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Job outlook for design volunteers in the United States
Are design volunteer jobs in demand?
Design volunteer job and salary trends over time
Design volunteer jobs over time
Design volunteer job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,773 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 1,750 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 1,876 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 1,893 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 1,887 | 0.00% |
Average design volunteer salary over time
Design volunteer salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $53,952 | $25.94 | +2.4% |
| 2024 | $52,668 | $25.32 | +3.5% |
| 2023 | $50,909 | $24.48 | +3.4% |
| 2022 | $49,222 | $23.66 | +2.2% |
| 2021 | $48,150 | $23.15 | +1.6% |
Design volunteer jobs by state
Most common states for design volunteers
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 94 | 14% |
| 2 | Nevada | 2,998,039 | 355 | 12% |
| 3 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 396 | 10% |
| 4 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 550 | 8% |
| 5 | Vermont | 623,657 | 52 | 8% |
| 6 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 501 | 7% |
| 7 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 376 | 7% |
| 8 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 96 | 7% |
| 9 | California | 39,536,653 | 2,518 | 6% |
| 10 | Georgia | 10,429,379 | 601 | 6% |
| 11 | Arizona | 7,016,270 | 410 | 6% |
| 12 | South Carolina | 5,024,369 | 303 | 6% |
| 13 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 187 | 6% |
| 14 | Delaware | 961,939 | 62 | 6% |
| 15 | Alaska | 739,795 | 48 | 6% |
| 16 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 44 | 6% |
| 17 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 33 | 6% |
| 18 | Michigan | 9,962,311 | 499 | 5% |
| 19 | Connecticut | 3,588,184 | 196 | 5% |
| 20 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 53 | 5% |
Design Volunteer job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of design volunteer experts
University of Akron
Arkansas State University
Merrimack College
San Francisco State University
Columbia University in the City of New York
University of Cincinnati- Clermont College
Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology
Highline College
Texas State University
Bowling Green State University
Belmont University
Eastern Illinois University
Kansas State University
Flagler College
Arizona State University
The University of Memphis
Providence College
Saint Peter's University
Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University
What general advice would you give to a Design Volunteer?
David Flynn: Everything that you see has been touched by a designer. The field is expanding with technology, but basic communication design principals remain paramount. It doesn’t matter if it’s a newspaper ad or a social post, you must have a professional that knows how to communicate a message, move the viewer's eye, and make the point. Designers work in every company and in every industry, worldwide.
What general advice would you give to a Design Volunteer?
Jason Bronner: After developing strong design skills, it is important to focus on developing public speaking and listening skills for working with clients and colleagues. Making connections with clients, through effective listening and speaking skills, will improve salary potential. Working directly with clients, presenting to and teaching them about good design is crucial for maximizing salary potential.
What Design Volunteer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Jason Bronner: It is ok to take a position in design that is not your ideal position. Learn what you can from that position and keep looking toward your ideal. Additionally, consider an unpaid internship in a dream/ideal position on a limited term basis to learn more about the company/specific job while also showcasing what value you bring to the company. Sometimes, helping the employer understand what a great employee and contributor to the team you are is most important. Focus on making connections with clients, through effective listening and speaking skills, to improve salary potential.
What general advice would you give to a Design Volunteer?
Nikki Arnell MFA: Generally, a graphic designer is a visual problem-solver and liaison between client and consumer. They spend most of their day creating designs, attending meetings, and organizing and communicating with team members. Each day is dynamic and exciting in the graphic design field.
What will help Design Volunteers increase their earning potential?
Nancy Wynn: There are many different ways to intersect the creative field of graphic design or Design. You can enter utilizing production skills centered on working with an Art Director-you produce their designs with various handwork and software platforms. If you enter as a junior graphic designer-you collaborate with an Art Director and brainstorm concepts / designs for projects. You may intersect working in the service industry where you help customers produce their designs. Day-to-day tasks can be specific if you work at a very large company, or more comprehensive if you work at a smaller agency. They can range from meetings with Art Directors or marketing people; collaboration with fellow designers or other team members based on the project components; brainstorming, research, and ideation for projects; learning new technology by producing designs and client presentations; meetings with focus groups or testing of projects; and finally debrief sessions on projects results.
What Design Volunteer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Saskia Van Kampen: Graphic design is an exciting career choice because of the variety of opportunities that are available. There is in-house design jobs where you work for an organization and do their design work-these opportunities range from non-profits, small to mid-size companies or huge corporations. You could work for a design studio where there are multiple clients with varied needs. There are jobs in print-focused design ranging from publication design to packaging design and marketing work such as branding and identity design. There are opportunities to work digitally on websites and app development. User experience and user interface design is a very popular field for students at SF State because of our tech-central location and this is expanding into Virtual and augmented reality. Wayfinding design is another avenue design students can explore where design is integrated into environments to help users navigate through spaces. There is also the option of working as a freelance designer, but this is more challenging to do straight out of school.
