Internet is the place to present the work of a brand or an individual and get some visibility. Web design and graphic design have a lot to do with it: they transmit professionalism, reliability and creativity while helping to promote a brand, a company or a business. Find out what web design and graphic design are, how they are similar and how they differ.
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What is web design?
Web design uses a range of skills in programming, communication, psychology and design to create attractive web sites that meet the needs of a company or business. It can be said that most websites have a commercial purpose or to support an existing physical business.
Within the web design goes into important aspects such as the navigability of the page, the loading time, the opening of new tabs, links to hyperlinks, the menu, directories and everything related to the location of the content on it.
A website must be based on a series of marketing and computer security techniques that guarantee its reliability: section of a secure sales system, conversions or visits, time spent on the website or location of users.
Therefore, a web designer must have skills in content management, layout and programming codes such as HTML, CSS and Javascript, knowledge in content optimization with SEO, installation of plugins and CMS (media manager) configuration will also be positive.
What is graphic design?
Graphic design is in charge of analyzing, creating and programming all kinds of visual messages to be inserted in a website. This discipline has a lot to do with marketing since it influences the way a website is sold: it must make it attractive to users so that they decide to stay longer, visit it again and even buy.
Graphic design combines text and images to convey a certain message, so it helps to enhance the corporate image of a company and the way it communicates. This will not only apply to a brand’s website, but can also be applied to physical aspects such as product packaging, employee uniforms, outdoor advertising (posters, totems, roll-ups, etc.).
A graphic designer will take care of such important aspects as the choice of the company logo, typography, the graphic aspects of the website and the creation of a corporate image for social networks.
Graphic design can be applied to static elements such as advertising panels, magazines or outdoor advertisements, but also to the digital world with the creation of creativities, animations, interactive pages, and even 3D modeling. This does not happen with web design, which is forced to work with digital media and its presence is also reduced to them.
Similarities between web design vs graphic design
Web design and graphic design are used to complement the digital presence of a company following a given marketing strategy. These two disciplines help to position a content in Google and make it attractive to users. It can be said that web design and graphic design have a commercial character, both used to sell a product to a specific audience.
Graphic design is quite creative in terms of color schemes and typographies, something that is also taken into account in web design. In some occasions, web designers are even in charge of elaborating the logo, the header design, the corporate colors of a website and the typography.
Both web design and graphic design are in charge of developing content for a website, although the most common is that web designers are responsible for leaving a paratext space or image and graphic designers fill them.
These two disciplines within design are very creative and involve being aware of the latest trends in web and content creation. Web design focuses on the latest trends in web design (content placement, how to navigate the web, menu aesthetics, links to social networks, etc.). Graphic design is in charge of analyzing brand communication models or style trends: brand advertising campaigns, logo design trends, creation of typographies or color palettes for websites, among others. It can be said that both jobs require continuous evolution.
Differences between web design vs graphic design
Web design and graphic design can complement each other in a marketing campaign aimed at increasing the visibility of a business, digitizing a company or improving the navigability of a website. Although, as you will see, in practice the field of action of these branches of design is very different.
First of all, web design is in charge of the technical aspects of the page, such as programming, section design, navigation and personal information security, metrics, increase the impact of a determinated content or improve navigation loading times. Graphic design is in charge of all the visual aspects complementing web design: it develops logos and designs typographies, creates audiovisual content for the web, places images and transfers the digital aesthetics to the physical.
It can be said that web design helps to better position a content within Google search engines, while graphic design is responsible for creating attractive content that attracts the attention of users and invites them to stay on the web.
The skills that a web designer must have are not similar to those of a graphic designer. A web designer must know metrics and web analytics, have some notions of security and programming, as well as search engine optimization. A graphic designer has a more creative job that is in charge of analyzing the communication model of a company and that of the competition, adapting the image to the needs of the business and improving the physical and digital communication (social networks, newsletter, web…) of a company.
As you can see, graphic design and web design have certain similarities, although they are dedicated to very different fields. The most common is that these two design disciplines complement each other to develop a serious and professional corporate image, improve the sales of a product or modernize a business. Do you have any doubts about the differences between web design vs graphic design? We can help you!