This program is instructor-led, project-based, and completed at your own pace. Expert Faculty members provide critique and feedback on projects within one to two business days, helping you build a design portfolio for prospective employers.

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FEATURES

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TOPIC HIGHLIGHTS

This program consists of ten courses:

• Intro to Marketing: This is a three-lesson introductory course for designers who want to understand basic marketing principles and strategies. In each lesson, you'll learn tried-and-true marketing concepts and explore how they affect the design process. You'll gain a solid grasp of the marketing process, learn key terms and concepts that every marketer uses, and pick up smart questions to ask in client meetings.
• Photoshop basics: Get a thorough grounding in Adobe Photoshop, the premiere digital imaging program for graphic designers. Hands-on projects show how to select, enhance, distort, color, scale, and manipulate scanned images and artworks-or create them from scratch. Every designer must tame this creative powerhouse of a program.
• Illustrator basics: Build a working knowledge of Adobe Illustrator, the graphic designer's vector program of choice. Course projects explore selection tools, drawing tools, layers, the pen tool, transformations/ distortions, type tools, and modifying paths and shapes. Tapping the power of vector software allows you to produce detailed and scalable art for almost any application.
• Color theory: Focus on developing appropriate color systems for graphic design projects. Course projects explore the principles, terminology, and applications of color theory, with an emphasis on manipulating color. A working knowledge of the expression and perception of color, and color interaction, lends credibility and sophistication to a designer's work.
• Fundamentals of Typography: Typography is what sets designers apart from other artists. In visual communication, typography must be integrated (every last loop, bowl, and descender) into a total design. In this three-lesson course, you'll explore the anatomy of the letterform. Through interactive lectures and hands-on exercises, you'll learn how to classify typefaces and use them creatively. Understanding the fundamentals of typography will give your work power, eloquence, and beauty.
• Design and Composition: Composition, literally the assembly or construction of elements, is the artful arrangement that guides the viewer's eye and unifies your work. In this three-lesson hands-on course, you'll develop your compositional skills by analyzing everything from Grand Masters to Madison Avenue ads to tubes of toothpaste. Through a series of artistic workouts, you'll learn the principles of effective composition, building to a Final Project where you bring Mozart to the masses. Your designs may never be the same!
• Advertising Design: In this six-lesson course, you'll learn the principles of the advertising design from both a creative and a business perspective. Case studies from print, web, and TV showcase advertising concepts at work: persuasion, color psychology and composition, copywriting and typography, and brand communication. Class projects include ads for newspapers, magazines, subways, and transit/outdoor applications, and a final project in which you create an entire ad campaign. Use this course to build your portfolio and address concepts that every ad designer should know.
• Branding and Identity: Did you ever wonder how giant corporations such as CBS, BMW, and Sony establish their corporate images? And how important these images are in promoting their respective franchises? You'll discover the answers in this course. Explore through case studies the essential skills required to design logos, marketing materials, and advertising programs to establish and promote a corporate identity. You'll be designing or redesigning corporate identities for both existing companies and newly established businesses.
• Internet Marketing: Taking a business online? Building a commercial web site for yourself or a client is just the start. To grow any business on the Internet, you'll need to market strategically to your customers, using a range for tools from content sharing to e-mail marketing, search engine optimization, co-branding, ad buys, and more, to reach your target audience. In this six-lesson course, you'll learn practical skills for growing your business on the web. Studying with a professional Internet marketing consultant, you'll learn how develop an entire marketing plan for your online business. Course projects will include target audience analysis, developing a site plan, creating a content development strategy, e-mail marketing campaigns, search engine optimization, co-branding and community strategy, ad buys, sales/lead conversion, and using site metrics. Whether you're looking to build a new business online or simply get better results from your existing web site, this course will give you systematic strategies you can use right away. Web designers and marketing professionals will both benefit from this intensive course.
• Graphic Design Business: You've spent years building a portfolio brimming with beautiful work; your graphics groove, your logos lift, and your posters pop. Now the bad news. All the talent in the world is worthless (or, worse, low paid) unless you know how to set up your business and position yourself for successful career. In Graphic Design Business, you'll learn the essentials of setting up and managing your graphic design business. We'll guide you through everything from how to present your portfolio, find work, and market yourself, to the more daunting tasks of registering a company name, establishing an accounting system, and setting up your own corporation (we're not kidding). Whether you're going freelance, setting up your own shop, or just starting out with a big company, this course will set your career on the right track. Course projects are hands-on: you'll create a business plan, respond to an RFP (request for proposal), test-drive accounting software, create a budget, and customize your own business forms. When your first customer walks through the door, you'll be ready!

