Graphic Design For Kids: Fun Projects And Games They Will Love

Graphic design skills involve creative ideas, visual communication, and imagination, all translated into a graphic or image. This may include logo design, website design, product design, photo editing, and digital art.

If your kids are artistic and interested in arts and graphic design, they will love this collection of graphic design activity ideas we have compiled for kids of all ages.

Whether your child is a future artist or enjoys constructing unique and amazing inventions, these activities would be a fantastic way to help them enhance their creativity.

 

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Designing Activities

A great way to enhance your kids’ creativity in their graphic design journey is to let them express their ideas and unleash their inner designers. Activities that involve graphic design for kids can help boost their imagination and creativity.

There are many things your child can design just by using simple items at home. 

Here are some designing activities that you can try with your kids.

Design Your Own T-Shirts

Designing t-shirts with simple craft activities such as colouring, sizing, and placement is a great activity to start. 

This activity is suitable for kids aged three and above.

You will need the following materials for this activity:

• A plain t-shirt
• Fabric paint or fabric markers
• Brushes
• Paper
• Ruler
• Newspaper
• Tape

Procedures:

1. First, you can ask your kids to draw a simple t-shirt outline on paper. Ask them how they want their design to appear on the shirt.
2. Once they have decided on a design, place a basic t-shirt on a flat surface.
3. Place a few pages of newspaper or cardboard inside the shirt to keep the paint from penetrating the cloth.
4. Let your kids unleash their creativity and design the shirt however they want.
5. Encourage kids to use tape and paper to mask off the sections of their shirts that they wish to remain simple. Creative tip: Apply the tape in various patterns before peeling it off to create stunning geometric forms.
6. Use pens, paint, or any other creative supplies to see what type of design they can come up with.
7. Turn the shirt over and decorate the opposite side. Be careful to keep the paper or cardboard inside.
8. Allow a couple of hours for the clothes to dry. Some fabric pens require the shirt to be ironed afterwards, so you might want to double-check this.
9. When the shirts are dry, the kids can wear their own-designed shirts!

Design a Business Card

Let your kids create a business card. This will enhance their creative skills by creating visual artwork through logo design. It will also encourage your child to think about positioning, scale, and colour design elements.

In this activity, you will need:

• A sheet of paper or cardboard
• Colouring materials
• Scissors

Procedures:

1. Cut the paper or cardboard into a business card size.
2. Ask your kids to design a logo for a business they think they want to have.
3. Using their colouring materials, let them express their creativity on their paper or cardboard.

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Painting With Colours

This activity is not directly related to design, but it can help children understand basic colour theory. It is an essential tool for graphic designers to understand and learn from early childhood.

You must have the following materials in your collection:

• Paints
• Papers
• A mixing tray with plastic lids for the containers

Procedures:

1. Take a small paper piece with a bucket and brushes.
2. Pour a small quantity from the palette of the colours chosen (white, blue, or yellow).
3. Give children the chance to mix secondary colours. For example, green is formed when blue and yellow are combined.
4. Allow the children to experiment with the colours. After seeing how each colour is created, the children are well-equipped to develop their own inventive drawings, illustrations, and designs.

Games

Gameplay is an excellent way to encourage children to think within their creative limits. It’s the rules that make games work.

Here are some of the game ideas that you can try with them:

Animal Alphabet

Animal Alphabet is ideal for kids in the first through fourth grades.

Mechanics:

1. Print or write down the alphabet letters individually on different sheets of paper.
2. One by one, ask your child to transform the letters into an animal with the same letter. For example, you can draw a nose and whiskers on the letter “C” to represent a cat.
3. Do the same for the rest of the alphabet letters.

Colour Drive

Keeping your kids entertained during a drive is one of the challenges as a parent. The colour drive is the perfect quick and simple game for long car journeys or brief drives while running errands.

Mechanics:

• Choose a colour with the individuals you’re riding with.
• For example, if you choose the colour red, pay attention to everything red during the ride, like logos and signage!
• You may go the entire journey hunting for only one colour, or you can switch it up and change the colour at any time.

