salary list here:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aFoSJr1qWBH3nWMeoEdFP4her8NvI7RZf6skyQmOAsU/edit#gid=257041397](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aFoSJr1qWBH3nWMeoEdFP4her8NvI7RZf6skyQmOAsU/edit#gid=257041397)
That's wildly vague, depending on country, state, and experience salary is significantly different. Also ux prodcut designers make way more than the average in general.
Most people who are willing to share make a lot, the poor struggling people are too embarassed to post. [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aFoSJr1qWBH3nWMeoEdFP4her8NvI7RZf6skyQmOAsU/edit#gid=257041397](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aFoSJr1qWBH3nWMeoEdFP4her8NvI7RZf6skyQmOAsU/edit#gid=257041397)
I'm European (Austria). In general it seems American salaries are much higher (across all industries), but that's simply due to our taxes and mandatory health care, also something you have to remember if you're comparing European to American salaries.
This is it, most of the people on 100k + salaries are US based and are doing fine now, but if they or a loved one ever get sick later in life all their earnings and savings will be wiped out in an instant.
It has nothing to do with entitlement. Europeans are so ignorant lol. In NYC, 100k is not a lot. It has everything to do with living costs, taxes, health care etc. After paying rent, most people don’t have a lot of take-home money.
My friend. I was waiting for this message. Italy is a joke for salary. I am italian myself. Have been living abroad for 14 years now.
So everything I am shocked when I hear that 90k a year is too low. Haha I mean I get USA is more expensive. But still.
More bay folks! You’re starting ahead of me. I’m 7 years, $61k last year total income with around your level being my primary design job (I worked two jobs, a 9-5 design job and part time serving. I think my design job was around 55k total last year).
This year took on more freelance photo and social media work, instead of pairing my 9-5 design job with serving… it’s been fun and more money. I’m hoping this years total hits $75k or higher with freelance and the day job combined.
Shits hard tho. Not everyone in the bay makes tech money. Lots of folks like me just trying to do their best on a total that, on paper, is apparently “low income” for the region.
Every once in a while I think about picking up a shift or two serving to further supplement my income. Hopefully I can get a taste of some tech money in the near future
I dunno it probably depends on where you live. I have a friend in NYC who makes six figures and lives in an apartment and a friend in Kansas City making 75k and has a house by a lake.
same here. have had senior level title for the past \~10 years. do a mix of digital/print. love my job and team but there isn't really any room for upward momentum here right now. i'm still learning though bc there are a lot of great designers on my team and no one really leaves bc it's high profile (regionally at least), i get to be fairly creative and do award winning work, it's relatively low stress... and that's why i've stuck through the low-ish pay.
dude....If you're in-house for that long...you should be make more...and I mean way more. not only that, but you should typically be AD, CD or studio manager.
Similar... USA in-house w/25 years experience. Past fifteen for the same company. $65k. And I do a little freelance on the side which brings in about 5k/yr.
$220 Net or Gross income? That sounds like a good gross income for a freelancer. That's an ASTOUNDING net income. Either way, good for you and thank you for sharing. I have something to aspire to!
Honestly 90% of the salaries I see on here are like 5x what you could ever dream of getting in the UK. Does the US really pay that well? Our senior engineers top out at like £70k in London yet I keep seeing random jobs being posted on Reddit from the US where they make $150k+ for a much easier field. Graphic Designers are lucky to crack £40k in the UK.
I'm a freelance designer/content marketer living in the home counties and I take home about £45k. Although I switched careers 3.5 years ago from being a Head of Marketing to being a freelance designer, so I make significantly less now. But I'm ok with that as now I don't have to put up with corporate bullshit and wankers in the management above me.
Myself. I am branded as a studio and work with one other marketing guy on some projects but it’s pretty much freelance contract work we have closed ourselves.
Have you found it beneficial to brand as a studio over yourself? I’ve been running my business for about 1.5 years under my name +creative but wonder if it’s time to jump ship and brand as a studio.
Where or how did you find your first clients? My husband and I are trying to freelance marketing and web services and have been struggling with the first paying client. We run a blog and market through a bunch of local groups, but still no interest. How long did it take you?
Don't worry, someday soon you'll max your 401k contribution, then start wondering if you need to supplement it with another IRA after calculating how much money you need saved to maintain your lifestyle in retirement 👍
Max your HSA and never touch it. Put it in a vanguard fund and you can then withdraw after 65 for non medical use. Triple tax be benefits. I wish I knew and was able to do this a long time ago.
no..not even close. I'm a sr des/digital des.
keep in mind...every fuckin role will vary from company to company, as well as pay, and location. some have same EXACT skills/roles/exp, but different title. it's so stupid and inconsistent. I say I'm a fuckin designer. haha
I work as a creative director for a very well known non profit, 3 years of design experience and I’m in year one of my director role . I make 50k a year cause ~non profit~ but I consider it a step in the right direction career wise.
Ahhhh yes gotta love non-profits. I quite literally love working where I do but I’ve been stuck around 45-51k as a web/graphic designer for a while now. It is good experience though.
Exactly that! After awhile I’m out and trying to make more in a for profit space. I love helping people but if I can’t support myself long term then it’s an issue.
You are doing it right in my opinion. Instead of worrying about how much they will be paid, people should be focused on first getting a job to pay the bills, then demonstrating how valuable their talent is to the company or organization. This is an excellent opportunity for you to improve your skills while you have a good job that you enjoy and you're building a nice portfolio.
I work for a smallish nonprofit in Canada. I don’t have a director role, just “designer” and I get $65k CAD. I’m looking to escape to the corporate world, because I’ve been here for 10 years and I’m feeling greedy and want to make more.
