# Graphic Design Basics: Core Principles for Visual Design - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/graphic-design-basics-core-principles-for-visual-design/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Graphic Design · Quick win · Rated 7 /10 # Graphic Design Basics: Core Principles for Visual Design By Gareth B. Davies · Updated July 2026 Ellen Lupton · Author and educator, MICA Beginner · 36 min A tight 36-minute primer that hands you five design principles from Ellen Lupton herself, but skips the software fundamentals a true beginner needs. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fgraphic-design-basics-core-principles-for-visual-design%2F1539782161) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. ## Five principles, one sitting This class compresses a full design-school semester into 36 minutes by handing the microphone to Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips, co-directors of the Graphic Design MFA program at MICA and co-authors of the textbook *Graphic Design: The New Basics*. The structure is a straightforward march through five principles: symmetry versus asymmetry, scale, framing, hierarchy, and grids, each delivered as a short back-and-forth between the two teachers rather than a monologue. Lupton argues for symmetry's stability, drawing a line down a Le Corbusier building and a stack of album covers; Phillips counters with asymmetry's energy, citing Rick Valicenti's layouts and a poster series that alternates between the two approaches. That dialogue format keeps the pacing brisk, though it also means neither principle gets more than two or three minutes before the class moves on. The framing lesson is the sharpest of the five because it reframes a familiar action as a design skill. Lupton's line that cropping an Instagram photo is an act of framing lands because it is immediately followed by the concrete distinction between a margin, a full bleed, and a partial bleed, illustrated with a museum branding piece whose content deliberately breaks its own border. Hierarchy gets a similarly concrete anchor: a classic Emil Ruder exercise where a plain block of text gradually gains weight, indentation, and color until it reads as ordered information. Watching that exercise unfold step by step is more useful than any abstract definition of hierarchy could be, and it is the kind of exercise a viewer can replicate immediately with their own text. ## Where the theory becomes a project The strongest stretch of the course is the closing demo, where Phillips builds an actual two-page spread from six travel photographs and two typefaces, Lava and National. She narrates every decision: why a 12-column grid gives more flexibility than three or four, why pulling one photo back from the bleed while leaving another full-bleed creates asymmetry, why aligning a caption to an image's edge rather than the grid reads as more intentional. Watching a layout evolve through three variations, gate-image left instead of right, reversed white type instead of unreadable black, gives the five principles a tangible test case that the lecture segments alone do not. The course is honest about being a fast constructed introduction rather than a deep dive. Its plainly stated aim is to seed five terms and enough visual reference points that a viewer can look at any layout and ask productive questions, not to produce a finished designer. Where it falls short is coverage depth: scale gets barely three minutes despite being arguably the hardest principle to internalize, and the grid lesson introduces web versus print grids only in passing near the end, with no real explanation of responsive breakpoints. The InDesign demo assumes a viewer already has the software open and roughly knows the interface, so anyone hoping for software tutorial alongside the theory will need to look elsewhere. For what it promises, a fast grounding in the vocabulary of layout, taught by two people who wrote the standard textbook on the subject, it delivers cleanly and without padding. The standout The live demo where Jennifer Cole Phillips builds a two-page magazine spread from six China travel photographs, showing in real time how pulling one bled image back inside the margin instantly injects asymmetry and energy. ## What you will learn - · Distinguish symmetric from asymmetric layouts and use contrasting color, shape, and pattern to keep either dynamic - · Use scale relationships (not just size) to create tension, surprise, and visual storytelling - · Apply the three framing types (margin, bleed, partial bleed) to control how an image or block of text occupies a page - · Build visual hierarchy through separation and difference: weight, case, color, spacing, and typographic tone - · Construct a basic InDesign grid with columns, gutters, and margins, and use it to anchor text to images - · Move from pencil thumbnails to a finished multi-photo, multi-typeface page layout Best for: A true beginner or hobbyist who wants a fast, credible vocabulary for critiquing and starting layout work, in any tool. Skip it if: Anyone who already owns Lupton and Phillips' book Graphic Design: The New Basics, or who needs step-by-step InDesign software training rather than design theory. Helpful Examples Clarity of Instruction Engaging Teacher Organization of Lessons [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fgraphic-design-basics-core-principles-for-visual-design%2F1539782161)