Design

Design Certificates

Design certification validates proficiency and expertise in specific design disciplines such as graphic design, photography, or animation. These certifications, often offered by professional organizations or industry associations, require candidates to demonstrate mastery of technical skills, creative problem-solving abilities, and a deep understanding of design principles.

A designer's portfolio serves as a showcase of their best work, illustrating skills, creativity, and style to potential clients. Portfolio development involves curating a diverse range of projects that highlight proficiency in various aspects of design. It's not merely a collection of work, but a strategic presentation that tells a story of growth and capability.

Internships provide invaluable hands-on experience and exposure to real-world design environments. They allow aspiring designers to apply theoretical knowledge to practical projects, collaborate with professionals, and gain insights into industry practices. Internships also facilitate networking opportunities, enabling interns to build relationships with mentors.

Interior Design

Interior designers make indoor spaces functional, safe, and beautiful by determining space requirements and selecting essential and decorative items, such as colors, lighting, and materials. They must be able to read blueprints and must adhere to building codes and inspection regulations, as well as other considerations, such as accessibility standards. Considering how the space will be used and how people will move through the space, designers may specialize in particular types of projects, such as homes, hospitals, or hotels. Although some sketches may be freehand, most interior designers use computer-aided design (CAD) software for most of their drawings. Throughout the design process, interior designers often use building information modeling (BIM) software to create 3D visualizations of their floorplans.

Interior designers produce designs, plans, and drawings for construction and demolition, lighting, electrical layouts, and building permits. Sustainable designers suggest strategies to improve energy and water efficiencies and indoor air quality as well as environmentally sustainable products, such as bamboo and cork for floors. They may obtain certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) from the U.S. Green Building Council. The National Association of Schools of Art and Design accredits colleges and universities that have programs in art and design.

Design - Practice Tests

This section offers practice tests in several design areas. Each of the following multiple-choice tests has 10 questions to work on. No sign-up required, just straight to the test.

Fashion Design Process

Fashion designers create original clothing, accessories, and footwear. They sketch designs, select fabrics and patterns, and give instructions on how to make the products they design. For some fashion designers, the first step in creating a new design is researching current fashion and making predictions about future trends, such as by reading reports published by fashion industry trade groups. Other fashion designers create collections using a variety of inspirations, including art media, their surroundings, or cultures they have experienced and places they have visited.

After they have an initial idea, fashion designers try out various fabrics and produce a prototype, often with less expensive material than will be used in the final product. They work with models to see how the design will look and adjust the designs as needed. Although most designers first sketch their designs by hand, many now also sketch their ideas digitally with computer-aided design (CAD) programs. CAD allows designers to see their work on virtual models. They can try different colors, designs, and shapes while making adjustments more easily than they can when working with real fabric on real people.

In order to release either the spring or fall collection, it generally takes 6 months of continuous work, from initial design concept to final production. Designers produce samples with the actual materials that will be used in manufacturing. Samples that get good responses from fashion editors or trade and fashion shows are then manufactured and sold to consumers. The Internet allows independent fashion designers to offer their products outside of traditional brick-and-mortar stores. These designers may license their work, and ship directly to the consumer, without having to invest in a physical shop to showcase their collections.

Magazine Layout | InDesign

Architectural Drawing

Car Design Tutorial

Stainless Steel 8-Ball

Design Software

The advent of computers and graphics software have changed the way designers and fine artists work. The best graphic design software can provide the tools needed to create. Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop are the graphic design software most professional designers use. Procreate is popular among illustrators who use the iPad. Professional graphic designers need fully featured graphic design software that offers them the creative flexibility to realise their vision, while those working on personal projects might be able to make do with free, open-source design software.

The selections here span a variety of needs: raster image editing, vector editing, typography, interface design, and page layout. For example, CorelDraw lets you upload directly to WordPress, and layered Photoshop files are the most requested developer hand-off. Sketch and Adobe XD are specifically geared toward designing and prototyping interactional interfaces for mobile and web applications. Even Adobe Illustrator has an optimized workspace for web and mobile design with the pixel preview mode. It also boasts an Export for Screens workflow that generates your assets in different sizes and formats, all in a single action.

Graphic Design Curriculum

• Typography Fundamentals: Basic principles of typography including typefaces, fonts, and hierarchy.
• Advanced Typography Techniques: Advanced typography concepts such as kerning, leading, and typographic systems.
• Grid Systems and Layout Design: Understanding grid structures and applying them to layout design.
• Publication Design: Designing for printed publications like magazines, books, and newspapers.
• Responsive Design Principles: Principles and techniques for designing responsive layouts for web and mobile.

• Digital Illustration (Adobe Illustrator): Creating vector-based illustrations and graphics using Adobe Illustrator.
• Vector Graphics and Icon Design: Designing scalable vector graphics and icons for various applications.
• Advanced Image Editing (Adobe Photoshop): Advanced techniques in photo editing and manipulation using Adobe Photoshop.
• Photo Manipulation Techniques: Techniques for altering and enhancing photographs for creative or commercial purposes.
• Color Correction and Enhancement: Methods for adjusting colors and enhancing images to achieve desired visual effects.

