Graphic Design: online course with internship agreement
The Graphic Design course teaches you to justify layout, colour and typeface choices. You check contrast against WCAG 2.1 AA, build grids for print and responsive screens, and work in shared Figma files. You adapt visuals for social platforms, keep a brand consistent and review AI-generated images. Aimed at beginners heading for in-house design work: 180 days, 100 % online, internship agreement included, €200.
- 180 days of access
- 100 % online, at your own pace
- Level: beginner · No prior design experience required
- Assessment: 10 quizzes (50 questions) and a final project
- Internship agreement included
- Certificate with a verifiable QR code
- Languages: Spanish, English, French
- Price: €200
Who it is for
- Beginners who want to work in an in-house or marketing design team
- Marketing staff who produce visuals and want reasons behind design decisions, not just taste
- People who build web pages, social posts or print materials and need to meet accessibility requirements
- Career changers preparing a portfolio for a first design role
What do you need to start?
Prior knowledge
- No prior knowledge of design or design software is needed
- Comfortable using a web browser and handling files and shared links
- Willingness to explain choices in writing, for example replying to a brief with reasons
Software and equipment
- A computer with a reliable internet connection
- Figma, used in the browser for shared files, components and prototypes
- Free palette and contrast tools such as Coolors, Adobe Color and a contrast checker; free typefaces from Google Fonts
- Paid AI image tools such as Midjourney or Canva's paid tiers are separate subscriptions and are not included
What you'll be able to do
- Explain why one composition works better than another, using composition, colour and typography vocabulary
- Measure colour contrast with a tool and judge pass or fail against WCAG 2.1 AA thresholds
- Choose and justify a typeface for a brief, including when a variable font is the better choice
- Build one grid logic that serves both a fixed print panel and a responsive web page
- Create Figma components, auto-layout frames and a clickable prototype, and coordinate through comments and version history
- Adapt a single image into correctly shaped assets for LinkedIn, Instagram feed and Reels
- Apply a three-layer review checklist to AI-generated images before they leave the design team
- Plan a portfolio that presents in-house work without breaching confidentiality
Skills you will practise
- Composition and visual hierarchy
- Colour notation (hex, HSL, NCS)
- WCAG 2.1 AA contrast
- Variable fonts
- Responsive grids
- Figma components and auto-layout
- Social media formats
- Brand guidelines
- AI image review
- EU AI Act transparency
Syllabus
- Foundations: composition, colour and typography — The vocabulary for explaining why a layout works: composition, hue, saturation and brightness, and the difference between a typeface and a font.
- Colour systems for screens and accessibility — Hex, RGB, HSL, NCS and Munsell notation, palettes in Coolors and Adobe Color, and WCAG 2.1 AA contrast under the European Accessibility Act.
- Typography today: metal type to variable fonts — A repeatable reasoning process for choosing typefaces for screens and print, plus how variable fonts and their licences work.
- Layout and grids: print to responsive — Column grids treated as one problem across a fixed printed panel and a web page read at unpredictable screen widths.
- Figma-first design and collaboration — Shared files, components and instances, auto-layout sizing, simple click-through prototypes, and the use of comments and version history.
- Designing for social platforms — How formats, lengths and viewer attention differ across LinkedIn posts, Instagram feed posts and vertical Reels, starting from one source image.
- Branding fundamentals — Preventing colour and type drift across teams with brand guidelines, including checking font licences such as the SIL Open Font License.
- Generative AI in design practice — AI image tools as disposable drafting aids, a mandatory human-review checklist, and content that must never be generated or approved.
- AI transparency and the EU AI Act — When AI-generated visuals need disclosure under the EU AI Act, for a company that licenses AI tools rather than building them.
- Portfolio, internship practice and career entry — Planning a portfolio during an internship, including how to show work that is confidential, unreleased or contains personal data.
Internship agreement
With this course, an intern could support an in-house or marketing design team. Typical tasks include preparing print panels and web page layouts on a grid, adapting campaign images for social platforms, and building or tidying Figma components. The intern could also run contrast checks on existing colour pairings and put AI-generated drafts through a review checklist before publication.
The internship can run at the same time as the course, within the 180 days of access.
Frequently asked questions
What kind of design role does this course prepare me for?
The Graphic Design course is built around the daily work of a junior designer or design intern in an in-house team. That means answering briefs with reasons, producing print and web layouts, keeping colours and typefaces consistent with brand guidelines, and preparing social media assets. It also covers checking accessibility and reviewing AI-generated images, and collaborating with colleagues in shared Figma files rather than emailing copies back and forth.
Which tools, standards and laws does the course actually cover?
On tools, the course covers Figma for interface work and collaboration, Coolors and Adobe Color for palettes, contrast-checking tools, and Google Fonts typefaces released under the SIL Open Font License. It also looks at AI image tools such as Midjourney and Canva. On standards and law, it covers colour notation (hex, HSL, NCS, Munsell) and WCAG 2.1 AA contrast. It explains the European Accessibility Act and EN 301 549, and the transparency rules of the EU AI Act.
What could I work on during the internship, and who finds the company?
You find the host company yourself. The school then issues the internship agreement and its annex for the company to sign electronically, usually within one to two working days. Suitable placements are marketing or in-house design teams. There you could lay out print and web pages, resize campaign visuals for LinkedIn and Instagram, check colour contrast against WCAG 2.1 AA, or maintain Figma components.
If AI can generate images, do I still need to learn design?
Yes. The course treats generative AI as a fast way to produce disposable drafts, not finished deliverables. Every AI image that reaches a public deliverable needs human review for technical defects, fit with the brief, and legal or ethical risks. Those risks include accidental trademarks or images that pass as real photographs. A tool's "commercially safe" claim refers to its training data, not to what your prompt produces. Judging all this requires design knowledge.
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Content updated: 07/10/2026