Most business minded individuals lack the visual creative trait that is necessary to create and maintain an attractive online presence.
In response to an article titled “Do graphic designers design for the web?” I must state a loud YES! As an experienced graphic artist myself I speak for all of us when I say: yes, we have to. As designers we do it all. A knowledgeable designer will create vector or raster-based content in large formats. Large formats can always be scaled down without data loss for file sizes that are appropriate for the web. Trying to work in the reverse sacrifices image resolution and can create an amateur look.
Why Do I Need to be Online as a Retailer?
We live in a world economy today. the traditional small business or “mom and pop” store on the corner not only has to compete with the local big box stores but also online retailers. recently, while shopping for the holiday I was in a consignment shop looking at a clock that was a fake antique clearly labeled “made in China.” When I asked the gentleman at the counter to lower his price he responded that the item was already reduced.
I left empty handed and got online at home and found the same item on a popular bidding site for less than half. I must say it has become easier for consumers to shop at work or at home than trying to negotiate a price in real life. Physical store fronts have overhead and rent to calculate into the prices of their merchandise. An online presence is key to keeping down cost and increasing revenue for any service or retail based business.
Why Do I Need a Designer When I Can Do it myself?
There are services online that provide pre-designed web page formats. Unfortunately overuse of these services results in cookie cutter site content. you as a business for, example, a law firm web site may closely resemble an animal rescue shelter in colors and geometric graphics used on both sites. I have had experiences in print when clients specify a stock image that is widely available and their print ad ran next to an unrelated service using the exact same stock image.
What Can a Designer Do for My Business?
As I stated in the first paragraph, a designer can assess what you need by gathering information about what you want the site to be used for. A well educated designer will know better than to enlarge a small file and try to use it in multiple formats for your online corporate identity. It is a mistake found often online and an elementary principle of web design. Always work from large to small, the reverse will always have an adverse effect on image quality. Once a file is saved as a .pdf at at least 300 pixels per inch it can be saved for the web as either a .gif or jpeg image in Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop respectively.
What File Formats should I Request from a Designer?
Tell the designer what you will need and he or she will tell you what will work best for your needs. It is our job to make sure you are happy and that file formats work with what you are applying them to. A gif file and a jpeg file are essentially the same, at 72 ppi image resolution. A gif file is better suited for images that have gradated colors, and a jpeg image is better recognized as a standard file format that most people are familiar with.
Do I Need to Hire A Person Who knows Code?
It is not necessary. Designers who have graduated from a vocational school or a bachelors program in the past ten years all know basic HTML and predominately they all know how to utilize the software program Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver shows how images and type will appear online and a split screen can also allow one to view the HTML code at once. There is little to no need to hire a person who specializes in code anymore.
Why is Graphic Design Important to my Business?
Graphic design encompasses all media. this is important in developing corporate identity branding systems. the corporate identity entails all materials necessary in order to maintain a brand and recognition of related products and services. these services range from: logo, business card, letterhead, press release materials, brochures and fliers for printed media; to: web banners, simple and complex graphic animations, web page content both written and image based, mailing lists, email updates on new products or services, and specialized focused advertising based on a business’ base customer profile online. Corporate identity is only a small part of graphic design but it is the amalgamation of many design principles pressed into service for an end product.
Carter, Rob et all Typographic Design: Form and Communication, USA: John Wiley and Sons, 2002
Wheeler, Alina Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, building and Maintaining Strong Brands, USA: John Wiley and Sons, 2003
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