The Best Graphic Design Courses for Beginners in 2025

6 Parts Free Graphic Design Bootcamp

This is an awesome beginner-friendly course that teaches design basics without draining your wallet, and I absolutely recommend you start with this one. It was created by expert educators and it covers a broad range of design skills. Best of all, it stays accessible to anyone because it’s 100% free and will always stay that way. The course doesn’t give you a certificate, but it will give you everything you need to start your graphic design career.

What You’ll Learn:

• Introduction to design (6 hours): existing skills, personal goals
• Design principles (10 hours): visual, usability, and ethical principles
• Tools, workflow, and collaboration (8 hours): design software basics, including Figma
• Graphic design basics (15 hours): history of design, basics of typography, color, and layout.
• Applied graphic design (30 hours): applying design principles to branding, editorial, and information design
• Graphic design portfolio briefs (45 hours): designing three independent projects for your design portfolio.

 

Intensive Foundation Course

This course will help you start building real skills with expert guidance from experienced tutors who’ve worked with brands like Dove, Maybelline, and Virgin. The course is self-paced, so you’ve got up to 12 months to finish 11 modules (about 700 hours of learning). By the end, you’ll walk away with a Certificate of Completion and a portfolio.

What You’ll Learn:

• The basics of graphic design
• Typography fundamentals
• Colour theory and creating color palettes
• Advanced typography theory
• The basics of photography 
• Logotype design fundamentals
• Design systems
• Layout design

Web Design Course

Next, we have another self-paced course by The Graphic Design School, this time for web design fundamentals. You’ll cover the key principles of UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) design while learning how to create multi-page websites that work on desktops, tablets, and phones. The course takes around 200 hours to complete, and you have up to six months to finish it. Same as the graphic design course, you’ll get a Certificate of Completion and a portfolio.

What You’ll Learn:

• Introduction to web design
• Visual design elements in the web environment
• Designing information and navigation
• Scoping and project design specification
• Project design prototyping
• Publishing a design online

Graphic Design for Beginners

This course by David Underwood is part of the Effective Communication: Writing, Design, and Presentation Specialization. It’s a beginner-friendly course designed to help you improve your design skills, focusing on creating professional-looking PowerPoints, reports, resumes, and presentations. The course takes about 29 hours to finish, and you can work at your own pace. You’ll learn simple graphic design tips to make your work look polished and confident. The best part is, that you can use tools like PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote to do all the assignments.

What You Will Learn:

• The basics of good design, including key design vocabulary. (3 hours)
• Grids, negative space, and margins, and how to choose the right design elements like type, color, and images. (8 hours)
• Composition and visual design techniques like contrast, repetition, and tension. (10 hours)
• How to take and apply constructive criticism, and the importance of revising your work. (7 hours)

Fundamentals of Graphic Design

This course is also part of the Graphic Design Specialization and is taught by Michael Worthington, who does a great job of breaking down design concepts for beginners. The course is about 15 hours long, and you can learn at your own pace. You’ll get practical exercises and projects to help you apply what you learn.

 

What You Will Learn:

• Imagemaking fundamentals (3 hours)
• Typography fundamentals (3 hours)
• Shape and Color fundamentals (3 hours)
• Composition fundamentals (4 hours)

Introduction to Typography

Anther Kiley is a typography expert who will guide you through the world of fonts and letterforms. It’s a beginner-level course, so no previous experience is needed, and you’ll learn at your own pace. The course is about 8 hours long, broken into four modules, with assignments to help you really dive into the subject. After completing the course, you’ll get a certificate. It’s not about learning software, but you will need access to something like Adobe InDesign to do the assignments.

What You Will Learn:

• The fundamentals of typefaces, including terminology, measurement, and how letterforms shape the meaning of type.(2 hours)
• How different typefaces tell stories and their historical evolution. (1 hour)
• To manipulate letter spacing and use grid systems for effective typesetting. (1 hour)
• How typography can change the meaning of text, and apply what you’ve learned to create a typographic poster. (3 hours)

User Interface Design: Principles, Prototyping, Practices

Karlis Zars and the Starweaver Instructor Team lead a course with a super straightforward and practical approach to UI design. It’s a one-hour course that’s great for beginners and after completing it, you’ll walk away with a solid foundation in UI design principles, prototyping, and how to design accessible and attractive interfaces.

What You Will Learn:

• The basics of what makes a user interface easy to use and visually engaging.
• How to create and test interactive prototypes.
• How to design interfaces that are accessible, intuitive, and visually appealing.

Graphic Design Course

This course gives you everything you need to start creating your own awesome designs. In about 16 weeks, you’ll follow 32 lessons with practical skills, all taught by experts who really know their stuff. And you’ll have a solid grip on Adobe tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, plus a diploma to show for it.

