Ask a handful of your friends to describe what it would mean to be involved in the work of graphic design and you will find that most of them will provide you with an answer that is directly related to web design. While it is true that web design is a type of graphic design and that it’s the form of graphic design that you would be most likely to learn when attending a Graphic Design Program, it is important to note that web design and graphic design are not synonymous.

Web design is one type or aspect of graphic design. Graphic design itself is a much bigger field of study and employment. In fact, the history of graphic design dates way back to the Middle Ages, hundreds of years before computers were even invented and definitely a long time before we were all regularly using the web.

At its most basic level, graphic design refers to the business of visual communication. Graphic design is about trying to convey a message or a thought or a concept through images. It’s about the layout of images on the page whether that page is the printed page or the web page. It’s about trying to make an impact on the person who looks at that page in order to sell them something or even just to get their attention.

This is important for a few reasons. First, it’s just good to know the history of the fields that interest you because that gives you a more complete understanding of the work. But it also points to the fact that graphic design will be an important field even if the web as we know it changes considerably in the years to come.

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