1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
Whether we are talking about industrial design or visual communication, a designer is a creative professional who comes up with ideas for objects, packaging, or layouts. Working as a freelance designer means you are not employed by one company but work on your own, for different clients, on a project basis.
There are many different aspects of design. You can be a graphic designer creating product illustrations or visuals for brand identities, a user experience designer making easy-to-navigate websites, software, or applications. You can design interior spaces, or special effects for the entertainment media, or clothes and accessories for the fashion industry.
Whatever the case, as a freelance designer, you are basically an entrepreneur and find your own clients, take care of accounts, and the promotion of your services for yourself and in exchange, you enjoy the freedom and flexibility of working on your own time and your own terms.
There are certain skills that many freelance designers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, artistic ability and communication skills.
If you're interested in becoming a freelance designer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 73.1% of freelance designers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 5.3% of freelance designers have master's degrees. Even though most freelance designers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a freelance designer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as designer, progress to a title such as project manager and then eventually end up with the title marketing communications manager.
What Am I Worth?
There are several types of freelance designer, including:
Graphic Designers are responsible for creating visual concepts either through a computer software or by hand. The goal of becoming a graphic designer is to really engage consumers through inspiration. So being creative is kind of needed.
Typically Graphic Designers need a Bachelor's degree, but perhaps the most important thing you can bring to an interview is having a well-rounded portfolio.
A career as a designer can go so many different directions. From fashion designers to floral designers or even graphic designers or interior designers, as long as you have an eye for detail and a steady hand you could design whatever you wanted.
The education that is required to become a designer can vary depending on what type of designing you're going to be doing. For example, a floral designer only needs a high school diploma, but a graphic designer may need a Bachelor's degre. It really depends on what direction you want to take your career.
Also called Graphic Illustrators, a Graphic Artist has excellent artistic and computer skills. You will be creating artwork for different graphic projects, like posters, advertisements, and covers. You may also be tasked to use a specific art style even though you have your own. The important thing to do is be able to deliver the project or company's message through your artwork.
As a Graphic Artist, you need to have good analytical skills, great communication skills, and, of course, excellent artistic ability. You will need all these skills for you to perform well as a Graphic Artist.
You can earn an average salary of $47,306 per year as a Graphic Artist. With a 3% job growth rate, you can also explore other roles and further your career. You can be a Graphic Designer, a Designer, and a Design Manager. This is only one path; there are other possibilities when you start as a Graphic Artist today.
Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
---|---|---|---|
1 | California | 3,337 | $68,370 |
2 | New York | 1,343 | $67,277 |
3 | Texas | 1,238 | $53,396 |
4 | Washington | 868 | $89,729 |
5 | Georgia | 788 | $45,157 |
6 | Illinois | 768 | $55,712 |
7 | Florida | 767 | $50,358 |
8 | Massachusetts | 756 | $70,860 |
9 | Virginia | 681 | $67,810 |
10 | North Carolina | 614 | $58,208 |
11 | Pennsylvania | 612 | $62,454 |
12 | Michigan | 530 | $59,736 |
13 | Ohio | 477 | $57,657 |
14 | Oregon | 463 | $65,257 |
15 | Minnesota | 427 | $51,541 |
16 | Maryland | 421 | $63,920 |
17 | Wisconsin | 385 | $59,753 |
18 | Colorado | 385 | $55,653 |
19 | New Jersey | 381 | $69,585 |
20 | Arizona | 305 | $54,412 |
21 | Missouri | 274 | $48,617 |
22 | Indiana | 273 | $49,293 |
23 | Utah | 248 | $53,035 |
24 | Tennessee | 239 | $52,345 |
25 | Connecticut | 215 | $55,838 |
26 | Alabama | 197 | $44,237 |
27 | Iowa | 181 | $46,559 |
28 | Kansas | 158 | $48,399 |
29 | South Carolina | 157 | $49,020 |
30 | Kentucky | 152 | $41,052 |
31 | Louisiana | 128 | $47,665 |
32 | New Hampshire | 127 | $54,942 |
33 | Oklahoma | 125 | $42,550 |
34 | Arkansas | 110 | $43,013 |
35 | Nebraska | 109 | $51,841 |
36 | Nevada | 93 | $64,490 |
37 | New Mexico | 92 | $45,339 |
38 | Maine | 84 | $48,284 |
39 | Rhode Island | 79 | $60,437 |
40 | Mississippi | 78 | $46,685 |
41 | Idaho | 77 | $47,789 |
42 | Delaware | 63 | $60,139 |
43 | West Virginia | 52 | $64,045 |
44 | Montana | 52 | $44,707 |
45 | South Dakota | 45 | $37,844 |
46 | Vermont | 43 | $53,946 |
47 | North Dakota | 39 | $48,892 |
48 | Hawaii | 36 | $62,119 |
49 | Alaska | 34 | $66,398 |
50 | Wyoming | 30 | $52,456 |
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
Pittsburgh, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,465
Enrollment
6,483
Los Angeles, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$56,225
Enrollment
19,548
Cambridge, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$50,420
Enrollment
7,582
Durham, NC • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,695
Enrollment
6,596
Boston, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,522
Enrollment
13,760
New York, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,828
Enrollment
26,339
Boston, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$53,948
Enrollment
17,238
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
In-State Tuition
$15,262
Enrollment
30,079
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 10.8% of freelance designers listed sketch on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and artistic ability are important as well.
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Freelance Designer templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Freelance Designer resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
1. User Experience Design Immersive (Full-time)
Launch a future-proof career designing digital experiences that power revenue, user loyalty, and product success. Distinguish yourself as a designer by compiling a portfolio to showcase solo, group, and client projects to employers based on UI design and Agile methodologies...
2. User Experience Design (Part Time)
Translate user wants and needs into intuitive digital experiences that power revenue, loyalty, and product success. Build confidence and credibility to tackle complex design problems on the job. This course is offered in person and live online, in a remote classroom setting...
3. Design of Everyday Things
This course provides a summary of key concepts from the first two chapters of The Design of Everyday Things (Revised and Expanded Edition, November 2013) by Don Norman. It's intended to be enjoyable and informative for anyone curious about design: everyday people, technical people, designers, and non-designers alike...
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ freelance designers and discovered their number of freelance designer opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that *N/A was the best, especially with an average salary of $61,645. New York & Company follows up with an average salary of $62,518, and then comes Ralph Lauren with an average of $72,200. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a freelance designer. The employers include Solomon Page, Creative Circle, and pensar
Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Homes.com | $96,508 | $46.40 | 8 |
2 | Adobe | $92,599 | $44.52 | 8 |
3 | Calvin Klein | $83,901 | $40.34 | 15 |
4 | The Donna Karan Company LLC | $78,810 | $37.89 | 8 |
5 | Nike | $78,287 | $37.64 | 11 |
6 | Macy's | $75,941 | $36.51 | 14 |
7 | Ralph Lauren | $72,200 | $34.71 | 28 |
8 | Department of Public Social Services | $70,076 | $33.69 | 12 |
9 | Bananas | $67,204 | $32.31 | 9 |
10 | Projects | $66,766 | $32.10 | 8 |