How much do digital designers make? It can be tough to know where you stand in terms of your salary, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience under your belt yet. Luckily, this guide will break down how much digital designers make based on their level of experience and what type of company they work for, so you can see how your salary stacks up.
What Is a DigitalDesigner?
Before we start talking about how much digital designers make, it’s helpful to have a clear understanding of what a digital designer is. Simply put, a digital designer has many responsibilities regarding building and maintaining digital products and websites. He or she is responsible for everything from initial sketches to development, management, and support.
In terms of salary potential, starting at $50k and climbing up to over $150k per year. It’s an exciting industry that never stops changing as technology advances with new emerging technologies like VR/AR (virtual reality/augmented reality) that are sure to change our lives soon!
How Much Do Digital Designers Make
One of several things you can expect when choosing a career in design is being extremely well-compensated. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2017 that designer designers made an average of $60,910 per year, with some careers fetching much higher wages. When looking for a job as a designer, your first decision should be how much to charge clients for your services. Different positions will pay different salaries; determining which type of designer you want to be is vital to making money.
Use our guide on how much do digital designers make? to find out more about what opportunities are available and learn more about starting a career in Designers designer today!
What Skills Are Required to Become a Digital Designer?
The role of a digital designer is typically seen as a very technical position that requires little artistic training. And in many cases, that’s true. But it’s important to note that digital designer encompasses a variety of different specialties and skill sets, from user experience designers who specialize in helping people interact with technology more intuitively to graphic designers who are skilled at using images and typography to draw attention to specific elements on the screen.
Some digital designers even have formal art training, using painting and drawing techniques in new ways when crafting wireframes for web design projects.
What Tools Do Digital Designers Use?
If you want to be a digital designer, you’ll need to know which tools are common. The obvious go-to here is Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator; these are what most companies use for their digital designs. However, as a small business owner, you might not have access to both of these paid services.
Thankfully, there are other good options out there, such as GIMP and Inkscape. Both of these programs offer a range of design functions that can easily take care of any simple jobs you throw at them. If those don’t work for your business needs, it might be time to look into hiring someone else!
What Is The Employment Outlook For Digital Designers?
The BLS does not track the employment of digital designers. However, a good proxy for digital designer job growth can be found by looking at growth in related jobs such as those in web design and electronic publishing. According to the BLS, employment of web developers is projected to grow 17 percent from 2012 to 2022, much faster than average. Jobs for software developers are expected to grow 19 percent from 2012 to 2022.
This shows that both positions are projected to have rapid job growth with software developer jobs growing nearly twice as fast as web developer jobs over that period. These numbers do not include other related positions such as graphic designers who may work on sites or mobile apps designed by these positions.
Conclusion
That is a question that we receive often and it’s certainly not easy to answer because each company and its needs are different. But don’t fret, below is our comprehensive guide to help you understand how much a digital designer makes. Whether you work for yourself or someone else, several factors determine how much a freelance digital designer makes: experience, location, and skill set all play major roles in determining salary.
If you want to make more money as a digital designer, then you should think about improving your skills with classes from Lynda or Udemy. Remember if you’re looking for a new job make sure your portfolio has up-to-date samples of your work so hiring managers know what they are getting before talking money. Good luck!