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Artist vs freelance designer

The differences between artists and freelance designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, an artist has an average salary of $68,690, which is higher than the $57,260 average annual salary of a freelance designer.

The top three skills for an artist include maya, adobe photoshop and customer service. The most important skills for a freelance designer are sketch, CSS, and HTML.

Artist vs freelance designer overview

ArtistFreelance Designer
Yearly salary$68,690$57,260
Hourly rate$33.02$27.53
Growth rate6%3%
Number of jobs3,87045,914
Job satisfaction4-
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 59%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age4038
Years of experience-12

What does an artist do?

An Artist specializes in creating various artworks or prose; the audience can vary from individuals or the general public. An artist's responsibility depends on the industry, company, or position where they are assigned. However, most of the time, Artists are expected to work under specific guidelines, deliver materials in a required format within an allotted time and perform revisions according to what is preferred by an editor or client. Furthermore, independent artists may work freelance and receive commissions for their craft.

What does a freelance designer do?

Freelance designers are creative, independent contractors who create visual and graphic designs for their clients. They develop text and illustrated versions of brands, messages, and communications with strong visible influence with their clients. Typical activities include networking, seeking projects, and negotiating prices to their customers. They manage client proposals, develop concepts, present solutions, and ensure the timely completion of projects. Freelance visual and graphic designers are creative, self-motivated as well as result and deadline oriented.

Artist vs freelance designer salary

Artists and freelance designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

ArtistFreelance Designer
Average salary$68,690$57,260
Salary rangeBetween $42,000 And $110,000Between $39,000 And $83,000
Highest paying CitySan Rafael, CA-
Highest paying stateCalifornia-
Best paying companyMeta-
Best paying industryTechnology-

Differences between artist and freelance designer education

There are a few differences between an artist and a freelance designer in terms of educational background:

ArtistFreelance Designer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 59%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common majorFine ArtsGraphic Design
Most common collegeHarvard UniversityUniversity of Pennsylvania

Artist vs freelance designer demographics

Here are the differences between artists' and freelance designers' demographics:

ArtistFreelance Designer
Average age4038
Gender ratioMale, 45.2% Female, 54.8%Male, 48.0% Female, 52.0%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 4.3% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 14.1% Asian, 7.6% White, 67.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.6% Asian, 10.4% White, 70.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage11%13%

Differences between artist and freelance designer duties and responsibilities

Artist example responsibilities.

  • Manage studio workload and advise print direction to in-house and freelance cad artists.
  • Manage online product catalog using Dreamweaver.
  • Assist customers with product selection and process POS transactions.
  • Provide comparative analysis on traditional vs. Mac vs. PC production.
  • Animate in-game characters, user interface assets and particle effects.
  • Own & operate a specialize faux painting, mural and art business.
  • Show more

Freelance designer example responsibilities.

  • Lead the transition from paste-up, typesetting, pasting up page layout to digital ad/page building and web printing.
  • Hand-Code HTML, CSS, JS and PHP for custom design solutions and form processing, validation, and animations.
  • Provide identity and stationery design, web design, HTML / CSS development and WordPress integration (content management system).
  • Image manipulation in platforms such as Photoshop and illustrator as per assign.
  • Develop high-qualityshop drawings for all casework to be build by in-house woodshop.
  • Design websites, landing pages, banner ads, pop-ups, and HTML emails.
  • Show more

Artist vs freelance designer skills

Common artist skills
  • Maya, 13%
  • Adobe Photoshop, 8%
  • Customer Service, 7%
  • Graphic Design, 7%
  • Photography, 7%
  • VFX, 6%
Common freelance designer skills
  • Sketch, 11%
  • CSS, 7%
  • HTML, 6%
  • Adobe Photoshop, 6%
  • Adobe Illustrator, 6%
  • Photography, 5%

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