How To Become A Graphic Design Teacher: What It Is and Career Path

What is a graphic design teacher and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Tess Elliot

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a graphic design teacher. For example, did you know that they make an average of $25.14 an hour? That's $52,285 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 6,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a graphic design teacher?

Tess Elliot

Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma

Stay true to yourself. Be patient and have confidence in yourself and your work. Artists early in their careers often don't make money from their work. This is okay. Find a way to support yourself while continuing to make and share your work and things will fall into place. Seek out that unique path to career fulfillment.

ScoreGraphic Design TeacherUS Average

Salary

4.1

Avg. Salary $52,285

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.2

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.37%

Asian 10.42%

Black or African American 3.42%

Hispanic or Latino 10.63%

Unknown 4.99%

White 70.17%

Gender

female 50.66%

male 49.34%

Age - 37

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 37

Stress level

4.2

Stress level is moderate

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.5

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.9

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a graphic design teacher

Explore graphic design teacher education requirements

Most common graphic design teacher degrees

Bachelor's

73.8 %

Master's

12.8 %

Associate

9.1 %

Start to develop specific graphic design teacher skills

Skills	Percentages
Graphic Design	25.86%
Adobe Photoshop	11.51%
Design Curriculum	11.21%
Student Learning	7.70%
Web Design	7.05%

Complete relevant graphic design teacher training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New graphic design teachers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a graphic design teacher based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real graphic design teacher resumes.

Research graphic design teacher duties and responsibilities

Lead debates with advance students on topics including globalization, economics, and political history.
Develop and implement various digital and multimedia lesson plans utilizing age-appropriate material and focusing on industry relevant projects and design methods.
Teach students how to create, market and sell their own unique line of jewelry.
Design intuitive graphical user interfaces using knowledge of serial communications and database design.

Prepare your graphic design teacher resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your graphic design teacher resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a graphic design teacher resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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