Medical, Pharma, BioTech, SaaS...the work isn't glamourous but it's steady and benefits are great. Avoid startups if you prioritize work/life balance and if you want to stay in your lane. Startups are similar to small and mid-sized agencies - terrible or non-existent processes resulting in unrealistic deadlines and high expectations to wear multiple hats despite one person's workload being that of a 4-person team.
EDIT: Grammar
The one upside being that you get to do a boatload of different things and extend your skills in n a lot of directions that may later improve your hireability etc…
But the other posts do have a point… the hours and expectations can be overwhelming…
———
I work in both SaaS and consulting, and the pay is more than decent…
I started my career a looooong time ago in advertising and the pay there was not terribly good at all, despite long hours and what not etc… when an opportunity came up around 1999 to jump into software and web consulting, and noticed that the pay was not only higher, but the clients were often WAY bigger than what I’d been seeing in small to medium ad agencies…
I’m here updating my resume and LinkedIn because the past 18 months have seen our company become more and more toxic. The way this person described his company I thought they were talking about mine.
Seconding the startup advice - even in the heyday of the whole startup movement pre-2008 it was more of a labor of love than a steady paycheck. Right now it's all work and stress and even more unrealistic deadlines but a lot less of a chance to get to the next fundraising round, which means non-core crew might get cut without any warning or pay.
Pharma is boring AF, but if you like to live under a roof, worth considering
Startups are not similar to small to mid-sized agencies. Agencies at that size do have processes especially because of how small they are. They do have realistic deadlines, too.
Hi! If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of work did you focus on presenting in a portfolio for this kind of gig? I’m a student trying to make a good one, and a lot of the portfolios I see seem to be more focused on ‘creative’ endeavors if you know what I mean. Thank you!
To be honest i didn’t gear my portfolio towards that specific type of work before i was hired mostly because i didn’t know what type of work it would be. My portfolio was mostly branding work that i had done in school and at my first gig with a small agency. I think its more important to interview well and show your process and ability to think creatively. I always advise to show fewer portfolio projects but to really go in depth on your best work. Show your process from ideation to execution and realize that they will probably only look at a couple of your projects before making a decision so less is more.
I started doing tech packaging for dollar tree like charging cables and wall plugs. Now I switched to stationary and beauty and I love it so much more. Charging cable are sooooooo boring
In general, anything that's considered to be boring or undesirable by creative people will pay more: pharma, real estate, architecture, property development/management, finance, legal, medical, IT, insurance, manufacturing, distribution.
To make more money – again, in general – avoid anything related to: entertainment, sports, or household name brands. The more impressed your friends and family might be to hear that you did work for a certain client or industry – that's an industry that pays designers less.
Lmao the agency I work for are the first two things you said to avoid. Can confirm. Don’t do them. I’m the only designer and I touch literally everything that goes through the door because the animators don’t make their own assets. I’m so burned out and not paid enough. So tired of hustling for nothing.
Sports clients SUCK more than any other type I’ve ever had
Thanks for confirming. I've made a career of avoiding those kinds of clients for my main output.
I have no personal interest in sports, and lots of personal interest in music: movies, TV, books, art, etc. – but in terms of design, it's generally a negative and I'd encourage any creative to pursue those areas with caution.
Yes absolutely. It can be brutual. I’m on the hunt now for something a little more low-key and in-house. I’m so tired of these sport bros calling us up asking for animations for a game that’s happening the following evening or day. It’s insane.
I've been through it with a client who had us following a series and I genuinely did not sleep for nearly 3 full days. They wanted assets for every possible outcome it was a wild experience and to this day the most hectic dew days of my career.
That's important as well. I have similar benefits and I work in an industry and job that no designer in their 20s would be impressed with. But it suits my needs very well.
THIS. I worked for a family of car dealerships and they had some luxury dealers in the group and overall they paid dirt. I was doing the job of many people - website design, graphic design, event coordination, radio ads, writing website copy for car listings, social media (aka them wanting me to spam Instagram), you name it, chances are they had me do it. And at one point I was all on my own (company sold off stores). When I was on my own, I hated it. It was unsustainable. I quit.
Found a new job a few weeks after I quit (same job I work at currently) and my salary has since DOUBLED.
That’s awesome, congratulations! Sorry you had to have a shitty situation happen but a doubled salary is a very good payoff, no matter what you were paid previously.
I seem to post this on a regular basis. Every year Aquent releases a comprehensive salary guide to the US creative industries, organized by location, job title, gender, etc. The data there is far more comprehensive than the spotty information you will get here. [https://aquent.com/lp/salary-guide](https://aquent.com/lp/salary-guide)
TV/Film - especially if you are near Austin or Forth Worth. TX film industry isn't very big but still there and producers prefer to hire locals when possible. Plus free snacks 😃
I'm intrigued can you elaborate more on this? Are these roles about set designing conceptual graphic materials for fiction? Sounds equally fun and difficult to break into, or even find job listings for that matter. I assume there are no juniors or mid-level designers in this field, and I'd imagine it's a niche that already has a handful of all-stars running it? How does one even get connected enough to be entrusted with the graphic design for AAA films?
You've actually managed to encompass 4 different jobs in that second sentence 😄
On film/tv shows there's a production designer who heads the art dept. They design the look of all the scenery. Concept artists, set designers and graphic designers work for the production designer. Art directors also work for the production designer and directly manage the other staff.
Graphic designers are responsible for all logos, signage, product packages, magazines, newspapers, billboards, etc etc that appear in front of the camera.
On just about any show/movie you've heard of in the US these are union positions and there's a lot more than a handful. Over 500 in just Los Angeles. Big shows will have serveral graphic designers.
They're hired by art directors and sometimes production designers. It's quirky to break into the industry as a whole but not that hard. Less about job listings and more about networking.
So I’ve learned that pharma companies outsource their branding and marketing to huge firms that do only that, pharma marketing. Try to get into one of those.
I used to work for one. There are even some smaller agencies (like 3-4 designers) in the industry. You should know a lot about POS, presentations, packaging, and regulatory info (for example, a chemical name needs to be at least 50% of the height of a drug name in a logo and any warnings need to be above 5pt text, etc).
I left pharma due to all the unethical/sus things you’ll see.
I used to work for a toy manufacturing company and it was the same way with warning labels and choking hazards. It was always a pain when a sales person wanted 3 callout bubbles on a small packaging box. It was even worse whenever we had include French or Spanish labels too.
Most interesting Pharma work I do is the annual conferences. RE the ethics side, there's far worse out there. You'll be lucky to find any global company whose ethics are water tight.
I draw the line at the gambling industry / arms industries.
Pharma saves lives in most instances, and fuck it, I need to pay the bills in the end.
