Best Graphic Design Certificates Toronto: Find Courses & Onsite Training

Learn More About Toronto Graphic Design Certificates

Toronto is an exciting city, one that continually has something new and thrilling to do. It’s a particularly great place to relocate to or settle down permanently if you’re looking for a tech job. There are multiple graphic design companies in the area that regularly hire professionals who fully understand and implement these skills. However, it’s smart to be properly trained before looking for a job by pursuing graphic design certificates or certifications.

If you’re interested in joining this career field, it’s important to read through this article to learn more about your training options. A great certificate or certification program can help you master graphic design and ensure that you feel comfortable seeking out jobs in this field. Just as importantly, it can help you understand what kind of roles are available in this field. Read on to get the insight that you need into this consistently growing and fascinating career path.

What is Graphic Design?

Graphic design is an art that balances several concepts and theories to produce visually striking and interesting artwork. In the commercial field, it often centers on creating advertisements, signs, billboards, websites, marketing tools, user interfaces, and more. Modern graphic design utilizes primarily digital tools, like Adobe Creative Cloud, though some firms still use old-school physical design methods to create unique and engaging retro designs.

Fascinatingly, the history of graphic design is basically as old as art itself. Many of the same layout ideas used in modern designs come from the earliest attempts at art, including the ideas of white space and color blending. That makes graphic design a particularly fun and rewarding career to join because you’re entering a field with a history as old as art itself. However, it’s best not to get in over your head by leaping blindly but to get help in a certificate training program.

Why Become Certified in Graphic Design?

Certification is a great way to boost your resume and stand out from other people applying for jobs. As a professional-level designation, certifications show employers that you’ve done the hard work necessary to master a skill. Graphic design certifications are particularly important because this field is so competitive. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a 3% growth over the next 10 years, which means there should be several thousand new jobs in this market.

Employers may get hundreds of resumes from qualified people and need to quickly and accurately sort through their options. This includes getting rid of people without the proper education or training and focusing on people who took extra steps to stand out. Since few people bother to get certified, getting certification helps you look impressive to potential employers. After all, would you prefer someone with more or less experience and training?

The same thing is true of training certificates (which vary from certifications in ways we’ll discuss later). A skill certificate proves that you’ve taken extra steps to stand out and lets your potential employer accurately assess your abilities. That’s a significant benefit because it improves your likelihood of getting an interview. From there, you can showcase your knowledge in a one-on-one meeting. Furthermore, certification provides skills you need to thrive in this career.

What You’ll Learn While Becoming Graphic Design Certified

Graphic design skills include a diverse array of facets that help prepare you for diverse and fascinating careers. They’re all things you could potentially learn on your own, but getting help from a professional training team can make this process a lot smoother. Courses typically arrange these skills into a streamlined and interesting process that slowly introduces you to new concepts and gives you time to master them. Here are a few to consider.

Typography

As a Graphic Designer, you need to master typography—the subtle art of choosing and arranging text to make designs stand out. It also includes carefully balancing white space and properly integrating pictures and other elements into a design to help it look great. The goal here should be to catch the viewer’s eye and immediately engage their imagination. When done properly, it should create effective and memorable work that your employers will love.

Font Types

Did you know that certain types of fonts can trigger varying emotions in people? As a Graphic Designer, you need to understand the theory behind selecting appropriate fonts and integrate them into your designs properly. This process includes choosing options that suit a customer’s needs (such as professional looks for business firms), as well as consumer type. For instance, sillier fonts may appeal to businesses focused primarily on very young children.

Design Concepts

Graphic design theory includes many important design concepts such as properly laying out pages to maximize readability and minimize fatigue. Reader’s exhaustion is a real problem, particularly for online content. Knowing how to streamline your designs can make them quicker to read and less fatiguing for the eye and mind. Furthermore, it can ensure that they’re far more professional and attractive, which helps make ads more effective in converting customers.

Color Types

Choosing the best colors for your graphic design concepts isn’t as simple as randomly picking without a plan. Color theory focuses heavily on explaining the emotions that colors can trigger in people, depending on factors like their culture, age, gender, and context. It also discusses things like how to pick and choose colors that complement each other to provide an attractive overall design. If you've ever seen the color wheel, you already know a little bit about color theory.

Digital Design Concepts

The concept of digital graphic design has been around for decades and implements many of the same ideas previously used in physical work. However, digital tools have taken over the market and provide a powerful range of options that make it an even more effective process. In your training program, you should learn about things like graphic design software, PDF sharing, chart creation, graphic layers, and other important ideas that make your work easier to understand.

