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Design chief vs freelance designer

The differences between design chiefs and freelance 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 design chief and a freelance designer. Additionally, a design chief has an average salary of $103,343, which is higher than the $57,260 average annual salary of a freelance designer.

The top three skills for a design chief include website design, design process and user experience. The most important skills for a freelance designer are sketch, CSS, and HTML.

Design chief vs freelance designer overview

Design ChiefFreelance Designer
Yearly salary$103,343$57,260
Hourly rate$49.68$27.53
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs49,81545,914
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age3838
Years of experience1212

Design chief vs freelance designer salary

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

Design ChiefFreelance Designer
Average salary$103,343$57,260
Salary rangeBetween $45,000 And $233,000Between $39,000 And $83,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CA-
Highest paying stateCalifornia-
Best paying companyAdvance Tooling Concepts-
Best paying industry--

Differences between design chief and freelance designer education

There are a few differences between a design chief and a freelance designer in terms of educational background:

Design ChiefFreelance Designer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Design chief vs freelance designer demographics

Here are the differences between design chiefs' and freelance designers' demographics:

Design ChiefFreelance Designer
Average age3838
Gender ratioMale, 74.8% Female, 25.2%Male, 48.0% Female, 52.0%
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 design chief and freelance designer duties and responsibilities

Design chief example responsibilities.

  • Manage REVIT models for various BIM projects including updating, cleaning, and linking arch models for MEP design.
  • Create and present artwork and PowerPoint presentations for senior management, the sales and marketing group, and dealer viewing.
  • Compile PowerPoint presentations for trend inspiration and verification involving motion and music.
  • Elicit and gather user and business requirements through design sessions, brainstorming and prototyping.
  • Design and oversee graphics for apparel lines, integrating original style-guide art concepts with innovative detailing.
  • Establish agency-wide design production process guidelines, evaluate and implement new department software, and create procedures for prototyping.
  • 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.
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Design chief vs freelance designer skills

Common design chief skills
  • Website Design, 10%
  • Design Process, 9%
  • User Experience, 7%
  • Product Design, 7%
  • CSS, 6%
  • Design Solutions, 6%
Common freelance designer skills
  • Sketch, 11%
  • CSS, 7%
  • HTML, 6%
  • Adobe Photoshop, 6%
  • Adobe Illustrator, 6%
  • Photography, 5%

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