Level Up Guide : The complete graphic design salary breakdown for graphic designers

Last updated on October 19th, 2022

There is always a huge demand for graphic designers as they are integral to creating different visual identities of a brand. While the demand for graphic designing jobs is ever increasing, the salary packages differ, depending on a lot of factors. So, you must first compare the graphic design salary based on different parameters to level up with what others are getting in this industry. How to do that? In this post, we have shared the complete graphic design salary breakdown guide for graphic designers, both for beginners and pros. Have a look.

Graphic design is something that every business owner is familiar with these days. This is because a business has a brand identity that manifests itself through a wide range of visuals including a logo, business cards, websites, brochures, and many more. All such visual creation needs the service of graphic designers.

But as a graphic designer, are you being paid adequately for your skills and experience? That is the question every graphic designer should first precisely answer while already in a job or negotiating the salary for a new project.

Getting the right graphic design salary is not as simple as it sounds. Instead, it is a bit complicated due to various factors such as experience, skill level, locality, etc, involved. But, let us start with the demands of this job.

What is the role of a graphic designer?

Graphic designers are the professionals who create brand visual identities such as a logo design, website, business cards, brochures, flyers, and many more. They are responsible for creating visual concepts by using computer software mostly. They aim to communicate ideas to the target audience or consumers. They work on projects involving advertisements, magazines, companies, brochures, etc.

Since the job of graphic designers is to communicate a brand message to the target customers, they are also called communication designers. The job of a graphic designer includes visualizing and creating graphics, layouts, and photos. They shape up the visual aspects of products, websites, books, magazines, brochures, leaflets, and others.

A graphic designer does the job using his or her drawing skills and IT to find solutions to the design and communication issues.

What are the different categories of graphic designers?

When talking about graphic designers, we generally think of them as communication designers or visual designers. Such designers create visual identities such as a logo, website design, brochure, flyer, and business cards.

But, the world of graphic design has changed a lot over the years. From being a simple world of creating simple designs such as logos and business cards, how many more types of design works have emerged up.

In recent years, many specialized jobs have come to the fore, generating the need to learn an entirely new set of graphic design skills.

Here Are A Few Of The Other Major New Graphic Design Categories

i. UI Designer

User Interface graphic designer works to create designs for apps, gaming consoles, TV services, and websites. They work with the UX or User experience designers.

ii. Editorial Designer

Editorial designers typically create a layout for magazines, books, newspapers, etc.

iii. Packaging Designer

Packaging designers focus on creating print-ready designs to come out with unique packaging designs.

iv. Motion Designer

Motion designers create animation based simple graphic designs which can be used in websites, music videos, explainer videos, TV idents, and TV credit sequences.

v. Environmental Designer

Environmental Designer creates designs for physical spaces like museums, conference halls, and retail interiors.

Graphic designers working in these categories earn a wide range of salaries and these vary a lot. So, there will be a great difference between salaries. For instance, a UI designer will earn a very high graphic design salary as compared to that of an editorial designer.

What are different graphic designer levels?

01. Entry-Level Graphic Designer

Entry-level graphic designers are those who are starting fresh and have recently finished a design course. In simple terms, they are beginners. They are looking for jobs where they can practice their newly acquired skills. These are mostly designers who have no or very little work experience. Many of them are not even sure if they need to make this field a career.

At this stage, entry-level graphic designers get easy tasks so that they are not stuck during the design process. The graphic design salary for such designers varies depending on the location and company.

02. Junior Graphic Designer

Junior graphic designers have some experience in the field. They generally know how things work in this industry. Also, they are the people who have finally decided to make graphic design their career choice. Such designers are ready to enhance their knowledge and skillset.

Usually, a majority of designers in any workplace are junior graphic designers. They perform everyday design tasks. So, their earnings depend on how much of the work they do. But, the difference between an entry-level designer and a junior one is not very large and many times it blurs. So, there is not a big difference in salaries either.

03. Senior Graphic Designers

Senior graphic designers are experienced professionals who have spent many years in the industry. They have a rich knowledge of their craft and have already done many key graphic design projects. Such professionals understand how to realize their creative ideas in a given workplace condition in a company and elsewhere.

They are also the people who have worked hard to achieve the status of a dependable designer who can take the design work to the next level. Most of them continue to perfect their art from home whenever an opportunity comes their way.

Such experienced graphic designers take responsibility in a company and actively take part in conducting the daily design tasks. They also train newcomers. So, naturally, they are the highest-paid designers in a company and even while working as freelancers designers.