Graphic Design Industries in Toronto

Toronto is one of Canada’s most exciting cities and is filled with amazing graphic design markets where you can find a job. These industries include many fascinating career options that can provide you with personally and financially rewarding work. Later, we’ll discuss a few of the most popular and well-paying jobs in these industries to ensure that you know where to apply. Read through each of the listings here to learn more about what they may require of you:

UI/UX Design: User-interface (UI) and user-experience (UX) design firms in Toronto need graphic designers who can handle a broad array of tasks. This market provides a pretty steady supply of high-quality work that should be interesting for graphic designers of all skill levels. It’s also one of the higher-paying options on the market today.
Social Media Management: In today’s modern image-centered society, social media management firms provide an important service to thousands of businesses and individuals. Toronto has multiple social media agencies that need graphic designers like you to create effective ad campaigns on social media platforms.
Brand Development: Toronto branding firms help companies identify their market and develop a consistent and exciting brand. Furthermore, they help with rebranding, a process that can help a struggling company improve sales. Often, these firms need graphic designers who can create logos, produce advertisements, and more.
Web Design: Toronto web design firms hire graphics specialists because they can create web layouts, interesting advertisements, logos, and ad copy. Even if you focus strictly on coding sites with HTML and CSS, you should understand some graphic design ideas to make your websites more attractive and interesting for clients and their services.
Marketing Firms: As a prime marketing hub in Canada, Toronto’s market includes numerous marketing companies that may require graphic designers. For example, you can use these skills to produce attractive advertisements, unique marketing tools, and even web-based designs that showcase your clients in the best light.

Graphic Design Careers in Toronto

If you’re interested in joining any of the industries mentioned above, it’s important to know what kind of jobs you can find within them. These careers include a pretty broad range of duties, which makes them fascinating to consider. Just a few positions in Toronto that might need someone with graphic design capabilities include:

Photo Editor: In Canada, you make an average of $44,000 working as a Photo Editor. You’ll likely use various types of graphic design skills to carefully create attractive looks and ensure that your clients are happy with the results.
UX Designer: Jobs as a UX Designer make a strong wage in Canada, with an average salary of $118,000. These professionals typically need graphic design skills to produce attractive and engaging products for their clients.
Web Designer: As a Web Designer, you’ll earn an average of $56,000 in Canada using your graphic design skills. Typically, you’ll work to create appealing and interesting websites that keep people interested in your clients and their services.
UI Designer: When you work as a UI Designer, you’ll use graphic design skills to create interesting and engaging interfaces that work well for various needs. Expect to earn an average of $118,000 in this career in Canada.
Social Media Strategist: A Social Media Strategist typically utilizes various graphic design skills to design social media posts and advertisements, which help clients expand their audience reach. They make an average of $63,000 annually in Canada.

Should You Pursue a Certificate or Certification

The thing about certificates and certifications is that they’re not the same thing at all. You earn certificates when completing a beginner-friendly training course that teaches you the abilities necessary to perform the roles and duties of a job. They typically include in-person or online classes that you take with a live professor. This professional will ensure that you have the skills necessary to handle graphic design’s many unique tasks with ease.

Interestingly, certificates can help you prepare for the unique demands of certification. That’s because they typically include various types of training that cover the lessons and subjects found in a certification exam. Once you pass this test, you have a professional-level designation that you can place on your resume. It basically shows the world that you understand the unique demands needed for graphic design at an expert level.

Top Graphic Design Certificate Programs in Toronto

Toronto provides many amazing certificate training programs for graphic design that can provide you with the training you need to get started. These classes include options from universities, community colleges, and even private training teams. If you’re ready to get started with graphic design but feel a little uncomfortable with a college degree or certificate program, Noble Desktop provides beginner-friendly, and often quite short, classes that provide a great start.

Graphic Design (GRA)

At Seneca Polytechnic, you can take a Graphic Design credential that earns you an Ontario College Advanced Diploma. You can take the class online and in-person, though there are some things you have to do in-person, so make sure you can travel there for these courses. Throughout this class, you’ll be trained to become a Graphic Designer, Web Designer, in-house Designer, advertising art Designer, and interactive Designer in many career fields.

Note that this is a three-year program, so keep that in mind before applying. However, it’s a great way to gather design, typography, business writing, and marketing skills. As you complete each class, you’ll build a portfolio to show off your work and highlight its unique scope. Interestingly, Seneca also offers a field placement option, meaning that you can ask to get placed in an internship-type setting or work as an in-studio practicum to improve your skills.

