Course Description

Project Lab is a new series of online courses geared towards helping you build your skills as a graphic designer. These intermediate-level courses offer:

• flexible learning options
• no more than 20 students in a class
• personalized feedback on your work every week
• a digital certificate that demonstrates your accomplishment. 

Read our FAQ to learn more.

Course Description

In this class, you will explore how typography gives form to language. You will practice expressing your point of view while focusing on how your typographic choices respond to variables such as content, audience, context, and format. You’ll examine some useful techniques for analyzing written content to expose or deconstruct its meaning. You will also use different approaches to visual research, sketching, and prototyping, all of which are critical tools for a working designer. Last, you will learn strategies for presenting and contextualizing your work in your portfolio as well as for clients. 

You’ll practice using these skills through a hands-on design project that conveys a written message through two different formats: a small flyer and a large format poster, both designed for and distributed in public space. 

Please note this is a process-intensive course. You will be asked to submit work-in-progress and/or specific assignments every week for feedback from the instructor. Doing so will help you succeed in the course, and it will also make you a better designer. To learn design, you need to make design! Read our Online Course Readiness Guide for more information.

Learner Outcomes

• Apply and evaluate typographic decisions in response to your intended audience, content, context and format.
• Practice techniques for analyzing content to expose its meaning.
• Demonstrate several approaches to sketching and prototyping.
• Design and present polished, professional work for your portfolio or clients.