Exterior designer vs design specialist

The differences between exterior designers and design specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both an exterior designer and a design specialist. Additionally, an exterior designer has an average salary of $93,819, which is higher than the $56,917 average annual salary of a design specialist.

The top three skills for an exterior designer include CAD, design concepts and photoshop. The most important skills for a design specialist are customer service, sketch, and CAD.

Exterior designer vs design specialist overview

	Exterior Designer	Design Specialist
Yearly salary	$93,819	$56,917
Hourly rate	$45.11	$27.36
Growth rate	-	1%
Number of jobs	43,807	68,347
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 61%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Average age	44	42
Years of experience	4	4

Exterior designer vs design specialist salary

Exterior designers and design specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Exterior Designer	Design Specialist
Average salary	$93,819	$56,917
Salary range	Between $58,000 And $150,000	Between $35,000 And $91,000
Highest paying City	Sacramento, CA	Menlo Park, CA
Highest paying state	California	New York
Best paying company	Tesla	BP America Inc
Best paying industry	Automotive	-

Differences between exterior designer and design specialist education

There are a few differences between an exterior designer and a design specialist in terms of educational background:

	Exterior Designer	Design Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 61%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Most common major	Business	Graphic Design
Most common college	Cornell University	Cornell University

Exterior designer vs design specialist demographics

Here are the differences between exterior designers' and design specialists' demographics:

	Exterior Designer	Design Specialist
Average age	44	42
Gender ratio	Male, 72.1% Female, 27.9%	Male, 55.1% Female, 44.9%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 0.4% Unknown, 3.4% Hispanic or Latino, 5.8% Asian, 5.2% White, 85.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	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	13%	23%

Differences between exterior designer and design specialist duties and responsibilities

Exterior designer example responsibilities.

Develop customized user interaction models using object-orient prototyping.
Issue mass production drawings for various parts and vehicles.
Assist with cost and weight reports for the Acura MDX.
Create structural concepts, base on style data and underbody negotiation, and develop them into mass production parts.
Optimize production processes reducing unnecessary part cost without losing functionality and performance by designing new shapes or alterations for manufacturing.

Design specialist example responsibilities.

Manage a program of training for designers without cad to get this training.
Develop construction drawings using AutoCAD; coordinate bid process and vendor selection; and manage construction process through final punch list.
Provide HTML support to the marketing department.
Update and maintain corporate website with Dreamweaver.
Create and maintain business's customer database in QuickBooks.
Implement front end GUI with JavaScript for client side validations.

Exterior designer vs design specialist skills

Common exterior designer skills

CAD, 51%
Design Concepts, 28%
Photoshop, 17%
Design Presentations, 4%

Common design specialist skills

Customer Service, 13%
Sketch, 7%
CAD, 6%
Product Knowledge, 6%
Adobe Creative Suite, 5%
Graphic Design, 5%