Steve Jobs may have said “design is how it works,” but when it comes down to communication, “how it looks” is an important part of “how it works.” Having an understanding of layout, typography, color theory, and the like can help you make sure that you are getting your message across.

While there aren’t official definitions or firm lines, you can think of graphic design as a targeted application of “design thinking”. For more on that, see Learn about design thinking

See also Learn about telling stories with data for some data-specific design information.

Graphic/Visual Design classes

here are a few we know about. Let us know if we’re missing anything

• JOUR 376: Knight Lab: Media Design
• DSGN 220: Design Sketching
• DSGN 243: Visual Thinking for Design

Reading (Web)

• **CSS Tricks** is a great source for practical information about making the web. I’m especially a fan of their guides, which organize all the key info about a few big topics in design, but there’s lots of good stuff throughout.
• **A List Apart,** “for people who make websites,” is one of the best places you can go to keep up with new thinking about both the visual and functional aspects of web design. This isn’t oriented towards beginners, but that doesn’t mean you won’t learn something from it even when you’re first getting started.

Reading (Books)

• The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams - a straightforward introduction to principles of graphic design (online access via O’Reilly Learning)
• On Web Typography by Jason Santa Maria (online access via O’Reilly Learning) ****

Resources (elsewhere)

Visual design rules you can safely follow every time

A Complete Guide to CSS Grid | CSS-Tricks

A Complete Guide to Flexbox | CSS-Tricks