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The differences between head designers and 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 head designer and a designer. Additionally, a head designer has an average salary of $116,986, which is higher than the $66,347 average annual salary of a designer.
The top three skills for a head designer include product design, UI and sketch. The most important skills for a designer are sketch, customer service, and graphic design.
| Head Designer | Designer | |
| Yearly salary | $116,986 | $66,347 |
| Hourly rate | $56.24 | $31.90 |
| Growth rate | 3% | 3% |
| Number of jobs | 53,876 | 52,433 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 61% |
| Average age | 38 | 38 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
The Head Designer is the overall command over the creative team's design and the entire company. The heads of the organization look toward the head designer to provide insights into the artistic path the company will take to achieve a unique brand in the market. The head designer is highly-creative, good in management, and can articulate abstract ideas clearly and relay them to company administrators, customers, and clients. A head designer's responsibilities are to handle the creative team, train each member, and provide guidance in every part of the designing process.
A designer is someone who creates a master plan of the look or workings of something before it will be made. It could be tangible or intangible objects, products, procedures, laws, events, games, graphics, services, and even experiences. Designers are creative thinkers with a great eye to configure the skeletal and structural properties of the targeted output. They work in several fields, such as fashion, architecture, web graphics, and user experience. In spite of the variety of professionals in the design industry, all of them are artistic, passionate, inspiring, and emotionally connected to their projects and brands.
Head designers and designers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Head Designer | Designer | |
| Average salary | $116,986 | $66,347 |
| Salary range | Between $71,000 And $191,000 | Between $45,000 And $97,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | California | Washington |
| Best paying company | Airbnb | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Hospitality | Technology |
There are a few differences between a head designer and a designer in terms of educational background:
| Head Designer | Designer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 61% |
| Most common major | Graphic Design | Graphic Design |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between head designers' and designers' demographics:
| Head Designer | Designer | |
| Average age | 38 | 38 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 50.1% Female, 49.9% | Male, 56.9% Female, 43.1% |
| Race ratio | 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% | 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 | 13% | 13% |