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Job outlook for designer/art directors in the United States
Designer/art director job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected designer/art director job growth rate is 4% from 2018-2028.
About 4,700 new jobs for designer/art directors are projected over the next decade.
Designer/art director salaries have increased 8% for designer/art directors in the last 5 years.
There are over 26,887 designer/art directors currently employed in the United States.
There are 53,314 active designer/art director job openings in the US.
The average designer/art director salary is $97,448.
Are designer/art director jobs in demand?
Designer/art director job and salary trends over time
Designer/art director jobs over time
Designer/art director job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 26,887 | 0.01% |
| 2020 | 26,240 | 0.01% |
| 2019 | 27,613 | 0.01% |
| 2018 | 26,290 | 0.01% |
| 2017 | 25,198 | 0.01% |
Average designer/art director salary over time
Designer/art director salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $97,448 | $46.85 | +3.2% |
| 2024 | $94,392 | $45.38 | +1.6% |
| 2023 | $92,950 | $44.69 | +0.3% |
| 2022 | $92,669 | $44.55 | +3.0% |
| 2021 | $89,984 | $43.26 | +0.1% |
Designer/art director jobs by state
Most common states for designer/art directors
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 205 | 30% |
| 2 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 217 | 25% |
| 3 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 657 | 21% |
| 4 | Arkansas | 3,004,279 | 553 | 18% |
| 5 | Oklahoma | 3,930,864 | 550 | 14% |
| 6 | Alabama | 4,874,747 | 633 | 13% |
| 7 | Louisiana | 4,684,333 | 569 | 12% |
| 8 | Mississippi | 2,984,100 | 350 | 12% |
| 9 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 818 | 11% |
| 10 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 451 | 11% |
| 11 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 677 | 10% |
| 12 | California | 39,536,653 | 2,971 | 8% |
| 13 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 717 | 8% |
| 14 | New York | 19,849,399 | 1,443 | 7% |
| 15 | Georgia | 10,429,379 | 724 | 7% |
| 16 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 408 | 7% |
| 17 | Utah | 3,101,833 | 223 | 7% |
| 18 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 97 | 7% |
| 19 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 71 | 7% |
| 20 | Vermont | 623,657 | 45 | 7% |
Most common cities for designer/art directors
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Culver City | 1 | 3% | $116,500 |
| 2 | Cupertino | 1 | 2% | $130,607 |
| 3 | Springdale | 1 | 1% | $51,441 |
| 4 | Los Angeles | 1 | 0% | $116,569 |
Designer/Art Director job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of designer/art director experts
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Indiana University Bloomington
University of Akron
Kean University
Bethel University
Moravian College
Troy University
Merrimack College
San Francisco State University
Foothill College
University of Northern Iowa
Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology
Highline College
Bowling Green State University
Belmont University
Eastern Illinois University
Humboldt State University
What Designer/Art Director skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Tiffany Prater: Never stop learning because life never stops teaching. This quote by Kirill Korshikov rings true for new designers, who must know the latest trends and tools to be uniquely creative, improve their skills, and land a better design job. Knowledge and inspiration can come from anywhere and everywhere in our daily lives.
What general advice would you give to a Designer/Art Director?
Frances Zhu: Get competing offers and negotiate a higher salary. Foster skills that lend to higher salaries. For example, even though marine biology may not pay the highest, if you have some coding experience, you will be one of the higher paid marine biologists in the field.
What Designer/Art Director skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Frances Zhu: Do not feel locked into a career trajectory. Find some great mentors. So much information is conveyed through word of mouth. Put yourself in the way of luck (as assert yourself in situations of opportunities). Advocate for yourself as if your friend were advocating on your behalf.
What will help Designer/Art Directors increase their earning potential?
Frances Zhu: With the rise of AI, we're seeing a lot of skills become irrelevant. Just 5 years ago, a software engineering job seemed ludicrous. Now those are the fastest jobs being replaced by AI. A skill that will never be irrelevant is creativity, which is a skill you can cultivate. Create content and think in new ways that no one (even AI) has ever thought of.
What general advice would you give to a Designer/Art Director?
Dr. Joyce Stoner: Skills in imaging, Macro-XRF, weave counting, and cross-section microscopy are more and more important for practitioners in painting conservation in private work, regional centers, or in museums.
What Designer/Art Director skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Joyce Stoner: Seek to work with a strong mentor in your specialty for at least the first three years after finishing graduate school. It is always good to be working with a group in any case, to share ideas and experiences as you make decisions.
What will help Designer/Art Directors increase their earning potential?
Dr. Joyce Stoner: Salaries are not very high in art conservation as you start out. But if you work with a mentor, publish and give talks, have a high profile for your knowledge and expertise, and eventually go into private work, especially in modern and contemporary paintings, to my knowledge that is where the higher salaries are found.
