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Beginner’s Guide to Graphic Design

with Elliot Ulm
4.8 (64)
Have fun creating awesome graphics from scratch in this entertaining, design crash course!
English, Spanish English, Spanish, 4 more French, Italian, German, Portuguese
2+
hours
19
lessons
Beginner
level
Elliot Ulm

Your Instructor

Elliot Ulm is a freelance graphic designer and YouTuber from Australia, with clients like Adobe. He is known for his comedic personality, humorous videos and bold designs.

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2+
hours
19
lessons
Beginner
level
English, Spanish
English, Spanish , 4 more
Subtitles
  • French
  • Italian
  • German
  • Portuguese

What you’ll learn

  • Design your own amazing, attention-grabbing posters
  • Master the basics of Adobe Photoshop, unlocking its essential tools and features
  • Get a solid grasp of key concepts and techniques for professional designs
  • Blend colors and effects seamlessly to quickly create stunning graphics
  • Elevate your poster's professionalism by selecting the perfect font
  • Understand the interplay of composition, colors, and typography, to create a unified piece
  • Unleash the magic of Filters and Blending Modes, to craft jaw-dropping effects
  • Think of design as an art form rather than just a service
  • Discover time-saving hacks to maintain flawless alignment and positioning
  • Level-up your design game by finding inspiration that sparks your creativity
  • Elevate your design with fun extras, like textures and warping for that WOW factor
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Description

Discover how easy and fun graphic design can be, as you follow along with Elliot step by step!

Despite what people may say, designing in Photoshop doesn’t have to be intimidating—if you have the right teacher!

In this engaging course, Elliot will teach you everything you need to know to start out, equipping you with core design skills to fuel your creativity!

You’ll breeze through super easy lessons, each building on another, covering key concepts and techniques that you can put to use immediately on your first poster ever! Exciting!!!

Look forward to mastering Photoshop’s essential tools and functions, working with fonts and colors to create eye-catching designs, grasping the fundamentals of design theory, and discovering Elliot’s best practices. PLUS, you’ll also enjoy fun homework exercises to implement all you’ve learned!

  • If you’re a complete beginner, this course is for you!
  • If you’ve never touched Photoshop in your life, this course is for you!
  • If you don’t know how to draw, this course is for you!

So what are you waiting for? Let’s jump right in!

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Who is this course for

  • Absolute beginners to graphic design
  • Those wanting to express their creativity through graphic design
  • Designers looking to pick up new skills and techniques
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This course includes

  • 2+ Hours of on-demand videos
  • Assignments (PDF)
  • Certificate of Completion
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Used in course

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What you'll need

  • Digital drawing software such as Photoshop or similar (see examplesAffinity Photo, ArtRage, Artweaver, Astropad, Clip Studio Paint, Corel Painter, Krita, Inkscape, IbisPaint, GIMP, Rebelle 4, Photoshop, Paintstorm Studio, Procreate, MediBang Paint, SketchPad, SketchBook, TwistedBrush, Vectr...)
  • No drawing experience needed
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Lesson Plan

with Elliot Ulm
Expand all sections
00

Intro

02:57

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Join this entertaining, learning adventure with Elliot, where he shares the joy of graphic design and gives you a solid foundation to start out in this field.

The aim of this course is to have fun and express yourself creatively while picking up essential tools and nifty skills! Sounds amazing, right?

01

Design Thinking and Getting Started

17:41

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Graphic design isn’t just a service for a client, it can be an avenue to express yourself creatively as well!

Elliot will walk you through the basics in this lesson, including composition, color choice, typography, contrast, and more—essentials for creating eye-catching designs!

You’ll also explore ways to find inspiration and decide on the message you want to communicate. Fun!


1.1
Problem Solving
03:39
1.2
The Basic Elements
06:26
1.3
Finding Inspiration
03:43
1.4
What do You Want to Say?
03:53
02

Using Photoshop

45:59

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The easiest way to learn about Photoshop is to start designing something!

You’ll have a blast with Elliot in a fun warm-up exercise to familiarize yourself with the Photoshop workspace and its user-friendly tools.

He’ll teach you about file setup for both web and print, composition techniques using grids, blending modes, filters and lots more fun stuff!

By the end of this lesson, you’ll have a basic design skill set under your belt! Awesome!