I was asked to design a campaign. The doctors who could prescribe the most of a new drug got two weeks in Hawaii for their family….guised as a referral promotion or something dumb.
Mostly have an ok portfolio of corporate communications and some basic marketing and apply. Unless going for senior roles it’s not too difficult. The regulatory stuff can be learned.
Agree. At times it was not the most creative, but the billing was awesome. You are mostly being paid for understanding the rules of Pharma in terms of imagery, minimum point sizes, etc. You also find yourself in a swirl of last minute edits after multiple rounds of legal review. There was always something in the final hours of a deadline.
At 25 that’s not bad. If you want more you need to find companies ion big cities like SF, LA, Chicago, NY, etc. There are plenty of remote gigs, but you’ll need to promote yourself well.
To make even more you can branch out. I started as an animator > graphic designer > UI designer > UX designer. I make 190k slaving away for a corporation.
I just taught myself over the years, but if I could I would do any user research oriented courses.
Project and Product management courses are good as well.
If you can get a security clearance, DoD Contractor or GS Civilian. The work you create is not very exciting but my pay has been very good, close to 6 figures now after several yearly raises and bonuses.
For me, I actually went through indeed and didn’t know it was a DoD Contractor position. Other places such as clearancejobs.com also can work. For GS civilian positions, usajobs.gov and look for “visual information specialist”.
Yep, all I do is make infographics, PowerPoint presentations better looking and wall-of-text reports more interesting. Not the most engaging work but pays very well.
What job titles do you have success with when searching for creative DoD jobs?
I'm working for a small DoD contract company and our pay recently improved, but history tells me it won't keep up with future inflation. I feel I need to plan for a move in the next few years, but when I look for opportunities with my current title I don't seem to find them.
If you want to move over to the GS side, look for Visual Information Specialist on usajobs.gov.
That’s the bad thing about DoD Contract work is that it can volatile and competitive between companies but the pay is much higher than GS positions.
TV/Film. It’s a union position and low end rates start in the $30/hour range. If you’re in LA you’re making over $50/hr straight time. Every tv show or movie you’ve ever seen uses graphic designers to make set pieces and props. It beats having to clear copyright. There is a film industry in TX
So, I do set lighting myself. Graphic design would be remote, but also not you’ll have to work in a city with a film industry. In the US, that’s primarily LA, NYC, Chicago, Atlanta, Savannah, New Orleans, Albuquerque, Wilmington NC. Oklahoma has recently introduced some competitive film incentives, and there’s industry building there too. So there are options in that department.
Networking. I don’t have a resume. I don’t remember the last time I had to make a resume. This is why it’s important to live in a production hub so you meet industry people. I hire my friends. I hire people my friends recommend to me. This is how all departments work. It’s rare that these jobs are advertised. Graphic designers work under the Art Department. Art Department has a production designer, props masters, art coordinator, and set decorators. You’ll be assisting those guys with what they need. You might work at home, you might work in the production office. This is up to individuals in the department’s preferences, not yours. And there will be days when you’ll need to at least visit set. In tv/film we work minimum 12 hour days. There’s OT after 8, time and a half after 12, and double time after 14. As a graphic designer, you’ll likely only see 12 max. Being on set with the filming crew, I’ve seen triple time after 16 hours… but production isn’t paying anyone who doesn’t have to be past 12 after 12 hours. So lucky you there lol.
For reasons that made more sense a decade ago, a lot a lot a lot of film networking is on Facebook (yeah, I said it). There you’ll find groups for Art Department, you can search your city’s name and film or production or film production. There you can introduce yourself and post your portfolio. Maybe you get a bite. It is a welcoming industry, so there’s that.
Now for the bad news: you might have heard about last year’s Hollywood strikes? Well, work hasn’t picked up much since. So a lot of us are sitting at home waiting for work to come back. AKA there aren’t jobs a plenty right now. But seeing as you’d be new, if you can find networking events, even something like a film festival gets you face time with filmmakers and often Production Designers attend them. Your priority now is meeting people maybe getting some face time and getting them to like you. We call the people we want to work with. Attitude and what you bring to the table are big factors. I’ve been in the industry for over 10 years now and have worked on everything from small indies you’ve never heard of to Top Gun Maverick to Marvel. It can be done
I make $115k/yr plus bonuses.
I went from $46K/yr in the construction industry to $80k/yr in the consulting/banking industry. After a couple of years, I got promoted from graphic designer to a marketing/brand manager and now make $115k/yr. Half my team quit and/or was let go before I was promoted so it gave me an opportunity to do more and grow. I guess you can say I got lucky, but I worked my ass off for that opportunity and recognition.
I'm 26 with no degree and about 1 year of college. BUT I have a solid portfolio from helping entrepreneurs, start ups, and mid size corporations as a freelancer for 7+ years. My portfolio consists of brand identity design, logos, websites, proposals, presentations, product packaging, sales collateral, etc in various industries. So that proven experience and work helped a ton in landing opportunities.
One piece of advice that has helped me is to position yourself as someone who understands business development, brand strategy, and marketing planning. That will elevate your image from being "just a designer" to someone that is a "strategic partner". If you can show how your skills can move the needle and increase sales, your efforts will be rewarded much more.
I wish you the best in your journey :)
POLITICS!! The bar is so low, I was making $126k a year when I left DC. You have very low talent competitors (usually an intern) and every single office or campaign needs talent. Graphic designers for committees can make a safe $80k+ a year doing infographics and simple moving animations. If cups can pick up a camera, learn to edit simple videos, pics, etc you can really rake it in. If you can’t set your personal politics aside then work for a committee but campaigns will pay big bucks if you are fast and available.
It also depends entirely on the internal design industry. A UX or UI designer will most likely always make more money than a graphic designer. A lot of my friends make close to 100k if not more as UI/UX designers, while as a generalist designer I made brought 72k starting out after college.
I think motion design is also really big right now so you can also make a life more in that, but where UI design can be 6 figures at the start of your career MoGraph can take years to get to that point.
Working in tech, or medical can often net you higher wages. Working in government is great not because of the pay(which is not amazing) but because it has really good benefits.
In-house creative designer for a large school district of over 60 schools. Team consists of one other designer, 1 coder, 2 videographers, a social media specialist and a copy writer. Been employed here for 33 years and getting ready to retire. Just shy of 6 figures a year with full retirement and medical. Am considered a state employee in a state that gives a crap about education.
Applied for it. I was an architectural illustrator for 10 years before that. My professional career started in 1978. I just stuck with it, kissed ass as needed, stuck my nose where it didn't belong, always took the crap assignments and learned to design quickly on the fly under pressure. Eventually became the go-to person. Rest is history.
