When I started my career as a graphic designer two decades ago, I spent most of my time creating print layouts design such as posters, books, flyers, leaflet, advertising and brochures. But in today’s digital world, the field of “graphic design” is huge and constantly evolving.
Although there are differences in skills and output methods between print design and digital design, I believe that the aesthetics between them share the same basic principles and that a graphic designer/art director/creative director who works primarily with print understand the key differences between them, can surely produce great digital creatives.
Just what are the biggest difference between print design and digital design?
Graphic design is the foundation of both print and digital design, except that print design will ultimately be a physical print product, while digital design will ultimately be publish in digital/ electronic media.
(Brand design/CI (logos, creative brand management) is also part of graphic design.)
The so-called traditional print graphic design mainly refers to the printing of magazines, newspapers, flyers, leaflets, business cards, billboards, brochures, books and packaging. Digital design, on the other hand, requires consideration of the resolution of the different devices on which the design will be displayed.
For example, a small mobile phone screen versus a large desktop screen, from vertical to horizontal display, animation, movie clip display etc. Thus as a digital designer, you also need to consider the interactivity of your creative, which may include animations, clickable links, CTA buttons, and other features which are not available in print.
Due to the responsive display factors that limit the digital designer's control over the layout, certain elements may need to be moved or resized to fit the screen. As for print design, the designer has complete control over the size and placement of elements on the page, visual hierarchy of the design that guides the viewer's eye through the content.
When working on print design and digital design, the biggest difference is that you need to consider various factors before starting the project, and conisder how your target audiences would receive the information.
Print design requires a much higher resolution than digital design to ensure the final product is printed sharply and clearly. As we know, the CMYK and Pantone colours are used for offset printing, the image resolution must be at or above 300 DPI, various finishing such as UV spot, embossing, de-bossing, as well as the choice of paper (paper weight, texture), be mindful of the corresponding margins and bleed areas during production. Die-cuts are also a big topic on packaging printing design. In fact, print design requires a lot of knowledge.
The print designs will eventually be sent to the print house for physical production, and digital designs can be published online with the click of a button. This could mean print designs require different work before production.
For example, in packaging design, the designer needs to print out the product and do a fold-test to see if the die-cut comes out correctly. Colour correction may also be required to ensure the final product matches the designer’s vision.
While traditional print design production requires a lot of knowledge and digital designs may not seem as “strict,” there are more user experiences to consider and expertise changing more quickly.
“User experience” and “user interface” (i.e. UX and UI) are among the most important topics in digital design. How should the layout be so that users find navigation easy and comfortable, stay on the page longer to really digest the contents, not having too many elements on the interface that could disrupt the reader’s reception should be also taken into account.
As in technical aspect, just a little over a decade ago Dreamweaver was a new and popular web design software, all “web designers” learn it and every website must have some Flash animations.
With devices changing rapidly over the last decade and the general public using more mobile phones rather than computers to access social media, everything in digital design needs to be responsive.
For this reason, Dreamweaver is slowly being phased out, despite attempts to offer responsive solutions. The professionals we used to call “Web Designers” who are now “UI/UX” or “Digital Designers”, use software or apps like Wix, Figma, XD, Webflow, etc. to create websites and apps.
Now, Dreamweaver is a long gone ancient history.
Flash animation?
It’s not even in use anymore. It cannot be viewed on website/app now.
Therefore, digital designers need to follow the trend of digital output more closely.
In summary, I would say that the way of thinking about the digital user experience and the print output and production process is most different between printed and digital designs. But if you have a good understanding of the outcome of both designs and how both would work best for your audience, you can eventually switch from print to digital, or I would say you can do both.
It shouldn’t be “A designer who works primarily with print is therefore not good at digital design.”
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