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Visual Design: The Ultimate Guide

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How This Course Will Help Your Career

What You’ll Learn

  • What good design is and how to create it

  • How to effectively use visual design elements and principles in your work

  • What color theory is and how to use it effectively

  • How to confidently use color to improve your work

  • The importance of type and the power of visual inflection

  • How to design with type and create effective communication

  • The importance of grid systems and how they provide order to our everyday lives

  • How to use grid systems to improve your work

In this course, you will gain a holistic understanding of visual design and increase your knowledge of visual principles, color theory, typography, grid systems and history. You’ll also learn why visual design is so important, how history influences the present, and practical applications to improve your own work. These insights will help you to achieve the best possible user experience.

In the first lesson, you’ll learn the difference between visual design elements and visual design principles. You’ll also learn how to effectively use visual design elements and principles by deconstructing several well-known designs. 

In the second lesson, you’ll learn about the science and importance of color. You’ll gain a better understanding of color modes, color schemes and color systems. You’ll also learn how to confidently use color by understanding its cultural symbolism and context of use. 

In the third lesson, you’ll learn best practices for designing with type and how to effectively use type for communication. We’ll provide you with a basic understanding of the anatomy of type, type classifications, type styles and typographic terms. You’ll also learn practical tips for selecting a typeface, when to mix typefaces and how to talk type with fellow designers. 

In the final lesson, you’ll learn about grid systems and their importance in providing structure within design. You’ll also learn about the types of grid systems and how to effectively use grids to improve your work.

You’ll be taught by some of the world’s leading experts. The experts we’ve handpicked for you are the Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design Emeritus at RIT R. Roger Remington, author of “American Modernism: Graphic Design, 1920 to 1960”; Co-founder of The Book Doctors Arielle Eckstut and leading color consultant Joann Eckstut, co-authors of “What Is Color?” and “The Secret Language of Color”; Award-winning designer and educator Mia Cinelli, TEDx speaker of “The Power of Typography”; Betty Cooke and William O. Steinmetz Design Chair at MICA Ellen Lupton, author of “Thinking with Type”; Chair of the Graphic + Interactive communication department at the Ringling School of Art and Design Kimberly Elam, author of "Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type.”

Throughout the course, we’ll supply you with lots of templates and step-by-step guides so you can go right out and use what you learn in your everyday practice.

In the “Build Your Portfolio Project: Redesign,” you’ll find a series of fun exercises that build upon one another and cover the visual design topics discussed. If you want to complete these optional exercises, you will get hands-on experience with the methods you learn and in the process you’ll create a case study for your portfolio which you can show your future employer or freelance customers.

You can also learn with your fellow course-takers and use the discussion forums to get feedback and inspire other people who are learning alongside you. You and your fellow course-takers have a huge knowledge and experience base between you, so we think you should take advantage of it whenever possible.

You earn a verifiable and industry-trusted Course Certificate once you’ve completed the course. You can highlight it on your resume, your LinkedIn profile or your website.

Gain an Industry-Recognized UX Course Certificate

Use your industry-recognized Course Certificate on your resume, CV, LinkedIn profile or your website.

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Our courses and Course Certificates are trusted by these industry leaders:

Our clients: IBM, HP, Adobe, GE, Accenture, Allianz, Phillips, Deezer, Capgemin, Mcafee, SAP, Telenor, Cigna, British Parliament, State of New York

Is This Course Right for You?

This is a beginner-level course suitable for anyone who wants to understand the foundations of visual design and improve the quality of their work. This course is particularly valuable for:

  • UX designers, UI designers, visual designers and graphic designers looking to increase their visual design knowledge and gain practical skills to improve their work.

  • Junior designers who want to progress faster in their career by enhancing their visual design skills.

  • Students keen to understand the importance of visual design, learn its history and integrate foundational principles into their work.

  • Anyone who is interested in visual design principles that can be applied to all types of products. 

