Want to learn a new design skill or brush up on the skills you have? There are so many places online to find classes and coursework to enhance your creative abilities. One such site is CreativeLive. They have a wide range of design classes ranging from photography to design to managing time and workflow.
Here are 10 awesome and inexpensive classes for you to dive into. (Click on the titles to watch introductory videos.) Check out the complete list of offerings on their site: CreativeLive.
Building Infographics in Illustrator
Class description: Infographics are a powerful way to tell stories and simplify complex information, and Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard software for creating the infographics that stand out from the crowd. Join Jason Hoppe and CreativeLive for an introduction to creating powerful, compelling infographics.This course will give you the skills you need to use Illustrator like a pro – no art skills required. You’ll create icons using Illustrator’s basic shapes, fills, strokes, and textures. You’ll learn how to build a wireframe for your layout, and how to develop that wireframe into a finished infographic. You’ll explore the process of building, editing, and transforming icons and graphics from start to finish. Be experimenting with Adobe Kuler, you’ll learn which colors set the right mood and tone for your infographic. You’ll also explore typography, and learn how to choose easy-to-read fonts and typefaces that make a statement and tie ideas together.
By the end of this course, you’ll know everything there is to know about using Illustrator to create infographics that engage others, share information, and tell stories.
Building a Brand Book: When, How, & Why
Class description: The brand guide is the roadmap for employees and ensures consistency across the company. Josh will help you create a brand book that is comprehensive, actionable, and easy to use in Building a Brand Book: When, Why, & How.
Josh is a veteran branding professional and in this class he’ll show how to create complete brand guidelines and adhere to them.
A Designer’s Intro to HTML & CSS
Class description: Learn to take more control over your web designs by learning a few core concepts in HTML and CSS. With a handful of HTML tags, and some basic CSS properties, you’ll be able to share styles with web developers, and insure the integrity of your design’s translation to the browser.
- What is HTML and CSS, exactly?
- Basic HTML tags and how to write them
- Choosing a text editor for HTML and CSS
- Where can I put my CSS rules?
- Using graphics with HTML using CSS
- Gathering CSS properties from Adobe Photoshop and Bohemian Sketch
- What role does JavaScript plays with HTML and CSS
Intro to After Effects for Designers
Class description: Get to know the 4th member of the core design applications in Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Chances are you know Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. But did you know After Effects supports just as many file formats, provides amazing design and compositing features, and can be used in any print, web, animation, video or photo compositing project?
What you’ll learn:
- Starting a new project from scratch
- How After Effects is similar to Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign
- How the Timeline Panel is similar to Layers
- How the Project Panel is similar to Links
- How the Composition Panel is similar to artboards, or pages
- How to import photos, videos, and artwork into your project
- Applying effects (it’s all about effects!)
- Introduction to animation in the timeline panel
Workflow, Time Management, and Productivity for Creatives
Class description: You have everything you need to create and implement effective, lasting organizational systems, whether you know it or not. As creatives we’re taught to believe this isn’t true.
Do any of these common myths about creatives sound familiar to you?
- Creatives are inherently disorganized
- They’ll never get a handle on their workload.
- They lack the ability to create solid systems for getting things done.
These false ideas keep so many creatives from even trying to seek better workflows and organization systems, and ultimately bars the creative from doing better work. Not only that, believing these negative perceptions leave so many feeling stressed, scattered and unable to fully capitalize on their artistic strengths. It’s time to shatter these myths and learn to create the systems you need to to your best work as a creative.
Fine artist, illustrator and author Lisa Congdon has worked with over 75 clients around the world including MoMA, REI Co-op, Harvard University, Martha Stewart Living, Chronicle Books, and Random House Publishing, among many others. In this class she will teach you how to establish effective, workflows and time management strategies that will to streamline your processes and maximize creative work time. Lisa has spent years developing these systems. The monumental success of her career is proof these systems work. Join us.
In this class you will learn:
- How to organize and implement a workflow system.
- How to manage to-do lists effectively.
- How to utilize time-blocking.
- How to identify and manage the distractions that keep you from being productive.
- And so much more…