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url: /courses/design-at-work/
title: "Design@Work | Online Courses | The Graphic Design School"
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lastModified: 2026-05-22T23:31:54.967Z
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site: "The Graphic Design School"
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# Design@Work | Online Courses | The Graphic Design School

> A 12-month, self-paced online course teaching non-designers practical Adobe InDesign skills and ready-to-use templates for workplace design.

**Keywords:** Design@Work, online design course, The Graphic Design School, non-designers, Adobe InDesign, design templates, professional design work, flexible pace, 12 months access, self-paced learning, tutor support, certificate of completion, workplace branding, design skills, practical design training

Non-designers · 12 months · Flexible pace · Adobe InDesign Design@Work Design@Work is a practical online design course from The Graphic Design School, built for non-designers who need to produce professional design work at their job. You learn Adobe InDesign, a set of working design skills, and how to adapt TGDS-supplied templates to your workplace brand. 12 months of access, flexible pace, tutor support the whole way. Course Costs & Payment PlansIs this right for my team? Course Ethos Course Outline Our Units Testimonials Getting Started The Course Ethos Level Up Your Skill Set Design@Work is the design course for non-designers. A course focusing on enabling you to accomplish design tasks without years of design training. We supply you with a selection of beautiful work related design templates, teach you a simple set of working design skills and instruct you how to use Adobe InDesign so that you may apply designs to our templates. Designed to Work Around You Entirely online and self paced you can fit it in at work, around work, when you want. You will have access to the course for 12 months. You may use the design templates at your leisure or when your work requires that special design job. The course can be completed in a much shorter period, however, if you prefer to go at a leisurely pace, you can dip into the resources and learn what you need, when you want. Qualification Certificate of Completion Duration 12 months access Hours Flexible (you set the pace) Pace Self-paced Software Adobe InDesign (only) What you walk away with Competence, not mastery Adobe InDesign competence Not mastery — competence. You learn the 20% of InDesign that handles 80% of workplace design tasks: flyers, reports, social templates, simple branded documents, presentation decks. Working design principles Type, alignment, hierarchy, colour — enough principles to make better choices than "I'll just use the defaults". You won't become a designer. You will stop making designs that look like they were made by a non-designer. A template library TGDS supplies a library of workplace templates. You customise them to your brand. By the end you have a ready-to-use kit for your organisation. Certificate of Completion Useful as evidence of CPD, training undertaken, or a skill added. Not a design qualification — doesn't try to be. Design@Work is for non-designers. If your goal is a career in graphic design, take the IFC or Cert IV instead. Learn The Right Tools Microsoft Word and PowerPoint were not made to be design tools. Introducing InDesign. InDesign is what we call a ‘multi page layout program’. This means that you can create a design that has one or more pages. InDesign is great for type and can also accept what we call vector and pixel based graphics. Fancy words for graphics and images. InDesign is very intuitive and can be used from a beginner to a professional level. Using InDesign on a regular basis will expand your skills and in the future, create your own designs. That’s tons of scope and lot’s of creative possibilities. We like that! Students in Australia, NZ, Europe and Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) are eligible to receive the student discount for the Adobe Creative Cloud required to complete this course. We will let you know how to go about this upon enrolment. Customisable Templates Choose from a set of Services or Goods related templates; Business Cards, Flyers, Newsletters, Brochures, Letterheads and even a personal Mood Board for the presentation of your ideas. We regularly add to templates, so let us know if there is something you need. Course Outline As you use your templates for work we will also be teaching you lots of other cool design stuff too, so here is the course broken down. Module 1 - Welcome to Design@Work + Summary The first module of this course lays the foundations that will be built upon in Module 2. Students will learn to start using Adobe Illustrator™, and as they progress through the module content they will be nurtured through Software Learning Video Tutorials in InDesign™. Definitions The Creative Cloud Suite: Students will learn which programs are good for a variety of uses in desktop publishing and why MS Word is no good for designing. Adobe InDesign™: InDesign is Adobe’s publishing and typesetting platform, students will be taught an overview of what it can do for their work. Design Brief: Students will come to understand what it means to create a design brief, and what one entails. Outcomes An overview of the different types of design documents, colours, typography through your field research. Source content from past and present and liaise comfortably with a designer. Understand the importance of colour to a