Frequently Asked Questions

How much is the course?

All information on payments and payment plans can be found on the enrolments page of this site.

Can I subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud at student rates?

Students enrolled in The Graphic Design School are eligible to receive the Student discount for the Adobe Creative Cloud required to complete this course.

Intensive Foundation Course and CUA40715 Certificate IV in Design require: Adobe Creative Cloud - Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and Acrobat Pro DC.

Web Design require: Adobe Creative Cloud - Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat Pro DC and Adobe XD.

What will I need to provide to Adobe:

In order to subscribe to the Adobe Creative Cloud at student rate, you will need to provide proof of enrolment and a photo ID.

You will find the Student Discount prices on your regions Adobe website, all discounts are at the sole discretion of Adobe.

What is the criteria for enrolling?

There are a few requirements for enrolment. You must:

• Possess the drive and motivation needed to undertake e-learning.
• Be 18 or over. If you are under 18 and wish to study, please ask a parent or guardian to contact the school via email or phone and we can discuss your particular case to see whether you would be eligible to study with us.
• Have a love of design… Of course.

How do I enrol?

You may enrol directly through this website on the enrolments page.

When can I enrol?

Enrolments couldn’t be easier. The school takes enrolments all year round, just go to the enrolment page, choose your course, method and payment plan then complete the enrolment form; you will be online and learning within a matter of hours!

What happens once I enrol?

Once you have paid your initial fees, we will send your unique username and password. You will have direct access to your very own student site, called the Schoolyard. In the Schoolyard, you will have access to:

• your course
• e-library
• training videos
• forum

You may begin learning straight away.

What aspects of graphic design does this course cover?

Please refer to the graphic design course online curriculum page on this site. It explains in detail the aspects of design covered in our courses.

How do I get my assignments marked?

All grading is done online through the student secure site; you will never have to send assignments via the post.

There is an easy-to-use upload facility for your assignments once you have finished them within the student site. The assignments are sent directly to your graphic design tutor. He or she will promptly mark your assignment and give you valuable and concise feedback along with your grades.

I have work and family commitments, are there strict deadlines and due dates for assignments?

In a word, no. Our online graphic design courses are self paced.

With this in mind, however, we ask students to be responsible for their own learning and development. By participating actively and positively and by ensuring that they maintain progress with learning modules.

It is our aim that students complete the course in the given time frames. We offer learning support when needed and also have paid extensions available should life get in the way and hinder your study efforts. See our Terms and Conditions for more details on our paid extensions.

Will I graduate with a portfolio in hand?

The CUA40715 Certificate IV in Design course has been designed so that each assignment will have a final role in establishing a professional and dynamic portfolio. Your tutor will help you shape your portfolio, resume and cover letters to get you the job in the area of design that interests you the most.

The Intensive Foundation Course has been designed so that each assignment will have a final role in establishing a professional and dynamic portfolio. Your tutor will help you shape your portfolio.

Will I be able to use my Certificate IV qualification to help gain entry into further study?

The qualifications are part of the Australian national system. This means that when you gain a CUA40715 Certificate IV in Design, it can be used towards a Diploma, then advanced Diploma or a Bachelors degree.

If your career goals include a pathway to further study at a university, the CUA40715 Certificate IV in Design is a great start. You can use it at a University or College with higher levels of study and it will help with admission and possibly credits. Plus your portfolio of course.

I already work in the design industry; I am self taught. Does your course apply to me?

Many of our students are practicing designers from different disciplines of design. These days it is very easy to teach yourself over the net by persisting with free software training videos on YouTube or the like.

The fact of the matter is that software training is the least important element when it comes to learning about graphic design. There are many people who are very proficient in the Adobe suite, yet do not have the design foundations to make the ‘right’ design decisions during the design process.

Software execution and design concepts are worlds apart; ask any designer. Depending on how proficient you are in the Adobe software, you may find the first few modules of Adobe teaching a little too basic. No need to worry. The course focuses on tying software skills together with solid design foundations.

We focus on creating designers that can react creatively and thoroughly to a design brief; who employ knowledge and notion of great design. Please read the course outlines thoroughly to get a better understanding of whether what we are teaching is right for you and your career path.

What are our data protection and privacy standards?

The Graphic Design School believes that your personal information and data is of the highest importance and as such we have always been and will continue to be compliant with the current standard for data privacy, the GDPR. The GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation in European Union Law is a new framework put in place to esnure and oversee the use of personal data in all citizens of the EU. The personal data we collect will only ever bbe used for the following puposes:

• Maintaining your student records
• Legal requirements for Registered Training Organisations; Certificate IV student’s information is sent to AVETMISS (The Australian Vocational Education and Training Management Information Statistical Standard) as per the certifcates requirement. Read more about our privacy policy »

What kind of software will I need to own to study?

