How To Become A Design Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a design director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Yash Egami

Primarily, design directors oversee design and branding projects for clients. They develop design ideas and choose specific design elements for various branding projects. These experts are hired by advertising companies, interior design companies, marketing agencies, entertainment businesses, and automotive companies. They oversee design projects, manage design teams, and review design development activities. They meet with clients to find out what they want from their projects. Also, they collaborate with sales and marketing teams to ensure the profitability of design projects.

With a bachelor's or an associate's degree in graphic design, fine arts, advertising, or a related field, you can get a job as a design director. However, you must have at least five years of managerial experience. You must possess creativity, leadership, multitasking, analytical, communication, and collaboration skills. You must be proficient in design software. The salary of design directors varies from $132,114 to $181,052, with the average gross salary being $160,707.

What general advice would you give to a design director?

Yash Egami

VP, The One Club

A recent Forrester report says that the ad industry will lose 50,000 jobs through 2021, with 35,000 of them already lost since the pandemic. The traditional ad agency model was already in trouble, with many brands hiring away talent and creating their own in-house agencies. Add to that the recent reckoning with the Black Lives Matter movement, and what we're seeing is an industry that is being forced to go through monumental change in order to survive.

While traditional roles like art director or copywriter are on the decline, the good news is that, in an effort to reinvent themselves, agencies are seeking creatives with digital skills like UX design and programming. The rise of in-house creative departments has also meant more opportunities for job seekers within brands rather than agencies. And because of the demand for more diversity from clients and those within advertising, recruiters are making more of an effort to hire multicultural talent.

At The One Club for Creativity, we've been at the forefront of change in the industry through our diversity and inclusion, professional development and gender equality programs. We recently hosted our annual multicultural career fair, "Where Are All the Black People?" that brought together thousands of diverse talent with 40 agencies and companies looking to hire. We launched One School, a free online program for Black creatives who want to get into the industry but don't have a portfolio or the economic means to afford to go to ad school. And we're working on upskilling courses for professionals who want to reinvent themselves or keep up with the changing demands of our industry.

So if you're a recent graduate who specializes in art direction, our advice would be to keep an open mind about what kind of company you want to work for and think about expanding your skillset to include digital skills so that you can future-proof your career. Where you are isn't as important because, since the pandemic, agencies have become more comfortable with working remotely and they are more open to having a workforce not centered on the traditional agency hubs, like New York or Los Angeles.

ScoreDesign DirectorUS Average

Salary

8.5

Avg. Salary $132,823

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 39.98%

male 60.02%

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 design director

Explore design director education requirements

Most common design director degrees

Bachelor's

73.3 %

Associate

11.6 %

Master's

10.5 %

Start to develop specific design director skills

Skills	Percentages
Sketch	11.65%
Human Centered Design	7.68%
Product Design	5.63%
User Experience	5.50%
Architecture	4.53%

Complete relevant design director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New design directors 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 design director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real design director resumes.

Research design director duties and responsibilities

Delegate and manage technical and cad team; fittings; and associate designers.
Manage and grow brand s social media outlets; Facebook, twitter and Instagram.
Manage product backlog and lead agile team in shipping SaaS products from ideation to delivery.
Design, manage, and execute development of all products, from concept sketch through production.

Get design director experience

Generally, it takes 6-12 months to become a design director. The most common roles before becoming a design director include designer, senior designer team lead and art director.

Prepare your design director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your design director 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 design director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable design director resume templates

Build a professional design director 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 design director resume.