What is a Junior Designer?

A Junior Designer's role as an employee or a freelancer within a company or institution is to create and execute designs usually meant to advertise a brand and promote an event, a product, a service, or so on. An individual in this position has different levels and quantities of responsibilities and tasks.

Some are given more freedom, and some are kept under a more watchful of a senior Designer. Generally speaking, though, the job asks them to put forward ideas and graphics, execute some of these projects, and work on edits and other details.

A candidate for this position doesn't necessarily need any college education. A strong digital portfolio that shows a good understanding of typography, color theory, and general design skills is necessary.

What Does a Junior Designer Do

There are certain skills that many junior 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, communication skills and computer skills.

Learn more about what a Junior Designer does

How To Become a Junior Designer

If you're interested in becoming a junior designer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 74.9% of junior designers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 5.0% of junior designers have master's degrees. Even though most junior designers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Junior Designer
Top Junior Designer Jobs Near You

Junior Designer Career Paths

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of designer you might progress to a role such as project manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title marketing communications manager.

Junior Designer

Average Salary for a Junior Designer

Junior Designers in America make an average salary of $53,349 per year or $26 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $65,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $43,000 per year.
Average Junior Designer Salary
$53,349 Yearly
$25.65 hourly
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What Am I Worth?

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Roles and Types of Junior Designer

The role of a junior designer includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general junior designer responsibilities:

  • Work with the design director(s) and project team (s) on conceptual designs, presentations, design development,
  • Managing and designing multiple cover projects by researching new ideas
  • Collaborative contributor and primary designer on multi-media projects for the marketing department with a current focused on promoting circa s brand, app, web site,

There are several types of junior designer, including:

Graphic Designer

Role:

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.

  • Average Salary: $49,450
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Designer

Role:

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.

  • Average Salary: $66,347
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Freelance Designer

Role:

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.

  • Average Salary: $57,260
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
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States With The Most Junior Designer Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active junior designer jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where junior designers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Junior Designer Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California4,000$61,965
2Texas1,777$48,358
3New York1,649$57,879
4Virginia1,208$56,614
5Florida1,187$44,421
6Illinois1,055$54,131
7Washington1,035$61,729
8Georgia1,002$46,832
9Massachusetts930$59,376
10Pennsylvania878$54,273
11Maryland803$52,378
12North Carolina799$51,378
13Ohio711$51,129
14Michigan683$54,608
15Oregon564$54,279
16New Jersey556$62,624
17Colorado532$55,106
18Minnesota532$47,321
19Wisconsin473$50,120
20Arizona422$53,144
21Indiana422$52,574
22Utah410$48,628
23Missouri404$46,695
24Tennessee357$45,858
25Alabama342$43,644
26Connecticut294$51,008
27South Carolina272$41,630
28Iowa257$44,393
29Kentucky233$46,784
30Kansas221$43,689
31Oklahoma211$44,107
32Louisiana202$45,075
33New Hampshire165$49,910
34Arkansas162$46,122
35Nebraska153$46,452
36Nevada142$49,208
37Idaho138$45,553
38New Mexico130$44,781
39Maine120$47,827
40Rhode Island119$57,430
41Mississippi118$41,146
42Delaware103$50,405
43Montana77$49,750
44West Virginia76$54,816
45Vermont70$47,940
46South Dakota64$37,044
47North Dakota62$54,139
48Wyoming51$52,216
49Hawaii51$53,943
50Alaska48$65,506

Junior Designer Education

Junior Designer Majors

Graphic Design
35.3 %
Interior Design
17.1 %
Architecture
9.1 %

Junior Designer Degrees

Bachelors

74.9 %

Associate

16.0 %

Masters

5.0 %

Top Colleges for Junior Designers

1. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

2. Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,465

Enrollment

6,483

3. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

4. Harvard University

Cambridge, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$50,420

Enrollment

7,582

5. Northeastern University

Boston, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,522

Enrollment

13,760

6. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, MI • Private

In-State Tuition

$15,262

Enrollment

30,079

7. Pennsylvania State University

University Park, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$18,454

Enrollment

40,108

8. University of Utah

Salt Lake City, UT • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,222

Enrollment

23,396

9. University of Texas at Austin

Austin, TX • Private

In-State Tuition

$10,610

Enrollment

40,329

10. University of Florida

Gainesville, FL • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,381

Enrollment

34,564

Top Skills For a Junior Designer

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, 10.2% of junior designers listed sketch on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Junior Designer Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Junior Designer templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Junior Designer resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Junior Designer diversity

Junior Designer Gender Distribution

Male
Male
50%
Female
Female
50%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among junior designers, 49.6% of them are women, while 50.4% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among junior designers is White, which makes up 70.2% of all junior designers.

  • The most common foreign language among junior designers is Spanish at 43.6%.

Online Courses For Junior Designer That You May Like

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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)

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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

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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...

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Best States For a Junior Designer

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a junior designer. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, New Jersey, California, and Washington. Junior designers make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $65,506. Whereas in New Jersey and California, they would average $62,624 and $61,965, respectively. While junior designers would only make an average of $61,729 in Washington, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Washington

Total Junior Designer Jobs: 1,035
Highest 10% Earn:
$75,000
Location Quotient:
1.52

$61,729

Avg. Salary

View 1,035 Junior Designer Jobs In WA

2. California

Total Junior Designer Jobs: 4,000
Highest 10% Earn:
$78,000
Location Quotient:
1.47

$61,965

Avg. Salary

View 4,000 Junior Designer Jobs In CA

3. Rhode Island

Total Junior Designer Jobs: 119
Highest 10% Earn:
$71,000
Location Quotient:
1.05

$57,430

Avg. Salary

View 119 Junior Designer Jobs In RI
Full List Of Best States For Junior Designers

How Do Junior Designers Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Junior Designer Employers

Most Common Employers For Junior Designer

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1The Donna Karan Company LLC$64,108$30.824
2Skidmore, Owings & Merrill$58,709$28.235
3HGA$57,338$27.574
4IA Interior Architects$57,313$27.5514
5RAPP$57,167$27.484
6Gibbs & Cox$56,947$27.386
7MVE Architects$56,941$27.385
8HDR$56,449$27.146
9Con Edison$55,211$26.548
10Firstborn$54,541$26.227
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Becoming a Junior Designer FAQs

How Long Should You Be A Junior Designer?

You should be a junior designer for about three to five years before becoming a senior graphic designer. A person will start their career in graphic design either by learning the principles themselves or enrolling in a graphic design course.

Have more questions? See all answers to common arts, entertainment, sports, and media questions.

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Updated April 6, 2023