When it comes to design, it’s easy to think that graphic design and digital design are just two names for the same thing. But, if you dig deeper, you’ll find that there’s more than meets the eye. While there is some overlap between these two fields and both aim to communicate ideas through visual elements, they each tap into different sides of creativity and functionality.
Throughout this article we will go through what both graphic design and digital design are, their key aspects, different types and their key differences.
What is graphic design
Graphic design involves the use of typography, imagery, colours and layout to convey messages. From branding and advertising to editorial design and packaging, graphic design plays a big role in how we perceive and interact with a brand.
Graphic designers combine art and technology to produce static imagery and graphics to communicate the ideas of a company, product or service. Whether it’s an eye-catching social media post or a memorable logo, graphic design is all about taking ideas and making them visually engaging.
Four key aspects of graphic design
- Typography: Crucial to branding and advertising, typography is the selection of fonts to make written language readable and visually appealing.
- Colour theory: Understanding how colours work together to create mood, draw attention or convey a brand’s identity. Graphic designers use certain colours to influence the overall look of a design.
- Layout: The arrangement of text, images and other elements within a design. A good layout helps balance the visual components making content easy to follow and visually appealing.
- Imagery: The use of photos, illustrations and other visual elements. These are often used to grab attention or emphasise a message.
Types of graphic design
- Branding and visual design – this includes logo design, choosing brand colours and colour palettes and designing typography.
- Graphic design for marketing and advertising – designing email templates, illustrations for social media posts, print for brochures and infographics for articles.
- Print design – some examples of this are designing merchandise such as t-shirts and tote bags and designing packaging for food and cosmetics.
- Environmental graphic design – examples of this include murals, signage to help people navigate and branded stands and displays for shops.
- Digital graphic design – designing adverts for digital channels such as banner ads and social media ads and creating digital illustrations for distribution across various digital channels.
What is digital design?
Digital design refers to the creation of visual content that has been created to be used on a digital device. Digital designs can be static, interactive or animated, and users interact with the end products on electronic devices.
It encompasses a wide range of the same applications and disciplines from graphic design and web design, but uses them for website pages, apps etc.
Four key aspects of digital design
- Graphic design: within digital design there are elements of graphic design. This involves creating visual elements like logos and illustrations for websites.
- User interface (UI) design: focuses on designing the layout and aesthetic of digital interfaces ensuring the look and feel of a website or app is easy to use and visually appealing.
- User experience (UX) design: involves designing how users interact with digital platforms to ensure they have a smooth experience. This is often based on research and testing.
- Motion graphics: animations and video elements used in digital spaces like websites, apps or digital ads.
Types of digital design
- Web design – involves creating the visual layout and aesthetics of a website, focusing on the user experience, graphics and overall look.
- Landing page design – a landing page is a subset of web design but more focused towards marketing purposes. There are usually a few of them on a website so digital designers must ensure there is cohesion between all of them.
- 3D design – a specialised type of digital design that aims to create three dimensional, realistic representations of objects or characters. These 3D designs can be used for entertainment as well as creating mockups of a product or project.
- App design – apps are designed to perform a specific function, whether that be shopping, playing music or messaging.
- App icon design – app icons are buttons users press to launch the app. Similar to a logo design, app icons act as both branding and advertisement for the app (within the store).
Digital design vs graphic design: the key difference
So, the difference between graphic design and digital design is that graphic design is traditionally for print products and digital design is for digital content. Although, the lines between the two are becoming more blurred.
These days, the realms of print and digital overlap more often than not. While both fields rely on similar foundational skills, digital design emphasises user experience, user interface and interactivity, making it more dynamic in today’s tech-driven world.
It can all sound a bit confusing but think about it like this; many digital designs rely on skills from the graphic design playbook – such as creating logos and visual elements for websites. Meanwhile, graphic design has to account for digital distribution as well as print.
How Milk and Tweed can help
From designing social media posts to umbrellas, we love designing pretty much anything. If you want to know more about how Milk & Tweed can help you with graphic design or web design, get in touch with us today!
