Whether you’re looking to pursue designing as a career or figuring out which aspect of design your company needs to work on, you’re bound to get confused over the graphics and web domains of design.
Graphic design and Web design can be easily mistaken as the same thing, but in reality, they’re quite different. Although web designers often have graphic design skills and vice versa, to excel in either field, it is essential to understand what the other does and how the two can work together for a comprehensive marketing campaign
The basic difference between the two is that web design exists solely in the technological world while graphic design can make its way into the physical world through printing. Pretty simple, right? But before we go any further and things get complicated, let’s define the two branches and how they work individually.
Graphic Design
Exploring the graphic design vs web design discussion, graphic design is primarily used to create visual elements for marketing campaigns, which includes everything from the logos your business uses in advertising to the look and feel of your product packaging. In most cases, graphic designers work in an advertising agency by providing services on behalf of clients’ businesses.
Graphic designers use technology in their work, but they are not computer programmers. They use programs like Photoshop to edit images, but they are not photographers either. Most of their work is carried out on Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. These designers must also be visually sharp and have a keen understanding of how color, form, and imagery are used to influence audiences.
Web Design
Web designers are in charge of designing a website’s appearance and layout while also ensuring that it displays correctly across different browsers and devices. We see their work every day when we go online to check our email, shop online, or read the news. Web designers have a deep understanding of website languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and use this knowledge to create user-friendly sites that are also aesthetic.
Web design is more than just designing a layout or a website as these designers work to create interactive features, such as buttons and menus, as well as an intuitive user interface for the visitors. They also maintain the site by adding content and making changes to keep it up-to-date with current trends in technology.
Graphic Design Vs Web Design
Differentiating these two fields of expertise can be difficult without having a strong understanding of what each entails, so let’s dive in and explore the key differences between graphic design and web design.
Technical Requirements of Graphic Design Vs Web Design
While both domains, graphic design and web design, have a certain requirement of technical skills, the design and artistic requirement is needed more in graphic design comparatively. Web design, on the other hand, depends heavily on programming languages, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. For someone with illustration skills but no experience in web development and coding, web design will turn out to be a problem.
Moreover, web design has the limitations of load time and file size, therefore, all the images and graphics used on webpages are sized down to lower resolutions, such as 72 DPI (dots per inch). This is the primary reason why images saved from websites are often pixelated or blurry.
In contrast to this, graphic design files are of the highest resolution for a better print, going up to 300 DPI for an immaculate result.
Visual Communication of Graphic Design Vs Web Design
Colors
Visual communication is the art of displaying information visually through the use of typography, graphics, color, and layout. When it comes to the use of colors in graphic design vs web design, graphic designers go for the CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key) color model because of the inspiring range and visual flow this model offers. Similar to graphic design, the CMYK model dominates the printing world and helps visually communicate the design better.
Its counterpart, the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color model is the most used model in the world of design, and so is preferred by web graphic designers to communicate through it on digital platforms. This model represents colors through the three primary shades and upon display; it puts less constraint on the eyes.
Typography
Typography differs from graphic design and web design significantly. For instance, the font displayed on the user’s webpage might not be the same one the designer intended and programmed for the web. This problem occurs due to the technicalities of typography and web design, where simply put, if the user’s computer does not support a certain font, the webpage will turn to the computer’s default font. This puts a strain on the intended visual aesthetic and communication by the web designer, but there are developments in the HTML domains to tackle this problem.
On the other hand, in graphic design, whichever font or size you go for, the output will always be the same in both digital and print forms.
Presentation and Information of Graphic Design Vs Web Design
The output and delivery of information are different between graphic design and web design. For graphic design, it is permanent and static, unlike web design, which remains interactive and flexible throughout time. Any book cover, banner, poster, or business card that you design and get printed out, you are restricted from making any further changes to it. Once it’s printed, it’s final. However, web graphic design doesn’t work with the same limitations, instead, the digital and dynamic aspect of it gives the designer flexibility to make changes whenever needed. Every time a company decides to revamp its site and stay relevant to the ongoing trends, it can consult the developers and designers.
User Interaction of Graphic Design Vs. Web Design
Both graphic design and web design focus on ultimately leading the user to make a purchase, if used for marketing purposes, but the catch here is that web design can have the viewer turn into a user with the interactive features. In web design, viewers can interact with the webpage and design itself, such as through a button or navigation panels. If you’ve heard of SEO optimization, you must know the elements and techniques that a web graphic designer will include to have the user participate in the functionality of the design, including but not limited to, simply watching a video or reading a column of text.
Although, the same cannot be said for graphic design as the final form can be viewed, read, even touched, but never interacted with.
The Bottom Line
We have highlighted the key differences between web design and graphic design for you to ponder which one outweighs the other. However, both domains are essential for marketing purposes and building your brand’s image, while overlapping at certain points.
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