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The differences between fashion designers and assistant designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a fashion designer, becoming an assistant designer takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a fashion designer has an average salary of $54,265, which is higher than the $52,475 average annual salary of an assistant designer.
The top three skills for a fashion designer include fashion design, sketch and apparel. The most important skills for an assistant designer are sketch, tech packs, and adobe illustrator.
| Fashion Designer | Assistant Designer | |
| Yearly salary | $54,265 | $52,475 |
| Hourly rate | $26.09 | $25.23 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 49,476 | 47,598 |
| Job satisfaction | 4 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Average age | 37 | 38 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 12 |
Fashion designers design and assist with the making of shoes, accessories, and clothing. They identify trends and styles, colors, and trims of a clothing collection. The designers keep an eye on travel shows and read fashion magazines to spot trends and interpret specific patterns, color palettes, and prints for each season. They sketch designs by hand, address buyers as a seasoned marketer, and create technical production drawings. It is part of their responsibilities to collaborate with team members to make edits to lines, select seasonal themes, and create new concepts.
Assistant designers act as administrative support to senior designers in creating innovative designs by negotiating with the vendors about the prices of decoration materials. They are keen and up-to-date to the latest fashion and trends by conducting surveys and research. They are exceptionally creative and innovative and have excellent IT skills as they use illustration, typography, and photography layouts in the design process. However, being an assistant designer, career development relies on his/her /her specialism, reputation, and experience depending on how its opportunities are influenced by the company he/she works for.
Fashion designers and assistant designers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Fashion Designer | Assistant Designer | |
| Average salary | $54,265 | $52,475 |
| Salary range | Between $37,000 And $78,000 | Between $37,000 And $73,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | Nevada | Washington |
| Best paying company | Ralph Lauren | PVH |
| Best paying industry | Retail | Construction |
There are a few differences between a fashion designer and an assistant designer in terms of educational background:
| Fashion Designer | Assistant Designer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 61% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| Most common major | Graphic Design | Graphic Design |
| Most common college | Cornell University | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between fashion designers' and assistant designers' demographics:
| Fashion Designer | Assistant Designer | |
| Average age | 37 | 38 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 17.3% Female, 82.7% | Male, 28.3% Female, 71.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 7.3% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 11.9% Asian, 11.6% White, 63.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | 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 Percentage | 18% | 13% |