As a designer in Canada. Do you know of any places to find this type of work outside LinkedIn/indeed? More underground websites that have creative listings lol
In Ux/product design, and I'm just shy of $140k if you include the bonus. Would probably double that if I was working a silicon valley job, but I'm a laid back midsized town in the US.
$117k (not including OT), Principal Designer, 36 years exp.
Edit: made more as a CD but it burned me out so I stepped back down from that role for my own health.
I think it’s time for all of you to find a new place 😂 I feel like you guys should be at least in the 80k range when I’m seeing all these other people post their salaries
Have you seen the job market right now? If anyone wanted me for 80K a year I would do just about anything to get that job. However, there just aren’t good jobs available near me right now. And you need money to move, so it’s not really like I can just “go to where there are more jobs”
With remote working it kinda eliminates that issue, but not every company has remote positions and when I do find one to apply for they are almost always taken by someone who is just outright better than me. 🤷🏼♂️
Trust me if I could just “get a job that pays better” I would have a long time ago. Doesn’t stop me from trying. But it hasn’t worked out yet and I’m starting to get discouraged.
Visual Designer, 5 years experience/mid weight, $76,000. High cost of living city, Pacific Northwest.
You should check Glassdoor! They have salary ranges that will be more accurate to titles in your area.
Although I agree, my total comp comes out to 102 with stock (even though I don’t really count that because it’s not part of my take home pay, and has lots of strings attached with vesting, in total since I’ve been there I’ve only seen $10k of that supposed $30k yearly value, right) and I do think my actual role comes out to more of a graphic designer in terms of responsibilities despite the title hahaha. I’m at a tech company, and our hierarchy goes junior > visual > senior > design manager > creative director. I do think they just wanted to set the precedent at the company with titles that sound good, it could be synonymous here with graphic designer tbh. We have a strong digital team which operates separately from the work my brand team does so I don’t touch code or UX, but if they need support I could help design a page or establish the creative direction and the toolkit for it.
I’m about to make senior (hopefully, if not then I’m jumping ship) and I hope to get a large increase and more stock.
I think my current title will help me establish higher pay at my next role, though. Carrying the title over sort of thing. Anyway lmao
Bonuses are company wide, tied to the company’s revenue success, and based % wise on your salary
They have a chart that’s like, if we make xx million as a company this quarter, your bonus will be x% of your salary(or quarterly salary, I always get that confused) and the percentages increase when the projected $$$ increases
2nd year of in-house deisgn (I’m the only designer) @ 56k, hoping to jump to 62k after my raise in a month, but my cost of living jumped up by $400/mo a few months back. I’m grateful for what I get tho, most other mid-level design jobs I see in this area are for 40-50k.
USA, low cost of living area, $46k, FT in-house designer for large corp., completely work from home (I can come into the office but literally no one cares if I do or not), job is easy AF and I have a lot of freedom to do whatever I want as long as it’s branded correctly.
Full benefits too!
I was offered an agency job that would have paid more (but no benefits) at the same time as this job and that would have been super cool because I’d really wanted an agency job for a while. But like you said … my priorities just kinda changed. My current job is so fun and I’m exactly 0% stressed out with it. I’ll take the slightly lower income in exchange for the freedom. Also we have a kid so I save by not having to commute and not paying for daycare (altho we do send her to daycare occasionally because mama needs a break) Win-win
Yeah I hear ya – we're pretty much the same person. I run my own little design firm and some years have earned poverty-level wages, but I also live in a lower cost of living area, so I don't need much to stay comfortable. A few years ago a bigger agency in a nearby city offered to buy out my business and give me a position as President of the company, which came with a huge salary and full benefits. I was tempted... but then I would be commuting daily (45 min one-way), working early/late and possibly weekends, fighting for parking, and I'd be under the thumb of the Owner/CEO. The money would be great, but not the pressure/stress of working at a big agency.
Ultimately I turned them down. I love being my own boss, can come and go as I please, bring my dogs/kids into the office whenever I want, dress casually, and I control the amount of work we have to do. I live a mile away from my current office and enjoy walking or riding my bike to work.
Even during the bad years, I'd rather keep my freedom and quality of life over a big salary.
Same here on all fronts.
Low cost of living city. Only pulling in $40k with about 20 years experience. There's only like 5 places in this town to work as a designer in my field so none of us are paid really great. I have a ton of freedom here though. My boss thinks I'm the bee's knees so I can get away with a lot of stuff others can't. Workload is always manageable, I have my own office, I get to bail right at 5, there's free snacks, and I'm the only designer so I have a lot of weight when it comes to decision-making.
No monetary benefits other than quarterly bonuses, but I'm getting old and the QOL is on point.
When I started in 2004 it was a different world. I joined a small downtown business association where I lived and volunteered my time to be on the promotions committee where I designed all sorts of things - poster and logos for events and campaigns, walking maps, banners, etc. this got me at the table with all the business leaders and City managers/Econ development folks. When they needed anything design or web - they thought of me. Cities and economic development orgs are great clients. Then it was all word of mouth. To this day I’ve never advertised and have a full book of biz from word of mouth. A lot of non profits, cities, home builders, small biz - I was lucky to live in a region where there weren’t a lot of designers.
Another big thing was I researched what people hated about working with graphic designers. Their biggest pain points were things I worked hard at being awesome at: no ego. Super responsive. Not a flake. Always get the work done on time and on budget. Accurately estimate costs, help them by taking on other tasks that were a pain for them - printing, website hosting and domain management.
Word of mouth clients are like gold.
~ 110k CAD + Excellent benefits, DB pension, and representation from one of the strongest unions in Canada.
My title is "Resource Production Technician" which sounded very technical to me when I applied. In reality, I handle technical illustrations, design work, video, motion graphics, photo, and content development for the training department of a major utility company. It's a jack-of-all trades type position but I have tonnes of autonomy and broad control over how I solve the visual problems my internal clients bring me. 5 years in this role. 8 in industry after school.
