What is Graphic Design: Photoshop and Canva for Non-Designers?

Make clean logos, social posts and a small brand kit with free tools, with Photoshop as an optional extra. You make professional-looking graphics, logos and social posts. You finish with a small brand kit of your own: a logo set, a colour palette, two fonts, social templates, a print flyer and a one-page brand guide.

Open the Graphic Design: Photoshop and Canva for Non-Designers course page

Complete beginners who need to make graphics for a small business, club, event or side project, and who have no design training.

These are the prerequisites the course lists:

• You can use a web browser, save a file and find it again.
• You have a real or imaginary small project to design for (a small business, club, event or side project). Lesson 1 helps you choose.

These are the tools and materials the course lists:

• A laptop or desktop computer with a modern web browser. A phone is handy for checking how your designs look, but the steps assume a computer.
• A free Canva account on the Free plan. Everything in the core lessons works on Free. Some Canva features are paid, and the lessons say which ones and give a free way around them.
• Photopea (free, runs in your browser, shows ads in the free version) or GIMP (free download for Windows, macOS and Linux). Pick one photo editor and stay with it. Photopea is the one used in most steps.
• Optional and paid: Adobe Photoshop. It is a subscription and Adobe offers a free trial. Check Adobe's page for current plans and prices. Nothing in this course requires it. Short 'Photoshop path' notes show where its steps differ.
• Three to five photos: your own, or ones with a free licence that you check in Module 4.
• A notebook or a text file for your brief, notes and licence log.
• Optional cost: printing your flyer at a shop. A home printer and plain paper are enough for the tests in this course.

A small brand kit. A small brand kit for your own project (real or imaginary). It contains a logo set, a tested colour palette, two fonts with text rules, three social post templates with finished posts, one print flyer, and a one-page brand guide that ties them together. Every piece uses the same colours, fonts and logo, so they look like they come from one place. The finished deliverables are:

• A one-page project brief (name, audience, three feel-words, where designs appear, the action you want).
• A logo set: primary logo, stacked or horizontal version, icon-only version, light-on-dark version and one-colour version, saved as PNG with transparent backgrounds plus a vector file if you can make one.
• A five-colour palette with hex codes, roles and a contrast table that shows which colour pairs are safe for text.
• Two fonts with written text rules: sizes, line spacing and alignment.
• Three social post templates (portrait post, square or photo post, and a tall story) and three finished posts made from them, exported as PNG or JPG.
• One print flyer, sized and exported for print, with bleed and margins handled and a home-printer proof checked.
• A one-page brand guide exported as a PDF.
• An image source and licence log that lists where every photo came from and the licence terms you checked.
• A tidy export folder with clear file names.

Graphic Design: Photoshop and Canva for Non-Designers has 24 lessons in 6 modules, a workbook of 10 items and a capstone project. It is planned at about 6 hours in total. The lesson text runs to roughly 15,700 words.

Graphic Design: Photoshop and Canva for Non-Designers has 6 modules:

• Module 1: Start here: your project, your pixels and your layers. Choose your project and set up free tools. Learn how images are stored, how to pick the right canvas size, and how to build a design in layers.
• Module 2: Four design rules that do most of the work. Learn hierarchy, alignment, spacing and contrast. These four habits fix most of what makes a design look amateur.
• Module 3: Colour and type: the ingredients of a brand. Understand colour codes, build a tested five-colour palette, choose two fonts you may use freely, and set text so it reads.
• Module 4: Working with photos: license, crop, fix and cut out. Find photos you may legally use, crop and resize them for their job, fix light and colour, and cut a subject out with a layer mask.
• Module 5: Your logo: plan, build, vary and save. Plan a simple logo, build it from your own text and shapes, make the versions you will need, and save the right files.
• Module 6: Put the kit to work: guide, social posts, print and the capstone. Write a one-page brand guide, build three social templates and a print flyer, review your work, and assemble your brand kit.