What You’ll Learn:

• Elements and principles of design
• An introduction to Adobe Illustrator and logo design
• Flyer design using Adobe Illustrator
• Photo manipulation in Adobe Photoshop
• Movie poster design in Adobe Photoshop
• An introduction to Adobe InDesign
• Brochure design in InDesign
• Intermediate in Graphic Design Module
• Advanced in Graphic Design Module
• Proficient in Graphic Design Module

UX Design Certificate Course Online

Upskillist also offers a full beginner to intermediate UX design course. It’s an 8-week program that has 16 lessons that teach theory with hands-on practice. The course is taught by experienced UX pros, and it dives deep into research, user flows, and prototyping with tools like Figma. When you’re done, you’ll earn a globally recognized diploma and a portfolio.

What You’ll Learn:

• The core principles of UX design.
• Top theories like Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Principles of UI.
• Understanding UX research and how to analyze user needs.
• Mastering user flows and creating app prototypes step by step using Figma.
• Module 2: Intermediate level in UX Design

Introduction to Adobe Illustrator for Web Designers

Chris Richter created this course to help beginner web developers and online content creators add better graphics to their websites. You’ll get a simple introduction to Adobe Illustrator, learn how to export your designs as SVGs, and see how to embed them in HTML. The course includes two hours of video lessons, five downloadable resources, lifetime access, and a certificate when you finish.

What You’ll Learn:

• Adobe Illustrator basics
• Exporting Illustrator designs into HTML
• Embedding graphics in HTML and enhancing them with CSS
• Designing scalable graphics without complex CSS calculations
• Working with SVG in Adobe Illustrator
• Adding HTML-based graphics to web pages
• Applying CSS classes to your SVG designs
• Creating and embedding scalable visuals for mobile devices

Adobe Illustrator Tutorials: Beginner to Advanced Guide

This course is perfect if you want to build serious Adobe Illustrator skills from scratch within 3.5 hours of video lessons. It covers everything from basic tools and workspace setup to advanced features like scripts and automation. You’ll also get eight downloadable resources, lifetime access, and a certificate of completion.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to navigate Adobe Illustrator’s interface and tools
• How to create and edit vector shapes
• Color theory basics and working with gradients, swatches, and fills
• Tips for precise vector drawing using tools like the Pen and Curvature tool
• How to work with typography, text effects, and custom text outlines
• Advanced tricks to speed up your workflow with scripts and shortcuts
• Using ChatGPT to create detailed line art designs
• Adding filters, effects, and transformations to your artwork
• How to export projects in different formats for web, print, or sharing
• Real-world projects to practice and build your portfolio

Graphic Design Theory – Space

This course is taught by a pro designer who’s been in the game for over 20 years and has worked with big names like Disney, Lego, and even Adobe, where he trained top clients on design workflows. You’ll get 1.5 hours of video lessons, 4 articles, and downloadable resources, all with lifetime access. When you finish, you’ll also get a certificate.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to layer elements to make your design feel less flat
• Adding dimension with vanishing points and scale
• Using negative space
• Proximity and form
• Texture and leading lines

 

The Complete Typographer Part 1 and Part 2

This two-part course brings together some of the biggest names in design to help you master the art of typography. You’ll be learning from legends like Steven Heller, Angela Riechers, Tobias Frere-Jones, and Claudia de Almeida. Part 1 covers the history, theory, and basics of typography, laying a solid foundation. Part 2 builds on that with custom hand lettering, typeface selection, and even the business side of selling fonts. Oh, and yes, you can get a certificate in the end.

What You’ll Learn:

• How typography evolved and why it matters
• Typeface design basics
• Practical ways to use type in different design projects
• The tech behind type and how it’s used today
• Understanding typefaces as more than just letters
• How to mix and match typefaces in your designs
• Custom hand lettering with Yomar Augusto
• How to price, license, and protect your fonts

Introduction to Motion Design

This course is a perfect starting point for learning motion design. It’s taught by Allen Harrison, an experienced graphic designer and educator who has been working with big names like National Geographic and Oracle, so you know you’re learning from someone with real-world knowledge. The course covers how to use animation, timing, and transformation to communicate your ideas. You’ll get hands-on experience with Adobe After Effects and Photoshop.

What You’ll Learn:

• How time-based media works in design
• The basics of animation and timing
• How to use Adobe After Effects and Photoshop for motion design
• Simple techniques for transforming and animating elements

Graphic Design History and Methods

This two-part course is taught by Brockett Horne and Ellen Lupton, both experienced graphic design teachers at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). They’ll walk you through important aspects of graphic design, its history, and the methods designers use today. You’ll get a certificate once you finish.

