14 Best Paying Graphic Design Jobs and Salaries
Are you trying to figure out the best paying graphic design jobs to key into? If you do, then this post will be helpful to you.
There are various graphic design opportunities out there that you can do if you have the required skills to be effective in them.
Here are best paying job positions in graphic designing and salaries:
- Brand Identity Designer
- Web Designer
- Art Director
- Film and Video Editor
- Multimedia Designer
- Logo Designer
- Photo Editing/Photoshop Artist
- Layout Artist
- Industrial Product Designer
- Interior Designer
- Photographer
- Graphic Advertising and Promotions Manager
- User Experience (UX) Designer
- Animation/Animator
14 Best Paying Graphic Design Jobs and Salaries
- Brand Identity Designer
Brand identity is a major graphic design job, it entails the combination of logos, color systems, typographies and image feel to create a visual element for a brand.
Brand design is crucial in marketing practices and brand identity designers create the design, name, logo, and the emblem or symbolic elements related to the brand to give it a unique identity.
Brand identity design is a tasking profession that requires a high level of creativity; if you are interested in this job you need to have a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design, Marketing or Advertising.
Brand identity designers can get a gig to design a brand identity for banks and insurance companies, manufacturing firms, supermarkets, educational institutions, IT companies, etc.
Brand Identity Designer Salary: According to Ziprecruiter, the U.S. national average yearly salary for a brand identity designer is $73,023 as at June 2020.
- Web Designer
Web designers are responsible for developing of web pages, layout and the graphic designs that make up the various web pages.
They make decisions on the content of the web page, they consider the structure, graphics and navigation of the site; they ensure the continuation from one web page to the other.
The requirements of a web designer job involve a relevant diploma in related field. Proficiency in web development programming languages such as HTML and CSS, JQuery, and JavaScript are required.
Also required is a skill in computer graphic design software, including Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.
As a web designer, you can be employed by web designing agencies, IT consultancies, and software houses or you can apply to work in an organization’s IT department.
Web Designer Salary: The average yearly salary for a web designer in the United States is $64,908 according to Salary.com May, 2020 statistics.
- Art Director
Art directors work with various firms that utilize graphic design for their publications and daily activities.
Art directors can work for clients in firms such as newspapers, online publications, magazine, and other marketing and advertising firms while maintaining communication and managing the project budget and deadline.
They oversee the activities of subordinate designers and other teams of design professionals by reviewing and assessing the creative designs before final publication.
To become an art director, you need a Bachelor’s degree in graphic arts, photography, and illustration, or in a related field.
In most cases, employers prefer candidates with a Master’s degree. You can apply to work in a print media, advertising, and public relation firm.
Art Director Salary: The average yearly salary of an art director in the United States is $67,313 according to PayScale’s May, 2020 figures.
- Film and Video Editor
Film editing is a career in the field of graphic designing. Film or video editors make use of creative software tools to construct artistic features in videos shot by camera operators.
Video editors liaise with producers to determine the best thrilling graphic design to add to a video section with the goal to captivate the attention of their audience.
They trim footage down, add graphic effects, organize and join the video segments and make frames for audio.
To become a film and video editor, you need to get a Bachelor or Associate’s degree that offers experience in film or media production, fine and visual art, information/multimedia technology.
After successful completion of the courses, you can apply for a job in a broadcast company, film companies, animation companies, and video/computer games companies.
Film and Video Editor Salary: The film and video editor in the United States earn an average yearly salary of $53,891 by May, 2020 according to Glassdoor.
- Multimedia Designer
A multimedia designer is a graphic designer that uses artistic, sound, and creative skills to make videos and audios and design animated images for digital platforms.
They design props, set, and costumes and direct the technical production of light settings and sound to ensure the production goes according to plans and scale models they produced.
A Bachelor’s degree in digital arts, computer animation, graphic design or other related graphics field is typically required if you want to get a job as multimedia designer.
Multimedia design jobs can be found in media fields such as audio production, video or film production, audio, animation set design.
You can apply in any of these fields if you want to become a multimedia designer.
Multimedia Designer Salary: According to PayScale, multimedia designers in the United States make an average yearly salary of Multimedia Designer as at May, 2020.
- Logo Designer
Logo designing is one of the best graphic design jobs. Logos are graphically designed symbol or emblem that are designed in a unique way with alluring colors and distinctive shapes and design to act as a trademark or as a means of identifying an institution or other entity.
Logo designers are graphic designers who create distinctive symbols, emblems, and branding that represent companies or products.
Designing a logo is the best and common skill that most professional graphic designers have and can exhibit.
They might work for a business firm that needs a logo; a design firm, advertising agencies, or publishing media, or as a graphic freelancer.
A Bachelor’s degree in graphic design is usually necessary for logo designers.
Logo Designer Salary: Ziprecruiter gives the average annual salary for logo designers in the United States as $59,271 as at June 2020.
- Photo Editing/Photoshop Artist
Photo editing is a major career in graphic designing that you can never count out. A large number of organizations and companies need a photo editor.
Photo editing software tools play an important role in the work of a photo editor.
Photo editing software tools make it possible for users to manipulate digital photographs, resize, color correct, and crop images.
Photoshop is the most popular software used among photo editors and other graphic designers.
To start a career as a photo editor, you need to be a photographer or have a previous experience as a photographer, and also you can obtain a Bachelor’s degree in Photography, Visual Arts, or Digital Media.
You can get a full-time job as a photo editor or work as a freelancer or in a newspaper, book publishing, or magazines firm.
Photo Editing/Photoshop Artist Salary: The average salary for photo editors with Photoshop skills in the United States for 2020 is given as $69,951 by Salary.com.
