Design · Beginner
Graphic Design
The principles that make work look intentional — contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity — then the practical craft: type, colour with measured contrast, and files that survive a printer.
Design program
- Lessons
- 4
- Study time
- 40m
- Level
- Beginner
- Program
- Design
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4 lessons
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About this course
Design that looks amateur usually fails one of four measurable things: not enough contrast to guide the eye, no repetition to make a set feel related, nothing aligned, and spacing that ignores proximity. This course teaches those principles as working tools, then the craft on top: type, colour with measured contrast, and files that survive a printer.
You will work on real briefs — a flyer, a business card, a poster — and learn the technical half that decides whether the work survives production: RGB versus CMYK, pixels versus vector, resolution, bleed, safe margins and export settings.
It ends with a screen and print pack for one actual business, a brand sheet and a sane approach to pricing, because most designers in Ghana earn freelance from exactly this kind of job.
Who this is for
- You have an eye for design and want the principles and production knowledge behind it.
- You already make graphics in a template tool and want work that holds up commercially.
- You run a small business or side hustle and want to produce your own materials properly.
Before you start
- A computer that can run a design application; a mouse is much easier than a trackpad.
- No drawing skill required — this is composition and technique, not illustration.
- About four to five hours a week for two weeks.
Where it leads
- Web Designing applies the same visual system thinking to websites.
- Human-Computer Interaction covers the interface side of visual decisions.
- Freelance design for small businesses, churches, schools and events is the most accessible paid work in this field in Ghana.
Tools you will use
What you will build
- 1A flyer that reads at three metres and on a phone screen
- 2A business card with bleed and a safe margin
- 3A poster built on a deliberate hierarchy
- 4A brand sheet: palette, type, spacing and usage rules
- 5Print-ready and screen-ready exports of the same campaign
Curriculum
2 modules · 4 lessons · 40m
Sign in to open each lesson
01 · Principles that make design work
The four principles, colour with numbers, and typography you can defend.
1. The four principles: contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity
Design that looks amateur is usually failing on one of four measurable things: insufficient contrast to guide the eye, no repetition to make a set feel like a set, elements that do not align to anything, and spacing that does not show what belongs together. This lesson treats each principle as a decision with a test, using the everyday work of a Ghanaian freelance designer — flyers, business cards, social posts, a shop's menu — as the material.
2. Typography and layout
Type is most of graphic design, and most type decisions are technical: size, line height, measure, hierarchy and spacing. This lesson covers families and their use, the numbers that make text readable, how to build a type scale and keep it consistent, image and text balance, and the layout patterns that work for print and for social — ending with a preflight checklist that catches the mistakes clients actually notice.
02 · Tools, output and practice
Colour modes, file formats, a real workflow, and getting paid.
1. Colour modes, resolution and file formats
The technical half of graphic design decides whether the work survives contact with a printer or a screen: RGB versus CMYK, pixels versus vector, dots per inch and its relationship with viewing distance, the difference between JPEG, PNG, SVG and PDF, and how to prepare files that a printer, a developer and a social platform will each accept without complaint. None of it is difficult; all of it causes expensive reprints when it is skipped.
2. A design workflow, and getting paid for it
Talent gets you the first job; process gets you the second. This lesson is the working method of a freelance designer in Ghana: briefing and asking the questions that prevent rework, concepting and presenting work so that the client can respond usefully (rather than asking for the logo to be bigger), version control for design files, handover, invoicing and pricing — including how to quote, what to put in a contract, and how to raise a rate without losing clients.
4 lessons, including the a print and screen pack for one real business — flyer, business card, poster — with a brand sheet and print-ready files project. Sign in and buy the program to open them. Create an account to track progress and earn the certificate.
Taught by a working engineer
Kojo Asante — Designer. Every lesson is written to be used, not just watched.
A verifiable certificate
Complete every lesson and you get a certificate with a code and QR that an employer can check in seconds.
Practice in the Code Lab
Write and run code in the browser while you learn, with your work saved to your own account.
Still have a question?
Email hello@codemasterghana.com or send a message from the contact page — we answer within two working days, in English or Twi.