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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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526 - 550 of 633 Reviews for Introduction to Imagemaking

By Thasni T

Oct 8, 2020

I love this course because it made me think a lot❤️

By Julia R

Jun 15, 2018

Great course if you want to practice image making!

By Hung C F F

Jan 8, 2020

Pretty informative on the subject, inspiring also

By Aditi A

Nov 4, 2020

amazing courses, learnt a lot about imagemaking!

By Karen

Sep 30, 2016

如果有真实的workshop,相信效果会更好,这样的教育形式将在中国有很大的发展。

By Naomi M H

Oct 12, 2019

Great methods for development.

By Khan Z A

Aug 4, 2020

Had a great time learning

By Jorge R

Aug 28, 2022

It was good and complete

By Joy S

Jan 13, 2019

Good, practical course

By Maria T G

Nov 9, 2016

Challenging and great!

By Chathrapathi N K

Nov 23, 2020

really a great course

By Charity

Dec 14, 2020

nice experience

By Eder A R C

Aug 26, 2018

Muy interesante

By Llimy J C A

May 25, 2023

Es muy bueno

By Kalli M

Mar 6, 2019

I't was good

By Passant M T

Oct 19, 2018

good course

By Алина Н

Feb 17, 2021

Not bad:)

By Aldair A I L

Oct 24, 2022

nice

By Glaide W

Oct 2, 2020

great

By DINESH K K

Jun 14, 2020

good

By Charudatta J

Jun 9, 2020

good

By Sister E B

Jun 1, 2016

This course gave a great opportunity to explore one's creativity, with assignments that didn't require us to have skills in particular types of graphic expression. However, I also found that it didn't give me the richness of principles and techniques that I've found in other courses in this sequence. I expect that, for an in-person course, this instructor gives individualized feedback that provides that content. In a peer review situation, the feedback is quite general and so doesn't take up the slack from the lectures. I suggest that Coursera work with the instructor to retain the current content, but produce much richer lectures that have concepts and principles which students can put into practice even after the course ends.

By Laura H

May 24, 2020

I would say this is pretty good, not great. This is my 3rd course from CalArts. The first was fantastic, the second was mediocre and this one is little more than mediocre. Things that make it less than great for me include audio quality, an instructor who sounds completely unenthusiastic, and a learning path that seems strangely paced and maybe some of the material isn't in the most logical order. The first course was good, primarily, I think because the instructor was enthusiastic, and his course plan was logical and well ordered. I'm currently taking a series from MSU, and it is superior in every way. Enthusiasm, great learning path, great sound quality, good video, instructive directions.

By Laura M

Feb 17, 2022

This course was full of information and was a lovely follow-up on Fundamentals of Graphic Design. However, while the assignemets were robust in their examples and expectation, many of the assignments for peer review seemed incomplete, poorly attempted, or completely missing the mark for the rubric. Perhaps students were not completely understanding. By the final assignment I was quite frustrated as the feedback proved there were a wide range of interpretations both in execution and level of feedback. This was the first course in this specialization that I felt would have benefitted more from Professor-reviewed assignments rather than peer review.

By Katie S

Aug 11, 2020

This class is really basic--almost too basic considering the other courses you take before it. It's almost like you need a fifth week of refining images for the final booklet in order to feel like you have created something worthwhile. I think by this point there should be some sort of quality and cohesion lesson somewhere. Book forms and graphic design need cohesion and quality and that wasn't provided. I appreciate the flow and openness and the instructors constant comments of 'this doesn't need to be good', but at some point you need the instructor to say, "ok, now create something you think is cohesive and good."