The courses are taught in the Adobe Creative Cloud.

This provides has all you need to study with us. Please see each Course heading below as to which specific software you will need.

Intensive Foundation Course and CUA40715 Certificate IV in Design require: Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign and Acrobat Pro DC.

Web Design require: Illustrator, Photoshop, Indesign, Acrobat Pro DC and Experience Design (Xd).

What will I need in order to complete this course?

As you will be studying from home, there will be a certain amount of equipment that you will need to undertake the course successfully.

You will need access to a computer.

PC or Mac is fine; the course runs on any operating system. The Schoolyard itself functions like any other internet site; no special requirements are needed to run the Schoolyard. You will be using graphics software throughout the course. The software does require a minimum amount of system requirements to run fast and efficiently.

System requirements to run design software are:

Windows Users

• Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor (2GHz or faster)
• Microsoft® Windows® 7 with Service Pack 1 or Windows 8 — Note: Adobe XD is only supported on Windows 10
• 1GB of RAM
• 2.5GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on removable flash storage devices)
• 1024x768 display (1280x800 minimum recommended) with OpenGL® 2.0, 16-bit colour, and 512MB of VRAM (1GB recommended)
• Internet connection and registration are necessary for required software activation, membership validation, and access to online services.

Macintosh Users

• Multicore Intel® processor with 64-bit support
• Mac OS X v10.7 or 10.8 or above
• 1GB of RAM
• 3.2GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on removable flash storage devices)
• 1,024x768 display (1,280x800 minimum recommended) with OpenGL® 2.0, 16-bit colour, and 512MB of VRAM (1GB recommended)
• Internet connection and registration are necessary for required software activation, membership validation, and access to online services

Software

You will be required to own your own copy of the Adobe Creative Cloud. Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and Acrobat Pro DC.

When you are subscribing to the Creative Cloud, you will need to provide proof of enrolment and a photo ID to receive your student discount.

Internet Connection

Connection to Internet is also required. There are no particular speeds or access that is a minimum requirement as all modules can be downloaded and saved to your computer. Training videos can be streamed at an optional dial up speed level if needed. This option has been provided for people in remote areas and limited access to high speed Internet. If you do have the option to have access to higher speed internet (cable or broadband), this will help you have a more timely access when you need to conduct design research on the web.

Camera Equipment

Module 6 and 9 requires you to have access to an SLR camera. Module 10 and 11 will require that you photograph your work for packaging and portfolio projects, the camera you choose to work with in these projects is up to you. You must also possess knowledge basic knowledge of how to operate an SLR camera.

Illustration Supplies

Throughout the course you will need to complete design sketches, we ask that students have a small range of lead pencils HB-4B, A4 and A3 sketching pads.

Printing and Scanning equipment

In order to record evidence as part of your design processes you will be required to have access to a scanner and a printer. A colour printer is a personal preference, but not necessary for your assessments, Black and White printing is acceptable.

What kinds of interaction can I expect from my instructor and my fellow students in the Graphic Design School?

Our tutors grade and give valuable feedback on all of your assignments.

You can also ask questions or exchange inspirational ideas or links to share on the student forum. Communication with fellow students and tutors is a great way for you to ‘nut out’ issues that you might be having throughout the course.

Throughout the graphic design course, you will be introduced to the idea of keeping a visual journal.

We will guide you step by step throughout each module, so you can build your own visual library of ideas in this journal. This journal is also a great way for you to communicate ideas to your fellow students and staff.

Learning can be a challenge, and we find that there is always somebody out there that will be experiencing the same kind of challenge as you. Our strong student and tutor community is of the utmost importance to us, and we believe a key part of our success.

How does e–learning in the online graphic design school vary from a real-life classroom?

A great question without a single answer. Each student discovers for his or herself the conveniences of e–learning from home in their own way.

Besides passing on the costs that we save on infrastructure and rent, the most reported convenience for students is not needing to travel to a classroom, costly parking and the time involved for such an exercise.

The online support forum is jam packed with questions and answers from past students. Students use this as a quick reference too. Students can also post their own question to the forum and our tutors will reply quickly.

But do all of the conveniences really outweigh being in an interactive classroom environment … We think so! The Graphic Design School has dedicated thousands of hours to fine tuning our online graphic design courses, so that our students can benefit as much if not more from an e–learning experience with us than a real-life classroom environment.

We have many experiences of both tutors and students of other colleges reporting how long it takes a tutor to ‘get around’ to giving one individual the attention needed. In a classroom of 30-50 students, its understandable that one teacher cannot satisfy everybody’s demands. In an e-learning environment however, your instructional videos and course materials can be re-watched and re-read as many times as you like in case you feel you have missed anything first time around.

If you have another question, we would love to hear from you.