Courses

CUA40720 Certificate IV In Design

Full Enrolment Option

Our most popular course, the government accredited CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design qualification is recognised by employers and industry groups Australia wide. This qualification is part of the national vocational education and training (VET) system, competency based and based on Training Packages.

The CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design is delivered online. Unlike the upgrade option described below, enrolment in this course will see students enrolling in the full qualification from the time of enrolment. The CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design course is comprised of 12 modules that have been holistically designed around the 15 Units of Competency comprised in the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design Training Package. Students who wish to apply for Austudy may do so via this full enrolment option only.

About The CUA40720 Certificate IV In Design Course

The CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design Course delivered by The Graphic Design School is designed as a course that provides a pathway to a career in Graphic Design. There are 12 modules that make up the course, you will notice that the modules are the same as in the Intensive Foundation Course and the Certificate IV Upgrade as mentioned below on this page:

• Module 1: Introduction to Graphic Design
• Module 2: Design Basics
• Module 3: Introduction to Typography
• Module 4: Colour
• Module 5: Advanced Typography
• Module 6: Photography
• Module 7: Logotype Design
• Module 8: Design Systems
• Module 9: Layout Design
• Module 10: Design Systems II
• Module 11: Preparing your Portfolio
• Module 12: Advanced Portfolio Refinement and Enhancement, Preparing for the Job

Students have up to 15 months to complete the 12 modules. The modules can be worked through at your own pace during 15 months. The course has been designed to be able to complete within 32 weeks. However, as the course is self paced, you can decide how many hours a week you wish to concentrate on study. An approximate guide is 750 hours to complete the 12 Modules.

What Assessments Will I Have To Do?

The assessments for the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design Course have been developed around a number of practical activities that involve software applications, graphic design generation skills including sketching, development of graphics, typography, colour, logos and branding, identity systems, layout, design communication skills, portfolio building and design industry job ready skills. The course emphasis is a ‘hands on’ practical approach. The practical assessments that you produce throughout the course can be refined and used to contribute to your final design portfolio.

Achieving The Full Qualification

The full CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design qualification is comprised of 15 Units of Competency. The 12 modules have been mapped back to these Units below.

The 15 Units of Competency are as follows:

Core Units

• BSBCRT411: Apply critical thinking to work practices
• CUADES305: Source and apply information on the history and theory of design
• CUADES411: Generate design solutions
• CUADES412: Interpret and respond to a design brief
• CUAWHS312: Apply work health and safety practices
• CUAACD411: Integrate colour theory and design processes
• CUAPPR411: Realise a creative project

Elective Units

• CUADES301: Explore the use of colour
• CUADES302: Explore and apply the creative design process to 2D forms
• CUADES303: Explore and apply the creative design process to 3D forms
• CUADES304: Source and apply design industry knowledge
• CUAGRD312: Use typography techniques
• CUAGRD411: Research and apply graphic design techniques
• CUAPHI411: Capture images in response to a brief
• CUAPHI403: Enhance, manipulate and output photo images

The Qualification In Perspective

The government accredited CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design qualification is recognised by employers and industry groups Australia wide. This qualification is part of the national Vocational Education and Training System (VET), competency-based and based on Training Packages.

The Intensive Foundation Course is an online intensive foundational course in graphic design. You will cover 11 modules during the 12-month course and be issued a Certificate of Completion after successfully completing the course. This course will arm you with all the skills needed to be a graphic designer. You will complete the course with a well-rounded portfolio showcasing your skills. The Graphic Design School offers this course for people who are wanting to become graphic designers yet do not feel they need a government accredited qualification to do so. The graphic design industry is reputed to be an industry based on portfolio. This considered, The Graphic Design School believes that offering an alternate to the government accredited qualification pathway offers students the flexibility to undertake study without the price tag attached to a qualification.

The CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design Upgrade Course option is an extension on the Intensive Foundation Course, this course is also delivered online. This course bridges the gap between the Certificate of Completion and the government accredited qualification over a 3-month time frame. A student may only enrol through this upgrade course if they have successfully completed the Intensive Foundation Course. The Graphic Design School recognises the need for some students to gain government accredited qualifications. Government accredited qualifications do have many benefits, they are recognised in every industry, can contribute to credits in further design specialisation studies, and often give a feeling of security to a graduate when looking for work in industry.