• Principles of Branding: Core concepts and strategies for creating and managing a brand.
• Logo Design Process: Steps involved in conceptualizing and creating effective logos.
• Corporate Identity Design: Designing visual elements that represent a company's identity.
• Visual Branding Strategies: Techniques for visually communicating brand values and identity.
• Brand Guidelines and Application: Documenting and applying brand standards consistently across various mediums.

• User Interface (UI) Design Principles: Fundamental principles for designing intuitive and user-friendly interfaces.
• User Experience (UX) Design Process: Steps involved in creating meaningful user experiences.
• Wireframing and Prototyping: Tools and techniques for creating wireframes and interactive prototypes.
• Usability Testing: Methods for evaluating the usability of interfaces through testing.
• Designing for Different Devices and Platforms: Adapting designs to ensure usability across various devices and platforms.

• Print Production Techniques: Methods and processes involved in producing printed materials.
• Prepress and File Preparation: Preparing digital files for printing and ensuring they meet production requirements.
• Printing Technologies and Processes: Understanding different printing methods and technologies.
• Packaging Design: Designing packaging that enhances product visibility and appeal.
• Environmental Graphic Design: Designing for physical environments to create immersive experiences.

• Web Design Principles: Principles and best practices for designing effective and engaging websites.
• Responsive Web Design: Techniques for designing websites that adapt to various screen sizes and devices.
• Interactive Design Techniques: Creating interactive elements and experiences for websites.
• Animation and Motion Graphics: Incorporating animation and motion graphics into web design.
• Designing for User Engagement: Strategies for designing websites that encourage user interaction and engagement.

• Building a Design Portfolio: Selecting and curating work to showcase skills and expertise.
• Presentation and Portfolio Review: Presenting portfolio pieces effectively and preparing for reviews.
• Freelancing and Client Relationships: Managing freelance projects and maintaining client relationships.
• Career Opportunities in Graphic Design: Exploring various career paths and opportunities within the graphic design industry.
• Professional Ethics and Industry Standards: Understanding ethical considerations and standards in graphic design practice.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphic editor that has become an industry standard in the realm of photo editing, graphic design and digital art. Though it's now packed with drawing and font tools, Photoshop got its start as a photo editing and printing application, and it remains the most powerful photo editing software. Photoshop can be an expensive tool since it is a subscription-based service. If you are a beginner, then Photoshop can be a bit overwhelming. It is not the easiest to use or intuitive editing software and there is definitely a bit of a learning curve for someone who is new to photo editing or graphic design. Only consider installing Photoshop on a fairly powerful PC or Mac, as this program may lag if overloaded.

Selecting objects and people in photos is one of the top functions of the application, and one of the top pain points. Photoshop still includes the venerable Lasso, Magic Wand, Marquee, as well as the newer Object and Quick selection tools. Select on Hover offers a nifty way to create masks. It uses Adobe’s Sensei AI technology to detect all objects in the image, and as you hover over each, it's highlighted for selection. Select on Hover works with the Object Selection tool, which is in the same tool button as Magic Wand and Quick Selection. Press and hold it to use it. Check the Object Finder checkbox in the option bar and Auto Show Overlay selected in the gear icon's settings. Move the cursor around the image and you'll see objects shaded as you go.

Among Photoshop's most exciting recent features are neural filters, which let you automatically change a portrait subject’s mood, age, and gaze. Neural here is short for neural network, a subset of AI machine learning. The tools take advantage of Generative adversarial networks (GANs), which in essence, use a technique of trying to trick the AI algorithm with incorrect or adversarial data.

Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign can be used to create works such as posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers, presentations, books and ebooks. It offers excellent capabilities to design stunning magazines, info sheets, and brochures while easily exporting them to PDF or HTML. InDesign can also publish content suitable for tablet devices in conjunction with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. Graphic designers and production artists are the principal users, creating and laying out periodical publications, posters, and print media. It also supports export to EPUB and SWF formats to create e-books and digital publications, including digital magazines, and content suitable for consumption on tablet computers.

In addition, InDesign supports XML, style sheets, and other coding markup, making it suitable for exporting tagged text content for use in other digital and online formats. The Adjust Layout feature empowers the designer just to change the text of the template, and design gets adjusted automatically, which is great for infographics. The properties panel has been redesigned to give you more intuitive control over the tools. The Sensei technology integrated into InDesign makes the automatic arrangement and resizing of images. The Creative Cloud Libraries can help you share text, colors, and graphics with other members.

The Adobe Capture extension for InDesign lets you quickly turn photos into design elements that you can use in your InDesign layouts. With the extension, you can capture colors, shapes, and textures from photos and apply them to your designs. Graphic designers can efficiently combine graphics and texts for easier streamlining and optimizations of files. It allows users to add tags to indexes, keywords, anchor text frames, footnotes, table of contents, and captions with hyperlinks. It supports HTML exporting that enables web developers to export clean and simple codes during the implementation of the website’s layout designs.