How much graphic designers make?

Now that you know about the different levels of the designers as per their experience and skills, you would like to find out how much they earn. So, here is an estimated average graphic salary of graphic designers.

01. The Average Salary Of An Entry-Level Designer

Those graphic designers who are just starting in this field are the lowest paid in a company or as a freelancer. An entry-level graphic designer gets an average graphic salary of $31000 per year. This translates to a monthly salary of $2600.

This, of course, is not a dream salary and, on the contrary, it is very little. But, they have to perform only simple design tasks. Managers have to consistently keep a tab on what they are doing. So, their low salaries make sense.

02. The Average Salary Of A Junior Designer

It is not easy to find out how much a junior graphic designer earns. This is because they have different work experiences and skills. At this level, you are not a senior but you may have a few years of experience as well. So, the salary levels vary a lot in this category of designers.

But, if we have to come up with one specific number as an average graphic design salary, then we can say that it is $45,500 per year. This means that a junior level designer’s monthly salary is $3800. While it is slightly higher than the entry-level, still it can be called a pretty low average salary as compared to their highly experienced counterparts.

03. The Average Salary Of Senior Graphic Designers

Of course, senior graphic designers are the highest paid professionals. They have many years of experience, rich skills, updated information of their field and they perform managerial tasks as well. The median senior graphic designer earns about $60,000 per year, which works out to be $5000 per month.

This salary is generally a pretty good one for most designers. Remember that it is an average number. For a senior graphic designer, there is no upper limit and a lot depends on the locality and company’s ability to pay.

When it comes to major countries and cities, it would be good to have an idea of how much you can earn as a graphic designer.

Here Is The Average Salary In Three Major Destinations (Geographically)

01. New York City

According to glassdoor.com, the average graphic design salary of a graphic designer for entry-level jobs is $38,000 per year. The average salary of a junior graphic designer is $53000 and that of a senior graphic designer is $72000 per year. The design directors earn anywhere upward of $121,430.

02. The United Kingdom

The average graphic designer salary in the UK is £24,908 for a junior level designer. Senior graphic designers can earn an average salary of £40,000 per year. The average graphic design salary for a design director can be anywhere above £53,149.

03. Australia

A junior graphic designer’s average salary in Australia is A$43000 per year. The average salary of a senior graphic designer is A$83000. The design directors can earn very salaries which can be anywhere above $142,918.

Where to look for salary calculators?

One of the quickest ways to find out the current status of graphic design salaries is to find out the reliable graphic design salary calculators. Just type the keyword in the calculator box and you have the ongoing average salaries for graphic designers in a particular field.

Here Are A Few Of The Most Popular Salary Calculators

01. Totaljobs Salary Checker

The graphic design salary calculator of Total jobs lets you compare average salaries in the choice of your graphic design field as per location in the UK.

02. Indeed

Indeed has a search bar that lets you have graphic designer salaries as per your experience and skills. On typing in ‘graphic’, you access the entire spectrum of graphic design jobs and then you can compare their salaries.

03. Salary Calculator

If you are interested in calculating the amount of salary you take home, then this calculator is an ideal choice. You can calculate the salary in several ways.

04. Reed’s Average Salary Checker

This calculator lets you access the prevailing average graphic design salary. It also is a good tool to compare salaries with your current ones.

05. Glassdoor

Glassdoor is a popular salary calculator and is also a great resource to find out a lot of other related things.

06. Payscale.com

It is another useful graphic design salary calculator. You can access features like a free salary report, career research, and a cost of living calculator.

Many other graphic design salary checkers are available to you online with useful features. Some of them even let you find out the graphic design jobs besides comparing the salaries.

So, these are the main aspects of graphic design salaries. You should be carefully matching your existing salaries to consider your experience and skills. Also, do not ignore the location as salaries for the same skill and experience vary a lot from one to another city. Many local economic factors play their role in determining a graphic design salary cheque.

If you are looking for freelance graphic design jobs, then there is no better place than Designhill. This leading creative marketplace has all types of businesses launching their design contests to create logos, brochures, business cards, website designs, leaflets, and many more. They want a unique graphic design concept and for that, they announce an enticing prize for the contest winner.

You can work on those design contests and win prize money regularly. You can also work one-to-one with business owners using this platform.

Wrapping Up

Graphic designers are amongst the most sought-after professionals to create visuals as brand identities and many other types of designs. But they must compare their salaries with the best in the industry based on experience and skills. They can then negotiate a better graphic design salary while joining a new job, justifying their set of skills and work experience.

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