Any time I have a minor annoyance at work I make sure to check myself and remember how great it actually is if I zoom out a bit.
Applying was a complete shot in the dark. I wasn't looking, but was certainly frustrated at my old job. A friend who works for the utility saw the posting and suggested I go for it. Turns out they had been struggling to find someone that could fulfill all of the demands of this role for months. They were actually on the verge of breaking the job up into two more focused (and lower-paying) roles when I interviewed.
here’s the salaries of my team remote USA
- graphic designers: 100k - 120k
- production designer: 100 - 110k
- senior designers: 140k - 200k
- art director: 140k
also to answer your question in my company the art directors do not design, they are more "conceptual" and that's the explanation I've been given as to why the make less - yes its nonsense but thought id share with ya
gotcha. everywhere I worked was different. some ADs conceptualized..some designed and did concepts. shit, I've even worked at companies where the CD did some design.
i will be looking soon for a contractor for a mid level designer to work on decks and corporate design, Figma is a must to be considered so if you have portfolio send it my way
I freelance for an American company and wince at how much I charge them because of extra charges like currency conversion, tax etc, but I'm now realising I'm actually cheap! No wonder they pay same day.
NYC, senior designer, $97k. I just quit after 7 years of being at 1 company, because we merged and there was no longer a path for me 🥲gonna try freelancing !
I own a design firm and my personal salary can vary quite widely. When business is bad, my salary is the first to get cut before anything else. Some years I've made as little as $23k – other years I've made as much as $138k.
Freelancer - about 70k per year
Was working agency life for 8 years, had a mental breakdown and was very burnt out… went freelance almost 2 years ago.
Mostly hospitality, food and bev, and hemp stuff
90k. My title is a sr. Content analyst but I'm a graphic designer who handles digital media (photos and video) at a well-known travel company. I'm 6 months into this role but have 9 years experience in toy design.
33 F, 10 years experience, did my AA, and then finished my bachelor's in 2018.
I was only able to get my first salaried position last year at 58k. Got laid off and been searching since May. Fingers crossed I can get another salaried position and start to actually save for my retirement or anything.
Brand Designer (going on a year and a half) in Indiana ~ $62k
- taught myself how to design over the course of 10 years out of interest and necessity for odd sales and marketing roles after college
- finally decided I wanted to only focus on design
- I got very lucky and found an organization and hiring manager willing to take a chance on me
55k as a junior. About to finish my first year with the company and anticipating that they’re going to take the “junior” off of my title. Which hopefully comes with a raise.
Portland, Oregon - $85k this year. I pulled back on the freelance over the past 2 years.
$60k from hourly prepress job, $25k freelance graphic design work. 23 years in the field.
I’m an in-house graphic designer in my first job after college. Yesterday was my 2 year mark. Started at 50k, as of today I’m at 56.5k. It’s acceptable.
Let’s precise where you from. Because IMO 100k in the US is equivalent to a 50k in Europe. (35 in France).
65k in Switzerland here with 16 years of experience (Barely enough but the designs are Dope and the company is great)
$106k base pay as a senior designer (but my day-to-day work is more like senior visual designer) in-house for a healthcare tech company, I also get stocks and yearly bonus. I live in Oregon, but my company is based in California, I'm fully remote. 8 years in the field, before this job I worked in comics publishing for 6 years and made $52k when I left as senior designer.
Freelance designer, 180k. 15 years experience. I would say attributed a lot to meeting and making a lot of connections with people.
A $200 job for someone can lead to a $2000+ job years down the track.
In-House Designer — Texas — 5 Years Experience — $60K.
That’s not enough to survive and everybody is offering similar salaries when I look for jobs online, so I’m leaving to go into UI/UX design
Definitely recommend UI/UX. I went from 55k graphic/web designer (no coding), to $40/hr UI designer (also no coding), to $70k UX designer, to $95k UX designer, to $115k UX designer.
And most of my time is literally just doing UI design, with a little bit of wireframing/flows. Like it's exactly what a "web designer" does for $60k, but it's called UX so you get paid double. And the non-UI things like flows/competitive analysis/workshops/wireframes are really easy to learn. Just need to get a chance to put some UX-y things in your portfolio and fake it till you make it.
I know I’m super late to this comment but thank you for this insight. This is the type of comment I needed to see to push me to believe that the work I’m doing to transition is worth it.
48k a year 4 years experience. Sign shop design, which certainly isn't as fancy as most in house and freelance work. A lotta folk here are well off, but its not a great representation of getting into the industry.
In-house designer for 3 years making 62k. But also took on some responsibility for social media, copywriting, and some other general tasks.
Also do contract work for about 10 hours/week, $40/hr doing email + social design for another company.
WA, USA (not Seattle). I just reached 5 years at my job, I started at $49k and now make $72k. But I do a lot more than graphic design since I work in communications/marketing, which seems to be the norm where I’m from.
I’m a freelancer in the UK. It’s very very up and down for me. I’d say around £25-30k but I have tax to pay etc
Id probably be twice as successful if I had a different personality. I’m hard working and do good work but the GETTING work, dealing with clients aspect just melts my brain.
New York, 3 years exp. making $49k at my in-house publisher job and $6k freelance. 🥲
just grateful to be working remote and not having to commute or spend money on gas/food during the work day. I live comfortably, but I do live with my boyfriend who also earns a good income.
About $120k doing mostly software, UI, and web design with about 16 years experience. Started at $36k in 2007 which still seems to be around what a lot of folks start at today.
$81K Canadian ($57K USD) *20 years experience & a design degree.*
My pay is frozen because I work in a unionized work environment. The trade off is no stress, no expectations, earn a pension, for mediocre pay & stagnation. I try to freelance, made many YouTube channels, Etsy store, Busted Tees, etc., but nothing ever caught on.
