Graphic Design
Preparation of a visual representation of an idea or message, such as a print or broadcast advertisement or direct-mail promotion package, including all aspects of the final image/package desired, such as illustrations, set typefaces, colors, paper stock, or arrangement of elements on a page. The design of any promotion must incorporate the marketing objectives and strategy, the production capabilities, and the budget limitations of the advertiser.
Graphic design services can be provided by in-house staffs, advertising agencies, printers and lettershops, art studios, free-lance artists, and syndicated artwork services. An in-house staff is economical if large quantities of design work are needed but limits the advertiser to the style and skills of that pool of designers. Printer and lettershop staffs are usually adept at tailoring graphic designs to a client's printing and production capabilities. Art studios offer a diverse range of talent but at a relatively high cost. Free-lancers can produce very good quality work at a more reasonable price but may not be available when needed. Syndicated services provide identical artwork and designs to many users, who must adapt them to suit their purposes.
Multidisciplinary requirements
Website design crosses multiple disciplines of information systems, information technology and communication design. The website is an information system whose components are sometimes classified as front-end and back-end. The observable content (e.g page layout, user interface, graphics, text, audio) is known as the front-end. The back-end comprises the organization and efficiency of the source code, invisible scripted functions, and the server-side components that process the output from the front-end. Depending on the size of a Web development project, it may be carried out by a multi-skilled individual (sometimes called a web master), or a project manager may oversee collaborative design between group members with specialized skills. |
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Flash is not a standard produced by a vendor-neutral standards organization like most of the core protocols and formats on the Internet. Flash is much more restrictive than the open HTML format, though, requiring a proprietary plugin to be seen, and it does not integrate with most web browser UI features like the "Back" button unless a hyperlink is programmed to link a new html page from the Flash file, in which case the animation of the previous page would reset. However, those restrictions may be irrelevant depending on the goals of the web site design.
According to NPD study, 98% of US Web users have the Flash Player installed [2], with 45%-56%[3] (depending on region) having the latest version. Numbers vary depending on the detection scheme and research demographics. Many graphic artists use Flash because it gives them exact control over every part of the design, and anything can be animated and generally "jazzed up". Some application designers enjoy flash because it lets them create applications that don't have to be refreshed or go to a new web page every time an action occurs. Flash can use embedded fonts instead of the standard fonts installed on most computers. There are many sites which forego HTML entirely for Flash. Other sites may use Flash content combined with HTML as conservatively as gifs or jpegs would be used, but with smaller vector file sizes and the option of faster loading animations. Flash may also be used to protect content from unauthorized duplication or searching.
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