Graphic Design
Learn design decisions, not just Canva buttons.
- Course fee
- ₦40,000
- Duration
- 4 weeks
- Sessions
- 8 · 2 per week
- You leave with
- A mini brand package
About this course
Teach learners to create useful visual designs rather than simply teaching them how to use Canva or another tool. The tool changes every year; the decisions about hierarchy, contrast, spacing and typography do not.
You start with design foundations because that is what separates a flyer people act on from a flyer people scroll past. Then the tool, then real Nigerian commercial work — church graphics, event flyers, Instagram posts, business cards — and finally the client workflow: briefs, corrections, revisions, exports.
What you will be able to do
- Judge and fix layout, hierarchy, contrast and spacing on sight
- Choose typefaces, pair them and set text that reads well
- Produce flyers, posters, social posts, cards and certificates to print and digital spec
- Run a client job from brief to export, including revisions
The deliverable
Certificate requirement
A mini brand package
A logo, a flyer, a social media post and a business card for one fictional or real business, presented together with the design brief you were given and the corrections you handled.
How the course is assessed
Level 1
Know
You can explain the concept, name the tools involved and recognise the difference between doing it well and doing it carelessly.
Level 2
Do
You can perform the task independently, without the instructor repeating the steps, and fix the obvious problems when they appear.
Level 3
Create
You can use the skill to produce something a real person would pay for — a document, a design, a website, a report, a repaired machine.
Week by week
4 weeks, 8 practical sessions. Click any session to read the complete class lecture — objectives, taught content, the instructor demonstration, practice, mistakes to avoid, homework and the marking rubric.
Week 1 — Design foundations
Visual communication, purpose, audience, layout, alignment, balance, contrast, hierarchy and white space — then colour theory, typography and image selection.
- Session 1105 min · 14 min read
Design Foundations I — Seeing
- What graphic design is
- Types of graphic design
- Visual communication
- Design purpose
- Target audience
- Layout
- +5 more
- Session 2105 min · 15 min read
Design Foundations II — Colour & Type
- Colour theory
- Colour combinations
- Typography
- Font categories
- Font pairing
- Visual hierarchy
- +3 more
Week 2 — The design tool
Canva from templates and custom dimensions through to layers, alignment, effects, background removal and setting up brand colours and fonts.
Week 3 — Real-world design
Business and promotional flyers, social formats, church and event graphics, then posters, business cards, invitations, certificates, simple logos and product ads.
- Session 5105 min · 15 min read
Real-World Design I — Flyers & Social
- Business flyers
- Promotional flyers
- Social media posts
- Instagram formats
- Facebook formats
- WhatsApp graphics
- +1 more
- Session 6105 min · 16 min read
Real-World Design II — Print & Identity
- Posters
- Business cards
- Invitations
- Certificates
- Simple logos
- Product advertisements
Week 4 — Professional workflow
Briefs, corrections, revisions, file organisation, export formats and print versus digital — then the final brand package project.
- Session 7105 min · 15 min read
Professional Workflow
- Client requirements
- Design brief
- Receiving corrections
- Revision workflow
- File organization
- Export formats
- +4 more
- Session 8105 min · 15 min read
Final Project — Mini Brand Package
- Logo
- Flyer
- Social media post
- Business card
- Presentation of the package
- Handling live critique
Graphic Design — questions
The things prospective students actually ask before enrolling.
Is this a Canva course?+
Canva is the tool we use because it is free, fast and used commercially across Nigeria, but the course is taught as design. Two of the eight sessions are pure foundations with no software open, and every project is critiqued on hierarchy, contrast, spacing and typographic decisions — not on which template you picked.
Do I need to be able to draw?+
No. Almost none of the work in this course involves illustration. It involves arranging type, images and colour so a message lands, which is a learnable skill with rules you can check.
Will I learn Photoshop or CorelDRAW?+
This course uses Canva, which covers the majority of the graphic work Nigerian small businesses commission. Photoshop and CorelDRAW are the natural next step for logo construction, photo retouching and large-format print, and we tell you honestly when a job needs them rather than pretending Canva covers everything.
Can I start charging for design work after four weeks?+
You can take small jobs — event flyers, social posts, church graphics — once your portfolio has three to five solid pieces. Price them modestly at first, deliver exactly what you promised, and take Business & Freelancing to learn how to brief, price and invoice properly. Most of our design students get their first paid job within a month or two of finishing.
What do I need to bring to class?+
A laptop or tablet with a free Canva account, and a phone you can use to photograph your own material. For the print sessions we work with real print specs, so bring any flyer or business card you like or dislike and we will take it apart together.