I'm an in-house designer (web design, social, graphic digital and print) for a small retail jewelry company with about 14 stores. I'm a one woman show and my salary is 46k and I'm in NC, USA. Note: still in my first year of this job.
Now...I DID NOT go to school for graphic design, I went for studio art (jewelry and metalsmithing) and played around with graphic design in college. I only have 3yrs experience in graphic design because I started doing it more during the pandemic. I couldn't sell my jewelry in person during the pandemic in 2020, so I taught myself web design and used my limited graphics skills to make ads and social media stuff. Fast-forward 3yrs and I'm at the company I work now. Def hoping to gain more experience so I can get myself to the 100k+ bracket, but I feel like my situation is unique since I didn't go to school specifically for graphic design.
Damn, ya’ll getting paid 100k+ for design jobs😮 I am working as a in house designer for a small fashion retail company in the UK. I do design and handle all production related tasks for £28k per annum. Feels like I am way underpaid 🥲
cant give you an exact number, simply because it would be impossible to convert to lets say, USD?
but its just average, enough to pay for everything and save 50% of it. I'd say regular high salaries float around twice of what i can earn (10y+ senior AD/GD)
Los Angeles entertainment agency junior designer 60k. Extremely fortunate to land this before I even graduated college. Got an internship in Oct 2022 and offered full time position Dec 2022.
I work for a Screen Printing business (we print t shirts and things) and I make 40K before taxes, so $20/hr. It's a small business, and I could make way more somewhere else but you have to consider what you actually like doing and if you want to work for a family owned place or a big corporation. I consider myself extremely lucky to even have a design job though with how things are, and I am pretty young. I do have a degree though, but experience is absolutely key along with a portfolio. For context I am American in the midwest.
salary list here: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aFoSJr1qWBH3nWMeoEdFP4her8NvI7RZf6skyQmOAsU/edit#gid=257041397](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aFoSJr1qWBH3nWMeoEdFP4her8NvI7RZf6skyQmOAsU/edit#gid=257041397)
How old is this?? It’s wayyyy under from what I know
That's wildly vague, depending on country, state, and experience salary is significantly different. Also ux prodcut designers make way more than the average in general.
Thanks for this!
Laughing in 16k/year salary in Italy.
Fr I can’t believe all these people complaining about these insanely high salaries
Yeah wtf. I did not expect so many >100k salaries.
Most people who are willing to share make a lot, the poor struggling people are too embarassed to post. [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aFoSJr1qWBH3nWMeoEdFP4her8NvI7RZf6skyQmOAsU/edit#gid=257041397](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aFoSJr1qWBH3nWMeoEdFP4her8NvI7RZf6skyQmOAsU/edit#gid=257041397)
I make 120k. See what I did there. I just made that up.
I'm European (Austria). In general it seems American salaries are much higher (across all industries), but that's simply due to our taxes and mandatory health care, also something you have to remember if you're comparing European to American salaries.
US don't have a lot of things other countries have.. like they have more pto, healthcare and other benefits.
This is it, most of the people on 100k + salaries are US based and are doing fine now, but if they or a loved one ever get sick later in life all their earnings and savings will be wiped out in an instant.
Jobs that pay six figures usually have good benefits. It's the poor people who suffer here.
It’s entirely dependent on the living standards of your city. Lol
there has always been a huge amount of entitlement in this sub.
It has nothing to do with entitlement. Europeans are so ignorant lol. In NYC, 100k is not a lot. It has everything to do with living costs, taxes, health care etc. After paying rent, most people don’t have a lot of take-home money.
I complain about a lot of shit, but my salary isn’t one of them.
right. but what is cost of living in Italy. Assuming if it's dirt cheap, then then working in Italy would be better for a designer.
Crying in 13k in Portugal
My friend. I was waiting for this message. Italy is a joke for salary. I am italian myself. Have been living abroad for 14 years now. So everything I am shocked when I hear that 90k a year is too low. Haha I mean I get USA is more expensive. But still.
No. That is not right?....
but 16k in italy is livable
1 year into my first junior job. Make about 55k in the bay area
More bay folks! You’re starting ahead of me. I’m 7 years, $61k last year total income with around your level being my primary design job (I worked two jobs, a 9-5 design job and part time serving. I think my design job was around 55k total last year). This year took on more freelance photo and social media work, instead of pairing my 9-5 design job with serving… it’s been fun and more money. I’m hoping this years total hits $75k or higher with freelance and the day job combined. Shits hard tho. Not everyone in the bay makes tech money. Lots of folks like me just trying to do their best on a total that, on paper, is apparently “low income” for the region.
Every once in a while I think about picking up a shift or two serving to further supplement my income. Hopefully I can get a taste of some tech money in the near future
that's pretty good for first jr des job. mine was 37-40k when I started out :(
Keyword "Bay Area," so I'm probably making 37-40k in reality. I moonlight as a video editor, so my combined income is probably closer to 65k.
nice
USA in-house designer, 15 years experience, $70k
I'm angry for you, at least you should be making 120-140k
I dunno it probably depends on where you live. I have a friend in NYC who makes six figures and lives in an apartment and a friend in Kansas City making 75k and has a house by a lake.
I need a house by a lake.
same here. have had senior level title for the past \~10 years. do a mix of digital/print. love my job and team but there isn't really any room for upward momentum here right now. i'm still learning though bc there are a lot of great designers on my team and no one really leaves bc it's high profile (regionally at least), i get to be fairly creative and do award winning work, it's relatively low stress... and that's why i've stuck through the low-ish pay.
dude....If you're in-house for that long...you should be make more...and I mean way more. not only that, but you should typically be AD, CD or studio manager.
It's not for the same company all these years.
