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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

8 to 15 participants

Number of credits

0.7 EC

Course programme

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.

Course certificate

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

Course fee

GSLS PhD candidates: â‚¬0
UU/UMC academic staff: â‚¬280
External participants (space permitting): â‚¬470
 

• GSLS PhD candidates are PhD candidates who are registered with the Graduate School of Life Sciences via MyPhD. 
• UU/UMC academic staff are PhD candidates of Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ who are not registered to the Graduate School of Life Sciences via MyPhD, postdocs employed by Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ or UMC Utrecht and other academic staff employed at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ or UMC Utrecht.
• External participants are all other participants.

Our no-show policy

We are happy to offer courses and workshops for free to all GSLS PhDs. However: free of charge does not mean free of responsibility. Our activities tend to be fully booked well in advance. For every late cancellation or no-show we have had to disappoint others who would have liked to attend. 

This is how we work: 

• Once you have signed up for a course, we expect you to attend;
• If you need to cancel your registration, do so at the earliest possible moment, at least four weeks before the start of the course;
• If you really have to and you have a valid reason, you are allowed to miss up to one course session. You always have to attend the first session.
• Not meeting the attendance requirements or cancelling within four weeks before the course starts means you will be charged no-show fee (€140 for this course);
• We are unable to make any exceptions.