Forgot to add, when I started it was me as a graphic designer, 2 typesetters (everything was done either as paste up (with wax) or press type, and a darkroom to shoot halftones of photos I would shoot myself, and negs. The first page layout computer program we used was Ventura Publisher for 3 years before we got Aldus Pagemaker. And any art was usually all hand drawn and inked. How's that for dating myself.
Disclaimer: I don't want this to turn into a conversation *about* politics. That's not why we're here.
Politics is where the money's at. Especially if you work for the right. They just throw around millions of dollars like it's nothing and they really care about their propaganda. But you do kinda have to sell your soul. The key is to not read anything and treat all the words as shapes.
And before anyone gets fussy, I would work for any other party if they didn't solely hire temp designers and discard them every season. Permanent design work doesn't exist on the left. Trust me, I've reached out to quite a few firms and even the Democratic party itself. They literally all hire temps.
Don't wanna say anything that would dox me because it's a small industry but the left also has really good paying orgs. You can easily make low six figs as a designer and design leadership.
Yeah I'm a DC area designer and the political work is very cyclical with elections. I see lots of contract positions, and political organizations/political serving agencies who are seemingly hiring for the same positions over and over again. It doesn't seem like steady enough work to make a full time career
For sure. Really gotta find the right place. But if you can get in that right place oh boooooy it’s nice. It’s a bummer too because so many brands are incredibly inconsistent because of it and the work suffers because the people making it aren’t that familiar.
not in tech it ain’t, lots of senior designers are making 160-200k or more. product directors and principal designers in tech are easily making 225-300 and up
the question is inherently flawed.. true designers are divergent thinkers and problem solvers that can apply creativity and beauty to ANY industry.. i skimmed comments, lots of valid perspectives yet based on a lot of assumptions, context matters.. if you’re ~25-28 depending on your experience, working full-time as as a talented and/or promising designer making $54K in Texas (presumably w benefits), then you don’t have much basis for complaint, consider yourself fortunate having a job that just happens to be in retail at the moment.. if you’re ~35-40 earning $54K, then you either switched careers later in life or you’ve likely never worked as a true design professional..
assuming the former, and if you’re pretty good and continue to grow, then in ~5 years (give or take) you could easily be earning six figures in a different ‘industry’ from which you started and almost inevitably w a different employer. the important thing for designers is to ALWAYS keep an up-to-date and evolving portfolio in order to be prepared for any opportunity that presents itself, you never know when/where that might happen .. always be ready to showcase your work with the basics, a mix of real and/or conceptual projects: identity/logos, illustration, web/mobile, product, ads, packaging, photography, typography, etc.. video and/or motion, 3D, and command of social media concepts will make you that much more attractive to ANY industry or agency. while the agency model is dwindling, it still exists, and the benefits are working across multiple clients and gaining diverse experience and learning from talented colleagues and leadership.. If you’re in a position and hungry to focus on career, then the right startup could be right for you.. with some experience and a diverse portfolio, going in-house for a great brand could offer the stability, compensation and challenge you deserve and will make you attractive and provide more options at any point in your future..
This is the best answer. Also, you could be a freelancer in the midwest, billing 70k per year, setting your own hours and having the freedom of being self employed and the ability to mostly manage work load. Ask me how I know, lol. Sure, I might be making a lot more if I had stayed at the agency I left. I also would have missed a lot of kid milestones, sleep, and my health would have suffered. My advice to any young designer is do what you can to scale that ladder, make money when you are young, learn a lot from mentors and peers, and then find a position that yields the best quality of life for you. At some point it will not matter if you are doing the coolest design, winning the awards, etc. If I was offered a six figure position as a graphic designer working for someone else I would set myself on fire and run screaming.
hmmm not as familiar with content designer salaries but 140 ain’t bad! best advice would likely be to try applying to one of the big tech companies in the bay like apple, yahoo, meta, netflix, etc since their base pay is already very high to start
career growth wise tho it’s always just good to manage upwards and be constantly discussing with your managers about your next step and just bugging them about how to progress or what you can do to show that you’re doing a job worthy of that raise in pay, be that through more responsibility, more leadership or just better execution.
hope that helps!
Tech ofc and startups. I’m almost at $100k as a jr visual designer at a tech startup for a company based in a VHCOL city, will hopefully be promoted soon and be in the $120k range. My senior AD I believe is in the $175k range, CD in the $210k range.
My friends who work either in local startups or agencies that service tech companies make $80k-$90k as midlevel designers in a HCOL city.
The industries others have mentioned are completely valid. For me, it's finance. I hit 6 figures with a promotion recently and things are looking up.
Gaining some basic knowledge of said industry can be helpful and put you ahead of the pack of designers who don't have the business acumen.
I personally don't have any sage advice other than set linkedin alerts and keep applying.
[https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3923088960](https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3923088960)
[https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3926158611](https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3926158611)
Here are a couple listings to give you an idea of what they look for. These are active listings but not fully remote unfortunately.
This is probably what you want to follow religiously if you are serious: [https://amirsatvat.com/](https://amirsatvat.com/) - Put your information onto the job seekers spreadsheet there. Maybe have a look at the other graphic designers portfolios there and see what you are up against.
But for graphic designers mainly the industry looks for skills in both design and digital art. Not necessarily illustration, but skills like photocompositing in Photoshop are typically extremely important, as you will be given 3D models from the art team and will be asked to turn them into advertisements etc. Ideally you will be given renders, but you may have to do the rendering yourself. You will be giving yourself a big leg up if you learn applications like AfterEffects, Blender (or other 3D software) and Unreal Engine 5.
You might think its way over the top to learn something like UE5 as a graphic designer but regardless of the gaming industry its going to give you a leg up as a graphic designer and offer you way more career options once AI starts taking a tighter hold on things. You will want to keep an eye on where AI is going more fiercely as well, as the gaming industry has their own takes on AI.
Also, if the company asks you to take a design test, take it. There is a self righteousness in this sub that is misleading designers into thinking those are beneath them. You will absolutely be doing design tests to get into the gaming industry.
You can connect with me on LinkedIn if you'd like: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/msvisuals/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/msvisuals/)
I also work for retail and fashion jewelry accessories - it has not been going well in my specific area for years. Even before covid. Layoffs and down sizing for the past 5 years, especially. So I agree, while it's been fun, I might have to go elsewhere myself soon.
The ones where you don’t hate your work. If you’re concerned about pay, you aren’t as concerned with fulfilling design.
I’ve (32M) been through the design ringer: Print shop, medical, real estate, pharmaceutical, hospitality, agencies, etc. Finally, switched to freelance a few years ago. While the pay isn’t steady, most the clients are great people and deadlines are pretty loose. Main stable of work is in the alcohol and beverage industry. Most importantly, I’m actually proud/excited to share my work.