What You’ll Learn:

• Overview of graphic design history.
• Key design movements like Art Nouveau, Constructivism, Dada, and Bauhaus
• How fonts, posters, branding, and propaganda came to be
• Short quizzes and exercises to help you apply what you’ve learned
• The design process: storytelling, design thinking, and more
• How authorship, ownership, and identity play into design
• Multisensory design and understanding user behavior
• Practical exercises and creative challenges to practice new methods

How to design a logo in Illustrator 

In this course, Daniel White shows you how to design a logo using Adobe Illustrator. It’s a short, hands-on course where you’ll work through the logo design process, using a logo he created for a fictional coffee brand, Luke’s Iced Coffee, as an example. There’s no certificate, but you’ll get plenty of practical knowledge you can use right away.

What You’ll Learn:

• The steps to take when designing a logo
• How to understand and get started with a design brief
• The foundations of creating a strong design
• Picking the right fonts and using them in your logos
• How to choose colors that work for your logo
• A step-by-step guide to creating your logo in Illustrator
• How to handle text in your logo designs

How to design social media templates in Figma

Adi Purdila teaches you how to design social media templates using Figma. You’ll get the hang of creating templates for Facebook posts, Instagram stories, and carousels. The course is hands-on, so you’ll be working on real-life projects while learning. It’s short but packed with helpful tips. No official certificate, but the skills you pick up will be solid and practical.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why Figma works well for social media
• Key design principles for designing templates that stand out
• Getting the right sizes for each social platform
• Walk through designing a FB post template
• Learn how to create an Instagram story template
• Work on creating a smooth carousel post

The Principles of Motion Design

Jess Riley walks you through the basics of motion design, breaking down graphic design and animation principles in an easy-to-understand way. The course is short but packed with helpful info, and you’ll even get downloadable project files to practice as you go. No certificate, but plenty of practical skills to pick up.

What You’ll Learn:

• Creating flow and consistency with repetition
• Basic animation principles for motion design
• How to time animations just right
• Making movement smooth with easing
• How to build anticipation in animations
• Adding follow-through to make animations feel more natural
• Using secondary animation to bring designs to life
• Styling techniques to make animations look great
• Mastering the rules of design so you can break them confidently

Text Animation in After Effects | Motion Design Tutorial

Jess Riley breaks down how to animate text in After Effects step by step. The course dives into different techniques for creating cool text animations, and you’ll learn everything you need to get started, from basic movement to advanced effects. It’s short and sweet but packed with useful tips. You won’t get a certificate, but you will get a ton of skills to apply to your own projects.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to create shapes from text in After Effects
• Moving anchor points using the Pan Behind tool
• How to work with null layers for control
• Adding global movement to your animation
• How to use easing and the graph editor
• Timing your animation to feel natural
• Creating loops for smooth animations
• Animating text paths like a pro
• Adding randomness and offset with keyframes
• Creating shadow effects for depth

Graphic Design Basics

Laura Keung teaches you the basics of graphic design. The course covers all the essentials, like design theory, color, typography, and more. You’ll get practical insights and a strong foundation to help you start creating better designs.

What You’ll Learn:

• The history of graphic design
• Key design principles like balance and contrast
• Basics of typography and how to pick the right fonts
• How design theory works in real-world examples
• Print design fundamentals
• Digital product design basics
• Brand design essentials
• How to work with color and design assets
• The role of technology and AI in design

The Basics of Print Design

Laura Keung’s course lasts around 1.2 hours, and while you won’t get a certificate, you’ll walk away knowing all the basics. You’ll compare Adobe InDesign and Affinity Publisher, so you can choose the software that works best for your projects.

What You’ll Learn:

• Setting up your workspace for print design
• Structuring your documents for print projects
• Choosing a color palette for print designs
• Typography tips to improve your designs
• Importing images for print and getting them right
• Creating impact in your designs
• Preparing your files for printing
• Exporting files correctly for print

Figma UI UX Design Essentials

Daniel Scott, an Adobe Certified Trainer, leads this course for beginners who are new to UX design and Figma. Dan walks you through every step of the way, starting from the basics, and keeps things simple and clear. The course doesn’t offer a certificate, but you’ll finish feeling confident and ready to design.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to create and use UX personas
• How to build wireframes
• Proper ways to use colors and images in your designs
• How to pick fonts for web and mobile apps
• Designing your own UI components like buttons and icons
• Understanding Components, Constraints, and Multi-Dimensional Variants
• Speeding up your workflow with free UI kits and plugins
• How to create a style guide for client handoff
• Making simple and advanced micro-interactions, page transitions, and animations

Adobe Illustrator CC – Essentials Training

Dan Scott, an Adobe Certified Professional and MAX Master Award winner is your guide through this fun and practical course. This course is perfect if you’re just starting out with Adobe Illustrator and want to create beautiful designs. Dan makes learning easy and hands-on, so you can start designing icons, logos, and illustrations right away. The course doesn’t offer a certificate, but you’ll gain tons of skills to build your design portfolio and feel confident with Illustrator.

