Graphic Design Service in Hertfordshire

Graphic design isn’t just computer-based drawing - it is a more encompassing and complex form of computer-led design that can focus on a range of markets and mediums, taking the form of static or animated website templates; logos, icons and branding; posters, infographics and leaflets; business cards, CVs; restaurant menus; and even stills or sections for movies and animated media, among other things.

Most computer-based design or digital visual articulation is often referred to as graphic design, and it disassociates itself typically from art (or, additionally, graphic art) in that graphic design focuses on function and development - for example, a poster has a function of promoting an event, whilst a menu has a function of informing on the availability and price of food.

As such, graphic design tends to follow often surprisingly rigid standards and methodologies and, unlike art, will typically shun the more ‘subjective’ approach for a more ‘functional’ one. Whilst sounding quite limiting, this actually works quite the opposite and allows graphic designers to avoid being bogged down by individual preference and work to develop and adapt their work to improve and refine the function.

This doesn’t mean that individual preference can be completely ignored - more that design is ultimately utilitarian. By having a function that is typically orientated at a market, the onus of the preference is on the masses, rather than the individual. Aesthetics should, therefore, mirror the associative or expected colours of the target market rather than, perhaps, the colours of the designer’s favourite football team.

One aspect of graphic design that is often misinterpreted the assumption that because function is often lauded as the primary and almost singular priority, aesthetics isn’t important; but this couldn’t be further from the truth!

Quite simply, a primary function of a poster, say, is to catch a passer by’s attention and engage. After all, it doesn’t matter how good the content is on the poster if the design is so bland that people don’t feel compelled to read it. Quite simply, by prioritising function - it can be argued - aesthetics becomes more important and is universally improved!

Web design perhaps is the pinnacle of the expression of function and marketing, and graphic design in the webosphere is perhaps the hardest and most refined. Unlike graphic design for print - whose output is static and very easily monitored - web-based graphic design gets displayed on many different screens with different screen sizes, resolutions and colour-calibrations.

Further, unlike web poster or web-ad designs - which is often quite basic and show limited information - many websites are huge information hubs that display a plethora of information, and designing can be quite a challenge.

Due to the rapid and ever-increasing diversity of graphic design mediums, many designers will specialise in different forms of design, and you will typically see graphic designers market themselves as doing just a handful of mediums, often specialising in either ‘web’ or ‘print’ (web should not be confused simply with website design, but refers simply to design work that is distributed across the web, rather than physically such as printed posters or flyers).

Rarely will you see a single designer market themselves as a poster designer, a motion artist and a web designer, simply due to the complexity of each form and the time it takes to keep in the loop with the latest trends and developments within each field.

In fact, at Advanced Web Designs, we have on a handful of occasions been approached by clients who have contracted their own graphic designers before coming to us, which have been print-based designers. We have subsequently worked with quite antiquated and very static website designs, limiting the ability of the developed websites to act responsively, such as our in-house designed websites.

This is not to say that we cannot work with external designers, and we have a strong history of excellent collaboration with designing and developing in tangent with other companies and individuals. More simply, it is important to ensure that the right graphic designer is picked for the job: not all graphic design is created equal.