Comments on: Webcentricity And The Future Of Print Designers

By: Mike Rivera

Mike Rivera — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:12:07 +0000

At my university, the print people are in the Brand Marketing group while the web people are called the Web Team and never do the two cross because the org chart says so. Both groups are given different assignments with no crossover whatsoever. The web is simply not considered marketing as far as I can tell (I’m a web designer and have worked here for a year now).

To further complicate things, the web team is comprised of writers and designers while developers are in yet another separate department, although fortunately in this case, both sides talk to one another.

How does anyone in a position of authority think this is a good way to do business?

By: universityusability

universityusability — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:37:03 +0000

Great blog, glad I found it. I have to say that I agree with Karine. The essence of print and web is content. You can have a website without flash, but you can’t have it without words. Just to make it clear, I’m a fully paid up member of the Gerry McGovern school of Content is King.

I do think it would be great if we could prise our IT people away from the technology and more towards the marketing – as this would be a move closer towards the customer.

By: Gold Nuggets for June 2008

Gold Nuggets for June 2008 — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:36:52 +0000

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By: Contextless links: June 30, 2008 | higher ed marketing

Contextless links: June 30, 2008 | higher ed marketing — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:13:01 +0000

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By: Kyle James

Kyle James — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:33:37 +0000

Rob, I am so glad to see where you took this thought. Reading the beginning to me I was thinking to myself, it simply doesn’t matter which comes first! Reading further you make a solid argument and one that I think any forward thinking individual totally understands.

In my assessment the only reason the two have any terms to compete on is print has to be 100% perfect when it goes to print where web is so much more dynamic and flexible the need to be perfect isn’t there and we can, and should, constantly be tinkering and tweaking to make it better.

By: Rob Westervelt

Rob Westervelt — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:18:41 +0000

No, I would agree with you on that, Karine. I would assume content under design.

By: Karine Joly

Karine Joly — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:26:02 +0000

I don’t know if it’s because of my writer background, but I’m tempted to say that what comes first is content.

Let’s agree on what we want to achieve with our web/print pieces, work on the content and then have it designed to meet the needs of the platforms (print/web) used by our target audiences.

By: Bradjward

Bradjward — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:50:34 +0000

Great thoughts. I love this line:
““Which comes first, print or Web?” Because we know that neither of these comes first. What comes first is design. Print and Web are merely platforms for design.”