Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between design supervisors and design specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a design supervisor, becoming a design specialist takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a design supervisor has an average salary of $78,150, which is higher than the $56,917 average annual salary of a design specialist.
The top three skills for a design supervisor include autocad, engineering drawings and engineering design. The most important skills for a design specialist are customer service, sketch, and CAD.
| Design Supervisor | Design Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $78,150 | $56,917 |
| Hourly rate | $37.57 | $27.36 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 1% |
| Number of jobs | 37,558 | 68,347 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Average age | 41 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 4 |
A design supervisor oversees the daily operations of an organization's design team, ensuring projects are completed within deadlines, budgets, and client requirements. They are primarily responsible for understanding project specifications, establishing budgets and guidelines, coordinating with managers, delegating responsibilities, and conducting regular assessments and evaluations to ensure operations run smoothly and efficiently according to industry standards and regulations. They may also communicate directly with clients to provide them with updates, present reports to the director, and liaise with external parties such as suppliers and distributors.
A design specialist is responsible for creating engaging visual images and digital content to improve customers' brand awareness about the organization's products and services. Design specialists may also work for media production, creating graphic animations for viewers depending on production requirements and media demands. A design specialist must have excellent knowledge of utilizing various software tools and programs, coordinating with the whole design team on adjusting plans, improving layouts according to budget limitations, and submitting deliverables within the set deadlines.
Design supervisors and design specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Design Supervisor | Design Specialist | |
| Average salary | $78,150 | $56,917 |
| Salary range | Between $48,000 And $127,000 | Between $35,000 And $91,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Jose, CA | Menlo Park, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | New York |
| Best paying company | Micron Technology | BP America Inc |
| Best paying industry | Technology | - |
There are a few differences between a design supervisor and a design specialist in terms of educational background:
| Design Supervisor | Design Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 52% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| Most common major | Drafting And Design | Graphic Design |
| Most common college | Carnegie Mellon University | Cornell University |
Here are the differences between design supervisors' and design specialists' demographics:
| Design Supervisor | Design Specialist | |
| Average age | 41 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 77.0% Female, 23.0% | Male, 55.1% Female, 44.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.2% Asian, 10.4% White, 72.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% | Black or African American, 1.5% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 7.6% Asian, 4.6% White, 82.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 23% |