New Restaurant in Town

Restaurants all have their distinct branding. The New Restaurant In Town project is a fun way to learn more about branding design. It’s ideal for kids ages eight to eleven.

Mechanics:

1. Begin by asking your kids what cuisine would be served in their restaurant; this will most likely influence the restaurant’s motif as well. Ask them to make a list or a mindmap of all their ideas.
2. Next, ask them to create a logo design. This involves a lot of thought and adhering to the design thinking process.
3. After they have decided on a logo, you can ask them to create all of the additional art materials they’ll need to establish their business. They can create various posters, flyers, and menu designs, too!

Pasta Packaged My Way

Pasta comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. We may believe that there is only the pasta we see in our spaghetti, but a quick search on the web will reveal some innovative pasta designs that match some very amusing themes.

Pasta Packaged My Way is a fun activity in which your kids will design their own pasta and the packaging. This project is a great challenge since product design is a valuable skill for graphic designers.

Mechanics:

1. Research the different pasta shapes that already exist. Advise kids to find inspiration in the pasta shapes and packages they’ve seen while researching.
2. Ask the kids to create a list of all the different pasta they want to design. Once they have  decided on which design to present, let them draw and colour their designs.
3. After designing the pasta, ask them to think of a name for their creation.
4. Once they have a name, ask them how they want to advertise this product.
5. Let them create the packaging of the pasta the way they want to. They should have two sheets of paper filled with pasta and package designs by the end of this project.

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Get Digital

There’s plenty of excellent graphics software encouraging kids to be creative and explore digital design basics. We have listed some of them:

Tux Paint

Tux Paint is an online paint app for kids ages 2 to 12. The Tux program is designed to facilitate computer-aided learning for children. 

Available in both Mac OS and PC versions, the application offers many good starting points for any young graphic designer. It can help the kids create a digital illustration that speaks to their personalities.

Pixlr

If your kid is interested in photo editing, then Pixlr is one of the best starting platforms for learning Photoshop. They can edit photos, create graphics, and play with visual elements in this app.

Canva

Canva is a popular graphic design platform suitable for all ages. It is user-friendly, so kids can use them easily. This app allows users to create invitations, logos, social media templates, digital artwork, and videos that resonate with their target audience.

Adobe Illustrator

You can also let more advanced students try Adobe Illustrator. Graphic designers most commonly use this app. It is ideal for creating vector-based illustrations, icons, logos, typography, etc.

Photoshop

This software enables kids to experiment with photo manipulation, digital painting, and graphic design, allowing them to develop their creativity and technical skills. With a wide range of filters, effects, and tools, Photoshop helps young designers bring their artistic visions to life.

Graphic Design Classes

Most of the software and applications mentioned above are free, but you can also try to enrol your child in graphic design classes.

Numerous academies are offering online graphic design classes. Choose one that your kid will find engaging and fun. 

This will help your kids enhance their knowledge about graphic design and probably consider taking a graphic design-related career.

Why Choose Our Digital Media Design Course?

At Software Academy, we pride ourselves on providing high-quality courses that are designed by London’s university professors and accredited by the NCFE. Our Graphic Design Course for Kids is no exception. 

If your child is aged 10 to 16 and has an interest in design, our Graphic Design Course for Kids is the perfect opportunity for them to learn the skills they need to create videos, animations, images, and designs. With an NCFE-accredited qualification, they can gain industry-standard knowledge and stand out from the crowd.

Classes provide a safe and convenient learning environment for your child. They will join a small group of like-minded individuals and interact with a live tutor who will guide them through the course material.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to unleash your child’s creativity and equip them with valuable graphic design skills. Enrol them in our Digital Media Design course and watch them flourish in the world of design.

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Have Fun With Graphic Design Activities For Kids

We hope these activity ideas will inspire your kids at home. Continue to encourage them to train their creative minds.

Take photos of their projects while you are doing them together, too! That way, you will not only see your kids’ development as they hone their artistic skills, but you will also treasure the memories of quality time you spent with them.

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