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Freelance designer vs junior designer

The differences between freelance designers and junior designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a freelance designer and a junior designer. Additionally, a freelance designer has an average salary of $57,260, which is higher than the $53,349 average annual salary of a junior designer.

The top three skills for a freelance designer include sketch, CSS and HTML. The most important skills for a junior designer are sketch, graphic design, and adobe creative suite.

Freelance designer vs junior designer overview

Freelance DesignerJunior Designer
Yearly salary$57,260$53,349
Hourly rate$27.53$25.65
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs45,91458,152
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 73%Bachelor's Degree, 75%
Average age3838
Years of experience1212

What does a freelance designer do?

Freelance designers are creative, independent contractors who create visual and graphic designs for their clients. They develop text and illustrated versions of brands, messages, and communications with strong visible influence with their clients. Typical activities include networking, seeking projects, and negotiating prices to their customers. They manage client proposals, develop concepts, present solutions, and ensure the timely completion of projects. Freelance visual and graphic designers are creative, self-motivated as well as result and deadline oriented.

What does a junior designer do?

A junior designer is an entry-level professional who is responsible for creating high-quality designs according to the requirements of clients. Under the supervision of senior designers, junior designers must understand project requirements and projects and use various techniques to create drafts, models, and prototypes. They collaborate with team members to pitch in creative ideas and produce final design solutions that can include banners or logos. Junior designers must also take on specially design tasks and use feedback from other designers to improve.

Freelance designer vs junior designer salary

Freelance designers and junior designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Freelance DesignerJunior Designer
Average salary$57,260$53,349
Salary rangeBetween $39,000 And $83,000Between $43,000 And $65,000
Highest paying City-Santa Rosa, CA
Highest paying state-Alaska
Best paying company-Nike
Best paying industry-Technology

Differences between freelance designer and junior designer education

There are a few differences between a freelance designer and a junior designer in terms of educational background:

Freelance DesignerJunior Designer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 73%Bachelor's Degree, 75%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Freelance designer vs junior designer demographics

Here are the differences between freelance designers' and junior designers' demographics:

Freelance DesignerJunior Designer
Average age3838
Gender ratioMale, 48.0% Female, 52.0%Male, 50.4% Female, 49.6%
Race ratioBlack 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%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 Percentage13%13%

Differences between freelance designer and junior designer duties and responsibilities

Freelance designer example responsibilities.

  • Lead the transition from paste-up, typesetting, pasting up page layout to digital ad/page building and web printing.
  • Hand-Code HTML, CSS, JS and PHP for custom design solutions and form processing, validation, and animations.
  • Provide identity and stationery design, web design, HTML / CSS development and WordPress integration (content management system).
  • Image manipulation in platforms such as Photoshop and illustrator as per assign.
  • Develop high-qualityshop drawings for all casework to be build by in-house woodshop.
  • Design websites, landing pages, banner ads, pop-ups, and HTML emails.
  • Show more

Junior designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage the website and twitter page, write the blog posts and attend numerous fashion shows and sample sale rooms.
  • Coordinate REVIT teaching for inner office/branches.
  • Utilize PowerPoint to create furniture, lighting and final material selection presentations for client meetings.
  • Create PowerPoint templates to be used by clients or other upper management in proposals or live shows.
  • Sketch new designs (by hand and computer aid) add colors and make updates to carry-over styles as necessary.
  • Develop residential designs using Revit.
  • Show more

Freelance designer vs junior designer skills

Common freelance designer skills
  • Sketch, 11%
  • CSS, 7%
  • HTML, 6%
  • Adobe Photoshop, 6%
  • Adobe Illustrator, 6%
  • Photography, 5%
Common junior designer skills
  • Sketch, 10%
  • Graphic Design, 9%
  • Adobe Creative Suite, 8%
  • Revit, 5%
  • Design Projects, 5%
  • PowerPoint, 4%

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