On the surface visual design and graphic design sound like the same thing and are sometimes used as interchangeable terms, 尤其是在设计行业之外.

虽然有很多 similarities between 视觉设计师 and graphic designers，它们之间也有明显的差异.

什么是视觉设计?

视觉 design was born out of a mixture of graphic design and user interface (UI) design. It focuses on the 美学 of a website or any other type of 数字设计. 成品好看吗? 这就是问题所在 视觉设计师 目的是回答.

虽然它们不完全是一回事, visual design is sometimes used interchangeably with the term visual communication. 视觉 communication as a term often encompasses much more than just 数字设计 and is focused on the communication of a message visually. While a visual designer is specifically focused on the look and feel, a visual communication designer is somewhat less concerned with 美学, 支持这门学科的交流方面.

另一个常见的混淆领域是视觉设计vs. 一般网页设计. 它们是一回事吗? 是也不是.

Some web designers could definitely be classed as 视觉设计师. But one key area of difference lies in the fact that most web designers are expected to know at least some coding — HTML and CSS at the very least. 视觉设计工作不包括编码.

视觉 designers are often tasked with larger design projects than web designers. 网页设计在网站设计中的作用是什么, visual design examples may include creating entire visual languages for a brand or product. It goes beyond the scope of a single end product (website, app, brochure, etc.), and covers the way the entire organization approaches design projects.

什么是平面设计?

图形 design as a profession has been around much longer than visual design. The term “graphic design” first appeared in an essay by William Addison Dwiggins, 新的印刷需要新的设计, in 1922, but in reality, the practice dates back to the earliest artwork created by humans.

平面设计师 开始为印刷出版物设计:书籍, 杂志, 报纸, 宣传册, 目录, 诸如此类. 图形示例 设计责任 包括创建视觉图形, 页面布局, 广告, 营销材料, 有时更专业的产品，比如字体.

在20世纪90年代, 随着网页设计成为一种沟通手段, graphic designers started to expand their offerings into web design. 这是有道理的，因为许多 基本设计原则 无论是印刷还是数字设计都是一样的. With just a bit more training on the technical aspects and restrictions, 平面设计师很有能力创建一个网站.

Many graphic design agencies added web design to their offerings, further establishing that graphic designers could work in both print and digital spaces. Many graphic designers now create digital products at least as often as they create print designs.

As our work and personal lives increasingly use digital means of communication over print forms, 平面设计师必须适应以保持相关性. And those digital communications have also gone a long way toward blurring the lines between visual design and graphic design.

视觉设计vs. 图形 设计: The Blurred Line Between the Two Disciplines

因为平面设计和视觉设计都注重 美学, 这两个学科之间的界限往往是模糊的, especially when referencing 数字设计s. Websites and web app designs can be created by either 视觉设计师 or graphic designers. So why would someone call themselves one thing over the other?

If all the work a designer is doing could be classed as visual design or graphic design, 设计师称自己为哪一个有关系吗? 事实上,是的. There’s a significant difference in the salary range between the two disciplines. 平面设计师 generally top out around $65,000 per year while 视觉设计师 may earn over $90,000 /年. Perception of visual design as a more cutting-edge discipline likely has a lot to do with this difference. 图形 design is often thought of as the dinosaur of design disciplines.

While there is overlap between the two jobs, there are also stark differences. The biggest one is in the end products each type of designer creates. 如果一个设计师在做印刷设计, 例如, 那么“视觉设计师”就不是一个准确的头衔. Other differences and similarities between the two disciplines are outlined in the 信息图表 下面.