Learn and Work with a Global Community of Designers

When you take part in this course, you’ll join a global community and work together to improve your skills and career opportunities. Connect with helpful peers and make friends with like-minded individuals as you push deeper into the exciting and booming industry of creativity and design. You will have the opportunity to share ideas, learn from your fellow course participants and enjoy the social aspects afforded by our open and friendly forum.

Course Overview: What You'll Master

  • Each week, one lesson becomes available.
  • There's no time limit to finish a course. Lessons have no deadlines.
  • Estimated learning time: 17 hours 34 mins spread over 7 weeks .

Lesson 0: Welcome and Introduction

Available once you start the course. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 5 mins.

Lesson 1: Visual Principles

Available once you start the course. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 56 mins.

Lesson 2: Color Theory

Available anytime after Apr 24, 2025. Estimated time to complete: 5 hours 1 min.

Lesson 3: Typography

Available anytime after May 01, 2025. Estimated time to complete: 4 hours 13 mins.

Lesson 4: Grid Systems

Available anytime after May 08, 2025. Estimated time to complete: 4 hours 19 mins.

Lesson 5: Course Certificate, Final Networking, and Course Wrap-up

Available anytime after May 15, 2025.

How Others Have Benefited

Denice Zhu

Denice Zhu, United States

“The course was helpful in setting a foundation and providing opportunities for hands-on practice.”

Rakshith

Rakshith, India

“Easy to understand for a person who has zero knowledge about design.”

Vince Mendella

Vince Mendella, Canada

“The knowledge of the instructors and the content were superb. I learned a lot, and it built on what I learned over 30 years ago in design school.”

See other reviews

How It Works

  1. Take online courses by industry experts

    Lessons are self-paced so you'll never be late for class or miss a deadline.

  2. Get a Course Certificate

    Your answers are graded by experts, not machines. Get an industry-recognized Course Certificate to prove your skills.

  3. Advance your career

    Use your new skills in your existing job or to get a new job in UX design. Get help from our community.

Start Advancing Your Career Now

Join us to take “Visual Design: The Ultimate Guide”. Take other courses at no additional cost. Make a concrete step forward in your career path today.

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Visual Design: The Ultimate Guide
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Visual Design: The Ultimate Guide

2.2 - What is Color?

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  1. 00:00:00 --> 00:00:33

    Hi. My name is Arielle Eckstut, and I am  the author of What Is Color? 50 Questions and Answers on the Science of Color. Color is an incredibly difficult subject, one that encompasses all kinds of categories of science and history and culture – you name it.

  2. 00:00:33 --> 00:01:04

    But today in about five minutes I'm going to try to answer this question: What is color? And I'm going to do that by starting with yet another question. In the fall, do the leaves change color if no one is there to see them? Take a moment to think about that: Do the leaves change color if no one is there to see them? Now, the *obvious answer* to this question is "Of course they change color

  3. 00:01:04 --> 00:01:37

    because the color of the leaves are  inherent to the leaves themselves." But in fact, that is not true at all, and the answer is a resounding *no*. If there is not a living being with a brain  observing those leaves, the leaves do not change color. And the reason for this is that there's no such thing as color without the *eyes* and the *brain*.

  4. 00:01:37 --> 00:02:02

    So, different brains process visual information differently. And I realized that this idea that color does not exist outside of our perception can be very difficult to swallow. And in fact, our brains go to great lengths to give us all of the colors that we see.

  5. 00:02:02 --> 00:02:36

    The source of our color vision is in our *retina*, a credit-card-thin sheet of neurons in the back of our eyeballs. And it's actually a part of our brain, our retina. It's the only part of our brain that exists outside of our skulls. And our retina is what we typically associate with sight in general. If I were to ask you, "Why do we have eyes?" most people would say, "So we can see."