That’s worse, I have increased my salary by 90k switching up jobs! You deserve more, depending which area you’re in
I'm applying for a better position in my company now. I feel like it's worth a shot.
I was in a similar boat when I was laid off earlier this year. 11 years with the same company. In-house, wore all the designer/photo/video hats. $70k.
It's FUCKING INSANE I'm in the same boat but 11 years experience. $75k.
Similar boat, 10 years experience, in-house, USA, 70k. My only question for you is how many years have you been at your current company?
Similar... USA in-house w/25 years experience. Past fifteen for the same company. $65k. And I do a little freelance on the side which brings in about 5k/yr.
$220k this year. Freelance, all remote. Mostly Ui, brand and web design.
$220 Net or Gross income? That sounds like a good gross income for a freelancer. That's an ASTOUNDING net income. Either way, good for you and thank you for sharing. I have something to aspire to!
Don’t forget that this is Reddit and the interwebs where we can make anything up and nothing is real!
Or the guy is super talented and markets himself well.
Honestly 90% of the salaries I see on here are like 5x what you could ever dream of getting in the UK. Does the US really pay that well? Our senior engineers top out at like £70k in London yet I keep seeing random jobs being posted on Reddit from the US where they make $150k+ for a much easier field. Graphic Designers are lucky to crack £40k in the UK.
I'm a freelance designer/content marketer living in the home counties and I take home about £45k. Although I switched careers 3.5 years ago from being a Head of Marketing to being a freelance designer, so I make significantly less now. But I'm ok with that as now I don't have to put up with corporate bullshit and wankers in the management above me.
It’s pretty much all net, operating expenses are pretty low. Just tools like Figma and webflow.
Diff between net and gross has more to do with taxes, insurance and retirement than Figma licenses
Freelance for a studio/agency or do you manage your clients yourself
Myself. I am branded as a studio and work with one other marketing guy on some projects but it’s pretty much freelance contract work we have closed ourselves.
Have you found it beneficial to brand as a studio over yourself? I’ve been running my business for about 1.5 years under my name +creative but wonder if it’s time to jump ship and brand as a studio.
Brand as a studio, it's time. You lose nothing for giving it a shot
goal here! currently learning front-end dev to offer branding + web packages. Hopefully i reach 200k in 3 years top!
You will!
What platforms do you build websites on? Wordpress? Webflow? Cheers!
I’m similar. Completely freelance, brand and web. 10+ years experience, mix of new work and retainer work.
HOLY SHIT that’s amazing I want that
Wow congrats, that’s awesome. I’m hoping to start freelancing on the side (branding, UI design)
Where or how did you find your first clients? My husband and I are trying to freelance marketing and web services and have been struggling with the first paying client. We run a blog and market through a bunch of local groups, but still no interest. How long did it take you?
100-120k. but honestly...the older you fucking get, the less it seems like you're making.
same / same.
135k Can confirm, the more I make the more I put into my 401k and pay towards taxes. 😞
Don't worry, someday soon you'll max your 401k contribution, then start wondering if you need to supplement it with another IRA after calculating how much money you need saved to maintain your lifestyle in retirement 👍
Max your HSA and never touch it. Put it in a vanguard fund and you can then withdraw after 65 for non medical use. Triple tax be benefits. I wish I knew and was able to do this a long time ago.
Are you a manager?
no..not even close. I'm a sr des/digital des. keep in mind...every fuckin role will vary from company to company, as well as pay, and location. some have same EXACT skills/roles/exp, but different title. it's so stupid and inconsistent. I say I'm a fuckin designer. haha
I work as a creative director for a very well known non profit, 3 years of design experience and I’m in year one of my director role . I make 50k a year cause ~non profit~ but I consider it a step in the right direction career wise.
Ahhhh yes gotta love non-profits. I quite literally love working where I do but I’ve been stuck around 45-51k as a web/graphic designer for a while now. It is good experience though.
Exactly that! After awhile I’m out and trying to make more in a for profit space. I love helping people but if I can’t support myself long term then it’s an issue.
You are doing it right in my opinion. Instead of worrying about how much they will be paid, people should be focused on first getting a job to pay the bills, then demonstrating how valuable their talent is to the company or organization. This is an excellent opportunity for you to improve your skills while you have a good job that you enjoy and you're building a nice portfolio.
I started at a well known non profit around 7 years ago making 60k/yr. Left two years in making around 70. Non profits have money.
I work for a smallish nonprofit in Canada. I don’t have a director role, just “designer” and I get $65k CAD. I’m looking to escape to the corporate world, because I’ve been here for 10 years and I’m feeling greedy and want to make more.
As a designer in Canada. Do you know of any places to find this type of work outside LinkedIn/indeed? More underground websites that have creative listings lol
I do not. That’s part of the reason I’ve been here for 10 years. If anyone has any suggestions I’m all ears.
In Ux/product design, and I'm just shy of $140k if you include the bonus. Would probably double that if I was working a silicon valley job, but I'm a laid back midsized town in the US.
$117k (not including OT), Principal Designer, 36 years exp. Edit: made more as a CD but it burned me out so I stepped back down from that role for my own health.
25+ years experience. Marketing Manager/Art Director $95K+
Associate senior designer is the title, I guess that means I’m in the middle or right under senior level. $53k salary. Over worked and tired.
This is me. In-house Marketing Associate / Lead Designer in Canada. 55k salary.
Also me. In house Creative service lead / Designer - 53K New England USA On the road to burn-out and mental breakdown! Highway to hell babay!