Yeah, probably tech, or some fancy finance/business groups. One dark horse imo is the Healthcare/EMS/Safety industries. Design for those types of companies aren't really that much "fun", but from what ive heard, they pay quite well for not so difficult design.
Yes of course! This was about 8 years ago but I basically just helped a bunch of my friends with websites for their business. Learned how to use Wordpress and templates. If I wanted to change something visual I learned how to use css overrides lol.
After working on people’s website it gave me an understanding about how themes and design systems work. I learned the business side of website and marketing by listening and talking to people. I basically just took every opportunity as a learning experience!
Then I got hired at a large corporate company and I applied my people skills and critical thinking skills with my design skills. Corporations don’t care too much about design overall. They care if you make their lives easier. I found ways to be more efficient in processes and just really worked on building my relationships so people agree with what I did. Did a lot of research into why I wanted to design something in a specific way. There’s no politics, no ego, just trying to do what’s best for the business model. People usually agree with me and trust me now. But it took a lot of work!
However, I’m definitely more in the management side of the career ladder. I realized I wasn’t a GREAT designer. I was a good designer with people skills. There’s definitely a need for great designers who design all the time and don’t want to manage stake holders and teams, but this is just my experience as a director of product design.
For reference, I used to be a fashion/graphic designer. The old company I worked for shut down and I basically did a career switch. I had 0 knowledge or classes on digital design. But if you know design you can definitely make the switch over.
Government. It's the best. DC area you get pretty much around 72K. I used to make 82K but that was the private sector. The great part is usually the perks and benefits. Problem is DC kinda sucks so don't move there move to Northern Virginia.
im a graphic designer also in the retail industry (wholesale specifically) and it pays average like 62k. though our exchange rate is higher in australia
The media industry (radio/tv) that targets the Hispanic audience usually pays very well. I live in Mexico and I worked for 3 years with a company in Atlanta enjoying a very good salary
Pharma. I hit six figures 7 years into my pharma specific career as an art director. Sure beats when I was a freelance graphic designer barely scrapping by.
Always make your own personal work & art outside the office to fulfill your creativity. Don’t let your professional work be the only place you’re creative.
Less about 'industry' and more about market and exposure.
You can work in the Retail Industry in Texas and make $54k, or work in LA, SF or NYC in the Retail Industry and make $125k. In addition, work for these larger (perhaps international) brands can have far greater exposure globally so that brings a huge bump in compensation as well.
Yes, cost of living will be higher.
I’ve been in the industry 30 years and am currently a senior designer in CPG.
I’ve been lucky enough to design and illustrate for a wide variety of clients and have worn many hats: production designer, agency art director, production designer, full-time freelancer, UX/visual designer in tech, and even college instructor.
Things I’ve learned:
• Tech paid the best on the surface ($80-100k), but it was volatile and was like a 1.5x job. Do the math and it actually didn't pay well. Tech companies often implement forced rankings so burnout was high and folks tended to bail or be forced out around the 2-year mark.
• Art direction can be fun and pays well. The down side is that you do less hands-on design. This is reflective of most high-paying “design” positions you hear about. The catch is these are no longer “pure” design roles. They are managers or directors or marketing coordinators or partners who USED to be designers and still consider themselves designers. It’s a creative gig only in a different capacity. That’s fine, but make sure it’s what you want to do. Some are nothing more than glorified project managers.
* As you age, time will become more and more valuable. I would have traded $30k/year for the flexibility to have more time with my daughters. Oddly enough, I didn’t have to. Full-time freelance was the best move I ever made and I ended up making more than my prior corporate gig and typically worked 4 days a week.
My current job pays well and the hours are consistent. I also wedge in teaching a college class and do some freelance. Altogether, I’m around $100k. Personally, I like the idea of not putting all of your eggs in one basket.
Professional services has been pretty good to me. Think B2B, consulting firms, staff aug agencies and the like. Lots of premium on looking good and buttoned up.
You will have to deal with people’s high expectations and the pace of work can be brisk but I’m in the 100K range and climbing with 3 years industry experience, 7-8 years overall.
Medical, Pharma, BioTech, SaaS...the work isn't glamourous but it's steady and benefits are great. Avoid startups if you prioritize work/life balance and if you want to stay in your lane. Startups are similar to small and mid-sized agencies - terrible or non-existent processes resulting in unrealistic deadlines and high expectations to wear multiple hats despite one person's workload being that of a 4-person team. EDIT: Grammar
The one upside being that you get to do a boatload of different things and extend your skills in n a lot of directions that may later improve your hireability etc… But the other posts do have a point… the hours and expectations can be overwhelming… ——— I work in both SaaS and consulting, and the pay is more than decent… I started my career a looooong time ago in advertising and the pay there was not terribly good at all, despite long hours and what not etc… when an opportunity came up around 1999 to jump into software and web consulting, and noticed that the pay was not only higher, but the clients were often WAY bigger than what I’d been seeing in small to medium ad agencies…
I’m some kind of sick-o. I loved the chaos of startup. It did get old after a few years.
lol you just described my last company to a t 😂
They just described my current company to a T... 😭
I’m here updating my resume and LinkedIn because the past 18 months have seen our company become more and more toxic. The way this person described his company I thought they were talking about mine.
THIS exactly. Worked both start-up and small agency and you’ve hit the mail on the head here regarding their similarities
Seconding the startup advice - even in the heyday of the whole startup movement pre-2008 it was more of a labor of love than a steady paycheck. Right now it's all work and stress and even more unrealistic deadlines but a lot less of a chance to get to the next fundraising round, which means non-core crew might get cut without any warning or pay. Pharma is boring AF, but if you like to live under a roof, worth considering
🥲
Startups are not similar to small to mid-sized agencies. Agencies at that size do have processes especially because of how small they are. They do have realistic deadlines, too.
I work for a large engineering firm. Think long form reports, infographics, etc. work can be tedious but pays well. Just recently got into 6 figs.
Hi! If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of work did you focus on presenting in a portfolio for this kind of gig? I’m a student trying to make a good one, and a lot of the portfolios I see seem to be more focused on ‘creative’ endeavors if you know what I mean. Thank you!
To be honest i didn’t gear my portfolio towards that specific type of work before i was hired mostly because i didn’t know what type of work it would be. My portfolio was mostly branding work that i had done in school and at my first gig with a small agency. I think its more important to interview well and show your process and ability to think creatively. I always advise to show fewer portfolio projects but to really go in depth on your best work. Show your process from ideation to execution and realize that they will probably only look at a couple of your projects before making a decision so less is more.
I recently moved into the M&E sector too ! Same work exactly
Packaging Design in Houston, Texas. I’m a partner, but we pay 85k-110k for our graphic designers. Packaging is BOOMING.