What general advice would you give to a Designer/Art Director?
George Logothetis Jr: Create work that is undeniably great. Work that turns heads, shows daring and provocative thinking, and is attention-getting and impossible to ignore.
What Designer/Art Director skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
George Logothetis Jr: Being able to flex between the various media channels and show competence and imagination in them all. Young creatives have to be versatile and fluent on all communication platforms. It’s also important to maximize your craft and continually hone it. Whether you are art or copy, having a heightened sense of design and writing will not only make the job easier, but you will be more productive. The better your skills are the more work you can create. If you bring lots of work to every meeting, you will always be appreciated.
What will help Designer/Art Directors increase their earning potential?
George Logothetis Jr: Be focused on the strategic approaches that inform the creative process. Don’t think that being a creative person in advertising is solely about being creative. Show insight and appreciation for business initiatives and how strategies define them.
What general advice would you give to a Designer/Art Director?
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 will help Designer/Art Directors increase their earning potential?
Dr. Denise Anderson: Similar to question 1, leverage what you have done prior to entering the field. It takes my students 6-8 weeks to complete their resumes and personal because the image and content needs to be authentic. Perception is a lot in our field and I train students to feel confident about themselves. Portfolios get students an interview but they need to communicate their value to get hired.
What general advice would you give to a Designer/Art Director?
Becki Graves M.A.: I often refer to the 'swiss army knife' in my field. These students can sing, write songs, set up a stage, chart a song, lead a team, lead a room in worship, run worship software, and lead their peers. Don't just keep to one lane, try to learn the most about all of them.
What Designer/Art Director skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Becki Graves M.A.: It is already vital in the field of creative arts and creative ministry but being a researcher. Research the current products on the market, trends in attendance, etc. This is a vital tool in being able to build the programs or ministry teams you envision.
What will help Designer/Art Directors increase their earning potential?
Becki Graves M.A.: Try anything and everything—no work or job is beneath you. All your experiences will culminate into who you are as a person and employee and leader. Be ready to work several jobs. Most creative types end up being bi-vocational at some point in their career. Try to see this a gift—creative inspiration flows from having multiple lids open at once.
Dr. MaryJo Rosania-Harvie
Assistant Professor of Practice | Art Education Coordinator | Interim Art Department ChairMoravian College
Fine And Studio Arts
What general advice would you give to a Designer/Art Director?
Dr. MaryJo Rosania-Harvie: Definitely leadership skills - having the ability to express their ideas and be open to feedback; and the ability to give effective feedback. Artists learn to do this in school through critique and sharing their work with an audience. Also, entrepreneurial skills, critical thinking, and always creativity.
What Designer/Art Director skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. MaryJo Rosania-Harvie: Consider doing an internship while in school or after graduation. At Moravian, we have designed internship opportunities for all of our art major tracks, so the students are getting valuable work experiences in their chosen area of study. These internships often lead to employment.
What will help Designer/Art Directors increase their earning potential?
Dr. MaryJo Rosania-Harvie: For someone beginning their career, I would advise them to consider the problem-solving and critical thinking skills they developed in school, and highlight those skills when meeting with potential employers and clients. They can consider themselves entrepreneurs, and should try to be flexible and open-minded.
What general advice would you give to a Designer/Art Director?
Christopher Stagl MFA: This industry is all about connections with people. You have to network and market yourself. This will lead to opportunities for you creatively - which may start small but you build upon success, grow your clients, and progressively begin to charge more and more as you grow in to your field. Never stop learning, never stop making (even if it's mistakes), and never stop networking.
What Designer/Art Director skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Christopher Stagl MFA: Definitely video, motion, animation, and effects will continue to grow as some of the most needed skills - but if you can't think creatively, if you can't be unique and different in your problem solving and design thinking approach - then it doesn't matter how much technology you know or how good you are at Ai - you won't have a place in the industry. This industry is based on ideas - not technology. Skills can be learned, the most successful creatives think different.
What will help Designer/Art Directors increase their earning potential?
Christopher Stagl MFA: a. Remain curious about creative problem solving with diverse and unique approaches. b. Seek feedback. Just because your classroom projects are over doesn't mean you still shouldn't be reaching out your peers and mentors to get feedback. c. Do your research, always. Never just assume you know the market or the demographic - do your due diligence and ask all the right questions to learn about your client. d. Tell a good story. The creative industry is really about people - figure out who the people are you're speaking for and speaking to and find the story that lives in those thrulines. e. Be Hungry and Hustle. Nobody is going to do this for you - creative work isn't going to come to you - you have to go get it.
