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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Imagemaking by California Institute of the Arts

4.5
stars
2,820 ratings

About the Course

This course for serious makers, and for students new to imagemaking. Imagemaking is a fluid and exciting area of graphic design that comes out of practice and process: experimenting fearlessly, showing and sharing ideas, and giving and receiving knowledgeable and constructive input. For the sake of this online platform, we have applied some structure to our investigations, but for the most part imagemaking is loose and unstructured. If we must adopt a rule in this course it is only this: you will not become a graphic designer by watching videos alone. Or, don't just make stuff just in your head. So here, the focus here is on making, and you are expected to devote serious time and intellectual energy to that activity in this course. Specifically, you will: - experiment with a range of materials and techniques to make images for graphic design - expand your visual vocabulary both in terms of making and talking about work, in order to discuss your work and work of others - learn how to make, manipulate and arrange images to create compositions, eventually culminating in the design and production of an-image-based book. The first half of the course is an opportunity to experiment and explore imagemaking in order to expand your visual vocabulary. You will create pieces that are expressive, meditative, or 'design-y' to instigate, evoke, experiment, record, explain, or try out a media. In the second two weeks, we’ll invite the images to deliberately and intentionally carry meaning and communication through relational moves like juxtaposition, composition, and context. We’ll look at developing and expanding the range of approaches for putting things together by composing page spreads with your images. Since nothing exists without context, we look at how to intentionally drive the image’s connotations, meanings, and associations generated through elements of composition and “visual contrasts.” Ultimately, we will take the images that you create and make a book from them. The results of your assignments (and experiments) may generate something completely unknowable now or in the future—and that's the goal....

Top reviews

LC

Oct 8, 2017

I'm so happy i did this course. Gail, you're amazing and you made my imagination go wild with just your words. I can see you love your craft and that's very inspiring. Enjoyed this course all the way!

TA

May 22, 2023

In fact i am very much glad for this because before taking this course, i know nothing about Indesign but i can now use it and more, Thank you for this financial aid opportunities, Blessings coursera

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551 - 575 of 633 Reviews for Introduction to Imagemaking

By Hongjoo Y

Oct 12, 2016

I like the content and enjoyed the process but as this is online course, it should be better designed. The criteria for reviews and assignment direction is probably not too explicit that cause a lot of confusion, and people are submitting very different assignments from one another. It is not easy to grade and hard to understand what is expected. Also it is recommended that you know Adobe Illustrator or InDesign. I actually had to take additional course alongside of this course because although it was not mandatory, it was better to know how to use these software.

By Alex

Dec 9, 2020

Unlike the previous two courses, I feel like in this one I didn't learn anything new. Although I found the assignments quite fun and enjoyable, this course could be summed up to only the assignments which nonetheless can help you practice the skills that you already have. But in terms of direct knowledge, this course provided way less than the first course - Fundamentals of Graphic Design. This whole course could have just been additional optional assignments in the first course.

By Sharon K

Jun 9, 2021

I think the course is ok. This course includes a number of assignments which give me as a learner to experiment and create images. However, some of the assignments are very confusing. The assignment guidelines are very hard to understand and I saw a lot of peers shared the same frustration. Fortunately there is the discussion forum where one of the peers post a few examples in explaining the guideline which helps me to understand and work on my assignment.

By Zina D

Dec 27, 2020

The class is great at challenging your creative intuition on the subject matter you choose. However, there is some plagiarism going around in this course and in some cases the peer-review doesn't feel like an actual critique to help improve yourself. It would help if the class were a bit longer and the overarching project had more to offer (i.e. changing your subject for the big project so there would be variety in the work) to keep interest in the course.

By Camila A

Jun 20, 2020

There is a big contrast between this course and the others from the Graphic Design specialization. Although the course successfully makes the student create a lot, a lot of images, the content was very shallow sometimes, and the instructor is not very eloquent. So many um's and uhh's and kind of's in her speech, and so much usage of vague words like "stuff" and "things". This is very clear in the section where we analyze visual books.

By Ben R

May 31, 2020

With the exception of week 4, there is very few added information about imagemaking in this course compared to Fundamentals of Graphic Design. Many of the material is written rather than videos, the videos mainly feature recurring images and snippets. The assignments are a bit vague and it's unclear how to assess your own success. Week 4 final assignment and recorded examples were the one significant piece in this course.

By Juliet G

May 17, 2023

I really liked the course, you learn a lot and it is a good tool to learn graphic design but what I don't like about these courses is that the grades are made by the students because most people are also learning and don't have enough knowledge as to be able to give you a real rating or be critical with their comments. It would be much better if teachers were the ones who gave you grades.

