Teenagers with strong visual arts skills may find these positions particularly rewarding, especially if they build their knowledge before college using classes, summer camps, and tutoring programs.
Preparing for graphic design careers before college in this way lets students carefully hone their abilities, learn important layout concepts, and produce consistently excellent work. Furthermore, it lets them skip beginner-level classes (which often take place early in the morning), builds their confidence, and helps them finish college sooner. Thankfully, there are many courses that teenagers can use to become better graphic designers and take their careers to the next level.
What Graphic Design courses are available for high school students?
No matter what a teen’s skill level is, there should be many graphic design courses available for their specific interests! These classes often include in-person learning opportunities, as well as virtual classes that help reinforce a teen’s abilities. Online programs may include 1-on-1 learning options, a free course retake, computer setup, and other benefits. Often, these classes focus on beginner-level lessons that help make it easier for teens to master a course fully.
While high school and even college-prep courses are available for teens of all ages, the following three schools can provide varying levels of learning excellence: NextGen Bootcamp, Noble Desktop, and CourseHorse. Designed to improve a teen’s capabilities, these schools provide in-person learning in New York City and digital education everywhere else. So even teens outside The Big Apple can transform their lives by preparing for an exciting career!
NextGen Bootcamp
NextGen Bootcamp focuses solely on teaching teenagers important coding, design, and business skills. Its summer camp structure includes 2-3 weeks of lessons in either an in-person or virtual environment. Teens will work through classes with their professors, meet new friends, produce attractive work, and create a portfolio that showcases their skills. In this way, NextGen Bootcamp teaches teen graphic design skills while not completely taking over their summer.
Graphic Design Summer Program NYC
Graphic Design Summer Program NYC (or its virtual equivalent, Graphic Design Summer Course Live Online) helps teenagers prepare for college courses or careers with entry-level lessons. For example, they’ll learn about page layouts, text integration, font selection, graphic choices, photo importing, color balancing, and text frames. They’ll work on Adobe Photoshop and InDesign to produce appealing and attractive work while crafting a strong portfolio.
Furthermore, they’ll learn how to use things like the Pen, Type, Compound Path, Effects, Layers, Masks, Patterns, Colors, and Blends tools to produce work that sells. Designed as part of NextGen Bootcamp’s Graphic & Web Design Summer Program NYC certificate, this class helps provide teens with the skills they need to become graphic designers. It should take just over a week to finish and cover about 50 hours of studying on a 10-4 learning schedule.
Digital Design Summer Certificate NYC
Digital Design Summer Certificate NYC (or the virtual Digital Design Summer Program Live Online) teaches critical skills to help teens prepare for a UX/UI design career. They’ll study Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign alongside Figma with a skilled professor who will provide live, real-time instruction. They’ll focus on helping a teen learn how to craft logos, icons, and scalable images, as well as utilize Figma’s unique UX/UI design concepts.
Throughout this program, teens will craft an engaging portfolio that they can share when applying for college programs, in-depth internships, job opportunities, and even fun extracurricular activities. These portfolios are critical because they prove that a teen fully understands digital design concepts and can use them effectively. Furthermore, teens also earn a digital completion certificate that they can share online to show off their knowledge elsewhere.
Noble Desktop
Noble Desktop is New York City’s premiere private learning institution. Since 1991, Noble has won multiple awards, received New York State educational licensing, expanded its programs to coding and business subjects, and innovated a live online learning method. Few schools have the same breadth and experience as Noble, making them a smart choice for high school students. Their classes can be taken either in-person or online, depending on a teen’s needs.
Graphic Design High School Summer Program NYC
Graphic Design High School Summer Program NYC (and the online Graphic Design High School Summer Program Live Online) teaches high school – and college – students how to use graphic design software like Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. Designed to be hands-on and interactive, this class will help students learn how to retouch photos, combine images, prepare web graphics, layout text, and integrate threaded text frames successfully.
As students move through the class, they’ll learn how to use important drawing items, such as the Pen, Compound Path, Effects, Layers, Masks, Patterns, Blends, and Colors tools. Designed to take just 50 hours to complete over a week or so, students receive benefits like setup assistance, small classes, expert instructors, portfolio management, and a proprietary workbook that they can use whenever they want to brush up their skills after the class is completed.
Graphic Design Portfolio Bootcamp
Graphic Design Portfolio Bootcamp is technically part of Noble Desktop’s Graphic Design Certificate program. Students can take this individual class separately from that larger program if they like or save money by signing up for the full learning experience. Whatever option they choose, high school students will work through this course to create attractive logos, social media graphics, stationery, and book covers using Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator.
Like with other Noble Desktop classes, students get benefits like 1-on-1 training support, help from an expert professor, socialization opportunities, and even a free setup if they work virtually at home instead of in the classroom. Note that students who try this program and skip the other classes in the Graphic Design Certificate course must still have a working knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and other programs before signing up to learn.
What Graphic Design private tutoring options are available?
CourseHorse provides unique private graphic design tutoring programs that may help students who learn best through 1-on-1 learning. Designed for both in-person and virtual environments, these two classes help hone a teen’s abilities and make it easier for them to find a great college program or even prepare for a career. They’re worth investigating for shy teenagers who may not want to sit in a 20+ person class to learn graphic design skills before starting college.
Graphic Design Private Tutoring
Graphic Design Private Tutoring is a Noble Desktop class provided exclusively for the Course Horse platform. Designed for students 18 and older, it includes three personalized hours of training during which teens will learn how to produce logos, social media graphics, book covers, advertisements, and other marketing materials. Each of these projects goes directly into a portfolio, which teens can then use to show off their abilities to colleges and employers.
