# Graphic Design (GDPW) (GDPW) courses

Santa Barbara City College · 2026-2027 Catalog · 12 courses

Source: https://catalog.sbcc.edu/sel/career-skills/

"Offered" lists sections in this catalog year's class schedules: Fall 2026, Spring 2027.

### GDPW NC001 — Digital Design Techniques

- **Units:** 0
- **Hours:** 25 (15 lecture, 10 lab)
- **Offered:** Fall 2026, 1 section (/c/santa-barbara-city-college/schedule/fall-2026/gdpw.md); Spring 2027, 1 section (/c/santa-barbara-city-college/schedule/spring-2027/gdpw.md)

Students learn how to create flyers, brochures, logos, and more using Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign programs from the Adobe CS suite. Class will examine how the programs work together to seamlessly combine photos, graphics, and page layouts to produce high quality products. Students complete class assignments to practice and demonstrate the skills required to design and complete a professional project. This course may be taught bilingually. Course restricted to 98 repetitions

### GDPW NC005 — Photoshop Overview

- **Units:** 0
- **Hours:** 10 (10 lecture)
- **Offered:** not on the Fall 2026, Spring 2027 schedules

This introductory course offers an overview of Photoshop tools and functionality to discover the creative potential of image editing. Students will become familiar with the Photoshop window, tools, and main menu bar. The class will cover opening and saving files, image com-positing and collage, selections, layers and image correction. Course restricted to 98 repetitions

### GDPW NC010 — Introduction to Adobe Illustrator

- **Units:** 0
- **Hours:** 25 (15 lecture, 10 lab)
- **Offered:** Fall 2026, 1 section (/c/santa-barbara-city-college/schedule/fall-2026/gdpw.md); Spring 2027, 1 section (/c/santa-barbara-city-college/schedule/spring-2027/gdpw.md)

Introduction to the basics of Adobe Illustrator, a powerful graphic design and illustration program and an essential tool for any design project. Students learn how to create illustrations, logos, and more using Illustrator from the Adobe CS suite. Students complete class assignments to practice and demonstrate the skills required to design and complete a professional project. Course restricted to 98 repetitions

### GDPW NC015 — Fundamentals of Graphics (Bilingual)

- **Units:** 0
- **Hours:** 48 (48 lecture)
- **Offered:** not on the Fall 2026, Spring 2027 schedules

This bilingual course introduces the student to the basic operation of Adobe Photoshop, MS Publisher, and other graphic applications. Students develop the skills to work efficiently in these programs through a series of projects. Course restricted to 98 repetitions

### GDPW NC021 — Learn Adobe Acrobat Tools

- **Units:** 0
- **Hours:** 8 (8 lecture)
- **Offered:** not on the Fall 2026, Spring 2027 schedules

We download PDFs from the web and share them as emails. What are they, and how can they make our lives easier? This course demonstrates the basics of working with PDFs using Adobe Acrobat Professional to create, combine, edit, export, review, annotate, and comment, as well as how to share with others. Course restricted to 98 repetitions

### GDPW NC022 — Apply Adobe Acrobat Tools

- **Units:** 0
- **Hours:** 8 (8 lecture)
- **Advisory:** Complete GDPW NC021 - Learn Adobe Acrobat Tools.
- **Offered:** not on the Fall 2026, Spring 2027 schedules

Streamline your workflow and eliminate paper as you gain additional skills with Adobe Acrobat Professional. This course demonstrates the use of PDFs to convert paper documents into digital archives, combine documents from various applications into one cohesive file or portfolio, add interactivity to manuals and newsletters, and create interactive forms for easy data collection. Course restricted to 98 repetitions

### GDPW NC031 — Information Design for Print

- **Units:** 0
- **Hours:** 8 (8 lecture)
- **Offered:** not on the Fall 2026, Spring 2027 schedules

As technology enables the collection of an increasing and greater amount of data, today's designer is challenged to help make insights possible through the graphical presentation of this information. This course serves as an introduction to the foundation of information design and the creation of static visualizations for print distribution. Students will learn to tell stories visually with data through the understanding of data types, graphic design principles, and current software tools. Course restricted to 98 repetitions

### GDPW NC032 — Interactive Information Design for Screen

- **Units:** 0
- **Hours:** 8 (8 lecture)
- **Offered:** not on the Fall 2026, Spring 2027 schedules

This course explores the power and potential of coding for creating interactive designs. Beginning with a strong foundation in basic coding structures, students will quickly see visual results as they read, map, and illustrate information. The introduction of interactivity will allow students to create additional dimensions and layers of meaning by providing users methods to investigate and interact with data in new and novel ways. Course restricted to 98 repetitions

### GDPW NC041 — Producing a Digital Newsletter

- **Units:** 0
- **Hours:** 12 (12 lecture)
- **Offered:** not on the Fall 2026, Spring 2027 schedules

Focuses on formatting a newsletter for print and digital platforms. Students will be given guidance while laying out an actual publication of their own choosing or will be given a prototype to produce. Course restricted to 98 repetitions

### GDPW NC042 — Producing a Digital Magazine

- **Units:** 0
- **Hours:** 12 (12 lecture)
- **Offered:** not on the Fall 2026, Spring 2027 schedules

Focuses on basic techniques of formatting a magazine cover and interior master pages for print or digital platforms. Guidance on tools are given while applying skills to a real-time project. Course restricted to 98 repetitions

### GDPW NC051 — Save a Tree, Go Paperless!

- **Units:** 0
- **Hours:** 8 (8 lab)
- **Offered:** not on the Fall 2026, Spring 2027 schedules

Students will learn about pixels, the building blocks for digital images, and how they relate to image size and resolution. Demonstrate how the “intent” (print, web, digital documents) determines the size and resolution. Additionally students will learn how to use Photoshop to perform basic photo editing and re-touching. Course restricted to 98 repetitions

### GDPW NC052 — Preparing Digital Images

- **Units:** 0
- **Hours:** 8 (8 lecture)
- **Offered:** not on the Fall 2026, Spring 2027 schedules

Students will learn about pixels, the building blocks for digital images, and how they relate to image size and resolution. Demonstrate how the “intent” (print, web, digital documents) determines the size and resolution. Additionally students will learn how to use Photoshop to perform basic photo editing and re-touching. Course restricted to 98 repetitions