Web design and graphic design?

I am student and I want to make a career in designing, but I can’t decide what I choose between web design and graphic design. Can anyone suggest me which is the better option for me?

I would recommend that you attend school for Graphic Design. That will provide the best fundamental education in terms of design process which can be applied to any medium, including web. Than if you would like to build websites as opposed to merely being able to design what they look like in software program learn HTML then CSS in your down time. The reason I say that is that most web design programs are nothing more then a joke, teaching out dated technologies and pigeon-holing students to the web. However, a graphic design degree will provide the rudimentary skills to use in any medium whether that be print, web or what ever is the next big thing. A graphic design degree will be more marketable long-term than a web design degree, simple as that. Now, the down side of the graphic design degree will be that you probably will not be doing much web work. However, what you will learn is design fundamentals, practices in form of printed media that are applicable across all mediums. As someone who went to school for graphic design I had one web design class in college and at the point I knew more than the professor in terms of the technology. The entire degree is focused on traditional media and print. It is not really until the junior and senior year where professors tend to be a little bit more flexible in terms of specific focuses. Than again that was my experience and I graduated from one of the top schools for graphic design in the US.

Than if you would like to build websites as opposed to merely being able to design what they look like in software program learn HTML then CSS in your down time. The reason I say that is that most web design programs are nothing more then a joke, teaching out dated technologies and pigeon-holing students to the web.

Web design programs should really be “Graphic design with some added credits/coordinate major/minor in classes related to www technology”

More colleges should really understand that web design is just one specialization of graphic design. It will save them a lot of money if they just dressed up their GD program a bit and market that as a different offering to students, instead of laying out completely new curricula which ends up taking years to develop (and hence why it becomes outdated) and getting a whole slew of different teachers with no appropriate background to teach it.

You know what… its not really much different than most top level schools leaving it up to students them selves to learn design software. Many schools such as; RISD don’t even offer classes in the software, directly. Granted not many schools take that position, but all the well known ones are tending to sway in that direction – believe it or not. A monkey can learn the software, but its takes real talent and skill to design well.

Thanks for all your comments. So Web designing is too narrow? and I will be better off taking Graphic Designs right?

Yes. I would agree that web design is too narrow. Web design is just another form of graphic design. I’m currently working on a degree in graphic design with emphasis in web design, but most decent colleges that teach graphic design will include at least one class specifically on web design and offer more as electives. The other classes in graphic design will sharpen your design skills that can be applied to any graphic design project in web or other medium.

Absolutely, and I’d probably recommend straight Graphics Design rather than Web Design as if you still choose it as a career afterward you’ll have years to hone your skills whereas you’ll only have one chance to expand your horizons at university. As omglookitsagoat has rightly said, most Graphic Design degrees will have at least one class that deals with Web Design and as most of your career will be based around your portfolio you’ll have tons of time to get that part right.

I would suggest a degree in graphic arts simply because it’s much broader in scope. With a graphic arts degree, you will gain the skills to create designs and graphics not just for websites, but also a whole lot of other industries including films, television, publishing, etc.

Typically, a graphic arts degree should include courses in web design as well. So, even if you choose a degree in graphic arts, you will learn how to create designs for websites also.

I agree with the others on taking graphic design, but don’t fall into the trap that some of the designers do in trying to make web pages “made for print” or make them all in Flash for the sake of putting more “design” in front of the code.

Web design has its own rules and limitations that you should adhere to and hopefully part of your self-taught education in web design resources would teach you the do’s and do-nots of it. I once was interviewed for a web designer internship, the interviewer being the same person I would work directly for. It was clear he had his education in graphic design, but he wasn’t well-adjusted to websites. He considered CSS too restrictive, and would want me to use Flash for every website, so I decided not to take that job.

An excellent point to make, although one that is becoming smaller and smaller over time as the constraints of the web start to change, hence the whole responsive design movement and the rise of mobile devices.

With luck, this mindset will die out within the next few years when, as you rightly said, print designers fall to pieces when they realise that their pixel-perfect drawings don’t fit on an Android device.

Graphic designing and web designing is the same. Graphic designing is taken first before web designing
.

When you want to go in designing field than there is web designing and graphic designing both are important to learn. By graphic designing you can make images good looking and adjust shapes and in web designing you can design whole website in which theme is important in all pages so,css is needed. CSS is important to web designing.

That’s a horrific generalisation to make. There is FAR more to Graphic Design than what you’ve mentioned, and somehow you’ve made Web Design look to be more important. If anything, Web Design is a tiny subset of Graphic Design.

Today the Requirement of web designing Candidate is too much. SO that was why I m suggesting you to make a carrier in web designing…

In terms of practical application a design degree prepares you mostly for print work. That is not to say that the things learned through print projects can be directly applied to a different medium such as the web. However, the focus of a good design degree will be print based projects. A good designer will be able to make the transition from print to web easily in terms of creating mock-ups. However, when it comes to actually building something with HTML and CSS that is a whole other skill that one is not taught when going through a traditional, well-established design program. I say this because web design in most cases not only encompasses the ability to design something but at the very least take care of some front responsibilities regarding HTML and CSS. Design graduates are simply not equipped with those skills unless they learn them themselves or are not attending a school with a traditional design degree.

Take the graphic design course. This will make you more flexible in your career as a designer. Then if you are thinking of learning web design afterward then at least you already have a strong foundation. A web designer should also be very skilled in graphic design (photoshop, illustrator, flash) to be competitive in this industry, and companies really require those skills.

I’m also experiencing the same challenge (graphic designer/web designer/web developer) - as much irritating as it it, I think we should be aware that even though the disciplines are related or go hand-in-hand, they’re different’hats’… now our challenge is that we want a title that will sum up all the different disciplines…

What makes it hard is that the disciplines are related, otherwise you would refer to yourself under a different title, depending on the situation. A person who is a Painter, Songwriter, Animator and copywriter will definitely struggle to find one title that sums up all they do!

Now days a web designer have to learn graphics design for better work exposure. It will ad an extra qualification for a web designers. Maximum webmaster are now using graphics, flashes for making an attracting and eye-catching website design, which can keep their visitors longer on web pages.

web design and graphic design should both eyes of an person it is mandatory for prove creativity in this competitive world.

That sentence does not make much sense. No offense, but you should learn more English.