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Mar 27
2009

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Making the Transition from Print to Web

Tomorrow (Saturday, Mar 28) I’ll be giving a talk (with Brian & Alise) to a room full of design students about transitioning from print design to web design. I’d love to have some of your ideas, advice, suggestions, or warnings on the subject. Help me make this a great presentation, leave me some words of wisdom.

CMYK to RGB

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12 comments so far on this post:

  1. chad engle | March 27th, 2009 at 10:29 am

    You can always tell them a positive of what you see on screen is what you will get. Unlike CMYK not always being accurate from the printer :) Then you can also explain how its good to have digital know-how even if they stay mainly print, because then you can make your own online folio, and be well versed if the need arises.

  2. Chase "The" Swindler | March 27th, 2009 at 10:30 am

    Pixels to Inches, CMYK to RGB, Common Grid systems used in web (like the 960), common restrictions when designing for web (like 1000px width) etc. Thats pretty much everything I can think of at the moment.

  3. Jason Evers | March 27th, 2009 at 10:37 am

    Obviously there is the issue of color and light subtraction vs working with a backlight as highlighted by your illustration; very clever by the way.

    But the meat of the issue lies with interaction and a dynamic medium. The content is changing, the size and depth of the viewport is constantly going to be different. There is no perfect size to design for. With print you can get the dimensions of the paper, account for bleed, and roll. With web, your target audience will determine the screen resolution, browser capabilities, and color depth.

    Varying content length is a huge factor dictating a massive difference in medium. With print, planning can have your content tailored perfectly to meet certain margins. With web, you have margins but there is planning involved to account for the fact that you are making a product and letting it loose on people that have no concern for layout constraint.

    Static vs dynamic layout, inherent font limitations, javascript enabled controls and activities… Forms in print vs forms online… There is a wealth of debate at your disposal. Good luck!

  4. Stijn | March 27th, 2009 at 10:50 am

    http://www.slideshare.net/erlend/what-web-designers-could-learn-from-print-designers-presentation

    I think this presentation can be helpfull. Good luck!

  5. Jerrol Krause | March 27th, 2009 at 11:11 am

    In my experience, the area in which print designers fall short is not the technical or creative components of web design, it’s the understanding that usability and functionality are more important than the visual appeal.

    With print the visual component is everything because a printed piece is a static one way communication. Web is an interactive and always changing conversation with the user which means the visual appeal takes a back seat to the interactive component.

    I’ve seen too many websites that are beautifully designed but impossible to use. Who cares how amazing your website looks if it doesn’t drive leads/sales or otherwise perform? On the flip side you have fairly boring and unattractive websites like Amazon and Craigslist that are extremely successful.

    Of course, the best websites are a marriage of both top notch visuals and usability.

  6. David Link | March 27th, 2009 at 11:17 am

    Thanks so much for the comment, Jerrol. Some great points in there.

  7. Andrew Cohen | March 27th, 2009 at 11:28 am

    This blog post by Samantha Warren would be good to reference for book suggestions.

    http://badassideas.com/9-tips-for-making-the-transition-from-print-to-web-design/

  8. Khayyam Wakil | March 27th, 2009 at 3:06 pm

    As a guy who is making the transition from identity and print work over to web, I can lend you some of my experiences.

    If it’s static.. I can kill it. I equate everything in Illustrator and InDesign layouts/terms. It makes sense for me. This block is for this and this for that. I can transition to Flash well because I’m manipulating a visual object to perform movement, transitions, and the like. Where *I* find the difficulty is training my mind to think in terms of making the behaviour of div’s to correlate with that ‘visual’ object on my screen. Making code tell the object what to do or how to behave.

    That’s my challenge. I understand most of these foreign languages and have to think real hard when I’m trying to speak them.

    That’s why I’ve settled on getting a translator :) Get the best people to do what their best at. So, with that being said… I’m hiring ;)

    LOL

    Are you recording the talk? Streaming? Let a brother know.

    Thanks David.

  9. Robin Bastien | March 27th, 2009 at 3:11 pm

    As previously stated, the understanding of using the RGB scale is important, and the technicality of the processes used to achieve a final product / website. Web design can be so multi-layered with integrating different technologies together, similar to mixed media artwork integrating materials together with specific ways to master each of them.

    I feel it’s important to understand what is a parallel and done similarly, and what needs to be learned before digging into the art

  10. Tim Schmidt | March 27th, 2009 at 3:13 pm

    Form follows function. Always. Not just working on one awesome layout for a single page, needs to meet the goals of every page within the site.

  11. kyle steed | March 27th, 2009 at 3:26 pm

    Standard, standards, standards. This is something I’m glad I started off with when I got in to web design. Maybe it’s a moot point, but I think it’s an ongoing issue that the earlier you start learning, the better off you will be on the web.

    For example, designing a site with web standards in mind will lead to greater accessibility than one designed with tables. So think about how much of the web is being accessed now from mobile phones and other devices that aren’t just PC’s in your living room.

    As far as what everyone else is said, I think Jerrol and Chad are right on.

    Good luck with the talk and look forward to hearing how it all went down.

  12. David Link | March 27th, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    I agree, Kyle. I’m starting off my presentation talking about learning HTML/CSS and learning it with web standards. Thanks for the comment, man.

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