20 Awesome Online Courses for Creatives

Today we're celebrating National #OnlineLearningDay, so in honor of that I thought I'd share with you 20 online courses geared specifically towards creative professionals. I realize how difficult it can be to pick a course, there are literally thousands to choose from, and oftentimes it's hard to know where to start. Hopefully this list helps you and sparks your lust for knowledge even more!

1. Introduction to Graphic Design

What does it take to be a graphic designer? Design is a complex art that involves many different skills and tools, but by breaking down the core topics and software, Justin Seeley shows how you can get your start in the design world. First, he covers theory, including high-level concepts like layout, typography, and color. Then it's your chance to get hands-on, using Illustrator to build a custom logo from scratch and practice your vector-drawing techniques. Next, Justin takes you into Photoshop, where he shows you how to creatively adjust, repair, and retouch the kinds of images you'll use in design projects. Last, he visits InDesign for an overview of the layout and print preparation processes. By the end, you'll have a better grasp of what graphic designers do and what you'll need to learn next. It's a great jumping off point for any graphic design career.

2. Illustrator CC Essential Training

Illustrator is an unparalleled tool for digital artists, and Adobe takes it to new heights with Creative Cloud. This course helps put Illustrator's power and flexibility at your disposal, offering a tip-to-tail overview of the program, from installation to exporting final artwork. Staff author Justin Seeley explains how to work with layers and artboards—the dual core of Illustrator's nondestructive workflow—and start drawing and transforming basic objects. He also shows how to create fills and strokes, add color, work with live effects, and integrate typography into your designs. At the end of the course, he'll show you how to print and export artwork, so you can share it with the world. Start here for everything you need to know to design, draw, and illustrate with Illustrator.

3. Photoshop CC Essential Training

Julieanne Kost filters out the noise and complexity often associated with Photoshop, so you'll feel empowered to get the image results you want. She concentrates on enhancing and compositing photos, as well as automating parts of the process for the most efficient workflow possible. She'll cover cropping, retouching, and combining multiple images, and working with non-image-based assets such as type, shapes, and even video. Along the way, you'll learn the secrets of nondestructive editing with Camera Raw, layers, masks, blending modes, Smart Objects, filters, and more. Start watching to quickly get the professional results you're looking for with Photoshop.

4. InDesign CC Essential Training

InDesign is an essential tool for designers, ad agencies, magazines, newspapers, book publishers, and freelancers around the world. It's used to build everything from traditional print publications to interactive PDFs, digital magazines, and ebooks. This course presents a thorough explanation of the core features and techniques that make this page layout application so powerful, fun, and easy to use.

5. Illustrator CC 2015 One-On-One Fundamentals

Want to master the most powerful vector-based drawing program on the planet? It starts with getting the most comprehensive training available. With all-new movies and all-new exercise files, Illustrator CC 2015 One-on-One: Fundamentals is the first in a series of three courses by industry pro Deke McClelland. With these tutorials, you'll be able to create amazing works of art and design. You'll get exactly what you need to know, in the order you need to know it, whenever it's most convenient for you to learn.

6. Universal Principles of Design

Design is full of unspoken rules and obscure theories that, when applied, can dramatically improve one's own design. For the first time, we are documenting them all in one place. Universal Principles of Design, based on William Lidwell's award-wining books, illustrates one design principle every other week, ranging from the tried and true (the 80/20 rule) to concepts that you may not have ever heard in a design context (Ockham's razor or crowd intelligence.) These principles are critical to successful design—no matter what the discipline. Anyone who creates, designs, engineers, or illustrates will learn invaluable lessons that will take their work to the next level.

7. Drawing Vector Graphics Laboratory

Sometimes you need to experiment to grow as an artist. What better place to try out new design ideas than the Drawing Vector Graphics Laboratory? Every Wednesday, Von Glitschka introduces a new method, tool, or resource to stretch your creative muscle and explore a new artistic style. Each lesson pulls back the curtain on Von's design process—the good, the bad, and the ugly—to give beginners the self-confidence they need to start drawing and provide experts an inside look at a fellow professional's workflow.

8. Deke's Techniques

This course is a collection of short Photoshop and Illustrator projects and creative effects that can be completed in ten minutes or less. The series is taught by computer graphics guru Deke McClelland, and presented in his signature step-by-step style. The intent is to reveal how various Photoshop and Illustrator features can be combined and leveraged in real-world examples so that they can be applied to creative projects right away.

9. Learn Sketch: Creating Vector Graphics

Sketch makes vector design easy—especially for UX designers who aren't natural illustrators. Dive into Sketch for Mac and learn how to wrangle vector linework, fills and effects, and Bezier curves like a pro. Discover how to edit the different types of Bezier points and curves, and create simple and complex shapes with ease using the Boolean operations. Learn to recreate imagery in vector form, and use layers and symbols to simplify your vector art. Author John-Paul Ballard also shows how to export artwork from Sketch in a variety of formats, including JPG, PDF, and SVG. Challenges issued along the way help you practice creating common UX interface elements, such as toolbars and navigation icons.

10. Graphic Design: Insight and Advice

Get insights, advice, and inspiration from a master designer. John McWade offers advice on general but key topics for new designers just starting out: choosing the right typeface, finding inspiration, setting up a color palette, keeping your work fresh, knowing when a design is not working, and more. We also get a peek into how he got his start, which is an interesting look at the birth of desktop publishing.

11. Graphic Design Tips and Tricks

John McWade, founder of Before & After and now senior staff author at lynda.com, presents a biweekly series that touches on all areas of design, helping designers new and old sharpen their skills and create more powerful work. This series covers a wide range of topics, from typography and layout to color and logo design, but each episode is a standalone technique that can be completed in just ten minutes or less. Tune in every other Monday for a new tip.

