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Design Fundamentals: Colour, Type, Shape & Layout

The rules underneath every good flyer, app screen, logo, lookbook and website — colour theory, typography, shape, layout, hierarchy and composition — taught without depending on any one tool.

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About this course

Every Skillnaija design course teaches a tool: Canva, Figma, Framer, a phone camera. This one teaches what the tools are for. In ten lessons you learn how designers actually see and decide: how colour works and how to build a palette that passes accessibility contrast, what colours mean in Nigerian culture and in print versus on a screen; how type is built, classified, paired, sized and spaced, and which free fonts render Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa characters properly; how shape, line and form carry meaning from a logo to an Adire pattern; how grids, margins and alignment organise a page or a phone screen; how hierarchy, contrast, whitespace and the Gestalt principles direct the eye; and how to compose with photographs and illustration. Three worked case studies — a Lagos event flyer, a phone app screen and a fashion lookbook page — show the same rules applied, and a critique method lets you judge any design in two minutes. The project is a one-page style sheet and three designs built from it, in whatever tool you like, with a written rationale.

Walk down any Lagos street and you are inside a design exhibition nobody curated: hand-painted barbershop signs, church posters with eleven fonts, a bank's billboard with one, danfo slogans, ankara prints, a fintech's clean green app. Some of it works instantly and some of it makes you squint, and the difference is never the software it was made in. This course is about that difference. It teaches the handful of rules that every tool-specific course on Skillnaija — Canva, Figma, Framer, phone photography, fashion — quietly assumes you know, and it starts by changing what design means to you: not making things pretty, but making a message land in a stranger's eye in two seconds.

What you'll learn

Course syllabus — 10 lessons

  1. Design is communication, not decoration — the four questions, how to see, and why Nigerian visual culture is your advantage12 min
  2. Colour theory 1 — hue, saturation and value, the colour wheel, harmonies, and the 60-30-10 rule14 min
  3. Colour theory 2 — meaning and culture in Nigeria, accessibility contrast, print vs screen, and a palette workflow you can repeat14 min
  4. Typography 1 — anatomy, classification, pairing, size, line height and measure, and reading on a Nigerian phone14 min
  5. Typography 2 — hierarchy with type, weight and scale, letter-spacing, free and licensed fonts, Nigerian-language characters, and the mistakes that mark 'village graphics'13 min
  6. Shape, line and form — what geometry says, negative space, symmetry, pattern, logos and icons, and the visual language of Nigerian marks13 min
  7. Layout and grids — alignment, margins, columns, the 8-point system, print and social formats, phone screens and safe zones14 min
  8. Hierarchy, contrast, whitespace and the Gestalt principles — how to make the eye go where you want14 min
  9. Composition and imagery — choosing and cropping photographs, illustration and icons, texture and pattern, consistency, and building a style sheet13 min
  10. Putting it together — three case studies (a Lagos event flyer, a fintech screen, a fashion lookbook page), the two-minute critique method, and the project14 min

Your project

Your Style Sheet, Three Designs and a Critique

One shared link (Google Drive folder, PDF, Notion, Figma or Canva view link set to 'anyone with the link') containing the style sheet, the three designs (flyer, phone screen with annotated grid copy, social post), the written rationale, and the critique with its image.

Certificates on Skillnaija are earned, not issued for attendance: you submit this project, it is graded against a rubric, and passing issues a certificate anyone can verify. See the full project brief, rubric and free workbook →

Frequently asked questions

Is Design Fundamentals: Colour, Type, Shape & Layout free?

Yes. Design Fundamentals: Colour, Type, Shape & Layout is completely free on Skillnaija. You need a free account to open the lessons, and there is no charge for the course, the project, or the certificate.

How long does Design Fundamentals: Colour, Type, Shape & Layout take to complete?

5 weeks · ~3 hrs/week. There are 10 lessons, about 2 hours of material in total. You learn at your own pace and your progress is saved.

Do I need any experience to start Design Fundamentals: Colour, Type, Shape & Layout?

Beginner-friendly. You can start from scratch — no prior experience is assumed.

What will I learn in Design Fundamentals: Colour, Type, Shape & Layout?

You will build practical skills in Design fundamentals, Colour theory, Colour palettes and accessibility contrast, Typography, Font pairing and type scales, Shape, form and line, Layout and grid systems, Visual hierarchy, Gestalt principles, Composition, Whitespace and balance, Print vs screen specifications, Design critique, Brand style sheets, Visual communication. Every lesson is written for a Nigerian context, with examples drawn from how the work is actually done and paid for here.

Do I get a certificate for Design Fundamentals: Colour, Type, Shape & Layout?

Yes, but it has to be earned. You complete the course project — Your Style Sheet, Three Designs and a Critique and submit it for grading. Passing the project issues a verifiable certificate; finishing the lessons alone does not.

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