company’s design system. Understand different styles and uses of Typefaces; Serif and Sans Serifs, and when to use them. Use a Design Brief to lay the foundations for a company’s Style Guide. Module 2 - Working with Design@Work Templates + Summary Building upon the foundations laid in Module 1, in this module students will work with pre-existing design templates, create quick and cool design projects. Additionally students will work with Adobe InDesign to create fully scoped projects for their work. Definitions Design Templates: Students will become familiar with using design templates in order to turn over beautiful designs quickly and cleanly. Company Logos: Using their company’s logo, students will learn to work with the different ways a logo can be incorporated into a design system. Outcomes Students will have a familiarity with setting up a document in InDesign from scratch Nurture an understanding of Adobe InDesign tools and menus Understand how to use Templates for quick design deployment Use Adobe InDesign and other services for email marketing Accreditation Optional Although the Design@Work course is intended for those wishing to up-skill, we do have a completely optional choice for students to submit a set of 3 designs, their briefs and a few other pieces of evidence as assessments. Successful completion will achieve a Certificate of Completion accompanied by a Nationally Accredited Statement of Attainment. Units Of Competency Successful completion of the assessments will achieve a Certificate of Completion accompanied by a Nationally Accredited Statement of Attainment. Units of Competency + ICPPRP224 Produce pages using a page layout application CUAPPR411 Realise a creative project CUAGRD311 Prepare files for print BSBWRT411 Write complex documents CUADIG304 Create Visual Design Components Tutor forum access “I came away with a well-rounded understanding of graphic design. The best part of studying here was having access to tutors via the forum, who always gave helpful advice and feedback on my work.” Sophie Russell From zero experience to confident “The course is engaging, fun, and informative. The level of support from tutors and even other students is amazing. I had zero experience going into this and now I am producing work I’m genuinely proud of.” Katherine Wybrow Flexible around life “I finished the course with a cheeky three-month break in between so it’s totally doable, even if life gets in the way. The tutors were amazing — always active on the forum, super helpful.” Weronika Tillmar Some of the Reasons Our Students Have Cited Further Study Some students have no immediate plans to undertake further study, yet think it wise for them to keep their options open. Courses teaching specialisations within the design sector may require a qualification in design as a pre-requisite of entry. Professional Development A qualification is required by their employer. As we are Austudy approved, students wishing to obtain Austudy, may only do so if enrolled in the qualification. We are happy to have a chat to you about the differences in the courses in more detail too. Meet the TGDS teaching team Danny Johnson Tutor Danny has over 15 years’ experience in advertising, visual communication and filmmaking. “I grade assignments at night, from the same studio I'm running sports media campaigns in by day. If something you're working on wouldn't survive a client meeting, I'll tell you — because that's the conversation you'll be having six months from now.” Lee-Anne O'Brien Tutor Lee-Anne worked for top advertising agencies including TBWA before being headhunted by Virgin in London, where she spent 7 years as an in-house designer. “I still freelance for international clients while tutoring at TGDS. Everything I'm seeing in the market — the shift to design systems, the motion requirements, the AI tools designers now deal with — it feeds back into how I grade and what I tell students to focus on.” Paloma Hodgins Tutor Paloma is a Senior Designer and Art Director who started her career in London working with international and European brands. “Feedback is where the learning actually happens. I'll take the time to tell you what's working and what isn't — properly, not just 'looks good'. It takes longer to write but you leave the module knowing why, not just what.” Toni Steet Tutor Toni has three decades of experience in design and communications. “I've taught at four universities, run my own practice, and worked in healthcare design. What I've learned is that good teaching isn't about being the cleverest person in the room. It's about noticing where a student is stuck and asking the one question that unlocks the next step.” Courses you might also like Explore other courses from The Graphic Design School. Design For Social Media Social Media Design done the epic way, The Graphic Design School way. We focus on Design and Content with a peppering of practical marketing and strategy! 3mths, 250hrs, Self-pacedI'm Ready for the Next Step as a Designer CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design The government accredited CUA40720 Certificate IV in Design qualification is recognised by employers and industry groups Australia wide. 15mths, 750hrs, Self-pacedFind Out How to Get Qualified Intensive Foundation Course Need some hefty design skills without the qual? Save a bit of dough with the IFC, cover the first 11 modules of the 12 module qual course here. 12mths, 700hrs, Self-pacedFind Out How to Get Mad Design Skillz Weighing this against other design courses? See how TGDS compares on value, outcomes and accreditation.