What will help Designer/Art Directors 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 general advice would you give to a Designer/Art Director?
Saskia Van Kampen: On a day-to-day basis a newly hired graphic designer must engage in any number of stages of the design process (research, ideation, iterating, testing, refinement, and/or finalization) - this is not a linear process. On top of this they may be asked to interact with clients and with colleagues (collaborating and critically engaging with work being produced).
Carolyn Brown
ProfessorFoothill College
Graphic Communications
What general advice would you give to a Designer/Art Director?
Carolyn Brown: If you are looking to be hired by a creative agency or a creative department in a large company, invest your time in preparing a strong portfolio that aligns with the kind of projects you want to work on, and apply to agencies that do those kinds of projects. If you want to start your own business, or freelance for a variety of clients, preparing a portfolio that shows the range of projects you are capable of delivering.
Elizabeth Sutton
Department Head, Professor of Art HistoryUniversity of Northern Iowa
Department of Art
What soft skills should all Designer/Art Directors possess?
Elizabeth Sutton: There are many--the ability to collaborate and communicate effectively is absolutely necessary. The ability to ask for feedback and be able to take that feedback and incorporate it into a process is very important. Of course, meeting deadlines is also very important.
What skills will help Designer/Art Directors earn the most?
Elizabeth Sutton: It's not about money. It's about liking what you do and making enough to meet you and your family's needs.... in any case, some of our Graphic Designers do very well when they add a Marketing minor from the College of Business.
What skills stand out on Designer/Art Director resumes?
Elizabeth Sutton: What really stands out is the quality of the student's portfolios and that they have client-based real-world experience.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Designer/Art Directors?
Elizabeth Sutton: We train our students in Adobe Creative Suite: InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator.
Mary Miller
InstructorOklahoma State University Institute of Technology
Graphic Design Faculty
What skills will help Designer/Art Directors 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 Designer/Art Directors possess?
Diana Boyd: -Collaboration/Teamwork
-Interpersonal
-Reliability
-Ethical behavior
-Self-starter
Jenn Stucker
Associate Professor, Chair of The Graphic Design DivisionBowling Green State University
School of Art
What skills will help Designer/Art Directors 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 Designer/Art Director 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.
What soft skills should all Designer/Art Directors possess?
Doug Regen: Team player. Enthusiasm. Hark worker...willing to put in the time. Strong communicator. Openminded.
What skills will help Designer/Art Directors earn the most?
Doug Regen: Brilliant Ideas are executed flawlessly. Team player. Ability to motivate and lead others. Strong communicator and presentation skills.
Samantha Osborne
Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, Owner, Samantha Osborne DesignEastern Illinois University
Art + Design
What skills will help Designer/Art Directors earn the most?
Samantha Osborne: An ability to effectively communicate, navigate creative resources, network, empathize with others, and come up with innovative creative solutions. That said, your work still needs to be stellar and consistently great if you're going to be a big earner.
What skills stand out on Designer/Art Director 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 are the biggest trends we'll see in the Designer/Art Director job market given the pandemic?
Elizabeth McPherson: I know that many young dancers, just out of college, were pursuing dance careers in NYC, but after the pandemic with the loss of job opportunities, had to move back to their former homes across the country. I think this could have the potential to encourage more growth in dance outside of NYC. It is just so expensive to live in NYC, and dance generally does not pay so well.
What certifications/licenses/courses can have the biggest impact for Designer/Art Directors?
Elizabeth McPherson: College courses that focus on entrepreneurship, creativity, and flexibility are very important in this age.
How have salaries changed over time for Designer/Art Directors?
Elizabeth McPherson: I actually do not know. Many performers' salaries have been cut or eliminated, but I do not have hard facts about this.
Hope this helps.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Designer/Art Directors?
Rae Robison: Live theatre will definitely be impacted, but the opening of more film, television and recorded projects will continue to expand. Specifically my design tech students are still working, just in different ways. There's never been a point in human history where we don't seek entertainment in some form or another so there will always be a need for the arts and artists.
What certifications/licenses/courses can have the biggest impact for Designer/Art Directors?
Rae Robison: This year has really hit home that performers need to have a better knowledge of lighting and costume. What does my light look like? Why is my white shirt flaring? Since so many are working from their homes they need answers to these questions so they can produce their best audition tape or performance. Everyone needs to embrace some tech knowledge so that we can continue to push our new art forms into the 21st century.
What will help Designer/Art Directors increase their earning potential?
Rae Robison: Less specificity and more holistic learning. If you only design sets, you are limited to art direction in a physical space or choosing Zoom backgrounds. If you know scenic, costume, lighting and sound your earning potential is so much more possible. I always train my students to work in live venues and multiple recorded formats to expand their marketability.