Question
I have a quick question that I hope you can answer, or at least provide me some direction. I would like to take an online course that could teach me some design basics. Not necessarily software, but just tips like how to balance elements on a page, what size fonts to use in relation to each other on a page, how to use white space effectively, etc. Do you know of any such online courses?
Answer
My first thought – which I don’t know if they have any specific design basic courses, is Lynda.com. I LOVE Lynda.com. You can learn any software from there and it’s only $25 a month. You can go to their website and search through the courses to see if they have anything that interests you. But, I have used them and their video tutorials are excellent. A great resource to have even if it isn’t a good fit for design basics.
- Here is a design basics course from About.com
- Check your local colleges for online courses
- Youtube: Lots of people make videos on everything. I bet there are some great ones out there.
- Check your local library: I was stunned at how many fantastic books were at our main library about software and design. I believe a lot of libraries are also distributing ebooks now.
If I just search for “basic design principles” in Google, I find some good results. Here are a few that popped out at me:
- http://www.digital-web.com/articles/principles_of_design/
- http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design/tutorials/design/design/
- http://maddisondesigns.com/2009/03/the-5-basic-principles-of-design/
I think if you explore some of these options you will be able to find what you want or at least get a better direction of where to go and what fits you the best.
Good luck!
My personal advice would be to glance at a few things online (About, Lynda, links I found, youtube) and that will give you a bit more focus on what you are looking for if that doesn’t do it for you. Above may be all you feel like you want/need.
Let me know if I can be any more help.
Thanks,
Lena
(:
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Just the information that I was looking for. Thanks for supplying me with these resources.