If you want to improve your design skills, Skillshare should be one of the first places you go. The classes are well structured and taught by so many people with different design backgrounds and expertise. But where do you start? What are the best graphic design classes on Skillshare to level up your design skills?
I’ve put together a list here, based off of the most popular graphic design courses on Skillshare, that all have amazing student work, many of which are taught by design masters. Any of these classes will help improve your skills as a designer. So, here’s the awesome list of the best graphic design classes on Skillshare that will improve your skills as a designer.
Graphic Design Basics: Core Principles for Visual Design
By Ellen Lupton
At only 36 minutes long, this class is so much shorter than the others on this list and it’s curious why it’s so popular. However, since it’s being taught by design author and legend Ellen Lupton, it’s popularity really isn’t that surprising.
This class covers the basic principles of design and how to bring them together to create something polished. This is probably one of the best graphic design classes on Skillshare for anyone unsure of where to begin learning about design.
Class Project: The class project is to create a design that utilizes the five core principles of visual layout which are symmetry/asymmetry, scale, framing, hierarchy, and grids.
| Students | 107,000+ |
| Level | Beginner |
| Projects | 443 |
| Class Length | 36 min |
Logo Design with Draplin: Secrets of Shape, Type and Color
This is such a great class for designers who want to either learn logo design or improve their existing logo design skills. Aaron Draplin is a design master and it’s awesome that he’s sharing his design process on Skillshare (He has seven classes in total on Skillshare).
Class Project: The project for this class is really interesting. It involves students creating a family crest. Students are asked to create a crest style logo design for their own family that incorporates their family name, a laurel and banner, symbols, colours that represent their family, and a phrase or saying that has meaning to their family.
| Students | 91,000+ |
| Level | Intermediate |
| Projects | 727 |
| Class Length | 1 hr 7 min |
Typography That Works: Typographic Composition and Fonts
By Ellen Lupton
This is a short but thorough beginner typography class that introduces students to basic type terminology like sans serif, serif, and slab serif, in addition to how to use each type.
Class Project: The class project is for students to design their own business card. Students should show four different designs that play with structure, one design that uses a literary typeface, and one that uses a slab typeface.
| Students | 78,000+ |
| Level | Beginner |
| Projects | 586 |
| Class Length | 36 min |
Adobe Photoshop CC – Essentials Training Course
By Daniel Scott
This extremely extensive course, with over 9 hours of content, teaches students everything they need to know about getting started in Adobe Photoshop like masking, interactive type, photo retouching, and more.
Class Project: Since there are so many parts to this course, there are actually a bunch of class projects for students to do. There is a postcard design, and oil painting, a halftone, a peeling sky, and an assortment of other projects that are meant to utilize students’ knowledge of specific Photoshop tools.
| Students | 64,000+ |
| Level | Beginner |
| Projects | 1,800 |
| Class Length | 9 hr 39 min |
Adobe Illustrator CC – Essentials Training
By Daniel Scott
This is an Adobe Illustrator fundamentals course that deals with everything a beginner would need to know to work in Illustrator. Topics covered are creating icons, logos, postcards, and hand drawn illustrations. Students also learn how to properly use brushes, manipulate type, and much more.
Class Project: The class project for this course is to create an animal using only simple lines and shapes in Illustrator.
| Students | 60,000+ |
| Level | Beginner |
| Projects | 2,373 |
| Class Length | 6 hr 52 min |
Demystifying Graphic Design: How Posters Work
By Ellen Lupton
This hour long class class explores how posters work by telling stories, conveying energy and motion, creating the illusion of depth, simplifying complex ideas visually, and more.
Class Project: The class project here is for students to design a movie poster using the six core techniques taught in class. Students are asked to select a movie with a simple object in the title like Rear Window, 12 Angry Men, The Matrix, or Gone Girl.
| Students | 41,000+ |
| Level | Beginner |
| Projects | 294 |
| Class Length | 1 hr 5 min |
Customizing Type with Draplin: Creating Wordmarks That Work
This is yet another awesome class by Aaron Draplin that provides a lot of value to current designers. In this class, Aaron teaches how to customize type by learning about proper kerning, customizing letterforms, sketching type from scratch, and more.
Class Project: The project for this class is for students to create a wordmark for their hometown; ideally mocked up on a piece of merchandise.
| Students | 38,000+ |
| Level | Intermediate |
| Projects | 400 |
| Class Length | 1 hr 33 min |
Circular Logo Design with Draplin: Combine Type & Icons in a Classic Shape
Even more Aaron Draplin! This class deals with creating logos that combine text and icons within a circular shape. Aaron will guide students through hierarchy, line weight, and graphic balance to create a travel sticker.
Class Project: The class project is to create a travel-themed sticker graphic using a circle as the base shape.
| Students | 34,000+ |
| Level | Intermediate |
| Projects | 322 |
| Class Length | 1 hr 2 min |
If you take this class and want to learn more from Aaron Draplin, check out his book Draplin Design Co.: Pretty Much Everything.
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Baugasm™ Series #1 – Create Experimental Gradients and Posters
By Vasjen Katro
This is a really fantastic class to learn about Photoshop and Illustrator techniques that will make your design work really unique. This is actually one of the first Skillshare classes I ever took and I really loved it. You can read my review of the seven Skillshare classes I took from Vasjen Katro here.
Class Project: The class project is to take what students have learned and make a poster. Students should use Illustrator to make the gradients and Photoshop to shape and style their imagery.
| Students | 29,000+ |
| Level | Beginner |
| Projects | 692 |
| Class Length | 33 min |
Logotype Masterclass with Jessica Hische
This class gives students the opportunity to learn about creating and/or improving type-based logos. The lessons teach students things like how to look for design qualities such as hierarchy and scale, how to look for detail and consistency, how to polish vector logos, and more.
Class Project: The class project is for students to create or improve a logo of their own using a checklist provided in the class that helps them determine the success of a logo.
| Students | 28,000+ |
| Level | Intermediate |
| Projects | 88 |
| Class Length | 1 hr 32 min |
Okay, so this list of the best graphic design classes on Skillshare is really dominated by Ellen Lupton and Aaron Draplin. But honestly, that makes sense. If you’ve been designing for a little while you likely have a least one book on your shelf by Ellen Lupton, and you probably follow Aaron Draplin on Instagram or have read his book.
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Learning from the masters of their craft is always a great way to improve your skills. Hopefully you learn great things from the other classes on this list as well. I certainly have.
Is there another class that you think belongs on this list of the best graphic design classes on Skillshare? Would you like to see more specifically geared lists? For example, a list of the best graphic design classes on Skillshare for logo design? Let me know in the comments below.