Pilar Newton
Program Director of Electronic Design and Multimedia programColumbia University in the City of New York
Fine And Studio Arts
What Design Volunteer skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Pilar Newton: Look into what industry you are interested in pursuing and research what the salary range is for positions that you are interested in especially entry level.
Research what studios are looking for. Even if a studio is not hiring reach out to them to set up informational interviews with studios that you are interested in. Often studio art directors will generously spend time on the phone, zoom or even an in person meeting to talk to you and tell you what the studio is looking for in potential artists that work for them.
Keep sharp! Keep practicing and staying on time of the latest versions of software and keep building your skills.
What general advice would you give to a Design Volunteer?
Pilar Newton: Look into what industry you are interested in pursuing and research what the salary range is for positions that you are interested in, especially entry-level. Research what studios are looking for. Even if a studio is not hiring, reach out to them to set up informational interviews with studios that you are interested in. Often studio art directors will generously spend time on the phone, zoom, or even an in-person meeting to talk to you and tell you what the studio is looking for in potential artists that work for them. Keep sharp! Keep practicing and staying on top of the latest versions of software and keep building your skills.
Dr. Andy Curran
Professor, Area CoordinatorUniversity of Cincinnati- Clermont College
Digital Media Communications
What skills stand out on Design Volunteer resumes?
Dr. Andy Curran: -Design awards from recognized organizations in the industry
-Years of experience working for a variety of clients and employers
-Industry certifications
What soft skills should all Design Volunteers possess?
Dr. Andy Curran: -Creative skills
-Problem solving
-Communication (written & verbal)
-Project management (personnel, budgeting, time, resources)
What hard/technical skills are most important for Design Volunteers?
Dr. Andy Curran: -File management
-Computer literacy skills
-Software proficiency
Mary Miller
InstructorOklahoma State University Institute of Technology
Graphic Design Faculty
What skills stand out on Design Volunteer resumes?
Mary Miller: Employers generally want to hire graphic designers who show conceptual, problem-solving ability and have solid skills in the basics: design, typography, use of color...but candidates who have motion graphics and video editing, photography/videography, and illustration skill will rise to the top of the list. It's expected that a designer will know multiple Adobe Creative Cloud programs like InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, but they must also know After Effects, Premiere, XD, and Acrobat Pro, among others. Designers who can design for 3D objects like packaging and environmental graphics bring extra skill to the table as well.
What soft skills should all Design Volunteers possess?
Mary Miller: Graphic designers are crucial to a business' success because they identify the brand's core values and personality and create the visual language that expresses those values and personality. So graphic designers must have strong research skills and be able to analyze and interpret them to know how to design ads and designs that will resonate with the target audience. Designers must be empathetic to understand what the target audience values and wants. Graphic designers must collaborate with their creative team and clients to develop strategies, so they must have excellent communication and teamwork skills. Excellent writing skills are a huge part of the necessary communication skills. Salesmanship and the ability to articulate the design rationale are requirements also. If a designer cannot articulate their concept to their art director or creative director first, they won't get the chance to present it to the client. Speaking and presentation skills are a part of a designer's career as well. When presenting to a client, they have to create the atmosphere for the client and reveal the solution in a way that explains, educates, and convinces the client that the solution will work. Campaigns are monitored, and the data is analyzed for effectiveness, tested, and tweaked. Graphic design is not about decorating pages but is much more cerebral...it is strategic art.
What skills will help Design Volunteers earn the most?
Mary Miller: The skills that will help you earn the most money throughout your career as a graphic designer are people skills and business skills. It's expected that you must have the design skills to be a long-time creative employee, but to rise to the top of the field, you have to be savvy with people and business decisions. If a designer works in the industry for several years and starts their own studio, they obviously need business knowledge to run and grow their business. Many designers who follow this career path move out of the creative work and concentrate on client relations and acquisition, managing their employees, and running their business. The owners of agencies and studios can earn large, six or seven-figure incomes. The designer who doesn't want to own their own business but would rather be a creative director and/or VP in a large agency will need great people skills. They will be responsible for developing their creative teams and managing people. As VPs and creative directors, they will have more administrative responsibility for the agency, but they don't have the full responsibility an owner does. These positions earn six-figure incomes.
In these creative positions, the portfolio is the most important thing to get the job. It's not as important to have advanced degrees as it might be for accountants, engineers, or other fields. Even job postings that say they require bachelor's degrees will enthusiastically hire someone with a portfolio that showcases the right skill set, regardless of their education. The creative department ultimately decides who they want to hire, not the HR folks who typically can't assess a creative portfolio, so degree requirements are generally not as important. HR people will screen resumes for certain words, which is not necessarily the most effective way to hire creative people. The portfolio is the best way to determine the candidate's ability. The post-pandemic economy has forced companies to change some of their hiring practices. There are so many open jobs that companies realize that they can't use some of the tired strategies they used before the pandemic. They are less concerned about degree requirements now as more Americans are questioning the expense of 4-year degrees and fewer people are willing to go into deep debt to buy one.