What You’ll Learn:

• Drawing with shapes and lines, plus using the Shape Builder tool
• Creating custom logos, advanced graphics, and mastering brushes
• Working with typography, fonts, and vectorizing text
• Using the pen, pencil, and curvature tools like a pro
• Masking, warping, bending, and liquefying illustrations
• Crafting repeating patterns and creating stencil-style images
• Exporting for print, web, and social media

Logo Design: How to Create a Unique & Memorable Wordmark

This course is led by Khadija El Sharawy, a freelance graphic designer and storyteller who specializes in branding and packaging. Khadija walks you through her entire process for crafting wordmark logos that stand out. It’s a short and engaging class with practical advice.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to understand a creative brief and break down a brand name
• The importance of building a visual moodboard to reflect the brand concept
• How to choose the right fonts and narrow them down for your logo
• Manipulating fonts in Illustrator to create a unique wordmark
• Picking a color palette that fits the brand’s story and vibe
• Adding final touches to make your wordmark look professional

The Branding Masterclass for Graphic Designers: The Entire Process

Lindsay Marsh, who’s taught design to over 500,000 students, leads this detailed course on branding. It covers every part of the branding process, with brainstorming ideas to presenting a polished brand to clients. The course has practical lessons, templates, and a 50-page brand design guide to help you build stronger projects and portfolios.

What You’ll Learn:

• Understand client briefs, ask the right questions and research competitors
• Create customer personas and brainstorm ideas using word maps and associations
• Sketch, refine, and finalize logo concepts using grids and design systems
• Apply brand systems to real-world projects and create professional client presentations
• Build Behance portfolio case studies and brand guideline manuals
• Use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop project templates for presentations and portfolios

Graphic Design Theory – Psychology of Design

Martin Perhiniak is an experienced designer, illustrator, and educator. His course will teach you how psychology plays into design, with 20 years of professional experience and over 100,000 students worldwide. He breaks down complex design ideas into fun, easy-to-understand lessons.

What You’ll Learn:

• The universal laws of visual communication
• Applying Gestalt principles like closure, continuity, similarity, and simplicity
• Creating visuals that guide how viewers interpret information
• Spotting design flaws and brilliance
• Making faster, more confident design decisions using psychology

Learning Graphic Design: Things Every Designer Should Know

This course is taught by John McWade, a graphic designer who founded Before & After magazine. The lessons cover 1 hour and 5 minutes of quick, practical tips, and when you finish, you’ll get a certificate that can go on your LinkedIn profile or be saved as a PDF.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to create a visual hierarchy
• Tricks to make any layout look more polished
• Ways to improve designs with simple adjustments
• How to use spacing and alignment effectively
• Tips for making text easier to read and more appealing
• Common design mistakes and how to avoid them

Learning Graphic Design: Layouts

John McWade, a graphic designer with decades of experience, teaches this 1-hour and 2-minute beginner-friendly course. If you’ve ever struggled with making a layout feel balanced or engaging, this course breaks it down in a way that’s easy to follow. Once you finish, you’ll earn a certificate that you can display on your LinkedIn profile or download as a PDF.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to design clean, balanced layouts
• How to use white space effectively
• Ways to create a structure using grids
• How to combine images, text, and graphics seamlessly
• Why visual flow matters and how to guide the viewer’s eye
• Real-world layout techniques through two start-to-finish projects

Introduction to Graphic Design: Concepts

This course, led by Tony Harmer—a designer, illustrator, and educator—covers the basics of graphic design in a super approachable way. The course runs just over an hour (1h 3m) and is perfect if you’re starting from scratch or want a clearer picture of design fundamentals. You’ll pick up the key concepts used by designers and learn how to apply them to real projects.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to navigate the four stages of the creative process
• Key typography terms, type classifications, and basic measurements
• How to create pleasing color combinations
• Ways to use color to convey information and accommodate color vision deficiency (CVD)
• How images, illustrations, and AI-generated visuals can enhance designs
• Practical tips for creating effective graphic design layouts
• Creative exercises to keep your design ideas fresh

Graphic Design Certificate by Noble Desktop

This course is for anyone who wants to become a professional graphic designer. You’ll learn directly from industry experts in small classes, either online or in NYC. The program runs for 84 hours and is split into five main modules, with hands-on projects that help you build a portfolio. You’ll also get extra mentoring, workbooks, and a digital certificate when you finish.

What You’ll Learn:

• To work with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.
• How to retouch photos, create vector graphics, and design layouts for both print and digital use.
• The basics of color theory, typography, composition, and design principles.
• Creating balanced, professional designs that stand out.
• Working on real-world projects like designing logos, packaging, and promotional materials.
• Adding variety to your portfolio and showing potential employers your design skills.
• Creating polished designs that meet professional standards.