As students progress through the Intensive Foundation Course and develop a love and deeper understanding for graphic design, a greater sense of career focus and direction is established. In some cases it may be necessary to complete a qualification, this opt-in service has been designed to give students the maximum amount of flexibility and the best possible value when considering study and career options. There is a 6-month time limit between when a student completes the Intensive Foundation Course to when they can undertake the Certificate IV in Design Upgrade. If you are reading this and you have let more than 6month lapse between finishing the Intensive Foundation Course and wanting to undertake the Upgrade. Please contact us to discuss.

The CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design full enrolment is also delivered online. This 15-month course is available to students who wish to jump straight into the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design course without going through the avenue of enrolling in the Intensive Foundation Course first. Students who know that they wish to study not only for portfolio skills, but for a full qualification from the get-go are recommended to take this course option. Students who wish to claim Austudy will need to enrol in this course option. This course is comprised of 12 modules. The modules in this course are an amalgamation of the 11 modules from the Intensive Foundation Course and the module from the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design upgrade course. These 12 modules have been mapped back to the Units of Competency from the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design training package.

The Design@Work Course is 12 month course, delivered online. This is the design course for non-designers. A course focusing on enabling you to accomplish design tasks without years of design training. We supply you with a selection of beautiful work related design templates, teach you a simple set of working design skills and instruct you how to use Adobe InDesign so that you may apply designs to our templates. As the course is self paced, you can decided how many hours per week you wish to concentrate on study.

The Web Design Course is a 6-month course delivered online. This course is designed as an introductory Web Design course that provides a pathway to a career in Web Design. Our Web Design course is aimed at teaching the fundamentals and principles of UI & UX to designers. It is a codeless course, we don’t teach any programming languages and instead we really focus on communicating the different limits and restrictions that designing for a digital/online platform has. This course is a is a non-qualification course.
We will go through the purpose and functions of many UX design standards, such as wire-framing, colour accessibility and device responsive design, and all of these tools and exercises culminate in our final module which covers developing full website from the ground up. There are 6 modules that make up the course, including the required Adobe Software learning to plan and design a website. More information on this course can be found below on this page. This course has been designed as an ‘add-on’ to the Intensive Foundation and CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design courses, it is not recommended to undertake this course if you are not already a Graphic Designer. You may however undertake this course if you are a practicing Software Engineer. Talk to us about your suitability for this course either via phone during AEST Mon-Fri 9am-5pm on (+61) 9918 3285 or anytime via email info@thegraphicdesignschool.com.

Intensive Foundation Course

The Intensive Foundation Course delivered by The Graphic Design School is designed as a course that provides a pathway to a career in Graphic Design.
There are 11 modules that make up the course:

• Module 1: Introduction to Graphic Design
• Module 2: Design Basics
• Module 3: Introduction to Typography
• Module 4: Colour
• Module 5: Advanced Typography
• Module 6: Photography
• Module 7: Logotype Design
• Module 8: Design Systems
• Module 9: Layout Design
• Module 10: Design Systems II
• Module 11: Preparing your Portfolio

Students have up to one year to complete the 11 modules. The modules can be worked through at your own pace during the year. As the course is self paced, you can decide how many hours a week you wish to concentrate on study. An approximate guide is 700 hours to complete the 11 Modules.

What Assessments Will I Have To Do?

The assessments for the Intensive Foundation Course have been developed around a number of practical activities that involve software applications, typography, colour, logos and branding, identity systems, layout and design communication skills. The course emphasis is a ‘hands on’ practical approach. The practical assessments that you produce throughout the course can be refined and used to contribute to your final design portfolio.

CUA40720 Certificate IV In Design Course Upgrade Option

The CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design Upgrade Course is an extension of the Intensive Foundation Course, this course is also delivered online. This course bridges the gap between the Certificate of Completion and the government accredited qualification. The CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design Upgrade Course has 4 extra assessments and a portfolio refinement review by tutors. The CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design course also includes a personal letter of recommendation from your tutor. A student may only enrol through this course if they have successfully completed the Intensive Foundation Course (or apply for RPL). This upgrade option has been designed to give students the maximum amount of flexibility and the best possible value when considering study and career options.

The 4 extra assessments take approximately 30 – 50 hours to complete. As study is self paced students have up to 3 months to finish the assessments.

What Assessments Will I Have To Do?

The first step to upgrading to the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design is a recognition process.
All the work, participation in forums and assessments you have completed in the Intensive Foundation Course are recognised in the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design. Because you have submitted your work online in the Schoolyard, we have a record of your progress that we check off in our marking systems against the 15 Units of Competency in the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design. After you enrol in the accredited course, one of our experienced tutors will go back to your work in Modules 1-11 and mark it against the accredited qualification. So, you have a heap of recognition of high quality work that flows into the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design assessment records. Well done to you! But, we do need a few extra pieces of work to sign off for the accredited qualification.

