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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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451 - 475 of 633 Reviews for Introduction to Imagemaking

By Sue D

May 12, 2016

I love taking courses by the California Institute of the Arts. With that being said this course wasn't the best. It seemed there was not enough information provided. The assignments were too simple. It also seemed like this very material was covered in an earlier course. At least it was available for everyone, not just those that paid. The critiques are the most important part and it was still provided for this course. For that reason alone I raised my review from 2 stars to 4.

By Lovisa T

Nov 10, 2022

The course material and assignments are great, very inspiring and I like how the assignments are connected with each other. The minus is the peer-reviews. There is much potential of the Peer-to-peer reviews but every second peer review I looked at was either plagiarism or someone not doing the assignment correctly. The reviews I got on my assignments were almost never constructive. I learned more by just doing the assignments rather than from the reviews.

By Andrea M

Jun 9, 2020

Introduction to image making is a well designed short term course for those looking to explore new visual ways of story telling within the graphic design framework. The peer graded community help push the students to deliver within deadlines and think critically when looking at their work collectively and reinforce progress. Course syllabus, resources and tools were very useful not only for course completion but for further study. Recommend!

By Jennifer S

Sep 20, 2021

The projects were interesting and they improved my ability to create, manipulate, and write about images.  There were a few negatives that made me give the course a 4 star.  The assignment directions were often confusing.  Also, the assignments were peer graded and almost all of the peer comments were single words or 2-3 word generic phrases.  That really ruins the intent of the course.

By guy k

Jun 18, 2019

There is a lot of great information. The instructions in some of the assignments are not the clearest. I didn't have a flowing learning experience. There is too much information and sources. It got me a bit out of it instead of focused. I can see it working not online because there is truly great information presented. I think some adjustment should be done for a better user experience.

By Teri L

Jul 9, 2018

Introduction to Imagemaking by the California Institute of Arts is an easy, accessible course online. Of course, it is a build-on to all the skills and vocabulary learnt from the last two courses. From this, the assignments are quite fair and understandable and are build-ups to eventually make a short pictorial narrative at the end.

By Olli V

Feb 13, 2018

A well-structured and inspiring course that broadened my perspectives on imagemaking. Although it's clear that imagemaking is definitely an open-ended process, I felt there could've been more examples of digital imagemaking techniques and compositions to give a more comprehensive template for creative thought. Recommended!

By Rose G

Dec 13, 2019

I really enjoyed the course and doing all the assignments, I could clearly see the potential of my creativity and my style. I thought some of the videos were a little difficult to sit through, maybe the voice was too calm/soft and got sleepy? But the material was great, it was a lot of fun and learned a lot.

By Hasnat A H

Sep 4, 2020

The perspective to observe things out of traditional ways was very interesting. The reviews of peer-graded assignments were too long though. Answering a lot of review questions was boring and I kinda lost my interest to "observe" the things knowing that I have to answer particular questions on it later.

By Anna N

Jun 27, 2023

Overall, I liked the course. It did boost my creativity. However, the required tasks were confusing. Would be better if there were much more examples of students works. It was hard to figure out what I have to do and looking at other students works I can tell that most of us had the same problem.

By Samantha C

Mar 21, 2021

The section on compositional hierarchy is a bit confusing. I still don't think I understand the difference between scale, space, and figure/ground. At least, scale and space are not used the same here as in other parts of the graphic design curriculum, and that is very confusing.

By Sergio G F

Aug 13, 2020

Many things studied on this course are subjective and the connotations depend on every viewer of each image of course. In any case the course and the study of images composition helped me broaden my knowledge on how to modify a page and its design to give the viewer a message.

By Paul M

May 9, 2016

I really enjoyed this course and it was one of the most helpful along with the Typography course, but it felt a little impersonal and short on information when I compare this one to the previous ones. I would love to look at more examples of imagemaking and uses of hierarchy.

By Stephanie N

May 3, 2016

Much of the course seemed to cover what was previously discussed. About the only thing this course did for me was to introduce me to In Design. The teacher was OK, but she seemed to lack enthusiasm, particularly when she was demonstrating the book-binding.

By Fred R

Mar 30, 2017

Very challenging and very rewarding to learn to "see" an object, to start owning it and to realize a booklet out of it. It was hard work and lots of trials and errors, but I really enjoyed it, and I'm sure that I've learnt a lot for my next projects.

By Tina L O Z

Jan 28, 2019

I felt this was a very challenging and stimulating course. It relies like many great courses in this series on peer reviews. I think the course is designed extremely well, I just wish there was more interaction/feedback from the teaching staff.

By Leroy S

May 24, 2016

Gail Swanlund is awesome. Her voice is amazing and fun to listen to. She explains things in a very creative way. So far, this has been my favorite among the Graphic Design Specialization courses. Still have two more courses to go yet!

By Pilar F

Apr 8, 2018

ESTUVO SUPER BUENO. PARA MI SOLO FALTÓ QUE EXISTIERA UNA INSTANCIA DE EVALUACIÓN/COMENTARIOS POR PARTE DE LOS DOCENTES.

IT WAS GREAT. THE ONLY THING I MISSED WAS THE CHANCE TO BE EVALUATED OR TO RECEIVE COMMENTS BY THE TEACHERS.

By Anca E

Oct 6, 2018

Course could do with a bit more content and putting some more theory behind the examples, explaining better different currents and schools of thought. It also had too much overlap with the first course in the specialization

By Jai C

Jun 26, 2017

This course has really guided me through making my own images. I can now research any subject and abstract images from a lot of different techniques. It has also made me realize my strengths are the areas for improvement.

By Charlene S

Mar 11, 2021

I enjoyed the course, but I really think the assignments need better instructions. I relied on the discussion forums to get a better understanding of what was expected. Week 3 especially needs more/better instructions.

By Penny L

Oct 26, 2019

Good assignments. Really learned something from this course. However, I found the requirement of some assignments might be a bit misleading and I often see other students work not following requirements.

By Huyen T N

Jul 5, 2020

The voice and lecture is quite sleepy, I had to take extra coffee for the course. And the assignment is still confusing. But in overall, the content and the knowledge has provided me a lot. Thank you!

By Jose M G E

Nov 22, 2017

I really like the course, I learn a lot of things

I think that some instructios for the assigments are not fully explained

and also I think the voice of the theacher in the videos is low monotonous

By Lidya S

Sep 24, 2019

The assignments are really fun and put the videos into practice very efficiently! The only thing that troubles me is sometimes the "design language" is too unfamiliar for beginners.