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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 visualize your data in Adobe Illustrator with efficiency. We will discuss the theory behind infographics' design, and you will appreciate the power of color and typography used to your designs. 

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 five sessions. The focus of the first three sessions is in Adobe Illustrator. During the last two, we will dive into the design theory of Infographics. There will be a theoretical part in all five sessions, followed by exercises done with the trainer's supervision and help. The exercises are given beforehand, but you can always bring your designing challenge to practice. The exercises in the Adobe Illustrator sessions are designed to teach you the program's tools and functions. In the Infographics sessions, they will help you see and recognize designing flaws and enhance your designs with the knowledge you have acquired during the course.

Remember that Adobe Illustrator is used to drawing illustrations and vector graphics, while Adobe InDesign is made 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 an employee of UU or UMC Utrecht you can download the program internally or buy an Adobe license via . You will receive a printed manual which is also written in English, so it makes it easier to follow the theory and practicals. Also, remember to have a mouse or a graphic tablet to work during the sessions since the mousepad of the laptop will make your work difficult. Since the course is online and the sessions are interactive, a microphone and a camera are obligatory in the course's participation. It is advisable to work with two screens.

Trainer

Iliana Boshoven-Gkini (1981) has completed two masters in Landscape architecture, Floriculture, and garden design, in the Agricultural ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Athens and Wageningen ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ in the Netherlands. After completing her studies, she started working independently (2012) (AgileColor design studio | AgileColor.com) and focused, among others, on helping PhD candidates with their thesis books and scientific artwork. From 2015 she started teaching Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign and Infographics courses in Wageningen and Utrecht Universities and gave guest lectures/training to numerous other occasions in the Netherlands and Switzerland. From 2019 she is a certified teacher in the Netherlands (CRKBO, Centraal Register Kort Beroepsonderwijs). She lives in Koedijk Alkmaar with her husband and three children.

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.