Sometimes, being a marketer means, well, being more than a just a mere marketer. One day you're a blogger, after that a social media socialite extraordinaire, and then, the next thing you know, you're a graphic designer working on mock ups and guides. Okay, maybe you won't really be creating client's website design mock ups, but truthfully, even marketers design and create visual content. For example, you could encountered situations where clients ask you to come up with infographics, CTAs, eBooks, guides, or memes for their website, and your company's true designer may not always be available.

If you're new to the game in the marketing world, don't go in unprepared. You will have clients, they will have questions, and you will need answers. What's going to happen when your in-house designer has a queue longer than your Netflix account and needs a little help? How will you overcome the fact that you aren't versed in designer-speak? (It's like a legitimate foreign language seriously.) Luckily for you ImageWorks is here to keep you afloat.  Here's a list of our top need to know terms to help you become web design fluent.

Top 7 Need to Know Web Design Terms

Alignment - The positioning of the elements within your design. Elements can be aligned with the page or with other designs elements. (In most cases usually left, center, or right)

Contrast - The accentuated differences between colors, shapes, sizes, or spacing within design elements.

Crop - When you remove the outer-parts of an image to reframe or resize the image's aspect ratio or subject matter.

HTML - The computer language used to display content like text, images, and links on the web.

Mock Up - An initial draft of a web designer's design concept used to show the user what direction they are taking for their web project.

Pixel - The smallest element of an image on a computer.

White Space - Also called negative space, white space is used to describe the blank space surrounding an object in design.

Other Web Design Terms You Should Know

Ascender - An extension of a letter that appears above the "middle line." (think of the letters d,k, or h.)

Baseline - The invisible line on which all letters are set.

Cap Height - The distance between the baseline and the top of the uppercase letters.

Color Wheel - A circle of colors that shows the relationships between primary and secondary colors.

Color Scheme - A combination of two or more colors on the color wheel.

Complimentary Colors - Colors that are directly opposite of each other on the color wheel.

CSS - A piece of code that is used to designate the look and feel of a website. (It's separate from the actual content of the web page.)

Descender - An extender on a letter below the baseline. (Think opposite of the ascender so p, j, or g.)

Drop Shadow - A visual effect that makes a graphic appear to have a shadow behind it.

Feathering - A design technique used to smooth out the edges of your graphics or designs.

Font Face - A typeface in one specific style and size.

Grid - A map of vertical and horizontal lines that help align images and texts on your web page.

Hex code - A code used in HTML and CSS to designate a specific color (Usually appears after the pound (#) sign.)

Hue - One of the main properties of a color.

JPEG - A file type usually used for images.

Kerning - The space between individual letters.

Lossy - A form of data compression where details are deleted as the file size is decreased. (JPEG is a lossy compression method.)

PDF - A file formated best to represent documents and presentations.

PNG - An image file format that you should use when you have large areas of uniform colors or images with transparent backgrounds.

RGB Color Model - The RGB (Red, Green, Blue) is used for web design because monitors transmit light in those colors.

Saturation - The intensity or brightness of a color.

Shade - How much black is mixed in with the hue of a color.

Tint - How much white is mixed with the hue of a color.

Vector Image - Instead of using pixels to represent images, vectors use lines and shapes.

Watermark - An easy to see mark placed over the top of photos on the web and in print. It is usually to identify the owner of that image.

Zip File - A file format that compresses a lot of other files and combines them into a singe folder. You can restore a zip file by unzipping it.