While it is important to integrate and be consistent with your marketing efforts across all your platforms, it doesn’t mean that your designs should all look alike. There are many factors to consider when designing for print and for the web. Below are the major differences between the two:
- COLOR
Color plays a huge part in attracting your audience’s attention. Thanks to CMYK full color printing, print material can be produced in rich and vibrant colors. In addition to color, some printing companies can even offer foil stamping and metallic ink. On the other hand, the RGB color model typically used for digital media like computer screens and mobile devices have a wider spectrum of color, but they can’t do metallic effects. Also, choosing color for print depends on the size of your print material; online ads need color that would stand out from their background.
- USER EXPERIENCE
Another majoy difference between print and online design is that online design can be animated and /or accompanied with sounds. The use of Adobe flash and animated GIF images are common design tactics for the online designs to draw attention; using the same design in print would obviously nullify the animated features and the design would end up flat, literally and otherwise. On the other hand, print design can enhance the tactile experience with the use of texture and printing effects like embossing.
- COPY
Web content is virtually limitless. Though most would start as links or pop-ups on computer screen, users who click on it are usually redirected to another page, where there is more space or even menus for content. Since print has limited space to work with, the choice of content and how it is presented to the audience is very crucial – it has to deliver a complete and succinct message in a single page, and design is responsible for making sense of the information.
- CHANGES
Once a design is approved and goes to the printers, making any changes would be costly and wasteful. Web design, however, can be changed or even redesigned at any time. Web design is meant to be dynamic so it is constantly changing, sometimes even on a daily basis. For print design, new campaigns are usually the ones that call for a design starting from scratch. Since there is typically a breathing period in between campaigns, it is expected that designs are not simply revision of previous campaigns.
- FILE TYPE
Most printers are very specific about the file type for submitted designs, usually requiring PDF, TIF, or JPG formats. Printers would also advise your to save the design using the CMYK color model (online designs use RGB). Web design usually has more options, but saving in the right format ensures that your design will not be altered once printed or published online.
There are no shortcuts when it comes to designing for different marketing mediums. Always take your audience into consideration, because the design that catches your online market’s attention could just be ignored by your offline audience.
