Adobe Illustrator - Scientific Artwork and Infographics - ONLINE (2023-II)

Target group

This course provides you with a manual that you can skim upfront, save some time on introduction during the first session, and use it afterward to refresh the theory. This allows the trainer Iliana during the course sessions to focus in-depth on the tools and design principles needed to create your scientific artwork and infographics. The assignments will make you confident to design your projects at the end.
If you'd instead like to take things a bit slower and have the basics explained to you, consider taking the course Adobe Illustrator by Vincent van der Vliet. That course also prepares you to create your own diagrams and artwork, but focuses more on elementary subjects for using Illustrator and design theory.

Course description

This course will teach the tools needed to create beautiful and functional vector graphics/illustrations and develop infographics. Vector graphics are the main product of Adobe Illustrator and the fundamental design element for your infographics. After completing the course, you will create your scientific artwork and efficiently visualize your data in Adobe Illustrator. We will discuss the theory behind infographics' design, and you will appreciate the power of color and typography used in your designs. Applying the designing principles you will learn, you will understand why some designs look better and easier to follow than others.

Learning objectives

Our goal is to introduce Adobe Illustrator and help you design vector graphics, graphs & illustrations. Starting from scratch, you will discover how to navigate the program, draw your illustrations and develop your infographics. You will be provided with an straightforward manual so you can always look back when you have a new designing challenge. You will be trained to recognize a good and lousy infographic design and improve your designs with simple but necessary designing techniques.

Instructional method

The course is divided into four sessions. The focus of the first two sessions is on Adobe Illustrator. During the last two sessions, you will learn more about Infographics' design theory and the principles of good design. You will be challenged to improve, design, and give feedback to infographics. There will be a theoretical part in all four sessions, followed by assignments with the trainer's supervision and help. The activities are given beforehand, but you can always bring your designing challenge to practice. The activities in the Adobe Illustrator sessions are designed to teach you the program's tools and functions. The Infographics sessions will help you see and recognize designing flaws and enhance your designs with the knowledge you have acquired during the course. After each session, you will be given homework which you will get the chance to do during the week. Iliana will provide feedback on all assignments you hand in.

This course provides you with a printed manual that you can skim upfront, save some time on the first session, and use it afterward to refresh the theory. This allows the course sessions to focus on the tools and design principles needed to create your scientific artwork and infographics. The assignments will make you confident to design your projects at the end. If you'd instead take things a bit slower and have the basics explained to you, consider taking the course 'Adobe Illustrator' by trainer Vincent van der Vliet. That course also prepares you to create your vector graphics but focuses more on elementary subjects using Illustrator and design theory.

Remember that Adobe Illustrator is used to drawing illustrations and vector graphics, while Adobe InDesign is used to layout any file from a figure to a thesis book. If your goal is to layout, consider following the other course provided (Adobe InDesign - from Dissertation Layout to Poster Design)

Important

To follow the course, you need a laptop, having Adobe Illustrator installed in the English language. As a UU or UMC Utrecht employee, you can buy an Adobe license for only €19,75 via Surf spot. Also, remember to have a mouse or a graphic tablet to work since the laptop's mousepad will make the work difficult. At last, since the course is online and the sessions interactive, a microphone and a camera are obligatory for participation. The training is online, but it is not an online tutorial. It is advisable to work with two screens.

Trainer

You will be trained by Iliana Boshoven-Gkini (AgileColor).

Group size

15 participants

Number of credits

1.2 EC

Course schedule

After each session, you receive assignments to practice the techniques you learned. During the next session, you have the opportunity to ask questions about the assignments.

Study load

In addition to the scheduled sessions, you should take into account an extra study load of approximately 16 hours in total. This study load generally consists of homework assignments in preparation for the next session.

Course certificate

You will receive a course certificate after attending the training sessions and completing all the course requirements (i.e., assignments).

Cancellation and No-show policy

This course is free for GSLS PhD candidates. However: free of charge does not mean free of responsibility. Once you have signed up for a course, we expect you to attend. For every late cancellation or no-show we have had to disappoint others who would have liked to attend. This is our policy:

• You may cancel free of charge up to 4 weeks before the start of the course. After this date you can only cancel if you have a GSLS PhD candidate to replace you in the course. Send the name and contact information of your replacement to pcc@uu.nl, at least 2 working days before the start of the course;
• We expect that you actively attend the full course, but at least 80%. It is mandatory to attend the first session. If you are absent the first session you cannot follow the remaining of the course;
• Not meeting the above requirements means you will be charged a no-show fee (€ 120). We will send the invoice after the course has ended. We are unable to make any exceptions, unless you have a valid reason (i.e., illness or death in the family 1^st/2^nd degree or partner). Your supervisor has to send an e-mail to pcc@uu.nl indicating the reason.

Unfortunately we don’t offer this course for participants not part of the GSLS. Our courses tend to be fully booked by GSLS PhD candidates.

You'll learn how to use the software and some golden rules about the design and visual perception of the human mind

It is a very interesting course, with many tips and tricks that you can practice straight away

This course helped me visualize my research understandably and attractive