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Design internship vs designer

The differences between design interns and 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 internship and a designer. Additionally, a designer has an average salary of $66,347, which is higher than the $45,791 average annual salary of a design internship.

The top three skills for a design internship include design intern, sketch and graphic design. The most important skills for a designer are sketch, customer service, and graphic design.

Design internship vs designer overview

Design InternshipDesigner
Yearly salary$45,791$66,347
Hourly rate$22.01$31.90
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs97,01852,433
Job satisfaction-5
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 74%Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Average age3838
Years of experience1212

What does a design internship do?

As the name entails, graphic design interns learn about the career in graphic design in a hands-on setting. They have varied tasks and duties, including taking part in every meeting of the design team, conducting client research, assisting with social media and design projects, and working closely with experienced designers. They are often paid little or nothing at all for their service, but the experience that they acquire from their field can be dispensable.

What does a designer do?

A designer is someone who creates a master plan of the look or workings of something before it will be made. It could be tangible or intangible objects, products, procedures, laws, events, games, graphics, services, and even experiences. Designers are creative thinkers with a great eye to configure the skeletal and structural properties of the targeted output. They work in several fields, such as fashion, architecture, web graphics, and user experience. In spite of the variety of professionals in the design industry, all of them are artistic, passionate, inspiring, and emotionally connected to their projects and brands.

Design internship vs designer salary

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

Design InternshipDesigner
Average salary$45,791$66,347
Salary rangeBetween $32,000 And $64,000Between $45,000 And $97,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASeattle, WA
Highest paying stateWashingtonWashington
Best paying companyMetaMeta
Best paying industryTechnologyTechnology

Differences between design internship and designer education

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

Design InternshipDesigner
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 74%Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Design internship vs designer demographics

Here are the differences between design interns' and designers' demographics:

Design InternshipDesigner
Average age3838
Gender ratioMale, 41.7% Female, 58.3%Male, 56.9% Female, 43.1%
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 internship and designer duties and responsibilities

Design internship example responsibilities.

  • Design promotional materials, annual reports, newsletters and HTML emails, manage the website presence and functions
  • Manage the website and twitter page, write the blog posts and attend numerous fashion shows and sample sale rooms.
  • Assemble front-end implementation using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
  • Develop knowledge of designing websites and learned languages such as HTML and CSS.
  • Improve and simplify the user interface by using interaction design and data visualization.
  • Leverage project management principals to improve process and program effectiveness, drive down costs and improve efficiency.
  • 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

Design internship vs designer skills

Common design internship skills
  • Design Intern, 12%
  • Sketch, 11%
  • Graphic Design, 5%
  • User Experience, 4%
  • Visualization, 3%
  • UI, 3%
Common designer skills
  • Sketch, 10%
  • Customer Service, 7%
  • Graphic Design, 6%
  • CSS, 5%
  • HTML, 4%
  • PowerPoint, 4%

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