The extra 6 assessments for the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design upgrade course are as follows:

• Refining your Portfolio
• Resumé and Cover letter
• Industry Consultation on a past project
• OHS assessment
• Copyright questionnaire assessment

The estimated time to complete the above assessments is 50 hours.

Achieving the Full Qualification

In order to achieve the full CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design qualification both the Intensive Foundation Course and the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design upgrade course must be successfully completed. The full CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design qualification is comprised of 15 Units of Competency. As the Intense Foundation Course has been mapped back to the Units below, students undertaking the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design Upgrade Option will undertake 4 extra assessments that complete the full criteria for the qualification.

The 15 Units of Competency are completed by undertaking both the Intensive Foundation Course and the CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design upgrade course and are as follows:

Core Units

• BSBCRT411: Apply critical thinking to work practices
• CUADES305: Source and apply information on the history and theory of design
• CUADES411: Generate design solutions
• CUADES412: Interpret and respond to a design brief
• CUAWHS312: Apply work health and safety practices
• CUAACD411: Integrate colour theory and design processes
• CUAPPR411: Realise a creative project

Elective Units

• CUADES301: Explore the use of colour
• CUADES302: Explore and apply the creative design process to 2D forms
• CUADES303: Explore and apply the creative design process to 3D forms
• CUADES304: Source and apply design industry knowledge
• CUAGRD312: Use typography techniques
• CUAGRD411: Research and apply graphic design techniques
• CUAPHI411: Capture images in response to a brief
• CUAPHI403: Enhance, manipulate and output photo images

The Design For Social Media Course

The Design For Social Media Course delivered by The Graphic Design School encourages students to broaden their skills and services in design and delve into the world of social media template design and content creation.

Students will learn to create impactful social media template designs for their clients using extensive research methods and the intentional application of the fundamental elements and principles of design.

What we will teach you:

• How to use the important elements and principles of design in your design works
• Colour theory and the psychology of colour
• An introduction to Type
• Source and successfully pair typefaces for design works
• What is brand and examples of brand success
• The skills to work with your clients
• Complete a design brief with your clients
• Conduct social media audits
• Develop social media strategies
• Monitor and review performance metrics analytics
• Identify your clients tone and voice
• Create brand style guides
• Schedule content
• Establish content buckets
• Start to build a library of content through the intentional sourcing of free stock content
• Photography fundamentals
• Plan and conduct photoshoots for content generation
• Use photo editing tools in the Canva Pro application
• Create a brand kit in the Canva Pro application
• Apply your designs to a basic grid template
• Create a range of Instagram posts and story templates
• Create a range of Pinterest Pin templates
• Create templates with animation effects in Canva
• Adapt templates for multiple social media platforms
• Manage client handover
• Create a final client presentation

What Assessments Will I Have To Do?

We provide students with the opportunity to submit 4 final assignments to gain valuable feedback from our tutors. Successful completion of these assessments will achieve a Certificate of Completion accompanied by a Statement of Modules Achieved.

Assessment 1

For your first assessment you will complete a questionnaire identifying the design elements & principles you have chose to focus on in your final client projects. With all of the research that you have completed around your client, this should be an easy task. This is a very important part of the course. The design elements and principles that you identify are going to be the very the foundation of the work you produce. The work you create from here on in will be based upon these elements and principles.

Assessment 2

It’s time to fire up Canva again and work on the concept of your product photography photo shoot. This assessment is going to help your tutor better understand your creative thought process as well as the elements and principles that you have chosen for focus during the shoot.

Assessment 3

For this assessment you will select a product of your choosing as the subject for focus in your home studio photoshoot. If you have an existing client, you are free to use base this assessment around them. Ideally you will select a product that you’re passionate about. You will create your first mood board in Canva, source complimentary props as well as borrow/hire or buy the correct equipment to conduct your photo shoot successfully. If you choose, you will have the opportunity to submit two final images of your chosen product for feedback. This assessment can serve as a great piece to show off in your portfolio.

Assessment 4

In your final assessment you will be creating a social media template suite for your chosen client. With your clients design elements and principles at the ready, using the instructional videos to guide you, you will learn how to set up your templates from scratch, apply colour schemes, guides, margins, add elements such as type and images/graphics as well as apply animation effects. We will teach you how to create cohesive designs that reflect your clients content buckets. You will present all of your template designs in a final presentation, along with your clients style guide and mood board to demonstrate the inspiration behind your final designs.

