Why Print Designers Should Head for the Web
I always thought graphic designers were a different bunch from their staid commercial printer cousins -and not just because so many seem to like to change the color of their hair and play loud music that I’ve never heard of in the office. The overwhelming majority of graphic designers I’ve met in the last 10 years have embraced technology with ferver. So why is it that print-based designers haven’t embraced Web design since that medium has risen to such a prominent form of communication in the last decade? Why has the Web spawned a completely separate culture and business of design?
Because print-based design shops today are doing just fine thank you very much without having to wrestle with the challenge of adding a new service to their portfolio. The growth of the dot-com market has driven the need for print-based advertising sky high, not to mention the need for corporate collateral, annual reports, and direct-mail. Packaging will never become obsolete, neither will books or magazines (despite rumors to the contrary). Print-based design is alive and well, but this is not to say that today’s digital print designers are e-phobic: they use the Internet every day-to exchange proofs and comps with clients and vendors, to find stock photos, and to purchase and download software, among other tasks.
Unfortunately, graphic designers are using the Internet predominantly as a production tool, complementing their page-layout software and dye-sub proofers. Going any further-adding Web design to one’s roster of services-requires much more than just designing dancing 72-dpi icons in Macromedia FreeHand, and traditional print-based graphic designers seem reluctant to overcome the hurdles. It’s too bad. They should.
The production dilemma is how to get the work done efficiently and affordably. Investing in the appropriate technology requires research, and training staff in all the appropriate software can be time-consuming; both investments can be costly. Hiring experienced Web designers-bringing them on staff or using them as contractors-may sound like a solution, but not only are Web designers expensive, they’re also fickle, liable to quit for a better opportunity at the drop of a hat.
Then there’s the client. Design for the Web can’t be done in a vacuum; a client’s print-based image must often be revamped to become cohesive across multiple forms of media, and creative professionals not only have to educate the client about the time and costs involved, but must also debunk clients’ technological misconceptions. Being computer-literate themselves, clients expect digital tools to make the designer’s job easier and cheaper.
Perhaps in part because of their own experience, clients these days are also increasingly sophisticated and demanding. They want much more from graphic designers than just pretty pictures on pieces of paper. Increasingly, they want fully integrated services that include a well-formulated business strategy that is incorporated into a design across all appropriate forms of media. And that might mean that a design firm has to provide all sorts of services, from e-commerce to database marketing. And in fact, the most successful Web design firms are actually much more than that-they’re full-blown marketing communications agencies. They understand the big picture, and they’re willing to spend money to make money.
Compare that to traditional print-based design shops, where ambivalence is the name of the game. When asked, most graphic designers have little idea how they’ll use the Internet in their work in the next few years-except that they’re fairly certain about how they won’t use it: to participate in job bidding, for example, or to track jobs at their printer. That attitude will simply doom a healthy future. Traditional graphic design shops and agencies must make a commitment to bridging the print-Web gap; they must take some risk instead of letting opportunity pass them by. It’s time they recognize that the Internet is much more than a tool that helps them work more efficiently; it is a technology that offers something them invaluable: choice-choice and control over the growth and future of their business.
Print-based creative shops’ are at a crossroad, and they’re clearly looking both ways before proceeding through the intersection. But their clients are behind them honking their horns, encouraging them to go, and the light won’t stay green forever.
This article was last modified on June 30, 2023
This article was first published on March 2, 2000
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