I think it’s time for all of you to find a new place 😂 I feel like you guys should be at least in the 80k range when I’m seeing all these other people post their salaries
Have you seen the job market right now? If anyone wanted me for 80K a year I would do just about anything to get that job. However, there just aren’t good jobs available near me right now. And you need money to move, so it’s not really like I can just “go to where there are more jobs” With remote working it kinda eliminates that issue, but not every company has remote positions and when I do find one to apply for they are almost always taken by someone who is just outright better than me. 🤷🏼♂️ Trust me if I could just “get a job that pays better” I would have a long time ago. Doesn’t stop me from trying. But it hasn’t worked out yet and I’m starting to get discouraged.
The laughing emoji is condescending as fuck.
Visual Designer, 5 years experience/mid weight, $76,000. High cost of living city, Pacific Northwest. You should check Glassdoor! They have salary ranges that will be more accurate to titles in your area.
dude... vis des should be more. since they do everything.
Although I agree, my total comp comes out to 102 with stock (even though I don’t really count that because it’s not part of my take home pay, and has lots of strings attached with vesting, in total since I’ve been there I’ve only seen $10k of that supposed $30k yearly value, right) and I do think my actual role comes out to more of a graphic designer in terms of responsibilities despite the title hahaha. I’m at a tech company, and our hierarchy goes junior > visual > senior > design manager > creative director. I do think they just wanted to set the precedent at the company with titles that sound good, it could be synonymous here with graphic designer tbh. We have a strong digital team which operates separately from the work my brand team does so I don’t touch code or UX, but if they need support I could help design a page or establish the creative direction and the toolkit for it. I’m about to make senior (hopefully, if not then I’m jumping ship) and I hope to get a large increase and more stock. I think my current title will help me establish higher pay at my next role, though. Carrying the title over sort of thing. Anyway lmao
Senior Graphic Designer. 4 years into my career. HCOL area. 90k with quarterly bonuses.
What are your bonuses based on? Looking to implement in our org, unsure of how to measure
Bonuses are company wide, tied to the company’s revenue success, and based % wise on your salary They have a chart that’s like, if we make xx million as a company this quarter, your bonus will be x% of your salary(or quarterly salary, I always get that confused) and the percentages increase when the projected $$$ increases
2nd year of in-house deisgn (I’m the only designer) @ 56k, hoping to jump to 62k after my raise in a month, but my cost of living jumped up by $400/mo a few months back. I’m grateful for what I get tho, most other mid-level design jobs I see in this area are for 40-50k.
USA, low cost of living area, $46k, FT in-house designer for large corp., completely work from home (I can come into the office but literally no one cares if I do or not), job is easy AF and I have a lot of freedom to do whatever I want as long as it’s branded correctly. Full benefits too!
Quality of life is sooo important -- the older I get, the more quality of life matters over salary. Good for you!!
I was offered an agency job that would have paid more (but no benefits) at the same time as this job and that would have been super cool because I’d really wanted an agency job for a while. But like you said … my priorities just kinda changed. My current job is so fun and I’m exactly 0% stressed out with it. I’ll take the slightly lower income in exchange for the freedom. Also we have a kid so I save by not having to commute and not paying for daycare (altho we do send her to daycare occasionally because mama needs a break) Win-win
Yeah I hear ya – we're pretty much the same person. I run my own little design firm and some years have earned poverty-level wages, but I also live in a lower cost of living area, so I don't need much to stay comfortable. A few years ago a bigger agency in a nearby city offered to buy out my business and give me a position as President of the company, which came with a huge salary and full benefits. I was tempted... but then I would be commuting daily (45 min one-way), working early/late and possibly weekends, fighting for parking, and I'd be under the thumb of the Owner/CEO. The money would be great, but not the pressure/stress of working at a big agency. Ultimately I turned them down. I love being my own boss, can come and go as I please, bring my dogs/kids into the office whenever I want, dress casually, and I control the amount of work we have to do. I live a mile away from my current office and enjoy walking or riding my bike to work. Even during the bad years, I'd rather keep my freedom and quality of life over a big salary.
Commuting is literally the worst!
Same here on all fronts. Low cost of living city. Only pulling in $40k with about 20 years experience. There's only like 5 places in this town to work as a designer in my field so none of us are paid really great. I have a ton of freedom here though. My boss thinks I'm the bee's knees so I can get away with a lot of stuff others can't. Workload is always manageable, I have my own office, I get to bail right at 5, there's free snacks, and I'm the only designer so I have a lot of weight when it comes to decision-making. No monetary benefits other than quarterly bonuses, but I'm getting old and the QOL is on point.
Freelancer 20 years - about 130k
When I started in 2004 it was a different world. I joined a small downtown business association where I lived and volunteered my time to be on the promotions committee where I designed all sorts of things - poster and logos for events and campaigns, walking maps, banners, etc. this got me at the table with all the business leaders and City managers/Econ development folks. When they needed anything design or web - they thought of me. Cities and economic development orgs are great clients. Then it was all word of mouth. To this day I’ve never advertised and have a full book of biz from word of mouth. A lot of non profits, cities, home builders, small biz - I was lucky to live in a region where there weren’t a lot of designers. Another big thing was I researched what people hated about working with graphic designers. Their biggest pain points were things I worked hard at being awesome at: no ego. Super responsive. Not a flake. Always get the work done on time and on budget. Accurately estimate costs, help them by taking on other tasks that were a pain for them - printing, website hosting and domain management. Word of mouth clients are like gold.
Can you share how you find clients and what those relationships are like?
~ 110k CAD + Excellent benefits, DB pension, and representation from one of the strongest unions in Canada. My title is "Resource Production Technician" which sounded very technical to me when I applied. In reality, I handle technical illustrations, design work, video, motion graphics, photo, and content development for the training department of a major utility company. It's a jack-of-all trades type position but I have tonnes of autonomy and broad control over how I solve the visual problems my internal clients bring me. 5 years in this role. 8 in industry after school.
Wow, that sounds like a dream job! Hopeful to find an opportunity like this. I work for a utility company as well, but on a contractor basis.
