Learn graphic design skills and master the industry-standard tools in our graphic design & motion graphics summer courses. Work on projects to build your skills as a graphic designer.
Learn graphic design this summer with NextGen in our hands-on graphic design programs tailored to high school students and teens. You'll work on projects to master the industry-standard tools including Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator.
60 Hours $2495
Learn graphic design and video editing concepts, and start working in the industry-standard tools including Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and After Effects.
30 Hours $1299
In this 2-week Graphic Design Summer Camp, students will learn graphic design concepts and work in industry-standard Adobe tools.
30 Hours $1299
In this 2-week summer program, you'll learn video editing in Premiere Pro, and how to create motion graphics and animations in After Effects.
See our related summer courses for high school students and teens across business, coding, and data science.
90 Hours $3695
Learn to program in both Python and Java in this hands-on course, and learn data science for Python. This computer science program combines our Java Programming class, Python Level 1, and Python Machine Learning courses in one discounted bundle.
60 Hours $2495
Learn Python programming fundamentals and analyze data with Pandas, NumPy, and Matplotlib. Use machine learning to apply regressions and other statistical analyses to create predictive models.
60 Hours $2495
Learn to create webpages by coding HTML & CSS. Learn best practices for structuring the content of your webpages with HTML, then styling the content with CSS. Add interactivity and functionality to your site using JavaScript.
30 Hours $1299
Learn fundamental Java programming skills and prepare for AP Computer Science or college-level programming. Beginners will become advanced coders through our fast-moving curriculum and project-based approach to learning.
30 Hours $1299
Learn Microsoft Excel, finance, and stock market investing in this interactive, live online course. This course is ideal for students interested in finance, business, real estate, entrepreneurship, and many other related fields.
Graphic Design is visual communication through artwork or combined images and text. Both print and digital designers use similar processes and similar programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.
Graphic designers create product packaging, advertising materials in print and digital formats, logos, and much more.
Print designers typically create brochures, business cards, product packaging, subway banners, books, and other physical products or documents.
Graphic Designers use the same programs to develop digital designs such as web banners, social media graphics, and eBooks. In some cases, these designers will use different output formats for printed and digital designs.
In our graphic design summer courses, students will learn to work with industry-standard tools to create graphic design projects and hone their skills. With our hands-on learning approach, students will learn in classroom instruction and then apply the skills by working on real graphic design projects.
The core Adobe apps designers that will be taught in our graphic design classes are:
Photoshop is the industry-standard photo editing app, but you can do a lot more with it than just manipulate photos. It’s very versatile and used by photographers, designers, videographers, and more to edit photos, create graphics, design websites, and build animated GIFs... just to name a few.
Photoshop is one of the standard apps every graphic designer knows. You can use it to create graphics for many types of uses such as social media, web, emails, video, and print. The graphics can contain photos, text, logos, icons, etc. Photoshop can open and export a wide variety of graphic file formats, so you can use it across many industries.
Photoshop is best known as a photo editor. You can do standard image improvements such as adjusting contrast, brightness, color, sharpness, or more advanced things such as moving elements from one background to another, removing unwanted elements, and adding in new elements (like a better face in a group photo). What you can do in Photoshop is only limited by your imagination and your Photoshop skills.
Photoshop also has uses in web design as you can design webpages and optimize graphics for web using Photoshop. Additionally, you create animated GIFs in Photoshop for social media, HTML emails, or any other use.
From long documents (such as books and magazines), to short documents (such as brochures and business cards), InDesign is great at creating layouts that combine text and graphics. InDesign is ideal for creating designs that will be printed but can also be used for digital output such as eBooks, PDF, and more.
InDesign is the king of long documents. You can import content from authors (Word files, Excel documents, etc.), style it, and layout pages. InDesign has many features to help along the way, such as paragraph styles, character styles, object styles, master pages, powerful find/change, tables, footnotes, table of contents, and much more. InDesign can even export eBooks as ePub files, which can be converted into Mobi files for the Amazon Kindle.
Small documents: InDesign can create small documents such as business cards, brochures, and more. InDesign’s amazing typography features are useful in any design that involves type, whether it's a poster or flyer. From one page to hundreds, InDesign is up to the task.
Professional PDFs: InDesign has many features that help you create professional PDFs for print, web, or email. You can also create PDF forms, or add interactive PDF features (which unfortunately do no work well on most mobile devices).
Illustrator is the industry-standard vector graphics and illustration app. Designers and illustrators use it to create logos, web graphics, fashion designs, product packaging, and so much more.
Even if you can’t draw things by hand, there’s still a lot of things you can do with Adobe Illustrator.
Some common uses for Illustrator are:
Upon earning a degree in graphic design, earning a certificate, or developing a portfolio, many graphic designers choose to work freelance or start an agency to do small graphic design jobs for companies that don’t need a full-time graphic designer.
Experienced designers may work as a Creative Director or Lead Designer. Some graphic designers pursue additional training and work as User Experience (UX) or User Interface (UI) Designers specializing in user-centric design. Other designers learn to code and also work as front-end developers that design websites.
Here are a few of the most common roles that graphic designers pursue:
Learning graphic design skills can be very empowering and beneficial for your future for a variety of reasons.
There are very few career paths that allow you to think outside the box and use creativity with not many limits. As a graphic designer, you’ll be able to create, design, and express many messages that can influence thousands of people.
Spotting something you designed on a billboard or an advertisement is always exciting, especially knowing it’s exposed to such a large audience. You'll have opportunities to work with lots of brands as a graphic designer.
Graphic design surrounds us in every part of our lives. When you’re in the shower, there’s graphic design on shampoo bottles; there’s a design on your Colgate toothpaste and so on.
It’s safe to say that graphic designers never run out of work to do. Even more so, graphic designers are wanted in almost every industry, including fashion, warehouses, software, and trade shows. Life as a designer runs on options, and more importantly, choices of who we want to work with and whether we can make their brand stand out.
Another great aspect of graphic design is having the ability to branch out and focus on one category. Graphic designers have broad niches, including logo design, brand identity, flash design, art directing, and even photoshop art. While it’s best to always focus on a niche in your industry, you’ll have a lot of options to start with.
Once you start learning the fundamentals of graphic design, you’ll feel a certain pull or attraction to one specific aspect of graphic design which will help determine your niche. For example, when you start your courses, you may realize you genuinely enjoy designing logos or playing with photoshop and that will be one of your "signs."
Graphic designers are becoming more popular due to increasing demand. With so much exposure to billboards, advertisements, and digital promotions, it’s no secret that highly qualified graphic designers are sought after. Due to this positive reality, becoming a graphic designer is not only an exciting career choice, but it also ensures that you won’t run out of projects to pursue and jobs to apply for.
If you prefer to work as a freelancer, there is no shortage of companies looking out for them, too. Whatever you decide, and whichever work environment you prefer to be in, the world is at your fingertips. Once you begin your journey as a graphic designer, remember that you won’t know where you want to specialize right away, and because of the endless choices you’ll have, the decision may be difficult.
Keep working on your skills, building your portfolio, and finding what you like to do most.
From our hands-on training style to world-class instructors and proprietary curriculum, we deliver a learning experience our alumni can be proud of.
You can attend training live online at the scheduled time the course is offered (New York, Eastern Time) through screen-sharing software Zoom (free for you).
