I have historically designed and developed websites and stayed abreast of new trends in graphic design, keeping my skills sharp. I often step in to a project with existing graphic design or collaborate with new designs created by someone else.
As many of my clients don’t know where to begin, I found a great article that I’m sharing in hopes that it proactively addresses some questions related to graphic design and important things to consider.
https://blog.marketo.com/2018/10/rebranding-is-much-more-than-designing-a-new-logo.html
Although I have graphic design skills/capabilities, I am used to working with other agencies and incorporating their website design and existing brand standards (from a PSD file, PDF, or Adobe XP with assets provided separately). In that sense, I am not creating the design but usually implementing and developing the functionality implied by the design switch from Web Designer to Web Developer.
2022 Update
Textures and gradients are another sure bet for 2022. While textures add depth and complexity to otherwise flat elements, gradients do the same to stale or boring color palettes. Adding grain to color gradients provides the illusion of movement and life. The design itself should focus on mobile-first or, at the very least, attention to how the website will look on mobile devices with high priority. We are focusing our attention to the use of the Divi theme after years of using a variety of other themes. We find this is streamlining our development process, and Divi has recently added the ability to add not only solid background colors, images, and gradients but also background masks and patterns. This is very much in keeping with the most recent design trends and putting them in action.
View some of the newest available Divi Background treatments.