More Americans realize the value of industry-focused, technical degrees in higher education and seek less expensive ways to ensure career success. (ABC News did a recent series on this subject. It was broadcast on KRMG radio a couple of weeks ago. The series was all pandemic recovery, "how have we changed" type of reporting.) Associate of Applied Science degrees can fill the void for many. People are doing their homework and looking for programs with great track records and successful alumni that prove it. OSUIT's graphic design program has been around since 1946 when the school was started and has lots of examples of graduates who hold associate's of applied science graphic design degrees, and nothing more, who are successful agency and studio owners, VPs of Creative, Marketing Directors, Design Directors, Executive Creative Directors, Creative Directors, Associate Creative Directors, Sr. Art Directors, etc.
What soft skills should all Design Volunteers possess?
Diana Boyd: -Collaboration/Teamwork
-Interpersonal
-Reliability
-Ethical behavior
-Self-starter
Holly Sterling
Associate Professor of Communication Design, Internship CoordinatorTexas State University
School of Art and Design
What soft skills should all Design Volunteers possess?
Holly Sterling: - Strong communication and problem-solving skills - not only in your design work but in your day-to-day job.
- Being able to work collaboratively and be a responsible team member (i.e., productive, organized, respond positively to feedback, adaptable).
Jenn Stucker
Associate Professor, Chair of The Graphic Design DivisionBowling Green State University
School of Art
What soft skills should all Design Volunteers possess?
Jenn Stucker: A good designer's soft skills include empathy, critical thinking, context, collaboration, leadership, networking, and the ability to present and articulate ideas.
What skills will help Design Volunteers earn the most?
Jenn Stucker: Along with good visual design skills, creative thinking, problem-solving, and strategy will set a designer apart from others. These kinds of designers can understand the big picture of design in relation to context, culture, and meaning.
Doug Regen
Professor of PracticeBelmont University
Graphic Design Department
What skills stand out on Design Volunteer resumes?
Doug Regen: Ability to problem-solve with strong creative solutions. Innovative. Detail-oriented. Ability to design creative solutions based on research...understanding the target audience, trends, etc.
Samantha Osborne
Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, Owner, Samantha Osborne DesignEastern Illinois University
Art + Design
What skills stand out on Design Volunteer resumes?
Samantha Osborne: Soft skills are equally important to hard skills. Graphic designers are visual communicators. Visual communication is a universal learned skill, vs. a linguistic capability. This means that graphic designers must learn to recognize and effectively utilize mood and tone in their own visual compositions in regard to color theory and psychology, gestalt principles, and font or lettering design. Essentially a well-skilled graphic designer becomes part psychologist in working through design problems and deciphering client direction, part problem-solver in developing an effective solution to the design problem, and part artist in bringing astonishing and original visual communication and graphics to reach a solution.
What soft skills should all Design Volunteers possess?
Samantha Osborne: Three soft skills stand out most: an ability to see the big picture, an ability to "read" people, and an ability to make a convincing argument for your design solution(s).
i. An ability to see big picture: there are an infinite number of details in graphic design, whether you work in website design on the front or back end, or in print media with physical outputs. It's easy to get caught up on the details, especially when clients are making specific demands about things such as paper type. A skilled designer must be able to see beyond the details and look at the big picture for an effective design solution. For example, a client may be asking for an invitation design for an up-coming event. A skilled designer will ask questions and dig in, eventually uncovering that perhaps for a successful event, the client also needs a splash page and social media, either in place of or in addition to an invitation. A skilled designer addresses design problems holistically, rather than minutely.
ii. An ability to "read" people: designers are trained in art-specific vocabulary. Hue, saturation, pixels, gestalt...most non-art folks don't use or speak that language. When clients are describing their goals, they aren't using art-vocabulary. It's a designer's job to translate what the client is saying into an advanced and effective creative solution. They must be able to speak and understand the language of non-creative folks, as well as the language of the broader creative industry.
iii. An ability to make a convincing argument for your design solution(s): many young and inexperienced designer tend to get their hearts broken when a client smashes one of their [very well thought-out] ideas. Rather than rolling over, a designer must learn to navigate how best to build support for their idea(s). That might mean in some instances you work more fluidly with the client throughout the design process, so that they feel they have ownership in the development of the solution. In other instances it might mean that the designer is presenting options, rather than a single solution, so that the client feels empowered to make choices throughout the design process. And in some instances, it might be a matter of better explaining and presenting your idea to a client; perhaps the designer needs to push back more, perhaps they need to provide more research as to why their solution is best, or maybe they simply need to present it with more excitement and enthusiasm.
