How To Become A Color And Materials Designer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a color and materials designer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Saskia Van Kampen

If you have an eye for color combinations and a passion for great textiles, you may find that the job of a color and materials designer is right for you. As a color and materials designer, you would help design a company's product and branding by focusing on the color palettes and materials used in production.

Your day as a color and materials designer could begin with a morning design session using tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator. You might even get a little technical depending on your job and play with CSS and HTML. Of course, your job often gets more hands-on. You may have to source materials in stores or manage production, bringing your vision to reality.

The world is your oyster when you're a color and materials designer since you can work in many different fields. Depending on your background, you could work for a tech startup designing the UI interface for their app, come up with t-shirt designs for an apparel company, or even design car interiors.

What general advice would you give to a color and materials designer?

Saskia Van Kampen

Associate Professor, San Francisco State University

On a day-to-day basis a newly hired graphic designer must engage in any number of stages of the design process (research, ideation, iterating, testing, refinement, and/or finalization) - this is not a linear process. On top of this they may be asked to interact with clients and with colleagues (collaborating and critically engaging with work being produced).

ScoreColor And Materials DesignerUS Average

Salary

6.5

Avg. Salary $83,086

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.2

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.37%

Asian 10.42%

Black or African American 3.42%

Hispanic or Latino 10.63%

Unknown 4.99%

White 70.17%

Gender

female 47.47%

male 52.53%

Age - 37

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 37

Stress level

4.2

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.5

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.9

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a color and materials designer

Explore color and materials designer education requirements

Most common color and materials designer degrees

Bachelor's

69.8 %

Associate

12.8 %

Master's

9.3 %

Start to develop specific color and materials designer skills

Skills	Percentages
Photoshop	39.41%
Apparel	24.47%
CMF	9.76%
Consumer Trends	7.59%
Color Direction	5.90%

Complete relevant color and materials designer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New color and materials designers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a color and materials designer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real color and materials designer resumes.

Research color and materials designer duties and responsibilities

Manage graphic design projects from concept through production, including corporate logos, product catalogs, brochures, and sales flyers.
Conceptualize and design brochures, quarterly mail-outs, announcements, advertisements and individually tailor reports and packages.
Create unique typography images to accompany photographs.

Prepare your color and materials designer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your color and materials designer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a color and materials designer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable color and materials designer resume templates

Build a professional color and materials designer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your color and materials designer resume.

Apply for color and materials designer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a color and materials designer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

Average color and materials designer salary

The average color and materials designer salary in the United States is $83,086 per year or $40 per hour. Color and materials designer salaries range between $58,000 and $117,000 per year.

Average color and materials designer salary

$83,086 Yearly

$39.95 hourly

What is a color and materials designer and how to become one

What general advice would you give to a color and materials designer?

Color and materials designer career paths

Key steps to become a color and materials designer

Explore color and materials designer education requirements

Most common color and materials designer degrees

Start to develop specific color and materials designer skills

Complete relevant color and materials designer training and internships

Research color and materials designer duties and responsibilities

Prepare your color and materials designer resume

Choose from 10+ customizable color and materials designer resume templates

Apply for color and materials designer jobs

How did you land your first color and materials designer job

Average color and materials designer salary

How do color and materials designers rate their job?