Are you a creative with a background in print design? If so, you may be feeling a little lost in the current digital climate. Maybe you're ready for a change of direction in your career and you want to better understand digital design, including what's needed to move your design skills online. As an experienced creative with a real passion for design, it's not always clear what path to take – there are a lot of potential career options out there. But there are none so relevant and forward thinking as visual design, and Created's Visual Design Foundation Course is just the thing to get you started.
With print design an ever decreasing part of brand strategy, designers must reinvent themselves for the future. This is your chance to switch focus, upskill and widen the breadth of your creative capabilities by learning how to put your passion and experience somewhere guaranteed to help you stay relevant. Asking for 10-15 hours a week of your time over the course of three months, the course is fully online, meaning it's totally accessible from home (or wherever you happen to be) and will fit around whatever else you have going on, be it work or play.
What is visual design?
Visual design is a fusion of graphic design, branding and user interface design, encompassing every element of digital design. Visual designers are the problem solvers of the digital world, the creatives who make the user's experience of websites or apps as smooth, dynamic and memorable as it needs to be to hook anyone engaging with the content.
Starting out as a visual designer will enable you to choose between a myriad of career options, stepping up into design consultancy, project management or creative direction. But, allow yourself to think bigger. Could you imagine moving up the chain to become a marketing and creative director in six years time? How about a chief creative officer or a marketing communications manager? A decade from now could even see you make marketing vice president. Learning the skills of a visual designer will open doors and set you off on the track that's right for you.
Why would you take Created's Visual Design Course?
01. Forge crucial relationships with the visual design industry
Created's course offers a unique and crucial link to the visual design industry – with strong industry ties to titans Nomad Studios, R/GA, Koto and Glug. Designed by the industry, for the industry, you will work on real industry briefs – practising what you learn with real-life projects. You will receive real industry feedback. Not meaningless compliments but critique and advice, specific to your needs from a professional visual designer on every project you complete. You will even have your own industry mentor.
02. Gain a full set of industry-ready skills
Created's Visual Design Course will empower you with the practical skills needed to become a visual designer, learning everything from top-level communication skills, to the process that goes into completing a brief. Beginning with core branding and digital design fundamentals, you'll learn all that's necessary to evolve a brand online, and master crucial accessible design principles to make sure your designs are adaptable and accessible for all users.
The course will teach you to be technically savvy in industry-preferred design software Figma and Sketch, so you can create stunning graphics and visual content at the click of a button.
Collaboration is a crucial part of the visual design industry, and you'll find out how to tailor your communication and collaborative skills to ensure success when working for clients, and alongside a team. Discover exactly how to take your clients through your process, from start to finish, and the best ways to implement user feedback to make sure your creations are the best they can be. Pitching your ideas will become a breeze as you'll also have learned the most effective ways to sell your concepts.
03. Join a community of like-minded creatives
Simply enrolling will connect you with a whole community of professionals with similar goals and backgrounds to you. You'll forge bonds with your cohort by connecting in a private Slack group, enabling you to support and guide each other – empowering you to smash those projects. The entire Created network will be available to you when you complete the course, with access to the wider alumni community – so you won't be cast out on your own when the course finishes.
Through the five one-hour live group mentoring sessions on Zoom, you can exchange project ideas, gain support and feedback from your peers and your industry mentor. You won't be doing this alone as you will be surrounded by people who share your objectives.
Is the course right for you?
If you have intermediate skills in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, plus a basic understanding of typography, colour, layout and composition, you have a brilliant basis for learning the skills Created's Visual Design Course has to offer.
Though you'll have tonnes of support online, you'll be the only one in the room so you'll need to be adaptable and possess the ability to self-lead and self-motivate in order to get the very best out of the course. If all this sounds like you, what are you waiting for?
Enrol today
Fully online from the UK or time zones less than four hours ahead (think France, Spain, Portugal). With monthly enrolments, you could be one of only 16 students beginning each month. The Visual Design Foundation Course is currently offered at an affordable £975, rising to £1200 next year. Interested? Next enrolment is on October 2. Click here to learn more.