2.1
Starting a New File
05:36
2.2
The Basic Tools
11:04
2.3
Warm-up Design
14:39
2.4
Grids, Rulers and Spacing
03:53
2.5
Blending Modes
04:31
2.6
Filters
06:16
03

Typography, Colors and Gradients

47:42

How to choose fonts and colors for design

Using a good font is the easiest way to make your designs look better.

You’ll explore font sources and what to look for when picking fonts. Also, discover how to use the type tool to perfect your poster’s heading.

Next, dive into the world of color palettes. Elliot will show you how to choose colors that work harmoniously together and use them strategically to create an impressive design that’s easier than it looks! Magic!


3.1
Choosing a Font
07:04
3.2
The Type Tool
16:20
3.3
Choosing a Color Palette
06:15
3.4
Creating a Gradient Orb
18:03
04

Extra Elements and Exporting

21:31

Elliot Ulm teaches graphic design

Get ready to add those final touches to make your poster really pop! You’ll immerse yourself in the world of textures, learning to seamlessly add them into your design and discover cool tricks to fill in any blank spaces.

Elliot will demystify the process of exporting your file, breaking down each step so it’s a breeze. He’ll also give solid advice on how to grow as a designer, sharing insight from his own creative journey.

Come join us and let’s take your graphic design skills to new heights!


4.1
How to Fill Space
06:21
4.2
Using Texture
04:46
4.3
Best Ways to Export
03:40
4.4
Where to Post
06:44

Student Feedback

64 customer reviews & ratings

4.8

Course rating

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5 star
90 %
4 star
7 %
3 star
2 %
2 star
0 %
1 star
4 %
Best Suited for
Beginner
The level is determined by a majority opinion of students who have reviewed this class. The teacher's recommendation is shown until at least 5 student responses are collected.

(Based on 64 reviews)

Most Liked
Engaging Teacher 56
Clarity of Instruction 46
Great step-by-step process 46
Showing 10 reviews of
64
reviews & ratings
LA
Lisa A.

6 months ago

Verified Purchase
Not only is Elliot a cool guy, he's also funny as hell. I didn't think that this course would be for me since my focus is not on graphic design, but I got hooked straight away with Elliot's fun engaging style.
I recommend it for Beginner
1 person found this helpful
LV
Léna V.

6 months ago

Verified Purchase
It was really easy to follow and Elliot is extremely interesting and fun. Great lesson !
I recommend it for All levels
NF
NIKOLETTA F.

6 months ago

Verified Purchase
Amazing and fun teacher! It was great to watch and he expressed his thoughts and instructions clearly!
I recommend it for Beginner
AD
Andrew D.

6 months ago

Verified Purchase
Elliot was a fun and engaging instructor who set a pace that even a rank beginner like me could keep up with.
I recommend it for Beginner
KP
Karyn P.

6 months ago

Verified Purchase
This was an engaging course. I use Procreate so the Photoshop learnings were a bit redundant for me, but in saying that, I could translate a lot of what Elliot was teaching into Procreate. This was a good start to learning poster design and a motivation to continue to learn.
I recommend it for Beginner
LD
Lisa D.

6 months ago

Verified Purchase
Awesome course. Learned a lot
I recommend it for Absolute Beginner
GG
Gabriella G.

6 months ago

Verified Purchase
Inspiring
I recommend it for Intermediate
KG
Kevin G.

6 months ago

Verified Purchase
The course is a refreshing start/reminder of how fun and creative graphic design can be, it's a nice start point for beginners and a breeze of fresh air for intermediate designers.
I recommend it for Absolute Beginner
TB
Tom B.

5 months ago

Verified Purchase
All I want is to learn more with this guy! He really goes step by step, everything is clear, fun and we can feel that he loves what he's doing!
I recommend it for Beginner
NT
NGUYEN T.

5 months ago

Verified Purchase
Eliott's design is really cool and contemporary. I followed him on Youtube and so glad he offers a course here, def bringing values to 21Draw. Most of his lessons I knew already since I had my time playing with Photoshop before but still learnt some new cool tricks and it help refreshed my memory. S
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layy
I recommend it for Absolute Beginner
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About the Instructor

Elliot Ulm
Graphic Designer and YouTuber 1 course

Elliot Ulm is a freelance graphic designer and YouTuber from Australia, with clients like Adobe. He is known for his comedic personality, humorous videos and bold designs.


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