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CERTIFICATE REQUIREMENTS

A 70% or better must be achieved in order to receive a Certificate of Completion.

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COURSE OBJECTIVES

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PDF BROCHURE

Please click here to download the PDF brochure for the Gatlin online courses offered by OCPE.

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WHO SHOULD ATTEND

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These and other highly qualified part-time George Mason University, OCPE, Gatlin instructors will provide one-on-one feedback and instruction via e-mail to all enrollees.

Andrew Brenits is the principal of Brenits Graphic Design, a Jersey City-based design studio offering creative and strategic design solutions. Andy has over 10 years of experience in graphic design, including corporate identity, branding, web design, print design, and even tee shirts and apparel graphics. He began his career working at small studios in the Flatiron district of Manhattan, and quickly moved on to such large corporations as the National Football League, Banana Republic, and The Gap. Andy holds a master's degree in design management from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, and a bachelor's degree in fine arts and graphic design from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Donald Gambino is a computer artist, consultant, educator, and trainer, since 1983, teaching students of all levels and abilities. Formerly the Chairperson of the Computer Art Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, he has taught innovative computer art courses for over 12 years, and created the BFA program in computer art.

Marni Sandler is the co-founder of Kuma Digital, an Interactive Design Boutique in New York City. Prior to founding Kuma Digital, she honed her craft at organizations such as Xceed, i-traffic and Rhizome. She has worked with clients ranging from Kenneth Cole to Disney. Marni received her undergraduate degree in film from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and is currently finishing up her master's degree thesis in 'Cognitive Development and Visual Design' at the New School University's Media Studies department.

Michael Hamm is a freelance designer and web developer with more than eight years of experience in the field of interactive design. Based in Houston, Texas, Michael previously worked for JPMorgan Chase as an interactive designer.

Michael's work has been published in various web design books and magazines. In addition, he has served as technical editor on several design books published by Friends of Ed. Michael is an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in Adobe Illustrator and he is the founder, designer, programmer, and writer of Ergodraw.com, a web site that grew from his passion for the illustration software and all things vector.

Piper Nilsson is a graphic designer and information architect. In her four-year career for a leading web design agency, she blueprinted sites for such global clients as MetLife, Pepsi, ETS, and Citibank. Her current projects include building an e-learning prototype for children with learning disabilities and teaching technology in New York City public schools. She received a degree in graphic design from Pratt Institute.

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1. How do I register for a Gatlin online course?

Gatlin does not offer courses directly to the public. It offers courses through George Mason University and other colleges and universities. Please contact our office at 703-993-2113 or click here for more information or to register for a course.

2. How much do Gatlin online courses cost?

To view the prices for all Gatlin courses that are offered by George Mason University, please click here.

3. Why do I have to take Gatlin courses through a participating school?

That is the only way Gatlin Education Services offers its courses. They do not deal directly with the public.

4. Do I have to travel to register for or to attend a Gatlin online course?

All Gatlin courses are delivered entirely online, so you do not have to go to a class or travel to a school. Please contact our office at 703-993-2113 or click here for more information or to register for a course.

5. How long does it take to complete a Gatlin course?

All of our Gatlin courses are asynchronous. You can start and finish the course at your own pace. Most courses are designed to be completed within 180 days. You may request an extension if you think you will need more time to complete a course. Please contact us at 703-993-2113 or click here if you have any questions or if you would like to register for a course.

6. Do I have to buy additional materials?

Please refer to the green Included Materials box located on the upper right hand side of this page. If materials are included in this course, they will be shipped by Gatlin to you via UPS ground service after you have registered for a course.

7. Can I get financial aid for Gatlin courses?

George Mason University offers financial assistance through the Sallie Mae Training Loan Program for qualifying students. Call 703-993-2113 for more information. GES also provides a loan opportunity for students (www.collegeloanapplication.com).

8. What happens when I complete the course?

If you obtain a final passing grade of 70% or greater in a course, we will award you a George Mason University certificate of completion.

9. Who will be my instructor?

Each student is paired up with a George Mason University, OCPE, Gatlin facilitator for one-on-one interaction. The facilitator will be available (by e-mail or by telephone) to answer any questions you may have and to provide feedback on your performance. All of our facilitators are successful working professionals in the fields in which they teach.

10. What are the system requirements in order to take an online course?

Please see the "PC requirements" section listed for individual courses.

11. When can I start the course?

You can register for a course at any time.

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