Home
Design Fundamentals
Keen to study design, but haven’t yet compiled a portfolio to gain entry into a Bachelor Degree? Passionate about design, but don’t want to study at a higher level? Good news – this course has been designed specifically to ensure that you’ll have a quality portfolio when you finish. Infact, the entire course is focused on real-life commercial projects, which lead to the completion of portfolio material.
We’ll help provide you with the fundamental knowledge, skills, experience and portfolio needed to advance to a successful tertiary education in visual arts and design.
This course gives you great insight into the exciting and dynamic world of design. It arms you with the academic skills necessary for successful tertiary study. On successful completion, it gives you the chance to gain entry into Year 1 of our Bachelor of Applied Design courses. It’s an ideal way to familiarise yourself with our campus, meet other design students, and check out our extensive IT labs and the latest software.
BILLY BLUE QUALIFICATION:
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
To successfully graduate from this course, you will need to have achieved competency in all 14 units delivered across four areas of expertise – design thinking, computer skills, hand skills and portfolio skills.
Design thinking
Fundamental to design is design thinking. It applies to all design disciplines and lies at the heart of any work. Being able to think conceptually is vital to a designer. You will:
- Be introduced to the fundamental principles of design
- Learn how to brainstorm ideas and develop a concept
- Find out how to express a concept visually
- Learn how to analyse and interpret a brief.
Hand skills
Billy Blue emphasises the importance of hand skills in all design processes. Therefore, we introduce you to the manual techniques of design fundamentals from the outset. You will:
- Learn how to produce drawings for communicating and presenting a concept visually
- Develop drawing skills for observation of the world around them
- Gain insight into how drawing skills are transferred and related to the other design subjects.
Computer skills
Computer skills are an intrinsic part of the design industry. These skills enable designers to take their ideas and develop them into a final design, ready for use in the commercial market. Designers rely heavily on their computer skills to communicate their ideas effectively. You will:
- Learn how to use and create artwork in Adobe Creative Suite software (photoshop, Illustrator, indesign)
- Work on an Apple in a Mac OS environment
Portfolio skills
The portfolio component of the course focuses largely on what the industry looks for in a good portfolio. Examples of professional portfolios are examined. The subject brings together work done in all classes to be selected for the portfolio. This is where everything that you have learnt comes together for review and presentation.
