In the last ten or more years, web design has become one of the most prevalent design professions and skills in the world. It’s nearly impossible to be hired as a new graphic designer these days without having some sort of background in web design. Dare I say, the world will one day reach the point where print design is being influenced more by web design than the other way around.
Web design techniques are turning traditional print design on its head. This post discusses some of the most influential ways that web design is changing the graphic design industry. After reading, please let us know what you think by sharing your thoughts in the comments.
Motion and Interactivity
20 years ago or more, the most interaction with an advertisement or printed material that the user would have is to read or, at most, fill out a form to mail in. Now, designers have to consider not only aesthetics but also user experience. In fact, UX (user experience) has become a science and has opened up a whole new career pathway. UPDATE: Now with the addition of the iPad and other tablet devices, designers have to consider interactivity with a mouse versus fingertips. Do you think the iPad will change the way you design?
Terminology/Name changes
Seasoned graphic designers were trained with terms like leading and kerning. With the addition of web design to our skill set, we now identify the same principles with different names in the CSS: line-height and letter-spacing. They mean the same thing, but we must be able to speak the language from both directions. I believe the difference will one day be erased and graphic design will inherit terms like line-height and letter-spacing. What other soon-to-be-outdated terms can you add?
Font restrictions
While this is getting better, there are still a limited number of fonts available for web designers. Tools like sIFR are making this problem more tolerable, but, generally speaking, typography is much more limited when working on the web than when working in print design.
Template designs
In years past, a printed magazine used to have a unique layout on each page. Now, when designing for the web, we use the same layout on most of our pages. We have even created technologies like PHP which make it extremely easy to create a template web site or blog design. There are some exceptions like Jason Santamaria, a magazine-designer-turned-web-designer who creates a customized stylesheet for each blog post.
Resolution considerations
In the world of print design, an inch is an inch. While some would argue that on the internet, a pixel is a pixel but the problem comes when screen resolutions change. Web designers have to constantly deal with changes in technology. It’s not enough to design a web site any more–you now have to consider what the site will look like on large, high resolution screens, medium-size laptops, cell-phone screens, and more.
When printing, you can go to the printer’s and assure your design turns out just like you had intended. When designing for the web, you cannot be present every time a visitor opens your web page.
You also have to have the ability to design a piece as small as 16px by 16px (favicon size) or smaller. These minuscule sizes weren’t even dreamed of by print designers in years past.
Nearly unlimited resources
Getting a degree in graphic design is a great asset to any designer. When it comes to staying up to date on techniques, the web has nearly unlimited resources: articles, free images, tutorials, etc. Top designers now blog about their work and share with the rest of us–which helps us all improve together.
File sizes and loading times
If you posted a printed piece online, it would take forever to download. Graphic designers who strive to become web designers, therefore, have to learn good principles of optimization, file size, page-load times, etc. If a page doesn’t load quickly, it doesn’t matter how beautiful it is, people won’t stick around to see it.
Coding
Here’s an obvious one. Once you design a page in photoshop your work isn’t even halfway finished. You then have to excercise your left brain and code the site to make it readable. Oh and on top of that, it should validate. It’s also possible you have to build a wordpress theme or use other technologies to give your client what they want.
What else would you add?
These are a few differences I have noticed the web design world has brought to the graphic design industry. What other differences have you noticed? Please share in the comments.
Written by Preston D Lee Preston is the founder of GDB, a designer, programmer, marketer, and entrepreneur. Follow @prestondlee
Preston, I would also add the issue of print designers working in CMYK and the web being mostly RGB colors. This presents an issue when certain colors are critical and specified for logos, headers and other graphics.
Dennis
Excellent Point! I hadn’t thought about that but it is definitely an issue amongst graphic and web designers.
Good post – and a nice write up. It’s worth noting that sIFR is pretty much dead – TypeKit, Cufon, and @font-face are the future of web typography, and that’s a fairly bright and unrestricted future to say the least!
Interesting points – Good Luck with this blog. First time I am reading it.
As font options increase in web design we’ll see a coming together of the 2 disciplines
Graphic designers need to keep usability and accessibility in mind. They sometimes forget that it’s not all about pretty pictures and that people just want their information quick. For example: no main menu at the bottom of the page, just because that looks so cool and different.
This is a very interesting suggestions and I really like your information thank you.
“staying up to date on techniques”
The best thing any designer can do for themselves. Degree’s are good, but ability is a must.