Furthermore, all completed work receives in-depth analysis by the professor, which allows students to learn more about graphic design and use it effectively after they complete the program. In this way, they can strengthen their knowledge, hone their abilities, and walk away happy with what they’ve learned during their tutoring session. Note that teens must have a strong working knowledge of InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator before taking this course.
Video Editing Private Tutoring
Video Editing Private Tutoring is another Noble Desktop program available on the CourseHorse platform. It includes a similar 1-on-1 learning experience over five hours that covers multiple graphic and video editing concepts. For example, teens learn how to use Premiere Pro to edit video and audio, which can help them produce attractive advertisements, YouTube videos, and even films. Furthermore, they’ll learn how to use After Effects to add animation to their work.
As teens work through this course, they’ll also learn how to use Photoshop and Illustrator and produce a demo reel of video editing projects that show off their skills comprehensively. All sessions focus heavily on a teen’s specific skills and knowledge, building off what they know to ensure that they walk away with the knowledge needed to impress colleges and employers. It’s a great supplemental learning option for teens interested in graphic design careers.
What will you learn in a Graphic Design course?
Teens taking a graphic design course will study multiple complex concepts that help them build their skills, gain confidence, and produce consistently amazing work that their customers will love. Though each course may use different teaching methods, graphic design programs focus heavily on these topics to provide a consistent and coherent learning experience. Note that these are just some of the lessons high school students will learn in a graphic design course.
Typography and Font Selection
Most graphic design courses start by teaching typography and font selection. These concepts focus on visually arranging words and letters to capture a reader’s attention and create engaging styles. Teens also learn about font selection, including which types to use in their work, as well as the size and weight that makes their designs more appealing. Using this basic knowledge, they can then progress to more complex skills to build their abilities even further.
Design Principles
Graphic design utilizes multiple unified principles to produce appealing and engaging work that stands out compared to other designers. In a training program, teens will learn principles like white space, color, image hierarchy, design balance, and layout concepts that help attract the eye and draw it down the page. Utilizing these theories can help teenagers improve their abilities, become more skilled designers, and ensure they produce coherent, consistent work.
Color Concepts
Graphic design projects typically use at least one color set concept to produce attractive and appealing work. These include CMYK and RGB, which work best in specific situations. For example, CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) looks amazing on printed pages because it provides a more subtle look. RGB (red, green, and blue) produces fantastic digital artwork because designers can skillfully combine these primary tones quickly and efficiently.
Software Programs
In the past, graphic designers worked heavily with pen and paper, along with rulers and other physical tools. These days, about 99% of all graphic design is digital, meaning most projects are finished on or even conceived for digital mediums. As a result, teenagers must learn how to use software like Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign to produce attractive and engaging work. Thankfully, most of this software works well together to create various types of unique projects.
UX/UI Design
User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design are two of the largest fields in graphic design. They focus heavily on providing users with strong visual elements, including images, text, and control features, to make a company’s products and services easier to use. In graphic design courses, teens will learn about these subjects, including important layout ideas that streamline their UX and UI understanding to prepare them for this fascinating field.
Is Graphic Design Hard to Learn for High Schoolers?
The difficulty of learning graphic design will vary depending on many factors. For example, some students possess natural visual arts skills, meaning they can easily master concepts like visual layouts, graphic integration, video production, and more. However, even high school teenagers with these abilities need to understand graphic design software, important layout concepts, and other skills to improve their abilities and prepare for college or a career.
The main challenge lies in finding time to practice and improve skills regularly. Most teens can probably quickly learn how to manage Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. However, utilizing them to effectively produce attractive artwork and designs is another story entirely. It’s a little bit like learning a programming language: mastery goes beyond simply understanding a skill’s basics and requires teens to understand how to use them to solve complex problems effectively.
As a result, it’s important for high school students to regularly practice graphic design even after they complete their training programs. These classes provide the basic skills and knowledge needed to use graphic design concepts properly throughout multiple project types. However, it takes sustained work and persistence to polish these skills to perfection. Doing so can ensure that high school students get the long-term support they need for their learning experience.
Can high school students learn graphic design?
Even if you don’t have good drawing or painting skills, graphic design is a fantastic skill for teenagers to learn, regardless of your experience level or career interests. It’s something that just about any teen can learn through guided lessons with skilled professors. In fact, most graphic design is done digitally these days (close to 99%), meaning that students who can’t draw very well can still create attractive graphic design projects to improve their portfolio.
Should high school students attend a graphic design summer program?
If you’re interested in learning graphic design concepts for a fantastic career, a summer program can help! Why should you go to a summer class instead of learning in school? Summer courses typically only last a few weeks, meaning you’ll have plenty of time to master graphic design basics while still having fun this year! Just as importantly, summer classes let you focus specifically on this subject without distraction, potentially improving your comprehension.
Which graphic design summer program is best for high school students?
Graphic Design Summer Program NYC from NextGen Bootcamp provides foundational education in subjects like Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, equipping NYC students with the skills they need to master this field. If you live outside New York City, don’t worry—Graphic Design Summer Program Live Online is available! Touching on the same lessons, this program features live virtual education that works amazingly well for your educational needs.
Is it worth attending a graphic design summer program as a high school student?
Finishing a graphic design summer program in high school will help you prepare for college, improve your career opportunities, and more. For instance, you could learn graphic design basics to boost your knowledge, minimize confusion, and make sure you transition to a college program more efficiently. As importantly, you can build essential skills and abilities that are valuable in many career fields, such as marketing, graphic design, and web development.