12. Foundations of Logo Design

Avoid pitfalls, improve your design process, respond to demanding clients, and solve the creative problems that are involved in creating a logo. In this course, Von Glitschka shows you how to take care of the nitty-gritty, like quotes and contracts, and critical design decisions involved in building a brand identity package. Learn to define your client's expectations before the project begins with customer briefs and mood boards. Find out what the attributes of a great logo are, where to look for inspiration, and how to use sketches to propel you through the design process. Then Von turns to the business side and explains how to present your designs to clients and follow up on both positive and negative feedback. Finally, learn how to launch the logo and develop a narrative that will keep the visual style of the brand intact in the future.

13. The Value of Professional Graphic Design

There are no shortcuts for professional graphic design. Whether it's a logo, business card, or website, bad design drives away business. But clients often wonder if finding and hiring a professional is worth the effort. Meanwhile, designers struggle to articulate their value to clients who are tempted to DIY.

Sean Adams champions design internationally on behalf of his work with AIGA. Here he breaks down the walls between designers and clients so they can have a more collaborative and successful experience. There are whys and hows, dos and don'ts, and simple strategies for finding good partnerships, cooperating on designs, and negotiating fees, from both sides of the table. Plus, learn ways to gauge the return on investment and provide proof the design is working.

14. Adobe Mobile Apps for Designers

Why are designers excited about Adobe mobile apps? Six of the apps (Adobe Draw, Sketch, Fix and Mix, Comp, and Capture CC) cater directly to the graphic arts market. They put both new and familiar tools within easy reach on your iPad or Android tablet, and they're included with any subscription to Creative Cloud. Find out how these new tools can unlock your creativity—wherever it takes you. In this short course, staff author Justin Seeley shows how to set up and sign in to Adobe's mobile platform and gives you a tour of each app. Plus, learn how to send your work back to the desktop to finesse it with Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.

15. InDesign Secrets

In this series, David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepción, co-hosts of the web's top resource for InDesign tips and tricks, InDesignSecrets.com, share some hidden and sometimes surprising workflow tips that will make working in InDesign more efficient and more fun. The course covers built-in timesaving features such as Quick Apply and auto-expanding text, but also little-known tricks, such as using the eyedropper to copy and paste character and paragraph text attributes and making accurate selections by selecting through or even into objects.

16. Pixel Playground

Take a 10-minute recess every week and join Bert Monroy in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, the playgrounds of digital artists. Every Friday Bert walks through a fun, self-contained project that tests your skills and challenges the imagination. These programs aren't just image editors; they are sandboxes for creativity and experimentation. Take a spin through a carousel of tools and get reinspired, each and every week.

17. Affinity Designer Essential Training

Looking for a compelling alternative to Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW? Affinity Designer is a powerful and affordable vector-design application mixed with pixel-based texture and retouching tools—all in one easy-to-use interface. It was created with the professional-level features that any artist, designer, or illustrator needs to execute high-quality results.

Here Ronnie McBride introduces new students to the workflows and tools required to get them up to speed with this fast, powerful, and professional application. He shows how to work with Affinity Designer's workspaces, called personas; use the drawing tools; and create custom brushes. After completing this course, students will feel more confident and proficient at using Affinity Designer in their own work.

18. Foundations of Layout and Composition

Layout and composition are the building blocks of graphic design. A strong composition will attract attention, clarify understanding, and engage the viewer whether the project is a print- or screen-based project, a still or motion graphic, a 3D or 2D graphic. This course explains the elements, principles, and tools you will need to create a successful composition and layout. Author Sean Adams explains the elements of layout (from shapes to space), how to use principles such as scale and hierarchy, and teaches how tools like grids, proportions, and color can lead to more compelling compositions.

19. Foundations of Typography

Good typography can add tremendous power to your design and your message, whether it is a print- or screen-based project, a still or motion graphic, a 3D or 2D graphic. This course explains good typographic practices, so that you can develop an "eye" for type and understand how to effectively use it. Author Ina Saltz explains type classifications (serif vs. sans serif, display type vs. text type), how type is measured, sized, and organized, and how spacing and alignment affect your design. She also explains how to use kerning, tracking, leading, and line length, and covers the history and current trends in typography. The course teaches the principles of legibility, readability, and compatibility, and how they should be considered when you're selecting and designing with type.

20. Color for Design and Art

Color for Design and Art removes the mystery from color theory, showing artists and nonartists alike how to confidently choose, apply, and modify palettes of eye-catching hues. Jim Krause is a designer, a photographer, and an illustrator. He is also the author of 17 books, including Color for Designers and Color Index, part of his famed Index series of design books. In this course, Jim explains the essential components of color theory in simple language, showing how hues can be assembled into good-looking palettes and how you can use your design and illustration software to apply colors to logos, layouts, and illustrations. The training provides clear advice on how to create color schemes based on current trends and the tastes of different target audiences. Jim also shows how color can attract attention and affect mood and meaning.

Primarily aimed at designers and illustrators, the course leans heavily toward digital tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator, but concludes with some challenges using real-world media (inks and paints!), so members can get a solid understanding of mixing colors and what tools and combinations work best.

Conclusion

As you can see, there's no shortage of options when it comes to learning online. These are just some of my favorites from the Lynda.com library. I highly recommend you explore some of our Learning Paths like "Become a Graphic Designer" or "Become a Design Business Owner" to get a better sense of what we have to offer and where you want to go on your educational journey. Happy #OnlineLearningDay everyone!