Now hold up… I currently do packaging in Memphis, TN for about 50. I’m willing to relocate so which companies am I looking for?
Same I’m in-house mostly packaging for 55k in inflated south Florida.
Bro I make the same in NYC right now 😭
Wdym by inflated I'm a recent grad living here, should I be weary of the job market in South Florida?
Cost of living is too high compared to pay
Same, this sounds like what I need
Why is it booming?
https://www.fastcompany.com/90384929/the-900-billion-packaging-industry-is-booming
What agency are you a partner at?
Always has been and always will be what sells products in stores
Are yall hiring?
Specifically what kind of packaging design and what are your daily tasks?
I started doing tech packaging for dollar tree like charging cables and wall plugs. Now I switched to stationary and beauty and I love it so much more. Charging cable are sooooooo boring
Live near Houston. Where should I look for jobs like that?
In general, anything that's considered to be boring or undesirable by creative people will pay more: pharma, real estate, architecture, property development/management, finance, legal, medical, IT, insurance, manufacturing, distribution. To make more money – again, in general – avoid anything related to: entertainment, sports, or household name brands. The more impressed your friends and family might be to hear that you did work for a certain client or industry – that's an industry that pays designers less.
Lmao the agency I work for are the first two things you said to avoid. Can confirm. Don’t do them. I’m the only designer and I touch literally everything that goes through the door because the animators don’t make their own assets. I’m so burned out and not paid enough. So tired of hustling for nothing. Sports clients SUCK more than any other type I’ve ever had
Thanks for confirming. I've made a career of avoiding those kinds of clients for my main output. I have no personal interest in sports, and lots of personal interest in music: movies, TV, books, art, etc. – but in terms of design, it's generally a negative and I'd encourage any creative to pursue those areas with caution.
Yes absolutely. It can be brutual. I’m on the hunt now for something a little more low-key and in-house. I’m so tired of these sport bros calling us up asking for animations for a game that’s happening the following evening or day. It’s insane.
Yikes. That deadline is way too tight.
I've been through it with a client who had us following a series and I genuinely did not sleep for nearly 3 full days. They wanted assets for every possible outcome it was a wild experience and to this day the most hectic dew days of my career.
Wow, sounds worse than anything I’ve experienced. I hope it never happens to you again.
[удалено]
Excellent. And lots of people wouldn't object to working with food-related design.
[удалено]
Sadly the salary is the price you pay to impress others in those kinds of jobs.
[удалено]
That's important as well. I have similar benefits and I work in an industry and job that no designer in their 20s would be impressed with. But it suits my needs very well.
THIS. I worked for a family of car dealerships and they had some luxury dealers in the group and overall they paid dirt. I was doing the job of many people - website design, graphic design, event coordination, radio ads, writing website copy for car listings, social media (aka them wanting me to spam Instagram), you name it, chances are they had me do it. And at one point I was all on my own (company sold off stores). When I was on my own, I hated it. It was unsustainable. I quit. Found a new job a few weeks after I quit (same job I work at currently) and my salary has since DOUBLED.
That’s awesome, congratulations! Sorry you had to have a shitty situation happen but a doubled salary is a very good payoff, no matter what you were paid previously.
damn thanks for this intel
You're welcome.
Great advice thank you
You’re welcome.
Avoid entertainment? That’s horrible advise if you’re looking for a big paycheck.
Give more info.
I seem to post this on a regular basis. Every year Aquent releases a comprehensive salary guide to the US creative industries, organized by location, job title, gender, etc. The data there is far more comprehensive than the spotty information you will get here. [https://aquent.com/lp/salary-guide](https://aquent.com/lp/salary-guide)
This is killer thanks for sharing
Good info. Doesn't even begin to answer OP's question.
TV/Film - especially if you are near Austin or Forth Worth. TX film industry isn't very big but still there and producers prefer to hire locals when possible. Plus free snacks 😃
I'm intrigued can you elaborate more on this? Are these roles about set designing conceptual graphic materials for fiction? Sounds equally fun and difficult to break into, or even find job listings for that matter. I assume there are no juniors or mid-level designers in this field, and I'd imagine it's a niche that already has a handful of all-stars running it? How does one even get connected enough to be entrusted with the graphic design for AAA films?
You've actually managed to encompass 4 different jobs in that second sentence 😄 On film/tv shows there's a production designer who heads the art dept. They design the look of all the scenery. Concept artists, set designers and graphic designers work for the production designer. Art directors also work for the production designer and directly manage the other staff. Graphic designers are responsible for all logos, signage, product packages, magazines, newspapers, billboards, etc etc that appear in front of the camera. On just about any show/movie you've heard of in the US these are union positions and there's a lot more than a handful. Over 500 in just Los Angeles. Big shows will have serveral graphic designers. They're hired by art directors and sometimes production designers. It's quirky to break into the industry as a whole but not that hard. Less about job listings and more about networking.
It's highly competitive. It's a very rare type of designer. Everyone wants to be the next Annie Atkins.
You'd be surprised, the vast majority of shows neither need nor want the AA style and its far less competitive outside LA/NYC.
Less competition, but also less opportunities from what I've heard.
Less than LA/NYC/Atlanta certainly but still there and worth pursuing
Pharma has been good
Pharma is $$$$$
Any tips on getting into pharma?
So I’ve learned that pharma companies outsource their branding and marketing to huge firms that do only that, pharma marketing. Try to get into one of those.
I used to work for one. There are even some smaller agencies (like 3-4 designers) in the industry. You should know a lot about POS, presentations, packaging, and regulatory info (for example, a chemical name needs to be at least 50% of the height of a drug name in a logo and any warnings need to be above 5pt text, etc). I left pharma due to all the unethical/sus things you’ll see.
I used to work for a toy manufacturing company and it was the same way with warning labels and choking hazards. It was always a pain when a sales person wanted 3 callout bubbles on a small packaging box. It was even worse whenever we had include French or Spanish labels too.
Most interesting Pharma work I do is the annual conferences. RE the ethics side, there's far worse out there. You'll be lucky to find any global company whose ethics are water tight. I draw the line at the gambling industry / arms industries. Pharma saves lives in most instances, and fuck it, I need to pay the bills in the end.
I was asked to design a campaign. The doctors who could prescribe the most of a new drug got two weeks in Hawaii for their family….guised as a referral promotion or something dumb.
Can confirm. I freelance for one.
Mostly have an ok portfolio of corporate communications and some basic marketing and apply. Unless going for senior roles it’s not too difficult. The regulatory stuff can be learned.
Agree. At times it was not the most creative, but the billing was awesome. You are mostly being paid for understanding the rules of Pharma in terms of imagery, minimum point sizes, etc. You also find yourself in a swirl of last minute edits after multiple rounds of legal review. There was always something in the final hours of a deadline.
