic and Visual Design, Image Quality, Style Guides, Branding, Art History, Design Research

      4.7
      Rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars
      ·
      22K reviews

      Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months

    • Status: New
      New
      Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      A

      Adobe

      Creative Design Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat

      Skills you'll gain: Photo Editing, Adobe Illustrator, Color Theory, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, Typography, Document Management, Graphic and Visual Design, Graphic Design, Graphics Software, Photography, Generative AI, Design, Adobe Creative Cloud, Design Elements And Principles, Workflow Management, Creative Design, Digital Design, Collaborative Software, Branding

      4.7
      Rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars
      ·
      250 reviews

      Beginner · Specialization · 1 - 3 Months

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      G

      Google

      Create High-Fidelity Designs and Prototypes in Figma

      Skills you'll gain: Figma (Design Software), User Experience Design, Mockups, Usability Testing, User Interface (UI) Design, Design Elements And Principles, Design Reviews, Prototyping, Technical Communication, Typography, Design Research, Animations, Color Theory

      4.8
      Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
      ·
      4.7K reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 3 Months

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      C

      California Institute of the Arts

      Visual Elements of User Interface Design

      Skills you'll gain: User Interface (UI) Design, Graphic and Visual Design, Web Design, Design Elements And Principles, Human Computer Interaction, Responsive Web Design, Typography, Graphic Design, UI Components, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, User Experience Design

      4.7
      Rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars
      ·
      6.4K reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 3 Months

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      C

      California Institute of the Arts

      UI / UX Design

      Skills you'll gain: Information Architecture, Wireframing, User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) Design, Persona (User Experience), Mockups, User Experience Design, Responsive Web Design, UI/UX Strategy, Web Design, Adobe XD, User Interface (UI) Design, User Experience, User Centered Design, Interaction Design, Prototyping, Graphic and Visual Design, Web Language, HTML and CSS, Design Elements And Principles, User Research

      4.7
      Rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars
      ·
      8K reviews

      Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months

    What brings you to Coursera today?

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      I

      IBM

      Designing User Interfaces and Experiences (UI/UX)

      Skills you'll gain: User Experience Design, Responsive Web Design, Web Design and Development, Prototyping, Graphic and Visual Design, User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) Design, Figma (Design Software), Web Design, User Interface (UI), Wireframing, Typography, Web Applications, Mobile Development, Design Thinking

      4.5
      Rating, 4.5 out of 5 stars
      ·
      278 reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      C

      California Institute of the Arts

      Fundamentals of Graphic Design

      Skills you'll gain: Typography, Design Elements And Principles, Graphic Design, Graphic and Visual Design Software, Design, Visual Design, Photography, Design Software, Digital Design, Creative Design, Color Theory, Image Quality, Photo Editing, Creativity

      4.8
      Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
      ·
      18K reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 3 Months

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      S

      Scrimba

      UI Design for Web Developers

      Skills you'll gain: Responsive Web Design, User Interface (UI) Design, HTML and CSS, Typography, User Interface (UI), Web Design, Figma (Design Software), Web Design and Development, Front-End Web Development, UI Components, Maintainability, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Mockups, Javascript and jQuery, Web Development, Usability, Prototyping, Web Development Tools, Software Engineering

      4.4
      Rating, 4.4 out of 5 stars
      ·
      17 reviews

      Intermediate · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      U

      University of California San Diego

      Design Principles: an Introduction

      Skills you'll gain: Graphic and Visual Design, Usability Testing, User Interface (UI) Design, Design, Experimentation, Interaction Design, Human Computer Interaction, User Experience Design, Prototyping, Design Elements And Principles, Human Centered Design, Web Design and Development, Typography, Design Research, A/B Testing

      4.6
      Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
      ·
      1.4K reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks

    • Status: Preview
      Preview
      T

      The University of Sydney

      Innovation Through Design: Think, Make, Break, Repeat

      Skills you'll gain: Design Thinking, Human Centered Design, Innovation, Service Design, Prototyping, Ideation, Product Development, Design, Case Studies, User Feedback

      4.7
      Rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars
      ·
      2.3K reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 3 Months

    • Status: Preview
      Preview
      C

      Coursera Instructor Network

      User Interface Design: Principles, Prototyping, Practices

      Skills you'll gain: Prototyping, User Interface (UI) Design, Usability, User Research, Interactive Design, UI Components, User Centered Design, Mockups, Visual Design, Graphic and Visual Design Software, Design Thinking, Design Elements And Principles, Typography, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

      4.8
      Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
      ·
      34 reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks

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    In summary, here are 10 of our most popular visual design courses

    • The Language of Design: Form and Meaning: California Institute of the Arts
    • Graphic Design: California Institute of the Arts
    • Creative Design Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat: Adobe
    • Create High-Fidelity Designs and Prototypes in Figma: Google
    • Visual Elements of User Interface Design: California Institute of the Arts
    • UI / UX Design: California Institute of the Arts
    • Designing User Interfaces and Experiences (UI/UX): IBM
    • Fundamentals of Graphic Design: California Institute of the Arts
    • UI Design for Web Developers: Scrimba
    • Design Principles: an Introduction: University of California San Diego

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    Frequently Asked Questions about Visual Design

    Visual design is the combination of visual elements like lines, colors, type fonts, and white space and how they all impact the appearance, usability, and overall presence of a website or other visual creation.

    Successful visual design relies on a strong, unique, artful visual concept. Think of all the great music LP covers over the years that have succeeded because of a strong, dominant visual design. Great visual design, or graphic design, concepts should enhance or even become the overall message, not detract from it. Without great visual design, many banner ads, TV commercials, show posters, and other visual materials would be less striking. The magic of visual design is that it hooks people’s attention and encourages them to examine other aspects of the piece more closely.‎

    It's important to learn about visual design and graphic design because of the skills you can gain from these programs, such as visual elements for websites, videos, advertisements, business reports, and other media. As the world grows more digital every day, the visual design we see is most often represented in online visual materials.

    Learning how to use visual design software can help you realize the work that goes into creating an art piece, an animated video, or a short film with strong visuals. It's a learned skill that can pay dividends down the road should you decide to turn visual design into a career.‎

    Some careers that use visual design include graphic designer, creative director, and art director at marketing agencies. Another career is a visual stylist for retail merchandising companies. Someone with a visual design background could be the director of user experience for a web-based technology company as well.

    These are the people who have gotten educated in art, design, visual aesthetics, software UI/UX, and more and have worked in the field to bring these skills to projects for companies and organizations.‎

    Taking online courses is a great step forward for you to better understand the foundation and basics of visual design. If you're currently working in a technology area, you may already have a head start on understanding graphic design and visual design software programs.

    But if you're ready to broaden your scope of visual design, and dig deeper into the software tools and the artistic sensibilities in visual design work, online courses can help further your knowledge base. Try courses that challenge your accepted notions of visual identity and graphic design. You may find the innovation you see in these new worlds of visual design and graphic design is very appealing to you as you move through your career.‎

    Online Visual Design courses offer a convenient and flexible way to enhance your knowledge or learn new Visual Design skills. Choose from a wide range of Visual Design courses offered by top universities and industry leaders tailored to various skill levels.‎

    When looking to enhance your workforce's skills in Visual Design, it's crucial to select a course that aligns with their current abilities and learning objectives. Our Skills Dashboard is an invaluable tool for identifying skill gaps and choosing the most appropriate course for effective upskilling. For a comprehensive understanding of how our courses can benefit your employees, explore the enterprise solutions we offer. Discover more about our tailored programs at Coursera for Business here.‎

    This FAQ content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

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