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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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426 - 450 of 633 Reviews for Introduction to Imagemaking

By Doaa M M

Aug 2, 2019

جيد جدا

By udit k

Jan 30, 2018

thanks

By Waryam A

Sep 17, 2022

best

By kelly t a t

Jul 1, 2021

buenn

By chise

Feb 9, 2020

goood

By lily r

Jun 18, 2017

Nice!

By Joel O

Mar 22, 2022

good

By Luca B

Dec 12, 2020

Nice

By CHADALAVADA V

Oct 31, 2020

good

By Nagaraja G

Oct 13, 2020

good

By Federico N

Jun 17, 2020

good

By Rakesh M

Mar 4, 2020

szxd

By ahmed a e

Oct 30, 2018

good

By B B

Feb 18, 2017

<3

By Davis M V C

Jun 26, 2023

By ruben

Jun 29, 2018

.

By kati s

Sep 26, 2016

A

By Corinne M

Apr 14, 2016

G

By Olesya K

Jul 29, 2021

I enjoyed the assignments. It helped me to create themed works based on my photographs and drawings. The idea of the course to use the same images throughout 2 weeks didn't fit my own objective. I did new project for each week. I was totally disappointed at lack of the imagination of so many people who blindly copying instructors work, just changing an animal. Learn to use your own imagination. If you take this course, be creative, be authentic. No One needs people who can copycat. Create something better based on what you have learned. People taking this course shouldn't assume they are ready to create children's books, for example. The problem I noticed throughout the course the lack of good composition. Gal "plays around" with bad compositions and then it becomes a norm for these poor students who don't know better. Encourage these people to flip through good books. Learn more.

By Monica E G

May 27, 2019

The contents of the classes itself is really really good, the videos, the assigment. But my 4 starts is because the method of coursera is annoying, having to go to forum many times to ask people to review so you can go on in the course, so the forum doensn't work to share knowledge is just for people to ask for review. Also there is no moderation about the reviews, I had a lot on reviews just saying "good"or well done". I expected at least the final course would be checked. One thing that made me waste time is that for 3 times I had to go to chat with us to ask to unlock my course, I didnt do that I would have to wait more than a week for star the new week and I had the impression is an impressiona that coursera make this to make us spend more time on the plataform.

By Ayde L

Jun 10, 2023

The course provided a good learning experience overall, despite the requirement to sign up for multiple websites that I didn't frequent afterward. However, it was beneficial in exposing me to various free resources that were previously unknown to me. The course itself was informative, well-structured, and taught me a lot. The instructors showcased their expertise effectively, making the learning experience engaging and worthwhile. Although the website sign-ups were a minor inconvenience, the course proved to be a valuable investment of time and effort, broadening my understanding and equipping me with significant knowledge and skills. I would recommend this course to others seeking a comprehensive learning experience in this field.

By Keith W

Jun 8, 2016

Very good course with fun and challenging assignments. My only criticism of this series of courses (the graphic design specialization) is the grading process and lack of instructor interaction. While the peer grading is setup so that it's not too difficult to receive a decent grade if you do the work, there is virtually no instructor feedback on assignments, which is a bit dissapointing. I realize this may be due to the huge number of students, but usually when I pay for a class, interaction and feedback from the instructor is part of the package. Perhaps if you did that, though, then the tuition cost would be much higher.

By D.S. L

May 1, 2021

This course was very good. I could tell the instructor didn't want to limit the student too much, but I'm afraid it made her directions a little too vague. For instance there weren't any clear examples of work for students to see, she would often opt for wordy explanations instead of examples. I get it, you don't want students to just copy work, but it was pretty hard sometimes to really grasp what the expectations were for some of these assignments, I can't imagine what it would have been like to someone for whom English is a second language. All in all, it was a fun course with a fair amount of useful work.

By Sandhya S

Jun 29, 2020

I think this was the most challenging course in the series so far! While I thoroughly enjoyed this course, I do have a feedback for students reviewing. Some students just offer a word or two saying, I liked it, or well done etc. Even though the criteria for reviewing is very clearly laid out, they do not put in the required effort to offer constructive feedback, which I find is disappointing. This does not help us know where the scope for improvement lies. I just wish that everyone gave proper feedback and suggestions by clearly answering the questions mentioned in the criteria for review.

By Niladri S J

May 18, 2020

The course was great in terms of imparting the skills to create a range of representation, and composition strategies for spread. The course is helpful for students who would create layouts of books with illustrations, brochures, or other marketing communications, etc. However, I think we needed more practice as the last two weeks had only one assignment per week. I would have loved two more things - in general, a bit longer videos on the theory and explaining more of it, and review of some examples for week 3.