DBS Interactive Blog

Do you ever grow tired of seeing the uninspiring, cookie-cutter site designs that seem to be so prevalent on the web these days? Don’t you wish that there were somewhere or someone you could consult to find the next, game-changing web design trend? Believe it or not, this somewhere may actually be in your bathroom. Confused? Let me explain.

Walk into any American household and chances are there is a basket full of magazines and other reading material in the bathroom. Web designers rarely consider using this print material for inspiration because of the inherit differences between the two mediums. Truth be told, these stacks of magazines are an absolute gold mine for creative inspiration. Print design and web design share many commonalities in their core principles; however, it is absolutely vital that web designers understand the differences between the two mediums before drawing any inspiration from them.

Let’s use an analogy to point out one of the major differences. If we were to compare the two mediums to animals, I’d say print design is most comparable to the nimble-footed hare, whereas web design more closely resembles the lethargic tortoise. The point I’m trying to make (Keyword being “trying”) is that the web tends to fall slightly behind on some design trends because of the time it takes to produce a webpage. This is not to say that all sites are outdated, but print gives web designers another place to look for cutting-edge ideas without having to worry about the compatibility issues that exist when designing for multiple browsers.

Page layout in print design is also vastly different from web sites’ standard layout. Twenty years ago, web designers were limited to creating basic, hierarchical table structures in HTML. Thanks to the utilization of new web technologies and standards such as CSS, Flash, and Flex, we have seen web design shift towards designs that more closely resemble traditional print ads. Despite the resemblance, print and website design are not the same. Designing a website that is identical to an ad you just ran in your local newspaper will never be considered a best practice. Regardless, I think it is fairly safe to assume that we will see web design principles continue to evolve towards their print counterparts.

Lastly, web typography creates a handful of additional concerns that don’t apply to print design. As web designers, we have to worry about screen resolution and readability, which is a concept that is likely completely foreign to print designers. Serif fonts are easier to read with printed materials, while sans serif fonts are better for screen viewing. Web designers also have to consider the circulation of their font. Just because your computer has a font downloaded, does not always mean that the majority of your users have it as well.

Once you identify these differences, it becomes quite simple to draw inspiration from print design.

Some magazines I look at for inspiration are HOW

PRINT

Communication Arts

and Baseline.

These magazines have proven time and time again to be invaluable resources.

Print design is a medium that is certainly exploited by other print designers for inspiration, but following it as a web designer, may leave you a step ahead of the competition. Next time you are lacking creative inspiration, don’t bother browsing the web. Instead, try settling down in a cozy recliner and studying your favorite magazine. And forget about the guilty-conscious nonsense – like the great Audre Lorde preached, “There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.”