  6. 00:02:36 --> 00:03:03

    But that was actually not the original purpose of  our eyes and our retina. The original purpose was to tell us when to be awake and when to be asleep. So, our eyes sensed when it was light out and when it was dark out, and "when" is the most important word here because our eyes, our retinas have three different systems:

  7. 00:03:03 --> 00:03:32

    the *when system* being the most primitive and the first use of our eyes. The next system is the *where system*, and that  tells us where we are situated in the world. Are we right at the edge of a cliff? Are we too close to a potential predator? Or are we too far to reach a berry that is  ripe that we would like to eat?

  8. 00:03:32 --> 00:04:00

    Lastly, we get to our *what system* – the system that designers deal with on a daily basis but the one that is actually *least important* to our visual system. The what system is the system that we use when we are *focusing on something*, whether that be a computer screen or a phone or a face or a road sign. It's also the system that we use to see color.

  9. 00:04:00 --> 00:04:30

    Color scientist Mark Rea has a great quote that I adore: "Color is a pigment of our imagination." And that really is true. Our imagination plays such a big role when it comes to color. And our brains are constantly taking in information from the outside world to help inform us about what time of day it is, where we are in the world, what we're looking at,

  10. 00:04:30 --> 00:04:36

    which really gets us to the next question,  which is: Why do we see color to begin with?

Visual Design: The Ultimate Guide

2.7 - Why Do Colors Change?

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  1. 00:00:00 --> 00:00:31

    Let me introduce myself; my name is Joann Eckstut. I am the co-author of *What Is Color? 50 Questions and Answers on the Science of Color*. When I'm not writing, I spend my time working as an interior designer. Today, I would like to discuss with you the transitory nature of color.

  2. 00:00:31 --> 00:01:06

    There are four primary ways in which colors appear to change or shift. Number 1: Daylight is constantly changing. So, the colors we see change constantly as well. Number 2: Changing a light source changes what colors we see. Number 3: Colors appear to change depending on what colors surround them. And Number 4: Colors that appear to match in one setting do not match in another.

  3. 00:01:06 --> 00:01:32

    Let's start with number one. Daylight is constantly changing. So, the colors we see change constantly as well. Although we don't necessarily realize it, millions of changes in light happen all throughout the day. Here, it's beautifully illustrated in this time-lapse image of the Statue of Liberty, which takes place just as the Sun sets.

  4. 00:01:32 --> 00:02:02

    You can see that even in this short period of time there are myriad changes. We could be overwhelmed by this information about constantly changing light, but our brains help us to hold steady. So, for example, when viewing the red house in this illustration, the human brain has no difficulty in seeing it as entirely one red, even though the side in the Sun looks coral and the side in the shade looks maroon.

  5. 00:02:02 --> 00:02:31

    When you isolate the colors and place them side by side, as in the two swatches here, the coral and the maroon tell a different story. Number 2: Changing a light source changes the colors we see. When we change the light source illuminating a space, the elements in the space reflect *different* wavelengths of light, causing the space and the objects in it to change their color appearance.

  6. 00:02:31 --> 00:03:03

    For example, daylight emits light evenly across the spectrum, so no particular color is emphasized, while incandescent light emphasizes reds, oranges and yellows, so objects lit in this way emphasize those tones. Fluorescents have an uneven pattern of emissions, giving objects a green or a yellow-green kind of a cast; whereas LEDs are weak in violet, blue-violet and red areas,

  7. 00:03:03 --> 00:03:32

    but peak in the orange, yellow and green range. In the example that we see here, the pencils on the left, lit in incandescent light, show the red as enhanced and the natural wood as pinker. The penicils in the middle, that are lit with LEDs, slightly neutralize all the colored pencils and the wood appears beige. The pencils on the right, that are lit with fluorescent lights,

  8. 00:03:32 --> 00:04:01

    are more muted generally and the natural wood appears a light brown. So, the source of the light determines the way colors are perceived. Number 3: Colors appear to change depending on what colors surround them. This phenomenon is known as *simultaneous contrast*. Simultaneous contrast reveals something of utmost importance: Color is not a fixed entity.

