Hello. This is Ochiai, the designer.

I mainly work on print design, photography, and illustration.

Since joining Merci, I've been involved in web design more and more.

What I've come to realize through that is that print design and web design are completely different.

Collecting flyers is a hobby of mine.

Not just flyers, but magazines, pamphlets, tickets, and even sweets packaging—I collect any design I think is "good."

That's because seeing lots of good work is a great way to learn.

With a flyer, whether or not people even look at it depends on the design.

With websites, however, that isn't necessarily the case.

The more you fuss over the design, the less likely it is, in most cases, to show up in search results.

For a website whose purpose is to attract customers, there's no point if it doesn't show up in search results.

For example,

say you search for "cafe Kakegawa." If a shop comes up on the first page, I'd think about giving it a try.

It's just a feeling, but the higher a site ranks in search results, the more reassuring it seems, doesn't it?

With websites, whether people see you depends not on how beautiful the design is but largely on your search ranking.

This is where it differs greatly from print design.

For major manufacturers and well-known shops, various factors mean they can create highly free-form designs without worrying about search rankings, but for someone who is about to build a website to attract customers, the freedom in design tends to be limited.

In order to create good designs within these limited conditions, I want to work hard at studying website design as well as collecting flyers.

Design trends change day by day, so there's no end in sight! (lol)