The Difference Between Graphic Design and Marketing
Have you ever reached out to a creative company for help with your branding, website, social media ideas, or marketing plan, only to be told, “I don’t do that”?
The line between design and marketing is blurry. They go hand-in-hand, so it’s completely understandable to expect both services to be provided by one person, but they do require different skill sets.
To start, let’s look at the literal definitions:
Merriam Webster defines graphic design as “the art or profession of using design elements (such as typography and images) to convey information or create an effect.”
Marketing is defined as “the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.”
Those are both pretty wordy, but the key differences are:
Graphic design: Using visuals to convey information
Marketing: The technique of promoting and selling
Marketing revolves around analyzing data. Good marketing is based on a lot of research in order to determine the best positioning, language to use, target audience, and ways to reach your audience. A marketing strategy often leads to methods like social media posts, ad campaigns, SEO, print mailers, etc. It provides the logistical foundation for design.
Design is based on research, too, but it’s about communicating the marketing method. A graphic designer hears the information discovered about your business during market research, and translates those findings into visuals. It’s the look of the logo, social media posts, website, ad campaigns, print mailers, etc. Good design creates an emotional connection between your business and your customers. It uses visuals to grab attention and spark curiosity.
Both: analyze your business, research your industry, examine your audience
Marketing: focuses on the methods you use to reach your audience and sell your products/services
Design: focuses on the visual communication of the research and methods
Whether or not you should use print mailers to reach your audience is marketing, not design. What you should say in your ad copy to best articulate what you do to your audience is marketing, not design. The look and feel of your website to grab your audience’s attention is design, not marketing. The layout of your social media templates to create a consistent visual style is design, not marketing.
Make sense?
While I focus on graphic design, I’m fortunate to have a handful of amazing marketing collaborators to refer businesses to if they need.
Curious to learn more about graphic design and how it can help your business? Let’s connect!
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