What will help Design Volunteers increase their earning potential?
Georges Fares: Interior Design intersects with and is influenced by many other fields. It's hard to be specific about what can increase the earning potential of designers as different firms and departments have different requirements, but if there is anything I am sure of it's that if students were successful in connecting to different fields and working on a multi-disciplinary level, then they can be a great fit anywhere which will make them a desirable asset to anyone. Interior Design can connect to all disciplines, such as psychology, medicine, education, and so on. And by working combining various disciplines or fields in your work, you can show that you are passionate about Interior Design and can work on a level that will definitely increase the success of the firm, and ultimately raise your earning potential and allow you to carry more responsibility that can definitely create a rapid change and development on a personal and professional level.
Diana Lodi
Assistant Professor of Graphic DesignFlagler College
Department of Visual and Performing Arts
How have salaries changed over time for Design Volunteers?
Diana Lodi: Salaries have progressed at a steady state. There has always been an emphasis on finding Graphic Designers who are also well-versed in web design, app development, and UX design. Possessing knowledge in AI and VR technologies could also impact pay scales in the future.
Prescott Perez-Fox
Lecturer - Graphic Information TechnologyArizona State University
The Polytechnic School
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Design Volunteer job market given the pandemic?
Prescott Perez-Fox: It may sound obvious, but remote interviewing will become normal. Remote work in general is here to stay. The ability to communicate to a camera and work a productive day from your home office is essential in the modern era. All that advice about shaking hands is demoted to a footnote. Ditch the suits and ties for a crisp black t-shirt.
What certifications/licenses/courses can have the biggest impact for Design Volunteers?
Prescott Perez-Fox: Mostly N/A. While most employers still list "bachelor's required" for most design/media roles, even this is changing and you're seeing a new open-minded generation taking leadership roles. The only thing new grads _need_ is a portfolio that tells the story of their skills, experience, interests.
Leslie Luebbers Ph.D.
Director, Art Museum of the University of Memphis, Director, Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Museum StudiesThe University of Memphis
Department of Art
What soft skills should all Design Volunteers possess?
Leslie Luebbers Ph.D.: The most successful museum professionals must, in addition to content knowledge, possess essential soft skills required to manage the complexities of working with a variety of stakeholders to develop strong, productive community relationships. These same skills are valuable for resource development, which is certain to be an urgent need for museums. Empathy and imaginative program development, problem-solving and consensus-building are crucial.
How have salaries changed over time for Design Volunteers?
Leslie Luebbers Ph.D.: Museum salaries, like corporate salaries, have been characterized by huge disparities, especially in large museums, with CEO's making disproportionately more than middle-management and lower tier staff. That situation is much less prevalent in small, i.e. most museums. Across the entire field, museum salaries resemble those in education, which is to say that they are livable and improving, but museum work is still not an avenue to wealth.
What soft skills should all Design Volunteers possess?
Eric Sung: Hard assets may assist job seekers to get one hired but soft skills are immensely critical for one to excel after once hired. Multiple studies confirm that higher ranking positions require increased portion of soft skills compared to hard or technical skills.
Considering the market trend change during and past COVID, where more jobs will require specialized skills with less human interaction, the needs of having someone with communication skills, conflict resolution and mediation skills, negotiation skills would be far more preferred. Knowing that large part of what some of the current jobs require us to do eventually will be assisted or entirely replaced by AI, the skills that may be unique to humans will gradually became more important. Other critical soft skills would be adaptability, foundational problem-solving skills with diversified perspective on matters. and relatability to the other thoughts.
How have salaries changed over time for Design Volunteers?
James Adler: Absolutely! When I started out, fees were higher than they are today. Why? There is more competition. Also, grants -- national, local, and from individual sponsors or underwriters -- are more difficult to come by for the concert or "gig" presenter. So artists' and performers' fees may be out of the producer's or presenter's own pocket. Hall or rehearsal space rental is more expensive, now. On-site recording engineers are more expensive.
For songwriters, lyricists, composers, royalties will likely not be able to pay the rent. Certainly, not at first. So it's a good idea to have that back-up career, some way to make money. It will help support the dream, and provide that solid base.
What general advice would you give to a Design Volunteer?
Abby Guido: We've all heard the buzz about networking, and there is so much buzz because it works. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is both up to date and active. Connect with all of your past professors, classmates, and anyone and everyone you meet in a professional setting. I often tell students to get into the habit of searching for any classroom guests, or guest lecturers, to connect, thank them for their time, and build their network. Share content. Write articles, or reshare those you find interesting.
Every job I have ever received in my career has been through someone else I know. I share this with students to help them see the value in relationships. I always remember the students that took the time to write a handwritten thank-you note. And I think of them when I get an email asking if I know any students are looking for work.