All Graphic Design Courses for High Schoolers classes include
Free retakes
Detailed curriculum
Live instructor
Flexible rescheduling
Certificate of Completion
Graphic Design Class for High School Students - Summer
Graphic Design Class for High School Students
In this Graphic Design class, high school students learn the principles of great design and typography from a design industry professional while using professional-grade Adobe design software to create digital drawings, logos, advertisements, magazine layouts, and more. Students complete the week by creating a digital portfolio to showcase their work. No prior art or design experience is necessary for this program. This graphic design class is generally offered in the summer at the American Graphics Institute location in suburban Boston or as a live online course over two consecutive weeks. This schedule allows for shorter online days and covers the same materials in the live in-person workshops. No previous experience with graphic design or specific design applications is required.
Graphic Design Class Topics Covered:
- Principles of great graphic design
- Digital drawing and tracing
- Typography and text effects
- Creating print advertisements
- Editing and retouching images
- Designing and creating a logo
- Print design layouts
- Conducting a design critique
- Creating a digital design portfolio
Applications used for the graphic design class
Software supplied for in-person classes at our site. Remote students should download the 7-day trial or register for a student subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud.
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe InDesign
By the end of the graphic design class, students will gain the following:
- Knowledge of basic design principles
- Basic understanding of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign
- Insight into the opportunities and challenges of a design career
- Portfolio of graphic design work
2023 In-person dates (Boston area only)
Session time: 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
July 31st-August 4th (Classroom computer with software is provided during the class.)
2023 Online Course Dates
Session time: 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
June 19th-June 30th, 2023
July 10th-July 21st, 2023
August 7th-August 18th, 2023
Note: This graphic design course meets online every weekday from 10 am - 1 pm, but it may state 10-5 on the registration form.
Graphic Design Class for High School Students - Sample Daily Schedule (Summer)
9:45 am - Log in to live online classroom
10:00 am - Workshops start: learn new topics and techniques with a live instructor
11:00 am - Complete practice exercises
11:30 am - Learn new topics and techniques
12:00 pm - Project planning; Individual or collaborative project work
12:30 pm - Review and share projects
1:00 pm - Class ends for the day
All times are Eastern. While the start and end-times remain consistent, the in-class schedule may vary based upon materials being covered.
Graphic Design Class for High School Students - Sample Schedule (after school session)
The after-school class section meets Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm EST.
6:00 pm - Workshops start: learn new topics and techniques from live instructor
6:45 pm - Complete practice exercises
7:00 pm - Learn new topics and techniques
7:30pm - Individual or collaborative project work
7:45 pm - Complete, review and share projects
8:00 pm - Class ends
This course is available individually or as part of these certificate programs:
Please call 800-851-9237 or 781-376-6044 to schedule a course.
Graphic Design for High School Students: Course Topics
Graphic Design Perspectives
- Why design is important
- Understanding the International Typographic Style
Understanding the importance of sketching in graphic design
- Low fidelity methods
- Developing innovative concepts
- Creating flexibility in early stages of design
Understanding space in graphic design
- Understanding and using negative space
- Creating designs that utilize white and non-white space
Balance in design
- Understanding types of balance
- Experimenting with symmetrical and asymmetrical designs
- Experimenting with weight in order to create more dynamic designs
Typography: designing with the effective use of type
- Typeface scenarios.
- Understanding which typefaces are best to use in different situations
- Basic typography rules that help improve viewer’s experience
- Building an effective and successful information hierarchy with a type ramp
Understanding design proportions
- Building a beautifully proportioned layout for your design
- How positioning can affect aesthetics of your design
- Incorporating the golden mean into your designs
Influence of color on graphic design
- Understanding HSL (Hue, Saturation and Luminosity)
- Designing with color
Photoshop for Graphic Design
- Introduction to the Photoshop workspace, tools, and panels
- Editing specific areas using selections in Photoshop
- Understanding various ways to create selections
- Color Correcting Images with Photoshop
- Understanding Photoshop Color Modes
- Introduction to Content-Aware Tools in Photoshop
- Content–Aware retouching in Photoshop
- Using Photoshop layers
- Combining images
Adobe Illustrator for Graphic Design
- When to use Illustrator
- Differences between Illustrator and Photoshop
- Understanding the Illustrator Workspace
- Illustrator Essential Skills
- Drawing using Illustrator's Tools
- Creating, applying and saving color
- Adding text to designs and applying formatting
- Using Layers to organize Illustrator artwork
Adobe InDesign for Graphic Design
- Understanding InDesign Tools
- Creating documents using InDesign
- Navigating within InDesign documents
- Adding, editing, and formatting Text using InDesign
- Adding graphics to a layout using InDesign
- Applying color to layouts using InDesign
- Transforming Objects in InDesign
- Adding, Deleting & Arranging Pages in InDesign
- Using Master Pages in InDesign
- Printing and Exporting from InDesign to share your documents
There are no prerequisites for this course. It is open to high school students and middle school students ages 13 to 18.
You will receive comprehensive course materials with this class developed by the Adobe Certified Instructors at AGI. AGI instructors have created many of the official training guides and books for Adobe Systems.