The Web Design Course

The Web Design Course delivered by The Graphic Design School is designed as an introductory web design course that provides a pathway to a career in web Design. There are 6 modules, with related Adobe Software learning Experience Design (Xd) that makes up the course:

Module 1

Module 1 offers an overview of what role an understanding of graphic design plays in web, UI and UX design. Students will examine the fundamental principles and philosophies of graphic design from the new perspective of working within the constraints of designing for the internet. Module 1 will coalesce these skills together to bring students to the point of laying out an online feature article.

Module 2

Module 2 explores the use of images, multimedia and web-unique elements in website design. In this module students will critically analyse the use of these web design elements, accounting both for their effectiveness in the design and also their performance on the site. Module 2 will also begin to foster students’ understanding of the role of wireframe prototypes in a webpage’s design and how to implement a grid system over a page.

Module 3

Module 3 builds a familiarity and experience with working and designing for a fully scoped website. Students will expand upon their knowledge of single page hierarchies and design systems and translate into multi-page and multi-level website structures.

Module 4

In Module 4 students will begin to work on their Main Web Design Project for their work in the Web Design Course. Students will be allowed to choose their website design client from a list of supplied clients, create a site for their own design work or choose a real world client of their own.

Module 5

Module 5 simulates the design process after the review of the Minimum Viable Product. Students will be tasked with incorporating client feedback into their design and then extending that design from a one page render to a full prototype.

Module 6

Module 6 students take their finished website prototypes and deploy them to the internet using their own chosen publishing platform. Students will develop an understanding and competency with major world-wide publishing platforms, from there they will choose one platform and build their entire website’s design.

Students have up to 9 months to complete the 6 modules. The modules can be worked through at your own pace during the 6 months. The course takes approximately 350 hours to complete. However as the course is self paced, you can decide how many hours a week you wish to concentrate on study.
There is a 3 month extension available should you decide you need this option.

What Assessments Will I Have To Do?

The assessments for the Web Design Course have been developed around a number of practical activities that involve software applications, web design generation skills including sketching, development of graphics, typography, colour, layout and design communication skills. The course emphasis is a ‘hands on’ practical approach. The practical assessments that you produce throughout the course can be refined and used to contribute to your final design portfolio. You need a beginner level of Adobe Software knowledge as step-by-step software learning is offered in Illustrator and Xd. Assessment can be completed using either one or a combination of these programmes. Templates for the assessments are provided in all 3 programmes

The Design@Work Course

The Design@Work Course delivered by The Graphic Design School is designed to enable students to accomplish design tasks at work without years of design training. What we will teach you:

• An introduction to desktop publishing.
• Preparation and design thinking.
• Using branding guidelines and gathering resources.
• Creating Design Briefs and Style Guides
• Using real world design resources
• How to deal with other designers
• How to create InDesign documents from scratch.
• How to quickly set up InDesign.
• Using Tools and Menus.
• Working with Images and Type. (Bought and owned)
• Working with Colour and ready-made colour tools.
• How to create documents with impact.
• Using templates for quick design.
• How to make your own templates for repeatable, refined layouts.

Students have up to one year to complete the course. The tasks can be worked through at your own pace during the year. As the course is self paced, you can decide how many hours a week you wish to concentrate on study.

What Assessments Will I Have To Do?

Even though most people will be doing the course for the Design@Work set of skills, we do have a completely optional choice for students to submit a set of 3 designs, their briefs and a few other pieces of evidence as assessments. Successful completion of these assessments will achieve a Certificate of Completion accompanied by a Nationally Accredited Statement of Attainment.

Units Of Competency

The following 5 Units of Competency listed make up the Statement of Attainment:

• ICPPRP224: Produce pages using a page layout application
• CUAPPR411: Realise a creative project
• CUAGRD311: Prepare files for print
• BSBWRT411: Write complex documents
• CUADIG304: Create Visual Design Components

The decision to submit assessments is completely optional. You may decide not to submit assessments at all; this is entirely your choice. This course is designed to give you a great set of Design@Work skills. If you don’t want to bother handing in assessments that’s perfectly fine; we won’t harass you for assessment submissions.
If you would like to undertake assessments, when you are ready to submit them we will direct you to complete a few quick questions and officially enrol you in the assessment part of the course.