- Layout Artist
Layout designing is among the best graphic design jobs out there. A layout artist connects types and images like illustrations, photographs and drawings.
They design and structure the layout of images in the proper format for print media.
They work on brochures, flyers, magazines, books, and posters and they ensure that they arrange the images and texts in the right order to make it pleasing to the eye to direct the reader’s attention to the right direction and line when reading.
They also arrange images in the correct order to align with text the images are pointing to.
You can get a job as a layout artist in advertising agencies, magazines, and newspapers, or in public relations firms.
All you need is to hold a Bachelor’s degree in a field pertaining to art or graphic design and have experience in the act of page layout.
Layout Artist Salary: According to Ziprecruiter, the yearly average national salary for layout artists in the U.S. by June 2020 is $42,345.
- Industrial Product Designer
Industrial product design is a type of design applied to products that are to be manufactured through the means of mass production.
Industrial designers create concepts used in manufacturing of products, such as home appliances, cars and industrial products.
They use the combination of art, engineering, and technology to produce what people use every day.
They make reference with the user experience to create a specific function for gadget or appliance.
Industrial product designers utilize their professional theoretical and practical knowledge to create, design, engineer, and develop new products that are aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
A Bachelor’s degree is the minimum educational requirement for an industrial product designer and a common major in engineering, industrial, and architecture.
It is also required to complete a basic art design courses in other to apply for a job as an industrial product designer.
Industrial Product Designer Salary: According to Glassdoor, industrial product designers make $87,923 as average yearly salary in the United States as at June, 2020.
- Interior Designer
Graphic designers can also develop themselves to become an interior designer. Some Interior designers team up with engineers and architects. Interior designers work with the interior spaces to improve the aesthetics appeal and functionality of the project.
They determine the color paintings, lighting, flooring, furniture and figurines and other elements in a building.
Most interior designers use design software tools to model and design their blueprint and communicate their plans with the engineers and architects who will bring the designs to reality.
To get a well-paid job as an interior designer, you need a Bachelor’s degree and experience in Interior Design, drawing, and knowledge of computer-aided design (CAD).
You can get a job as an interior designer with interior design firms, retail stores, individual building project, and architectural firms, and other design departments of large industries or institutions.
Interior Designer Salary: According to PayScale, the yearly average salary for an interior designer in the United States as at May, 2020 is $49,474.
- Photographer
Photography is a career in graphic designing whereby photographers utilize their creative expertise to capture images or events that tell a story.
Photographers work with digital cameras and editing software tools to improve the image quality.
Photography will enable you understand the relevance of light and color.
Graphics design has to do with combination of elements like warm, cool colors, and contrast but photography enables you to bring these concepts to reality by determining the position of the light reflection before capturing images.
Having a certificate in diploma or Associate’s photography degree program can give you a job as a photographer.
Also completing an internship program for a couple of years can give you the required experience to get a job as a photographer.
You can get a job as a portrait photographer in a studio; they also travel to take outdoor or indoor photographs at clients’ locations or render home services to clients.
You can also get a job as a photojournalist in news media houses.
Photographer Salary: According to Ziprecruiter, the average yearly salary for photographers in the United States is $43,114 as at June, 2020.
- Graphic Advertising and Promotions Manager
Advertising and promotion managers often work with an agency to organize promotion campaigns for clients.
They sell advertising spaces for media firms.
They liaise with sales staff and other creative teams to come up with campaign strategies and the best design to use to promote the brand and produce the layouts; they determine the campaign budget.
To get a job as an advertising and promotion manager, you need a Bachelor’s degree in Advertising or Journalism.
And you can get a job as a graphic advertising manager by applying for it in any firm that sells their products with the help of graphic designs.
Graphic Advertising and Promotions Manager Salary: According to Recruiter.com, advertising or promotions manager earn an average salary of between $70,000 and $100,000 yearly.
- User Experience (UX) Designer
User experience designers develop software tools, mobile application, websites, and video games for users to interact with.
They determine how users feel about a particular product.
User experience (UX) design is used to create products that provide meaningful experiences to users.
This involves the design of the entire product, including aspects of branding and packaging.
You can get a job as a user experience designer by enrolling in a tech-related Bachelor’s degree program like computer science.
It is advised to gain experience in the field through freelancing as user experience designer or internships.
User Experience Designer Salary: UX designers make average yearly salary of $73,999 in the United States by May, 2020 according to Payscale.
- Animation/Animator
Animation is one of the most lucrative graphic design careers.
Animators create images that appear life and animate on the screen. They perform their duties on videos/movies, websites, computer games and other media.
They work with specialized software tools, and also work with puppets or models by moving the puppets and capturing the separate images of each stage of the puppet’s movement which later gives an illusion of the motion movement when displayed in rapid sequence.
Most employers require prospective animators to have a Bachelor’s degree in Animation, Graphic Designing or in a related field.
They can work with gaming programmers, 3D Animators, video or movie producers, creative directors, and photographers.
Animator Salary: ZipRecruiter gives the average yearly salary for the animator job in the United States as $62,591 by June 2020.
Conclusion
Graphic designing is profitable career and it is useful in most sectors of the economy. Most business enterprises use the skills of expert graphic designers to promote their business.
Graphic design jobs have gone digital, such that designers can work from different locations.
There are a number of different career opportunities for graphic designers to pursue, and most of them pay well.
It is left for you to choose the niche you can effectively work in and share ideas that will inspire and captivate viewers of your work.
We have shared some of the best paying graphic design jobs that you can get into, including the expected salaries you might be paid.