Great Post! and good write-up. Well Done!!!
Hi Preston, this is a very interesting topic and one I’ve been thinking about myself for a while now. Your post makes a good guide for a print designer planning to move into web design.
I believe we’re at that point already, by the way.
I would agree with Debby. I’m no web designer but usability is definitely the one that comes first in my mind.
Just take print outpout as an example. There are still a ton of sites out there where the print stylesheet shows up differently than the screen output.
hay good post
if i may I’ll add this:
graphics used to be done by amateurs (via ms word LOL)
but web design changed the dynamic a bit,
you have to hire a pro to get it right.
this is good news for graphic artists because now they are being hired as well and their work is being valued and paid for
indeed, today there are so many things to be considered in web designing. Unlike before, recently, there are so many restrictions and intricate things to be applied.
____________________________
website design
1. A webdesign is not static, but dynamic
With a book, magazine or flyer, a final design is just that: final. Once it is printed, the customer cannot ask for changes until a reprint opportunity comes along. With a website, a ‘final’ design will usually be changed a couple of times before AND after the site has been put live. Not only because customers ask for changes, but also because of new requirements by the changing soft- and hardware. So webdesign demands greater flexibility.
2. The related problem is the fact that you do not need a designer to change the design. Most printers demand a certified PDF, so you need someone (usually a designer) with Adobe or Quark to deliver it. On the web, anybody with Notepad can change HTML or CSS, thus changing (or messing up) the design. Apart from making your design ‘idiot-proof’, there is not much a designer can do about this.
@Aaron Thanks for visiting. Hope to see you back soon!
@Debby I think you are exactly right. Design has never been about strictly being “pretty” it’s all about solving problems and making life easier/better.
@SD Designs Also a good addition. Thanks.
As an “old school” print design/art director, it amazes me who much this is all changing. I made this one of my three links of the day on my daily design blog: http://designthoughtfortheday.blogspot.com/
Ted
Hi, I think the most important change in Logo design (at least in the Netherlands) is that there is less use of Pantone colours and more CMYK. Succes with your business!Ramon
As a veteran of 30 years in the graphics/illustration field I feel the pain. My husband and I have a graphics studio, and we have not only had to convert from old school mechanicals and type specs years ago, to teaching ourselves everything on the Mac. Now we are trying to keep up by learning dreamweaver, having a facebook page, and trying to keep up on linkedin and twitter (although, haven’t felt compelled to tweet yet). But we are still really good designers and illustrators and are struggling to find out how we fit in. We are both in our 50′s and going back to school holds no appeal. At this point we do the web design, go as far as we can in Dreamweaver, and collaborate with a programmer for the end result. So where do we fit in – is there still a market for graphic designers to outsource to web design companies as designers? Any place for illustrators except to sell to istock or go the publishing route? Would love some input and to hear from other older designers.
@Karen Kessler, I’m a 12-year graphic designer in my 40′s, and I know how frustrating going electronic can be. Up until I re-entered the work force in 2002, I had a pretty good handle on coding web pages from notepad and Homesite; now I too am starting all over re-learning the basics! I feel my place is as a partner for the programmers; there are many programmers who don’t want to actually design web sites, so if you are partnered with a web programmer you can still make a powerful team. You’ve had more years experience than myself, but a suggestion: it may be time to redefine your target markets. Print isn’t dead yet, and so as long as people continue to market in print there is still good work to be done. As for Twitter, I am actually having fun meeting new people and keeping up within the industry using Twitter! I’ve also noticed when I write more in my blog, my web page views go up (you’d think I’d have caught on to this idea a while back, but I’m still learning!), so I’m re-committing to blogging at least twice a week and really making the time to work ON my business and not just IN it.
Best of luck, I’d enjoy staying in touch with you!
Preston, along with your comments about resolution, I’d add that graphic designers need to keep image resolution highly in mind when designing for the web. Web resolutions for images should be 72dpi, although I’ve had success using 96dpi; depending on the medium, print resolutions range from 150 (newspaper print) to 300 (magazine quality). Keeping the dpi in mind when designing goes hand-in-hand with minding your optimization.
nice post…..
thank you….
Nice Writeup Preston,
People loves to get information without reading going through all the pages. Graphic design gives you an opportunity to showcase your products or services in a best and easy way. also, you have lots of options when compared to normal web design.