Have you ever wanted to learn design? Maybe become better in branding or marketing?
Nowadays, you don’t need the traditional school setting to achieve this. In our digital age, anyone can acquire new skills and learn to use new tools without attending a costly university.
I know this from experience, because I’m a self-taught designer. Life-long learning was always important for me. When I finished school, I knew nothing about Illustrator, Photoshop or WordPress but this didn’t stop me. I had a constant crave to create, but in order to create better design, illustrations or any type of artwork, I had to learn using the tools.
I started on Lynda.com, which was already present 10 years ago and I used any free time I had to go through their Adobe classes.
Then, my son was born, and time became even more precious. The classes I had watched before were too long, too detailed to fit in-between two naps and two dirty diapers. I started watching short YouTube videos but they were hit or miss, and searching for the right one took a lot of time too.
So when I first stumbled upon Skillshare back in 2014, I fell in immediately. Why?
Skillshare’s main differentiation on the now crowded online education market is that it provides short (1-2 hours) classes. One class might not cover everything you need to become a master of a new app, but these short classes are still beneficial:
- You can figure out whether the tool or process you’re learning about is the right one for you
- You can figure out if that teacher is right for you (anyone can became a teacher on Skillshare, so you can choose from many-many teaching styles)
- If you just want to learn something for a hobby, you can still fit it into your schedule – beside work, chores, kids, dates and your dog. Now that’s an important thing
In addition, each class on Skillshare provides you a practice project where you can use your newly acquired skills and techniques. You can get feedback on your project from other Skillshare students and the teacher too.
All in all, Skillshare made it possible for me to learn more than just the nitty gritty details of design tools. I’ve learnt about the creative process of surface pattern design from Bonnie Christine, animation fundamentals from Jake Bartlett and hand lettering from Mary-Kate McDevitt.
10 BEST SKILLSHARE CLASS FOR BRANDING, DESIGN & MARKETING
In this post, I’m going to share with you 10 must-watch Skillshare classes that will give you a reliable foundation for branding, design & marketing. They are all short, easy to follow and engaging.
LEARN ABOUT DESIGN TOOLS:
#1 – FUNDAMENTALS OF ILLUSTRATOR I: THE FIRST STEPS TO BECOME A PRO ILLUSTRATOR – BY BRAD WOODARD
If you’ve never opened Adobe Illustrator (or opened it but immediately got scared and closed it), this class is the perfect start to get to know it.
You’ll learn:
How to correctly set up your Illustrator documents for print and digital projects
How to set up your workspace (all the different tool panels) for the type of design work you do
How to use basic Illustrator drawing tools
How to save your file
If you love this class, and you want to learn more about Illustrator, you can follow up with the rest of the Fundamentals of Illustrator series from Brad:
Fundamentals of Illustrator II: Paths, Shapes & Lines
Fundamentals of Illustrator III: Color, Swatches & Patterns
Fundamentals of Illustrator IV: Appearances, Graphic Styles & Layers
Learn the Ins and Outs of Illustrator
#2 – FUNDAMENTALS OF PHOTOSHOP I: GETTING STARTED WITH THE INTERFACE, TOOLS AND LAYERS – BY MEG LEWIS
Just like with the previous classes, this one gives you the basic foundation to become comfortable in a very important design software: Photoshop.
Photoshop can feel quite complicated sometimes. It’s more than a photo editing tool. You can create illustrations, social media graphics, website layout designs, simple animations and even simple 3D renderings in it. It’s easy to get lost in the rabbit hole, that’s why a proper foundation is important.
You’ll learn:
How to correctly set up your Photoshop documents for print and digital projects
How to set up your workspace (all the different tool panels) for the type of design work you do
How to use basic Photoshop drawing tools
How to use Layers
How to use the Type Tool
How to save your file
If you love this class, and you want to learn more about Photoshop, you can follow up with the rest of the Fundamentals of Photoshop series from Meg:
Fundamentals of Photoshop II: Drawing, Layers, Masks, and Selections
Fundamentals of Photoshop III: Typography, and the Pen Tool
Fundamentals of Photoshop IV: Color, Swatches, and Blending
Fundamentals of Photoshop V: Creating Efficient Workflows, Tips, and Tricks
#3 - GETTING STARTED WITH CANVA FOR BEGINNERS: CANVA BASICS – BY JOSEPHINE TENDO
Maybe Photoshop and Illustrator are too complex for the type of design work you have to do in your business. That’s when newer apps, like Canva come into picture.
Canva is very intuitive and easy to learn but if you’ve never used any design apps before it’s good to have someone who guides you through the interface and shows you where to find each tool. This is exactly what you can get from this class.
You’ll learn:
How to sign up to Canva (free)
How to navigate the interface and find what you need
How to use the numerous Canva elements and text tool
How to export your files
LEARN ABOUT BRANDING, MARKETING & VISUAL IDENTITY:
#4 – DYNAMIC BRAND IDENTITY: DESIGNING LOGOS THAT EVOLVE – BY PAULA SCHER
There’s a tremendous number of classes about logo & visual identity design on Skillshare and this one is my favorites.