By Mingtao W

May 15, 2019

I can feel that if taking in real world, this class will be a lot of fun. However, I don't think the design of this course really transits to online platforms. Without face-to-face teaching, it's hard to really do image-making works--there's no motivation, nor "quality control" from the teacher. Plus, this course is full of readings and DIYs, but I hope to see more lectures.

By Anna P

Jun 25, 2022

Boring course. Such a topic as the Imagemaking can be made very exciting. Unfortunately, this course turned out to be very boring, if it were not included in the Graphic Design specialization, I would have dropped it. Assignments are difficult to understand and require a lot of writing. I mean A LOT of writing! Much more than drawing. What's weird

By David W

Nov 14, 2023

The course was fine, though it glossed over the practical side of image making in favor of artistry. Forcing me to sign up for an external service that adds no value to the course or my position in the industry lowers the credibility of the entire certificate. It may seem fun to some but it feels like cheap advertising for a useless application.

By Kristen F

Jul 7, 2017

The class was okay, I didn't feel like I learned anything particularly exceptional, but maybe that is because I have taken several art classes already so many parts of this felt repetitive. I also personally didn't like the instructor's voice/manner of speaking, but that's just a personal opinion and not reflecting on her teaching as a whole.

By Stewart G

Jul 21, 2020

This is an interesting class and I'm glad I took it, but it was difficult to understand the goals of the assignments. I think the instructor might assume students know more about this style of art than many of them did. I always think in X, Y and Z axes when I draw. This class ignored that entire concept and went straight to abstract layout,

By Tin T

Mar 15, 2021

This course is not well planned. The instructions for the assignments are quite confusing. The peer reviews are not helpful with one or few words comment and feedback. I feel the students should be given points for their reviews as well because most students say a word or two because they want to pass the course and get a certificate.

By Nitish G

Jun 11, 2020

I found it very theory/reading-based and less interactive compared to other courses in the specialization. It would have been great if you could share your book before the last assignment to get an idea as it was quite evident from peer reviews that people didn't get it or weren't able to get started with it in the first place.

By Megan C

May 25, 2016

While I did enjoy this course, I found it to be less useful than the first two in the series. I also noticed a lot of repetition from the course before. I think my expectation was to learn more about imagemaking in a digital sense, but I'm still happy overall that I took this course and I can't wait to earn my specialization.

By Alice H

May 9, 2017

The progression of this course was not as comprehensive as the others in the Graphic Design Specialization series. We went from finding images online one week to creating handmade artwork the next. It would be more helpful for the instructor to build more of the work for the final assignment into the previous weeks.

By Jenny B

Mar 19, 2022

I really felt at sea with most of the assignments in this course, like I didn't understand what was expected or how I would be evaluated. This was the first course in this specialization that I thought simply didn't include enough teaching or enough explanation of how the assignments relate to the specialization.

By Pennie C

Jun 2, 2017

This course has lots of similarities as in Foundamental graphics design and I expected more after I started to pay for the course. Feel that many students are confused about the assignment and I don't feel students are taken good care of in time. But I appreciate that classmates are trying to help eath other.

By Sarah H

Oct 12, 2020

For an imagemaking course, the focus should be on making imagery in regards to creativity, concepts, and execution. There did not seem to be enough of these in the course, and the assignments were often confusing to follow. Overall, it's a decent course, but I did not learn nearly as much as I had hoped.

By Andy B

Jul 18, 2022

I enjoyed the assignments for the most part, but the instructor is a bit confusing when laying out the requirements. Once you turn the assignment in and start reviewing other people, you see that she wanted you to answer specific questions that were not listed on the actual assignment.

By Zdravka K

Jun 20, 2020

I had a bit more expectations about the course, I really liked the Fundatmentals of design and the lector, for me it was a bit more fluid and understandable. I suggest some theory to be included in this one.

Still I learned a lot about composition and narrative. Thank you!

By Turo U

Nov 12, 2019

Great course, but it takes a little bit more time that estimated. Teacher is a very good and inspiring. However the peer feedback is really poor. It would be nice if the teacher could also give some feedback (for example just in one exercise).

By Seth B

Dec 4, 2016

Would have liked to have more assignments and content on imagemaking rather than a focus on making a book. I feel like I got just as much imagemaking experience from the intro to graphic design course offered by Cal Arts.

By Moi G

May 11, 2020

This course was fun.

I think a few things that made this course challenging for me was the instructions for the assignments. I also think that my "classmates" misunderstand the grading rubrics.

Thank you, I learned a lot!

By rachelle k

Apr 26, 2021

I think some of the instructions were a little vague and open for me, and it was hard to figure out what the end products were supposed to be. I did like that it helped me learn how to jump into InDesign.