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Creative director & designer vs interactive designer

The differences between creative directors & designer and interactive designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a creative director & designer and an interactive designer. Additionally, a creative director & designer has an average salary of $108,589, which is higher than the $97,929 average annual salary of an interactive designer.

The top three skills for a creative director & designer include graphic design, sketch and photography. The most important skills for an interactive designer are sketch, user experience, and UI.

Creative director & designer vs interactive designer overview

Creative Director & DesignerInteractive Designer
Yearly salary$108,589$97,929
Hourly rate$52.21$47.08
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs52,68848,136
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 74%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age3838
Years of experience1212

What does a creative director & designer do?

Creative Directors and Designers are responsible for leading the creative output and brand representation of a product, service, or organization's publication. Their duties include developing visual communication strategies across design, content, graphics, artworks, and media, implement industry benchmarks, leading creative marketing campaigns, and working with the design team to create product or service design. Besides that, they are involved in setting the creative direction and message of a brand and supervising the creative team in ensuring brand touchpoints consistency. Creative Directors and Designers also monitor project delivery and assist in creative project budgeting.

What does an interactive designer do?

An Interactive Designer takes the business product and transforms it into a product that the user interacts with perfectly. They support engineering efforts to develop designs and get the details right.

Creative director & designer vs interactive designer salary

Creative directors & designer and interactive designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Creative Director & DesignerInteractive Designer
Average salary$108,589$97,929
Salary rangeBetween $72,000 And $163,000Between $67,000 And $141,000
Highest paying CityMenlo Park, CASan Bruno, CA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaCalifornia
Best paying companyMetaMeta
Best paying industryInternetTechnology

Differences between creative director & designer and interactive designer education

There are a few differences between a creative director & designer and an interactive designer in terms of educational background:

Creative Director & DesignerInteractive Designer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 74%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Creative director & designer vs interactive designer demographics

Here are the differences between creative directors & designer' and interactive designers' demographics:

Creative Director & DesignerInteractive Designer
Average age3838
Gender ratioMale, 61.2% Female, 38.8%Male, 66.8% Female, 33.2%
Race ratioBlack 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%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 Percentage13%13%

Differences between creative director & designer and interactive designer duties and responsibilities

Creative director & designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage design and layout of website as well as maintain the design through CSS & HTML
  • Develop and manage business-to-business PowerPoint presentation service that create new business opportunities and increase revenue for the company.
  • Create pattern tile designs and home decor with overseas vendors from sketch to final product.
  • Create point-of-purchase displays/ merchandising programs, free-standing inserts, corporate and brand identities, brochures, packaging, and marketing collateral.
  • Create layout designs for various direct mail platforms (letters, envelopes, brochures, postcards, self-mailers, etc . )
  • Direct photographers in helicopters around the country in advertising and corporate photography.
  • Show more

Interactive designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage website properties including design, content and marketing using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.
  • Create, implement, and manage web content projects (HTML emails, web sites, digitizing audio/video).
  • Use ASP.NET and XML to automate common workflow tasks due to extremely high volume of designs to be create.
  • Develop a custom object-orient prototyping model in the design of a highly dynamic user interface.
  • Work primarily with JQuery to design/develop full screen overlays and dynamic forms.
  • Develop clean, table-less web sites using valid XHTML and CSS according to standards.
  • Show more

Creative director & designer vs interactive designer skills

Common creative director & designer skills
  • Graphic Design, 11%
  • Sketch, 6%
  • Photography, 5%
  • Creative Direction, 5%
  • Creative Concepts, 5%
  • Art Direction, 3%
Common interactive designer skills
  • Sketch, 13%
  • User Experience, 7%
  • UI, 6%
  • Interaction Design, 6%
  • Invision, 4%
  • Visual Design, 4%

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