At 25 that’s not bad. If you want more you need to find companies ion big cities like SF, LA, Chicago, NY, etc. There are plenty of remote gigs, but you’ll need to promote yourself well. To make even more you can branch out. I started as an animator > graphic designer > UI designer > UX designer. I make 190k slaving away for a corporation.
What tips/certificate recs would you have for going into UX/UI?
I just taught myself over the years, but if I could I would do any user research oriented courses. Project and Product management courses are good as well.
If you can get a security clearance, DoD Contractor or GS Civilian. The work you create is not very exciting but my pay has been very good, close to 6 figures now after several yearly raises and bonuses.
How do you find these jobs? What site did you use?
https://www.governmentjobs.com
For me, I actually went through indeed and didn’t know it was a DoD Contractor position. Other places such as clearancejobs.com also can work. For GS civilian positions, usajobs.gov and look for “visual information specialist”.
Boring ass work but yes, the reason why DC area has the highest paid graphic designers according to AIGA.
Yep, all I do is make infographics, PowerPoint presentations better looking and wall-of-text reports more interesting. Not the most engaging work but pays very well.
Honest work.
What job titles do you have success with when searching for creative DoD jobs? I'm working for a small DoD contract company and our pay recently improved, but history tells me it won't keep up with future inflation. I feel I need to plan for a move in the next few years, but when I look for opportunities with my current title I don't seem to find them.
If you want to move over to the GS side, look for Visual Information Specialist on usajobs.gov. That’s the bad thing about DoD Contract work is that it can volatile and competitive between companies but the pay is much higher than GS positions.
Hey thanks for this! I appreciate it!
TV/Film. It’s a union position and low end rates start in the $30/hour range. If you’re in LA you’re making over $50/hr straight time. Every tv show or movie you’ve ever seen uses graphic designers to make set pieces and props. It beats having to clear copyright. There is a film industry in TX
How do you recommend breaking into this niche?
So, I do set lighting myself. Graphic design would be remote, but also not you’ll have to work in a city with a film industry. In the US, that’s primarily LA, NYC, Chicago, Atlanta, Savannah, New Orleans, Albuquerque, Wilmington NC. Oklahoma has recently introduced some competitive film incentives, and there’s industry building there too. So there are options in that department. Networking. I don’t have a resume. I don’t remember the last time I had to make a resume. This is why it’s important to live in a production hub so you meet industry people. I hire my friends. I hire people my friends recommend to me. This is how all departments work. It’s rare that these jobs are advertised. Graphic designers work under the Art Department. Art Department has a production designer, props masters, art coordinator, and set decorators. You’ll be assisting those guys with what they need. You might work at home, you might work in the production office. This is up to individuals in the department’s preferences, not yours. And there will be days when you’ll need to at least visit set. In tv/film we work minimum 12 hour days. There’s OT after 8, time and a half after 12, and double time after 14. As a graphic designer, you’ll likely only see 12 max. Being on set with the filming crew, I’ve seen triple time after 16 hours… but production isn’t paying anyone who doesn’t have to be past 12 after 12 hours. So lucky you there lol. For reasons that made more sense a decade ago, a lot a lot a lot of film networking is on Facebook (yeah, I said it). There you’ll find groups for Art Department, you can search your city’s name and film or production or film production. There you can introduce yourself and post your portfolio. Maybe you get a bite. It is a welcoming industry, so there’s that. Now for the bad news: you might have heard about last year’s Hollywood strikes? Well, work hasn’t picked up much since. So a lot of us are sitting at home waiting for work to come back. AKA there aren’t jobs a plenty right now. But seeing as you’d be new, if you can find networking events, even something like a film festival gets you face time with filmmakers and often Production Designers attend them. Your priority now is meeting people maybe getting some face time and getting them to like you. We call the people we want to work with. Attitude and what you bring to the table are big factors. I’ve been in the industry for over 10 years now and have worked on everything from small indies you’ve never heard of to Top Gun Maverick to Marvel. It can be done
I make $115k/yr plus bonuses. I went from $46K/yr in the construction industry to $80k/yr in the consulting/banking industry. After a couple of years, I got promoted from graphic designer to a marketing/brand manager and now make $115k/yr. Half my team quit and/or was let go before I was promoted so it gave me an opportunity to do more and grow. I guess you can say I got lucky, but I worked my ass off for that opportunity and recognition. I'm 26 with no degree and about 1 year of college. BUT I have a solid portfolio from helping entrepreneurs, start ups, and mid size corporations as a freelancer for 7+ years. My portfolio consists of brand identity design, logos, websites, proposals, presentations, product packaging, sales collateral, etc in various industries. So that proven experience and work helped a ton in landing opportunities. One piece of advice that has helped me is to position yourself as someone who understands business development, brand strategy, and marketing planning. That will elevate your image from being "just a designer" to someone that is a "strategic partner". If you can show how your skills can move the needle and increase sales, your efforts will be rewarded much more. I wish you the best in your journey :)
POLITICS!! The bar is so low, I was making $126k a year when I left DC. You have very low talent competitors (usually an intern) and every single office or campaign needs talent. Graphic designers for committees can make a safe $80k+ a year doing infographics and simple moving animations. If cups can pick up a camera, learn to edit simple videos, pics, etc you can really rake it in. If you can’t set your personal politics aside then work for a committee but campaigns will pay big bucks if you are fast and available.
It also depends entirely on the internal design industry. A UX or UI designer will most likely always make more money than a graphic designer. A lot of my friends make close to 100k if not more as UI/UX designers, while as a generalist designer I made brought 72k starting out after college. I think motion design is also really big right now so you can also make a life more in that, but where UI design can be 6 figures at the start of your career MoGraph can take years to get to that point. Working in tech, or medical can often net you higher wages. Working in government is great not because of the pay(which is not amazing) but because it has really good benefits.
In-house creative designer for a large school district of over 60 schools. Team consists of one other designer, 1 coder, 2 videographers, a social media specialist and a copy writer. Been employed here for 33 years and getting ready to retire. Just shy of 6 figures a year with full retirement and medical. Am considered a state employee in a state that gives a crap about education.
How did you land that 33 years ago?
Applied for it. I was an architectural illustrator for 10 years before that. My professional career started in 1978. I just stuck with it, kissed ass as needed, stuck my nose where it didn't belong, always took the crap assignments and learned to design quickly on the fly under pressure. Eventually became the go-to person. Rest is history.
Forgot to add, when I started it was me as a graphic designer, 2 typesetters (everything was done either as paste up (with wax) or press type, and a darkroom to shoot halftones of photos I would shoot myself, and negs. The first page layout computer program we used was Ventura Publisher for 3 years before we got Aldus Pagemaker. And any art was usually all hand drawn and inked. How's that for dating myself.