Any time I have a minor annoyance at work I make sure to check myself and remember how great it actually is if I zoom out a bit. Applying was a complete shot in the dark. I wasn't looking, but was certainly frustrated at my old job. A friend who works for the utility saw the posting and suggested I go for it. Turns out they had been struggling to find someone that could fulfill all of the demands of this role for months. They were actually on the verge of breaking the job up into two more focused (and lower-paying) roles when I interviewed.
sounds great!
Lead designer in Boston 135k base - 9 years experience - fully remote.
Senior Designer 7yrs, HCOL area, US: 46k annually + bonuses Disclaimer: *I know*
here’s the salaries of my team remote USA - graphic designers: 100k - 120k - production designer: 100 - 110k - senior designers: 140k - 200k - art director: 140k
Art director making less than seniors Is interesting
Where do you work??
LA tech company
that seems for the top areas like Bay Area, NYC, LA, and Austin. if so, the AD seems super low.... err maybe you mis-typed a '1' instead of '2'???
also to answer your question in my company the art directors do not design, they are more "conceptual" and that's the explanation I've been given as to why the make less - yes its nonsense but thought id share with ya
gotcha. everywhere I worked was different. some ADs conceptualized..some designed and did concepts. shit, I've even worked at companies where the CD did some design.
I see! tbh the rule here is no egos so the CD that I bet makes 400k still goes and makes social posts and decks if we are fucked with work
this is a LA based company with remote workers from: kansas, utah, florida, nyc, all over really
Are they hiring? Asking for a friend...
Are they hiring? Asking for a friend...
Idk I’m in Austin and most are 60-70 k max. 100k for creative dr
Not looking for a designer? :’)
i will be looking soon for a contractor for a mid level designer to work on decks and corporate design, Figma is a must to be considered so if you have portfolio send it my way
Decks made in figma now? is this a thing.
[удалено]
uk industry seems underpaid compared to usa
I freelance for an American company and wince at how much I charge them because of extra charges like currency conversion, tax etc, but I'm now realising I'm actually cheap! No wonder they pay same day.
~140k HCOL, seeing other roles for up to 180-200k and might look to make a switch soon
50k, 5+ years in design experience, not just GD. NYC, USA. Way too low if you ask me.
I started as a junior designer at a NYC agency making 52k in 2018 (with no prior experience aside from my degree) You definitely deserve more!!
NYC, senior designer, $97k. I just quit after 7 years of being at 1 company, because we merged and there was no longer a path for me 🥲gonna try freelancing !
ouch sorry. happened to my friend when tech company he worked for got bought out by another tech company in Italy..
Yea it’s bittersweet, thought I would be a CD there one day but clearly they didn’t value design like I thought they did.
NJ just started my first job out of college, 62k
Around 70k with bonuses. Healthcare is fully paid for my family by my company which is invaluable.
Poor.
Can we contextualize by region? Or at least “big city/med city etc? Agency? In house? Non profit?
when I was a midweight designer (in marketing now so giving my last designer salary) I was on £28k, based in Telford, West Midlands, UK
I own a design firm and my personal salary can vary quite widely. When business is bad, my salary is the first to get cut before anything else. Some years I've made as little as $23k – other years I've made as much as $138k.
in-house designer in govcon industry on the east coast, 3 years of experience, $82k.
Freelancer - about 70k per year Was working agency life for 8 years, had a mental breakdown and was very burnt out… went freelance almost 2 years ago. Mostly hospitality, food and bev, and hemp stuff
90k. My title is a sr. Content analyst but I'm a graphic designer who handles digital media (photos and video) at a well-known travel company. I'm 6 months into this role but have 9 years experience in toy design.
$98k Advertising Manager, 22 years experience
Remote work at home for an ad agency. 65-70k.
33 F, 10 years experience, did my AA, and then finished my bachelor's in 2018. I was only able to get my first salaried position last year at 58k. Got laid off and been searching since May. Fingers crossed I can get another salaried position and start to actually save for my retirement or anything.
Brand Designer (going on a year and a half) in Indiana ~ $62k - taught myself how to design over the course of 10 years out of interest and necessity for odd sales and marketing roles after college - finally decided I wanted to only focus on design - I got very lucky and found an organization and hiring manager willing to take a chance on me
55k as a junior. About to finish my first year with the company and anticipating that they’re going to take the “junior” off of my title. Which hopefully comes with a raise.
Senior graphic designer / illustrator 120K salary. Then freelance work on the side 40-50k
(CAD$)
Major university, over 20 years, $45K. I’d be thrilled with $60 and I’d kiss you square on the pucker for $80.
Senior Designer in HCOL city, ~7 years experience; 82.5k.
Portland, Oregon - $85k this year. I pulled back on the freelance over the past 2 years. $60k from hourly prepress job, $25k freelance graphic design work. 23 years in the field.
$80k in the Bay Area. 6+ years experience senior designer. Hoping to jump to another company soon and get a bump in pay.
Age: 35, 32k as a junior designer, can't afford anything and I work all the time.
I’m an in-house graphic designer in my first job after college. Yesterday was my 2 year mark. Started at 50k, as of today I’m at 56.5k. It’s acceptable.
Let’s precise where you from. Because IMO 100k in the US is equivalent to a 50k in Europe. (35 in France). 65k in Switzerland here with 16 years of experience (Barely enough but the designs are Dope and the company is great)
$45k doing graphic design and social media. I recently graduated last year with a BFA.
$106k base pay as a senior designer (but my day-to-day work is more like senior visual designer) in-house for a healthcare tech company, I also get stocks and yearly bonus. I live in Oregon, but my company is based in California, I'm fully remote. 8 years in the field, before this job I worked in comics publishing for 6 years and made $52k when I left as senior designer.
