Also known as...
Digital Designer.
The role in brief...
Web Designers bring creative ideas to life across a variety of digital formats. Working with creative teams, user experience designers, and web developers they ensure a strong visual end product to engage audiences and meet the client’s needs. They may also be called upon to work on agency new business pitches, designing materials to promote the agency and its work to potential new clients.
Working with...
- Internal: Creative teams and Directors; Digital Project Manager; Web Developers; User Experience Designers; User Interaction Designers; the New Business/Agency Marketing Team.
- External: Once they have gained digital design experience on client projects, Web Designers will often meet and liaise with parts of the client Marketing team.
- Web Designers will usually report into a Senior (or ‘Heavyweight’) Digital Designer; occasionally they may report into the Head of Design or to a Creative Director. Those in senior roles may also have management responsibility for more junior Web Designers.
Responsible for...
- Designing websites, applications and emails in response to design briefs and user interaction requirements.
- Responding to creative and artistic direction from creative teams and Directors.
- Manipulating photography, illustration, graphics and typography to execute creative ideas and meet client brand guidelines.
- Working with Web Developers to ensure that design concepts will work across all platforms and devices.
- Supporting agency pitches for new business through designing presentations, mockup visuals and sample web pages to convey creative ideas and design solutions.
- Maintaining strong skills in a variety of design software packages and furthering own learning and creative development.
Those who succeed are...
- Creative and imaginative, with fresh, original ideas.
- Passionate about good design, while recognising the commercial needs of clients and understanding the role it can play in advertising and communications.
- Excellent design, layout, colour and composition skills.
- Able to understand, develop and execute creative ideas across a variety of formats.
- Highly competent with design software packages.
- Good working knowledge of some of the main web development tools such as Mac OS, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, and Dreamweaver.
- Calm and well organised, able to work effectively under pressure.
- Aware of design and technological trends, the opportunities they offer and when to deploy them.
Where they come from, and where they go...
Web Designers will usually have gained a good university level qualification in an art or design subject such as Graphic Design, Web Design, Illustration, Multimedia and Communication Design, or Interactive Arts. Apprenticeships can also offer another route into this area of work. In both cases employers will want to see a strong portfolio that showcases digital creativity, ideally with three stages of the process from idea generation, through concept sketches to final production. Previous work experience in the field is always a bonus. After gaining some experience, Web Designers can progress to Senior, or ‘Heavyweight’, Web Designer roles, overseeing larger projects before some eventually become Design Director or Creative Director for their agency. Others can develop cross-disciplinary knowledge of web programming languages through their close work with that team and may later transition into related disciplines such as Web Development or User Experience Design.