  9. 00:04:01 --> 00:04:33

    Color isn't constructed solely via particular wavelengths of light, but by a larger visual field. Simultaneous contrast can make a color look more saturated, duller, darker, lighter, or some combination thereof, depending on what color it sits next to. In the example seen here, all of the X's are printed in the same color, although they appear to change color as they are paired with different backgrounds.

  10. 00:04:33 --> 00:05:05

    In the second example, the turquoise-blue in the circle on the left and the bright lime-green in the circle on the right are actually the *same color*. I know this seems impossible at first glance, but I assure you this is true. They *appear* to be completely distinct colors only because the colors they sit next to are different. Number 4: Colors that appear to match in one setting do not in another.

  11. 00:05:05 --> 00:05:32

    Two materials can appear to be the same matching color under particular lighting, but no longer match when moved to a different light source. This called *metamerism*. For example, a blue carpet and a blue fabric swatch, as seen in this illustration, may look the same when observed in a showroom that is lit with bulbs that are close to daylight in temperature.

  12. 00:05:32 --> 00:06:05

    *However*, inside a room lit with *incandescent* bulbs, that reflect more red, the carpet may appear to have a more purple cast and no longer match the upholstery fabric as it did in the showroom. This is the bane of every designer's existence: color appearing one way in the showroom, another in the interior where it's going to be used. So, beware! This is due to the different molecular properties of the dyes – say, a vat dye versus a pigment dye –

  13. 00:06:05 --> 00:06:20

    and the different molecular properties of the fibers – say, a wool versus a nylon. So, now that you are aware of how ephemeral color can be, you will be prepared to work with it.

Visual Design: The Ultimate Guide

3.2 - What is Type?

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  1. 00:00:00 --> 00:00:31

    My name is Mia Cinelli, and I'm an Assistant Professor of Art Studio and Digital Design at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. I teach in the School of Art and Visual Studies, in the College of Fine Arts, and I teach courses in graphic design and typography, which is really exciting! So, I have a background in graphic design, in typography and in kind of multi-disciplinary design.

  2. 00:00:31 --> 00:01:03

    So, I have a practice that is typographic in nature, but not exclusively. So, my work is conceptual products and sculpture and installation and very strange things. And so, I think of myself truly as a designer of experiences and interactions. And how those experiences and interactions come to be really varies. So, that's a little bit about me and my practice. The difference between a font and a typeface is that one makes up the other.

  3. 00:01:03 --> 00:01:31

    So, a typeface is composed of fonts in the same way that an album is composed of tracks or a book is composed of chapters. And so, the font is really the *delivery mechanism*. So, you *choose* a typeface. You *use* a font. And so, we might say Georgia is our typeface – designed by Matthew Carter – but say Georgia Bold, Georgia Italic – those are going to be our fonts; that's what we're choosing, and that's what we're using.

  4. 00:01:31 --> 00:02:04

    So, a font family would be, or a typeface family refers to a series of weights or variations on a typeface that all live within the same stylistic or aesthetic kind of realm. So, we might think about something like Futura, for instance. There are many weights and varieties of Futura – there's a whole bunch of them. But we all know them as Futura. They all have similar qualities; they all belong together; we all know  them as existing within that particular family.

  5. 00:02:04 --> 00:02:33

    And so, that's the way we know what a  font family or a typeface family is. A serif typeface has little flanges or feet. And a sans serif does not, so something like Futura or Helvetica is a sans serif. We also have things like script typefaces, which mimic cursive. So, script typefaces exist with these really lovely tails, say, at the end so that they create the illusion of cursive when they live together on a page

  6. 00:02:33 --> 00:02:42

    or on-screen — they all visually connect as one word or phrase. And so, those are kind of the big three  that I would use to categorize typefaces.
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Copyright holder: Mia Cinelli

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