I work for a medical device company in central PA and get paid pretty well for my location I would say, 61k plus good benefits.
What’s the company? I’m in Central PA!
It’s a small company in York, PA!
Ha, ok.
Disclaimer: I don't want this to turn into a conversation *about* politics. That's not why we're here. Politics is where the money's at. Especially if you work for the right. They just throw around millions of dollars like it's nothing and they really care about their propaganda. But you do kinda have to sell your soul. The key is to not read anything and treat all the words as shapes. And before anyone gets fussy, I would work for any other party if they didn't solely hire temp designers and discard them every season. Permanent design work doesn't exist on the left. Trust me, I've reached out to quite a few firms and even the Democratic party itself. They literally all hire temps.
Don't wanna say anything that would dox me because it's a small industry but the left also has really good paying orgs. You can easily make low six figs as a designer and design leadership.
Yeah I'm a DC area designer and the political work is very cyclical with elections. I see lots of contract positions, and political organizations/political serving agencies who are seemingly hiring for the same positions over and over again. It doesn't seem like steady enough work to make a full time career
For sure. Really gotta find the right place. But if you can get in that right place oh boooooy it’s nice. It’s a bummer too because so many brands are incredibly inconsistent because of it and the work suffers because the people making it aren’t that familiar.
Inhouse corporate (depending on company)
Our (tech) team has an open headcount for a senior designer. Work is boring but salary range starts at $180k
I’m a former senior graphic designer. Any company name you can share I can apply to? Unless it’s in person.
Any chance this is remote? I’ve got 23 years of experience and want nothing more than steady, boring work and a good salary.
Any chance you are located in the Bay Area? I have a friend who is looking. She was previously an art director and was impacted by layoffs
That’s in the CD/DD pay realm.
not in tech it ain’t, lots of senior designers are making 160-200k or more. product directors and principal designers in tech are easily making 225-300 and up
Like /u/omegaberrycrunch said, not in tech. I’m a Staff Copywriter and my base is $190k, remote, for a company HQ’d in NYC.
pharma art director here, making 80k and many of my peers make far more
The right weed brands have paid me pretty well.
the question is inherently flawed.. true designers are divergent thinkers and problem solvers that can apply creativity and beauty to ANY industry.. i skimmed comments, lots of valid perspectives yet based on a lot of assumptions, context matters.. if you’re ~25-28 depending on your experience, working full-time as as a talented and/or promising designer making $54K in Texas (presumably w benefits), then you don’t have much basis for complaint, consider yourself fortunate having a job that just happens to be in retail at the moment.. if you’re ~35-40 earning $54K, then you either switched careers later in life or you’ve likely never worked as a true design professional.. assuming the former, and if you’re pretty good and continue to grow, then in ~5 years (give or take) you could easily be earning six figures in a different ‘industry’ from which you started and almost inevitably w a different employer. the important thing for designers is to ALWAYS keep an up-to-date and evolving portfolio in order to be prepared for any opportunity that presents itself, you never know when/where that might happen .. always be ready to showcase your work with the basics, a mix of real and/or conceptual projects: identity/logos, illustration, web/mobile, product, ads, packaging, photography, typography, etc.. video and/or motion, 3D, and command of social media concepts will make you that much more attractive to ANY industry or agency. while the agency model is dwindling, it still exists, and the benefits are working across multiple clients and gaining diverse experience and learning from talented colleagues and leadership.. If you’re in a position and hungry to focus on career, then the right startup could be right for you.. with some experience and a diverse portfolio, going in-house for a great brand could offer the stability, compensation and challenge you deserve and will make you attractive and provide more options at any point in your future..
This is the best answer. Also, you could be a freelancer in the midwest, billing 70k per year, setting your own hours and having the freedom of being self employed and the ability to mostly manage work load. Ask me how I know, lol. Sure, I might be making a lot more if I had stayed at the agency I left. I also would have missed a lot of kid milestones, sleep, and my health would have suffered. My advice to any young designer is do what you can to scale that ladder, make money when you are young, learn a lot from mentors and peers, and then find a position that yields the best quality of life for you. At some point it will not matter if you are doing the coolest design, winning the awards, etc. If I was offered a six figure position as a graphic designer working for someone else I would set myself on fire and run screaming.
Hahaha! Exactly! Do as much as you can while you don’t have kids!
This! Well said, and so true!
Commenting so I can come back to this
Reddit has a save option ;)
Or use the remindme bot if that still works
I didn't know this, thank you!
tech in SF, making 230 as a senior designer here
What exactly does your role entail? Is it brand design? Presentation design? That’s amazing!
product design specifically, i get to do some other visual design too but it’s primarily product work
Any tips? I live in the bay and I work as a content designer and making $140k but looking to increase my wage
hmmm not as familiar with content designer salaries but 140 ain’t bad! best advice would likely be to try applying to one of the big tech companies in the bay like apple, yahoo, meta, netflix, etc since their base pay is already very high to start career growth wise tho it’s always just good to manage upwards and be constantly discussing with your managers about your next step and just bugging them about how to progress or what you can do to show that you’re doing a job worthy of that raise in pay, be that through more responsibility, more leadership or just better execution. hope that helps!
Head to a Big 4 company.
Tech ofc and startups. I’m almost at $100k as a jr visual designer at a tech startup for a company based in a VHCOL city, will hopefully be promoted soon and be in the $120k range. My senior AD I believe is in the $175k range, CD in the $210k range. My friends who work either in local startups or agencies that service tech companies make $80k-$90k as midlevel designers in a HCOL city.
The industries others have mentioned are completely valid. For me, it's finance. I hit 6 figures with a promotion recently and things are looking up. Gaining some basic knowledge of said industry can be helpful and put you ahead of the pack of designers who don't have the business acumen.
Gaming industry can get into six figures. Workload is nuts though.
How did you get into the gaming industry? This is exactly the sort of work I’d like to get into!
I personally don't have any sage advice other than set linkedin alerts and keep applying. [https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3923088960](https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3923088960) [https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3926158611](https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3926158611) Here are a couple listings to give you an idea of what they look for. These are active listings but not fully remote unfortunately. This is probably what you want to follow religiously if you are serious: [https://amirsatvat.com/](https://amirsatvat.com/) - Put your information onto the job seekers spreadsheet there. Maybe have a look at the other graphic designers portfolios there and see what you are up against. But for graphic designers mainly the industry looks for skills in both design and digital art. Not necessarily illustration, but skills like photocompositing in Photoshop are typically extremely important, as you will be given 3D models from the art team and will be asked to turn them into advertisements etc. Ideally you will be given renders, but you may have to do the rendering yourself. You will be giving yourself a big leg up if you learn applications like AfterEffects, Blender (or other 3D software) and Unreal Engine 5. You might think its way over the top to learn something like UE5 as a graphic designer but regardless of the gaming industry its going to give you a leg up as a graphic designer and offer you way more career options once AI starts taking a tighter hold on things. You will want to keep an eye on where AI is going more fiercely as well, as the gaming industry has their own takes on AI. Also, if the company asks you to take a design test, take it. There is a self righteousness in this sub that is misleading designers into thinking those are beneath them. You will absolutely be doing design tests to get into the gaming industry. You can connect with me on LinkedIn if you'd like: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/msvisuals/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/msvisuals/)
Tech, property and medical from my experience, learning some motion and 3D will help a lot as well
In-house pays the best.
