Comments on: Print designers and the web

By: Camille

Camille — Sat, 20 May 2006 22:00:38 +0000

I totally sympathize. I'm a 3rd year graphic design student in Chicago, and nobody has yet taught us about designing for the web. It's amazing how technically retarded some designers can be...education is a powerful thing. I suggest if you're a designer, learn some of this stuff!

By: Richard Quick

Richard Quick — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 00:19:46 +0000

"I've come across a client who had a design ready for coding using 3 columns, newspaper style. So the text would go from the bottom of one column to the top of the next. I laughed heartily." Don't laugh .. some people do it! http://news.independent.co.uk

By: davyG

davyG — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 12:59:09 +0000

I've come across a client who had a design ready for coding using 3 columns, newspaper style. So the text would go from the bottom of one column to the top of the next. I laughed heartily.

By: Ben Tupper

Ben Tupper — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 21:15:30 +0000

The most fervent students make the best teachers. It’s our love of our craft that will help us deal with difficult clients like this while maintaining a positive attitude and a professional manner.
Some people are not going to get it regardless of your efforts. You just have to let some of these people go. If they want to stay plugged into the Matrix, then so be it. We can’t save them all. When they are ready to wake up they will, and not before.
Keep the faith Paul. Good work!
-Ben

By: John

John — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 10:08:22 +0000

Hi Paul
Don’t worry. you’re not the only one.
One client had a print designer create the site and insisted that it be (a) square and (b) non-scrolling, resulting in everything being the size of a fingernail (it was a photographer’s site too). I suggested that the site be changed to an rectangle format, but the designer dug his heals in, so they got what they wanted. [sigh]
Sometimes you just have to do your best to explain ten times, then give them what they want and take their money.
John

By: Carl Grint

Carl Grint — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 09:59:13 +0000

I do sometimes think the fact that Web work is seen by some as almost a hobby technology, that Designers can feel its just select an ‘Output to web’ button in their favourite design package.
Which lets be honest, for a basic web page, this is true, even Photoshop will output your design in HTML, but I think this can led to the core requirements, as you have mentioned, being overlooked.
There is obviously a major difference between Web Design and Development, and many Designers given a copy of Dreamweaver can generate some nice looking sites, but they miss what is going underneath.
As you mentioned, web is a fluid layout, you never know the dimensions a visitor will view your site at, making it just one size means that for many they either have left to right scrolling, or the design has lots of white space to the sides.
I do sometimes think myself it would be nice to have worked in Print Design, to know when I put something together, how I viewed it, was how it would look to everyone else.
For web work, that is never the case, so many different browsers, let alone those using PDA/Phones/Kiosks etc to view sites, all with their own little differences, which can cause the site to change.
Maybe that is the pleasure we have, the challenge makes it more interesting, but I do know, there are days, and I know I am not alone, when the thought of a fixed version of my layout is very tempting, and I envy those Print designers.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 09:28:23 +0000

I also have had to implement designs designed by print agencies with no concept of the web. As with all things it comes down to a simple matter of money - if that's what the client wants, that's what the client gets. It's just incredibly annoying when they won't take expert professional advice!

By: Adam H

Adam H — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 21:26:54 +0000

This is definitly one of the most difficult situaions to be faced with. I actually work with both print and web and I seem to go in phases. A month of print designs and then two of the web.
Although I feel that design (graphic, web, multimedia) is one of the most rewarding and powerful careers to be inolved in I have also realized that it is one of the most difficult industries because of some of the intangible values that clients just dont see many times.
I have found that a successful designer can work in just about any industry in the world. All types of businesses and organizations need some form of design, butmany just dont see the value.
They are compelled by personal taste in many cases rather than allowing a professional to do their job and show them the value of unlocking the hidden and powerful layers of design. It takes more than the mouse clicks and keystrokes to execute a successful design.
If an architect were to drum up a beautiful home in a software program with blue prints and all, but never have the forethought or experience to know how it would function in the real world what would the consequces be?
Web design has its own set of consequences that are just not always understood outside of the design community.