Graphic Design

Humber provides a myriad of interesting training programs that can help you advance your career. Their Graphic Design course earns you a certificate of completion while teaching you Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and typography skills throughout four different courses. Each module takes about three days to finish in three-hour sessions and costs $510 apiece, so make sure that you have enough money to pay for each before you sign up.

As you complete a class, you’ll gain expert proficiency in each program and will feel more comfortable with each. Once you master one program, you’ll move on to another and slowly master your graphic design skills and theories before finishing. Once you’re done, you can apply for several certification exams, which can help demonstrate your capabilities and ensure that you’re more than ready to handle the unique demands of this career path.

Graphic Design Certificate Program

Herzing College’s Graphic Design Certificate Program is a 10-month course that takes place over 20 hours a week with a six-week internship. As a result, you need to make sure that you’re ready for its heavy demand on your time. It’s a good choice if you’re just out of high school or can attend the night classes after working a day shift. There are two learning schedules: on-campus and hybrid. Even with the hybrid, you need to show up to the school occasionally.

In this program, you’ll learn about the job duties necessary for this role, including consulting with clients, preparing sketches, setting up layouts, producing illustrations and graphics, generating animated drawings, producing logos, estimating projects, and designing websites. As you complete each class, you’ll build a portfolio that highlights your best work and allows you to showcase it when applying for jobs. You can even use it when you apply for certification.

UX/UI Boot Camp

UofT SCS provides multiple bootcamps in Toronto that help prepare you for a myriad of different job roles. UX/UI Boot Camp is a 24-week course with 10 hours each week. It costs $10,500 but provides you with the in-depth learning experience you need to thrive as a Graphic Designer. You’ll learn all about UX and UI theories, various types of information architecture concepts, persona creation, qualitative/quantitative research, and other fundamentals.

Furthermore, you’ll study Adobe XD, InVision, and other important programs to master the skills necessary for this job. Though the price might seem a little high, this streamlined and efficient course is designed to teach you the necessary skills quickly and effectively. Rather than spending years learning to become a Graphic Designer, you’ll walk away with a certificate of completion in under six months. That makes it a great choice if you’re ready to get started.

Design Essentials

Do the previous classes seem like too big of a commitment or too expensive for your tastes? The Training Company in Toronto provides classroom training, on-site education, one-on-one courses, and even training manuals that help you transition into a graphic design role. Design Essentials is a two-day course costing just $799, which makes it a good choice if you’re strapped for time and money and want to practice the essential skills necessary to get started.

For example, you’ll learn all about important graphic design fundamentals such as color theory, white space management, and typography skills. As this course is so short, it focuses mostly on the basics and getting you ready to transition to using them in a real-world setting. You’ll get a certificate of completion that you can use to show off your skills and then start practicing at home to create a portfolio of high-quality work to share with potential employers when job hunting.

Graphic Design Certificate

Noble Desktop provides multiple tech-based learning courses in their NYC facility that are also available online. Their unique online-focused education provides you with a fascinating array of benefits, including one-on-one learning, expert teachers, small class sizes, and a live teacher who can help you in real-time. You can also get financial aid to offset some of the costs to minimize your expenses. That makes this provider an excellent option for anyone in Toronto.

In Graphic Design Certificate, you’ll learn about industry apps like Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. You’ll also learn about design theory composition, complex graphic design color concepts, and other in-depth abilities. The goal of this class is to provide you with the in-depth support you need to get started with graphic design. Like with all Noble Desktop classes, you’ll earn a certificate of completion that you can showcase on your resume or portfolio.

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Key Insights

Learn More About Toronto Graphic Design Certificates

What is Graphic Design?

Why Become Certified in Graphic Design?

What You’ll Learn While Becoming Graphic Design Certified

Typography

Font Types

Design Concepts

Color Types

Digital Design Concepts

Graphic Design Industries in Toronto

Graphic Design Careers in Toronto

Should You Pursue a Certificate or Certification

Top Graphic Design Certificate Programs in Toronto

Graphic Design (GRA)

Graphic Design

Graphic Design Certificate Program

UX/UI Boot Camp

Design Essentials

Toronto Graphic Design Corporate & Onsite Training Noble Desktop

Graphic Design Training Locations in or Near Toronto

Toronto Careers & Salaries Related to Graphic Design

Related Classes

Toronto Graphic Design
Corporate & Onsite Training