[iChelle]

hi all,
i am trying to update my resume and am wondering what the difference is between desktop publishing and graphic design. i am trying to create a functional resume and am listing tasks under graphic design and tasks under desktop publishing. please help me determine what should go under where. thank you!!!

[mr. burns]

to me, desktop publishing is more of an amateur consumer do-it-yourself-at-home version of graphic design. like making invitations for your daughters wedding, or making a family photo album. graphic design involves clients, a professional environment and the designer is usually not personally involved with the client or the product they are working with.

[iChelle]

thank you for the prompt response.

[Macola]

Originally posted by mr. burns:
to me, desktop publishing is more of an amateur consumer do-it-yourself-at-home version of graphic design. like making invitations for your daughters wedding, or making a family photo album. graphic design involves clients, a professional environment and the designer is usually not personally involved with the client or the product they are working with.

That certainly is a different way of looking at it.

Graphic design, for me, encompasses a wide variety of artistic skills with media ranging from doodling on paper napkins to watercolors to electronic. Desktop publishing is, specifically, the production of documents via an electronic process, which most people tend to equate with the word "layout".

[iChelle]

could you please give me a specific example of something considered as "desktop publishing" and something considered as "graphic design"?

[siMac]

Graphic design:
The creation of a logo for a company.

Desktop Publishing:
The creation of a company newsletter.

These are more or less extremes, there is a large degree of overlap between the two. Desktop publishing, in my opinion, implies semi-skilled production, as opposed to graphic design, which I see as professionally produced.

[storer]

mmmm, microsoft calls Microsoft Publisher a DP programe... is that enough...

[madmacgames]

define: Desktop Publishing

define: Graphic Design

[KeriVit]

in my opinion- not facts...

Desktop Publishing: Sitting at the computer and laying out a publication however you can get it done. There is some layout skill involved, but a true DP can at least give it a clean concise look.

Graphic Design: Coming up with concepts, sketching and finally using the computer (if necessary) as a tool to accomplish the concept at hand and producing a professional piece.

[JMII]

GD is true design involving the use of artwork, original concepts and themes.
DP is more production related with most tasks dealing in general layout and pagination issues.

Kind of like a song writer (GD) vs someone who can play the music (DP). In other words you can teach DP, but GD is a talent in my opinon.

For example I work for a printing company were we have a Desktop & Presspress Department - thus we have both desktop and graphic artists working here. The artists design the pieces but then pass them to the desktop people who worry about imposition, bleeds, trapping issues, ect. Basically the GD creates the look of the piece and the DP people makes it work on press.

Just to confuse matters even more I've had a third classification: production artist. This is a graphic designer that does the grunt work under a creative director. While they are doing the creative work they are not the ones coming up with the concepts. This is a very gray area, you often have to wear many hats.

Thus it all depends on the size of the company and thier work flow as what responsiblities fall on which side of the DP vs GD assignments. However I feel the really good graphic designers started as desktop publishers and thus know the ins-and-outs regarding the technical issues involved in producting thier piece.

[iMOTOR]

The term "desktop publishing" is so nineties.

[storer]

Like I said before, think of M$ Publisher. They call that a Desktop Publishing app. Would you use it for a serious job? No. Do you use photoshop to make graphics and stuff in it? No.

[rozwado1]

Originally posted by storer:
Do you use photoshop to make graphics and stuff in it? No.

Then what do you use PS for? Maybe you're talking logos and such (Illustrator).

[iChelle]

right, i think he was referring to vector based stuff.

[storer]

sorry, what i wrote doesn't even make sense.
i meant to say;
do you make graphics in it?

[TheInevitable]

Do I make graphics in photoshop? Of course I do. What else would you use photoshop for?

[storer]

NO, M$ Publisher was what i was talking about.
Dw.

[rozwado1]

Now that we're all lost....

[iChelle]

hee, didn't know i started a hot topic

[storer]

Originally posted by mr. burns:
to me, desktop publishing is more of an amateur consumer do-it-yourself-at-home version of graphic design.

OMG, you said it the right way. I wished i had noticed it earlier.