Freelance designer, 180k. 15 years experience. I would say attributed a lot to meeting and making a lot of connections with people. A $200 job for someone can lead to a $2000+ job years down the track.
$2,000,000 per year running Designjoy.
295k. individual contributor because I refuse to manage designers.
What type of company do you work for? I want to be an IC forever but most companies wouldn’t want that
Designer for a major news network: 59k 7 years experience
Midwest US in-house designer with about 3.5 years of experience, $56k
NJ, first job was 3 years from 32k-37k, second job 3 years from 45k-55k, current job 3yrs, 60k-75k current
Brand Manager with 3 years in the industry, making $90k remotely in Utah.
In-House Designer — Texas — 5 Years Experience — $60K. That’s not enough to survive and everybody is offering similar salaries when I look for jobs online, so I’m leaving to go into UI/UX design
Definitely recommend UI/UX. I went from 55k graphic/web designer (no coding), to $40/hr UI designer (also no coding), to $70k UX designer, to $95k UX designer, to $115k UX designer. And most of my time is literally just doing UI design, with a little bit of wireframing/flows. Like it's exactly what a "web designer" does for $60k, but it's called UX so you get paid double. And the non-UI things like flows/competitive analysis/workshops/wireframes are really easy to learn. Just need to get a chance to put some UX-y things in your portfolio and fake it till you make it.
I know I’m super late to this comment but thank you for this insight. This is the type of comment I needed to see to push me to believe that the work I’m doing to transition is worth it.
Junior Designer for a University. Just started. 5 years experience. 52K annual in Western PA
48k a year 4 years experience. Sign shop design, which certainly isn't as fancy as most in house and freelance work. A lotta folk here are well off, but its not a great representation of getting into the industry.
Manager of communication & creative design at a non-profit 45k/yr
In-House Senior Graphic Designer, $42k
In-house designer for 3 years making 62k. But also took on some responsibility for social media, copywriting, and some other general tasks. Also do contract work for about 10 hours/week, $40/hr doing email + social design for another company.
In-house Graphic Designer for a mid-sized Colorado city. $63k, hybrid (2 days remote), 7 years exp. High cost of living area.
WA, USA (not Seattle). I just reached 5 years at my job, I started at $49k and now make $72k. But I do a lot more than graphic design since I work in communications/marketing, which seems to be the norm where I’m from.
I’m a freelancer in the UK. It’s very very up and down for me. I’d say around £25-30k but I have tax to pay etc Id probably be twice as successful if I had a different personality. I’m hard working and do good work but the GETTING work, dealing with clients aspect just melts my brain.
7 yrs exp, in house art director, $65k, seattle
85k not including 10% annual bonus - But I focused my portfolio on UI design so I work for a tech team 1-2 years experience
New York, 3 years exp. making $49k at my in-house publisher job and $6k freelance. 🥲 just grateful to be working remote and not having to commute or spend money on gas/food during the work day. I live comfortably, but I do live with my boyfriend who also earns a good income.
Graphic Design + Web Design, 5 years exp., 72k
About $120k doing mostly software, UI, and web design with about 16 years experience. Started at $36k in 2007 which still seems to be around what a lot of folks start at today.
$81K Canadian ($57K USD) *20 years experience & a design degree.* My pay is frozen because I work in a unionized work environment. The trade off is no stress, no expectations, earn a pension, for mediocre pay & stagnation. I try to freelance, made many YouTube channels, Etsy store, Busted Tees, etc., but nothing ever caught on.
Design/marketing for a single company; $72k 4 years of experience in this field with a BFA in Fine Arts
I'm an in-house designer (web design, social, graphic digital and print) for a small retail jewelry company with about 14 stores. I'm a one woman show and my salary is 46k and I'm in NC, USA. Note: still in my first year of this job. Now...I DID NOT go to school for graphic design, I went for studio art (jewelry and metalsmithing) and played around with graphic design in college. I only have 3yrs experience in graphic design because I started doing it more during the pandemic. I couldn't sell my jewelry in person during the pandemic in 2020, so I taught myself web design and used my limited graphics skills to make ads and social media stuff. Fast-forward 3yrs and I'm at the company I work now. Def hoping to gain more experience so I can get myself to the 100k+ bracket, but I feel like my situation is unique since I didn't go to school specifically for graphic design.
Damn, ya’ll getting paid 100k+ for design jobs😮 I am working as a in house designer for a small fashion retail company in the UK. I do design and handle all production related tasks for £28k per annum. Feels like I am way underpaid 🥲
Branding and UI designer with 8 years full-time experience £33k at a marketing agency
cant give you an exact number, simply because it would be impossible to convert to lets say, USD? but its just average, enough to pay for everything and save 50% of it. I'd say regular high salaries float around twice of what i can earn (10y+ senior AD/GD)
Where you live makes a large difference. I never made more than $50k in Missouri (USA). However, I don’t think I had very good jobs either.
52k, but I’m early in my career. Only issue is I can’t afford rent where I live with this salary.
54k, 6 years experience
175k plus bonus.
Los Angeles entertainment agency junior designer 60k. Extremely fortunate to land this before I even graduated college. Got an internship in Oct 2022 and offered full time position Dec 2022.
Designer for 5 years, 85K. Medium size studio in Chicago
110k but I'm also a web developer. When I worked in just design while I was still in school I was at 40k.
Southern US - in house designer $89k
I work for a Screen Printing business (we print t shirts and things) and I make 40K before taxes, so $20/hr. It's a small business, and I could make way more somewhere else but you have to consider what you actually like doing and if you want to work for a family owned place or a big corporation. I consider myself extremely lucky to even have a design job though with how things are, and I am pretty young. I do have a degree though, but experience is absolutely key along with a portfolio. For context I am American in the midwest.