Graphic Design 101

Graphic Design 101

Graphic Design 101 provides ½ high school credit while teaching students how design works beyond simply making things look good. Throughout the course, students learn how designers communicate ideas, build brands, organize information, and create visuals with purpose.

Students watch short video lessons taught by a professional graphic designer, then immediately apply what they learn through hands-on assignments. This is not a course where teens watch videos for thirty minutes and call it school—the projects are where much of the learning happens.

One distinctive feature is the workshop component. After completing projects, students watch guided critiques and discussions of similar assignments, giving them opportunities to see how design decisions succeed, fail, and improve. For many students, seeing someone else revise work is just as valuable as creating their own.

Throughout the course, students work through topics such as color theory, the seven elements of design, branding, layout, and the design process itself.

As skills build, projects become more independent. By the end of the course, students create a personal brand, design a logo, and develop a complete campaign that demonstrates what they have learned.

Because the course emphasizes creating, revising, and evaluating work rather than simply consuming information, it often works especially well for students who enjoy creative projects but need more structure than “make something artistic.”