This article will discuss how to learn graphic design for free.

This is not a how-to, but a list of resources which I recommend for learning graphic design in high-quality free online resources.

There are thousands of free resources around the web and some are poorly organized, so it is up to you to be sure that the resource you are going to use is correct and has all the necessary information.

When it comes to free online resources for learning graphic design, don’t forget that graphic design is a field that requires a lot of skills and knowledge and it is important to spend your time on the right resources so that you know what you are doing and what you can do in your work.

You will learn much more by experimenting and failing than by trying to learn it in an academic environment where you won’t be able to experiment with tools and see the impact of your work immediately.

So always be prepared to think outside the box, learn and test your ideas quickly, reuse great concepts from other projects and fail fast!

1. Free web design courses

Pablos Jackson

The first resource I recommend is Pablo Jackson’s website, which contains lots of free graphic design courses (nearly 200 videos and 300+ pages). Pablo also gives lectures online for free and his presentations can be divided into two main categories: creating websites and making infographics.

Pablo’s website is based on the ten steps of visual thinking, a concept related to the creative process and that helps to understand how creativity works and how to be creative. I recommend his courses to students who want to explore the relationship between drawing and visual thinking and designers who want to learn how to design for the web.

The main part of the courses is web design and HTML/CSS, but I find it interesting that you can also learn how to use vector graphics or CSS and get hands-on practice.

SVA

SVA’s free course, The Fundamentals of Graphic Design, covers a broad range of design topics, but I like the following parts of the course the most: the history of graphic design and visual thinking, print design, the medium, forms, and typography. The course has about 18 videos and 50 assignments in addition to an end of semester test.

SVA also offers a free introductory course, Graphic Design 101.

But why should you go to SVA to learn graphic design, you may ask? You may be thinking that SVA is a very prestigious school, but the truth is that SVA is also one of the most expensive schools in the US and it has the lowest admission rate in the country: 5%! So if you are from another country and can’t afford to go to SVA, this free course is a great way to have a glance of what the school is like and perhaps give you an idea of how you can achieve the same results as someone who attended SVA.

Graphic Design School

If you have time, I recommend you to check out Graphic Design School’s online graphic design courses. The course is designed to help students in their design career, giving them a solid foundation.

The courses are available in four different levels: entry level, intermediate, advanced, and master level.

There are a lot of great courses to choose from on Udemy. Below is a list of the top ten online graphic design courses available on Udemy, ranked by the number of views they have on Udemy.

2. Free design resources

At Free-of-charge Web Design Courses, you will find a lot of free resources and resources with a user-friendly interface which makes it easy for you to check what the resource has and what’s the quality of the resource.

The design resources are divided in different sections depending on the graphic design aspect you are interested in learning: typography, photo manipulation, web design, web development, or graphic design as a whole.

I am trying to learn typography (CSS typography, HTML typography, and photos of typography), but I think that there are too many options in this section for me to be able to understand the theme.

At the moment, I am focusing on learning about photography and adding effects to my photos in Photoshop. I hope that the material I have will help me get better at photo manipulation.

Do you want to create a graphic design portfolio?

If you have a graphic design portfolio, then you are a professional and you will get more opportunities to be a designer. But if you don’t have a portfolio, then the only way you can show the people what you are capable of is through a simple test.

There are many tools available online which help you to create a graphic design portfolio.

To make a simple portfolio, you just need to visit the project management service Upwork and create a design project. Upwork is an online project management service that matches you with businesses who are looking for designers.

All you need to do is to choose a graphic design project that will suit your skills and choose a portfolio to showcase your skills. You will get a project with the client’s specs and all you need to do is to design it and upload it online.