Your Company’s Next Battle: Web Designer vs. Graphic Designer

Every company needs to the help of a designer, but deciding what kind of designer is sometimes confusing. Companies often take a guess when it comes to hiring a designer, but as it turns out there is a difference between someone who works with websites and someone who works with graphics. If you want to make sure that you hire the right person for the job, it’s important you know exactly what you need done so you can evaluate which position is really qualified.

And in Corner One We Have: Graphic Design

And in Corner One We Have: Graphic Design

Graphic design deals with creating images and graphics to illustrate an idea. Their designs are typically seenon more traditional forms of marketing mediums such as a brochure, billboard, or banner. However, although graphic designers do not deal with any type of programming, they can create graphics for someone else to place on the web. Consider some of the instances you would need to hire a graphic designer:

• Logo Design – Branding has become critical to the success of a company. A good logo is memorable, easy to recognize at first glance, and expresses the overall meaning of the company. In other words, creating a logo is tricky. Graphic designers know how to create a logo that encompasses all of these important factors, so many companies find that hiring a graphic designer is a must.
• Special Promotion Announcement – Graphic designers are the ones you hire to create something that will catch a reader’s eye. If you are hoping to create a special billboard or announcement in a brochure, a graphic designer should be able to come up with something great.

• Infographics – Graphic designers will be able to design a visually interested infographic. According to Jungle Minds Digital Consultancy, 87% of people who saw an infographic stopped to read the accompanying text (only 41% of people read the text when there was no infographic). In other words, it’s a great idea to spend the extra money and make sure your infographic is perfect. Although the graphic designer may not be able to transfer the graphic onto the web, they will certainly be able to illustrate something with a nice, clean layout.

And Ready in Corner Two We Have: Web Design

A web designer also has a keen sense of style and artistic ability, but they work more on the technical side of design. They are generally more basic in their styles, but this is often because they have to account for the transfer of a design onto a website. In other words, they must worry about things like screen resolution, speed, and file size. They also know a lot of about programming, such as HTML and CSS style, and can create websites using this knowledge. Consider some of the occasions you would want to hire a web designer:

• Website Creation – This is the most obvious. If you want the layout of your website to look different and you need someone to make it happen (not just give you an idea), then a web designer is your best bet.
• User Experience – Companies often discover that they need to improve the navigation on their websites because people are having a difficult time moving from page to page. It is the job of a web designer to help fix this problem through better internal linking and breadcrumbs.

• Responsive Web Design – This is going to be one of the big changes for companies in 2012. As more and more consumers start surfing the web on mobile phones and tablets such as the IPad, websites will need to be modified to fit these screens. This is called “responsive web design,” and a web designer will be the man or woman for that job.

In many cases, companies need both a graphic designer and a web designer. The graphic designer works well for the initial idea and design, and a web designer does a good job brining that design to life on a website. In addition, companies should be utilizing both a website and traditional, print marketing strategies, so both will be necessary.

After learning about the differences between a web and a graphic designer, it’s easy to see why it’s an important distinction. A web designer will likely not be able to give you the creative, detailed designs for a billboard like a graphic designer will, and a graphic designer will likely not be able to transfer anything onto the web.  For this reason, it is important you hire the right person for the job, and in some cases this may mean hiring two separate designers.

Photo Credit: faveurink.com,2dayblog.com, reliablenetworks.co.uk, fortmyerswebdesign.org

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from web design to voip phone systems. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including credit card processing to small businesses and entrepreneurs for Resource Nation.