This class talks about the concepts, workflow and strategy of creating a logo and visual identity that makes your brand easily recognizable. It’s not enough to have a nice logo. The logo should communicate a story, a vision and your visual identity should be flexible enough to be applied on many different mediums (print, digital, social media, packaging, office design, etc.)
You’ll learn:
How to find inspiration and solution to communicate your ideas through a logo and visual identity
How to test your ideas
Real life examples of companies who applied these techniques perfectly
#5 – PERSONAL AND LIFESTYLE BRANDING: BUILDING YOUR STORY – BY KATE ARENDS
This short, 30-minute class is perfect for lifestyle bloggers and starting entrepreneurs. By the end, you'll have a clear vision for where you want your brand to go and how to get there. Your brand will tell the story you want it to and lead you to success.
You’ll learn:
How to identify your brand belief, mission, and pursuits
How to identify your brand emotional benefits
How to identify your brand aspirations and how you'll get there
#6 – PERSONAL BRANDING: CRAFTING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE – BY KATE ARENDS
Kate takes the lessons from the previous class one step further and extends it to social media. She also provides downloadable worksheets to help put every lesson into action. By the end of this one-hour class, you’ll be able to figure out what type of content you want to share, on what channels and in what character.
You’ll learn:
Defining your social media voice and character
Defining your social media content
Defining and picking your social media channels
#7 – INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY – BY BRIAN PETERS FROM BUFFER
This class is similar to Kate’s, but it also gives you tips on how to curate social media content from others and schedule it in a social media scheduling app. They use Buffer in the class but of course you can go with your favorite app.
Brian also provides a 5-step Facebook ad strategy at the end of the class.
You’ll learn:
How to choose the right social platforms for your business
How to create and curate effective visual content
How to use tools like Buffer to schedule, analyze, and improve your posts
Plus how to execute Brian's 5-step Facebook advertising plan
#8 – GETTING STARTED WITH EMAIL MARKETING – BY ALLYSON VAN HOUTEN FROM MAILCHIMP
Email is a crucial marketing channel, and never has this been truer than for today’s entrepreneur. This class teaches you the basics: what to say, how to say it and how often to email your subscribers. Note that these ideas can be applied even if you use a different email service provider than Mailchimp.
You’ll learn:
Defining a goal for your email marketing
Figuring out what content to include in your emails
Figuring out what type of emails you can send
And defining how often to send them
You can follow up this class with other classes from Mailchimp employees:
Email marketing Essentials: Writing Effective Emails – by Kate Kiefer Lee
Email Marketing Essentials: Designing Effective Emails – by Fablo Carneiro
Email Marketing Essentials: Measuring Impact with Metrics – by John Foreman
Email Marketing for E-Commerce: Tips and Tools to Increase Sales – by Ariana Hargrave
LEARN ABOUT BUILDING YOUR WEBSITE:
#9 – PERSONAL BRANDING ESSENTIALS: MAKING THE MOST OF SQUARESPACE – BY GEORGE DENISON FROM SQUARESPACE
If you want to create a website but don’t know anything about coding, this is your class. And not just because George teaches you all the bells and whistles of Squarespace. He also shares with you tips on how to build your website layout so it leads your readers when you want them to go.
You’ll learn about:
The value a site adds to your brand
Tips for optimizing templates, images, and content
Best practices for 5 essential site pages
Ways to grow your site over time
#10 – WORDPRESS FOR BEGINNERS – THE COMPLETE GUIDE – BY PHIL EBINER
Last but not least, this longer class (6 hours) will help you learn how to use WordPress with confidence. It teaches you the absolute fundamentals of WordPress from hosting to basic site building and later on you can build on this foundation with extra plugins and themes. This is a bit techier class but still on the easy to follow side.
By the end of this class, you’ll be able to customize your WordPress website for any purpose of yours - whether it's a blog, a portfolio to show off your work, or an e-commerce site to sell your products or services.
You’ll learn:
How to build your own beautiful website using WordPress.
How to design your WordPress website the way you imagine.
How to host and publish your website in an inexpensive and secure way.
How to design pages, menus, sidebars, footers, and create a professional and modern website.
How to find and install themes.
How to find and install plugins.
How to back up your WordPress website in case of emergency.
How to get your website found by search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
How to set up email opt-in forms throughout your website.
How to increase social sharing of your posts and pages with free plugins.
How to set up comments and contact pages, while blocking spam.
How to speed up your website with caching plugins.
How to make your website secure and protected from hackers.
How to set up a membership and / or e-commerce site.
NOW GO & LEARN!
I hope you get into a learning for life spirit and can’t wait to check out these classes.
Don’t forget that if you’re new to Skillshare, you can get your first 2 months for free. Just click on the link or the image below to get this awesome deal.