All 24 lesson titles, module by module:

• Module 1: Start here: your project, your pixels and your layers. 1.1 Pick your project and set up your tools; 1.2 Pixels and vectors: how a picture is stored; 1.3 Pick the right canvas size; 1.4 Layers: build a design in a stack.
• Module 2: Four design rules that do most of the work. 2.1 Hierarchy: decide what people see first; 2.2 Alignment: give everything a shared edge; 2.3 Proximity and white space: group and give room; 2.4 Contrast: make sure text can be read.
• Module 3: Colour and type: the ingredients of a brand. 3.1 Describe and record a colour exactly; 3.2 Build a five-colour palette and test it; 3.3 Choose two fonts you are allowed to use; 3.4 Set text so people can read it.
• Module 4: Working with photos: license, crop, fix and cut out. 4.1 Find photos you may use and keep a source log; 4.2 Crop and resize a photo for its job; 4.3 Fix light and colour with Levels; 4.4 Cut out a subject with a layer mask.
• Module 5: Your logo: plan, build, vary and save. 5.1 Plan a logo that works; 5.2 Build the logo in Photopea; 5.3 Make logo versions and set clear space; 5.4 Save the right logo files and name them well.
• Module 6: Put the kit to work: guide, social posts, print and the capstone. 6.1 Write a one-page brand guide; 6.2 Build three social post templates; 6.3 Design a flyer for print; 6.4 Review, get feedback and assemble your capstone.

The course is listed at beginner level and planned at about 6 hours in total. It has 24 lessons, each with objectives you can check yourself against.

Lesson 1 is "Pick your project and set up your tools" (Module 1, Start here: your project, your pixels and your layers). By the end of it the course says you will be able to:

• Choose a small project and write a five-answer brief for it.
• Set up free tools and a tidy folder for your files.
• Know how each lesson in this course is laid out.

Graphic Design: Photoshop and Canva for Non-Designers defines 21 terms in plain words: Pixel, Raster image, Vector graphic, Resolution, Aspect ratio, Canvas, Layer, Hierarchy, White space, Contrast ratio, Hex code, RGB, CMYK, Typeface and font, Leading, Layer mask, Bleed, Wordmark, Clear space, Transparent background and Brand kit.

PixelRaster imageVector graphicResolutionAspect ratioCanvasLayerHierarchyWhite spaceContrast ratioHex codeRGBCMYKTypeface and fontLeadingLayer maskBleedWordmarkClear spaceTransparent backgroundBrand kit

Graphic Design: Photoshop and Canva for Non-Designers lists 44 official sources that were opened and checked while it was written, from 13 websites.

• canva.com
• help.instagram.com
• w3.org
• webaim.org
• raw.githubusercontent.com
• openfontlicense.org
• unsplash.com
• pexels.com
• photopea.com
• gimp.org
• docs.gimp.org
• helpx.adobe.com
• and 1 more

Graphic Design: Photoshop and Canva for Non-Designers costs $39 (USD) as The Codex, the full written course with its workbook and templates. Studio (narrated video lessons) and the Full Operator path are not on sale yet.

How much do courses cost?

Graphic Design: Photoshop and Canva for Non-Designers was prepared by Apex Flow Labs with AI assistance and checked before it was published. Every code sample, formula and command the course includes was run before it went in, the course records 21 verification checks, and it lists 44 official sources it checked. Do not take the label on trust: open the sources and run the examples yourself.

How Apex Flow Academy checks its courses

It is listed at beginner level, and it asks for this before you begin:

• You can use a web browser, save a file and find it again.
• You have a real or imaginary small project to design for (a small business, club, event or side project). Lesson 1 helps you choose.

No. Graphic Design: Photoshop and Canva for Non-Designers teaches and checks a skill, but it cannot promise an outcome. The course's own disclosure reads: "Created by Apex Flow Academy with AI assistance. For education only; not legal, tax, financial or medical advice. Results depend on your effort and circumstances."

Yes. Graphic Design: Photoshop and Canva for Non-Designers includes a verifiable Certificate of Completion, issued by Apex Flow Academy when you finish every lesson, resolve every quiz question with at least 50% right on the first try, and tick the capstone checklist. It has a unique ID and a public verification page. It is a completion certificate, not a degree, licence, accreditation or exam result. The Full Operator path, with a final exam and capstone review, opens later with its own separate, stronger credential.

Is there a certificate?