Congratulations on being accepted into the Graphic Design program at Algonquin College. We have a number of topics to cover in our first Computer Graphics class.

Using Illustrator's shape tools to draw can be an effective way to create smooth paths and predictable results. We can go much further than simply dragging shapes. There are a number of keyboard shortcuts that can help us create well-formed objects.

The Pen Tool is one of the trickiest tools in Illustrator. It's also one of the most fundamental to vector drawing. You need to do your time with the tool in order to tame it.

Adobe Illustrator is pretty good at setting type. It's no InDesign, but it can set point type, area type, type on a path and more. What's really great, is that you don't always need to draw a box to type.

Illustrator is a go-to application for print design as well as design for the screen. Depending on your intent, you'll need to make decisions about colour. We'll learn to create and edit global, spot, RGB, CMYK colour swatches in Illustrator.

Create, edit and apply gradients to strokes and fills in Adobe Illustrator.

This is a summative assignment which includes all the Illustrator skills you've learned to date. Follow the instructions on this page carefully.

In our introduction to page layout in InDesign, we'll build a single-page layout promoting Apple's Mac Mini desktop computer. We'll build this as a template so that it's easy to update for future products.

Use the provided files to build the Volkswagen advertisement according to the included PDF design guide. Again, we're building an InDesign document in a way which will make it easy to edit.

Selecting pixels is central to editing in Photoshop. Leveraging the characteristics of the photo is critical to getting a good selection. From there after, you can target selected pixels for editing. All this is done in a non-destructive workflow.

Layer Masks are arguably the most powerful, most frequently used tool in the whole Photoshop universe. We'll create pixel-based Layer Masks to achieve different results.

Before you can correct, you must select. This is a time-tested saying amongst Photoshop pros. Learning to make accurate selections of complex and detailed objects in Photoshop is a life-long learning process. We'll continue that here.

We'll use the Clone Stamp Tool, the Healing Brush and Content Aware tools to remove blemishes from a photograph.