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Costume designer vs designer

The differences between costume designers and designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a costume designer, becoming a designer takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a designer has an average salary of $66,347, which is higher than the $54,229 average annual salary of a costume designer.

The top three skills for a costume designer include costumes, make-up and costume shop. The most important skills for a designer are sketch, customer service, and graphic design.

Costume designer vs designer overview

Costume DesignerDesigner
Yearly salary$54,229$66,347
Hourly rate$26.07$31.90
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs47,32352,433
Job satisfaction-5
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Average age3738
Years of experience612

Costume designer vs designer salary

Costume designers and designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Costume DesignerDesigner
Average salary$54,229$66,347
Salary rangeBetween $34,000 And $84,000Between $45,000 And $97,000
Highest paying CityCamarillo, CASeattle, WA
Highest paying stateRhode IslandWashington
Best paying companyPoly Prep Country Day SchoolMeta
Best paying industryProfessionalTechnology

Differences between costume designer and designer education

There are a few differences between a costume designer and a designer in terms of educational background:

Costume DesignerDesigner
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeCornell UniversityUniversity of Pennsylvania

Costume designer vs designer demographics

Here are the differences between costume designers' and designers' demographics:

Costume DesignerDesigner
Average age3738
Gender ratioMale, 19.3% Female, 80.7%Male, 56.9% Female, 43.1%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 7.3% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 11.9% Asian, 11.6% White, 63.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%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 Percentage18%13%

Differences between costume designer and designer duties and responsibilities

Costume designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage all daily costume distributions and collection, laundering and maintenance/repair of costumes.
  • Develop marketing and brand awareness initiatives through social media outlets; create and manage company Facebook and Houzz profiles.
  • Design and sew children's Halloween costumes.
  • Contribute in production and on set as an assistant dressing the actors, maintaining the costumes, and setting up/organizing wardrobe.
  • Source cut and sew knits in NYC garment district.
  • Sketch, pattern and sew costume for cast including accessories.
  • Show more

Designer example responsibilities.

  • Lead & design all creative content stemming from apparel design to web identity.
  • Manage various PCB designs utilizing state of the art DFM techniques and comply with company standards.
  • Utilize CSS, DHTML, HTML, and JavaScript for cross browser, cross platform compatibility and consistency.
  • Develop different kinds of functions globally, locally for the development of forms using JavaScript, CSS.
  • Transform customer specifications into usable SolidWorks 3D models and assemblies from which all manufacturing are derived.
  • Process ECR's and ECO's using Windchill.
  • Show more

Costume designer vs designer skills

Common costume designer skills
  • Costumes, 27%
  • Make-Up, 9%
  • Costume Shop, 8%
  • Design Concepts, 8%
  • Character Development, 7%
  • Wardrobe, 5%
Common designer skills
  • Sketch, 10%
  • Customer Service, 7%
  • Graphic Design, 6%
  • CSS, 5%
  • HTML, 4%
  • PowerPoint, 4%

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