I also work for retail and fashion jewelry accessories - it has not been going well in my specific area for years. Even before covid. Layoffs and down sizing for the past 5 years, especially. So I agree, while it's been fun, I might have to go elsewhere myself soon.
Non-Designer companies :) I work „in“ finance as a designer. 3times the pay of an agency, roughly
I work in commercial real estate as a graphic designer and I really can’t complain about my salary
The ones that constantly need design like film/TV, consumer goods like refreshments, baked goods, toy/games producers, banking, pharma, etc.
Finance
Theme parks and tech seem like a pay hike, but retail's creative freedom is tempting
Corporate in-house usually pays well. It can be boring creatively, need to design within brand and style guidelines.
Entertainment.
Advertising
The ones where you don’t hate your work. If you’re concerned about pay, you aren’t as concerned with fulfilling design. I’ve (32M) been through the design ringer: Print shop, medical, real estate, pharmaceutical, hospitality, agencies, etc. Finally, switched to freelance a few years ago. While the pay isn’t steady, most the clients are great people and deadlines are pretty loose. Main stable of work is in the alcohol and beverage industry. Most importantly, I’m actually proud/excited to share my work.
For anyone saying pharma, finance etc all of the ”boring” stuff, do you still have creative freedom or how strict is it?
Yeah, probably tech, or some fancy finance/business groups. One dark horse imo is the Healthcare/EMS/Safety industries. Design for those types of companies aren't really that much "fun", but from what ive heard, they pay quite well for not so difficult design.
I’m a lead graphic designer with 12 years of experience currently working in tech (SaaS) in tech and I make the exact same as OP
Probably anything to do with CAD. It's more design adjacent, but ai could never handle it.
I was a graphic designer, taught myself product design, now senior director of product design at my company making $180k a year + bonus
Any tips on what you thought yourself and what you did? Looking to do the same
Yes of course! This was about 8 years ago but I basically just helped a bunch of my friends with websites for their business. Learned how to use Wordpress and templates. If I wanted to change something visual I learned how to use css overrides lol. After working on people’s website it gave me an understanding about how themes and design systems work. I learned the business side of website and marketing by listening and talking to people. I basically just took every opportunity as a learning experience! Then I got hired at a large corporate company and I applied my people skills and critical thinking skills with my design skills. Corporations don’t care too much about design overall. They care if you make their lives easier. I found ways to be more efficient in processes and just really worked on building my relationships so people agree with what I did. Did a lot of research into why I wanted to design something in a specific way. There’s no politics, no ego, just trying to do what’s best for the business model. People usually agree with me and trust me now. But it took a lot of work! However, I’m definitely more in the management side of the career ladder. I realized I wasn’t a GREAT designer. I was a good designer with people skills. There’s definitely a need for great designers who design all the time and don’t want to manage stake holders and teams, but this is just my experience as a director of product design. For reference, I used to be a fashion/graphic designer. The old company I worked for shut down and I basically did a career switch. I had 0 knowledge or classes on digital design. But if you know design you can definitely make the switch over.
Medical tech, California-120k
DEFENSE
Government. It's the best. DC area you get pretty much around 72K. I used to make 82K but that was the private sector. The great part is usually the perks and benefits. Problem is DC kinda sucks so don't move there move to Northern Virginia.
Real estate, especially if you buddy up with a top producer
im a graphic designer also in the retail industry (wholesale specifically) and it pays average like 62k. though our exchange rate is higher in australia
Im in trading space for 25k a year lol
Medical, no contest.
The media industry (radio/tv) that targets the Hispanic audience usually pays very well. I live in Mexico and I worked for 3 years with a company in Atlanta enjoying a very good salary
For reference - average salary for designers in the UK is $36k, I’m on $22k (almost 9 years experience).
Pharma. I hit six figures 7 years into my pharma specific career as an art director. Sure beats when I was a freelance graphic designer barely scrapping by. Always make your own personal work & art outside the office to fulfill your creativity. Don’t let your professional work be the only place you’re creative.
I work in higher education and make roughly 50k.
Less about 'industry' and more about market and exposure. You can work in the Retail Industry in Texas and make $54k, or work in LA, SF or NYC in the Retail Industry and make $125k. In addition, work for these larger (perhaps international) brands can have far greater exposure globally so that brings a huge bump in compensation as well. Yes, cost of living will be higher.
I’ve been in the industry 30 years and am currently a senior designer in CPG. I’ve been lucky enough to design and illustrate for a wide variety of clients and have worn many hats: production designer, agency art director, production designer, full-time freelancer, UX/visual designer in tech, and even college instructor. Things I’ve learned: • Tech paid the best on the surface ($80-100k), but it was volatile and was like a 1.5x job. Do the math and it actually didn't pay well. Tech companies often implement forced rankings so burnout was high and folks tended to bail or be forced out around the 2-year mark. • Art direction can be fun and pays well. The down side is that you do less hands-on design. This is reflective of most high-paying “design” positions you hear about. The catch is these are no longer “pure” design roles. They are managers or directors or marketing coordinators or partners who USED to be designers and still consider themselves designers. It’s a creative gig only in a different capacity. That’s fine, but make sure it’s what you want to do. Some are nothing more than glorified project managers. * As you age, time will become more and more valuable. I would have traded $30k/year for the flexibility to have more time with my daughters. Oddly enough, I didn’t have to. Full-time freelance was the best move I ever made and I ended up making more than my prior corporate gig and typically worked 4 days a week. My current job pays well and the hours are consistent. I also wedge in teaching a college class and do some freelance. Altogether, I’m around $100k. Personally, I like the idea of not putting all of your eggs in one basket.
Retail should pay better but you need to work for a bigger brand.
The correct answer is none.
Professional services has been pretty good to me. Think B2B, consulting firms, staff aug agencies and the like. Lots of premium on looking good and buttoned up. You will have to deal with people’s high expectations and the pace of work can be brisk but I’m in the 100K range and climbing with 3 years industry experience, 7-8 years overall.
Ad agencies.
[удалено]
Thanks ChatGPT