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Magazine designer vs freelance designer

The differences between magazine designers and freelance designers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a magazine designer, becoming a freelance designer takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a freelance designer has an average salary of $57,260, which is higher than the $52,372 average annual salary of a magazine designer.

The top three skills for a magazine designer include photo shoots, adobe indesign and adobe creative suite. The most important skills for a freelance designer are sketch, CSS, and HTML.

Magazine designer vs freelance designer overview

Magazine DesignerFreelance Designer
Yearly salary$52,372$57,260
Hourly rate$25.18$27.53
Growth rate4%3%
Number of jobs47,33945,914
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 74%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age4038
Years of experience612

Magazine designer vs freelance designer salary

Magazine designers and freelance designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Magazine DesignerFreelance Designer
Average salary$52,372$57,260
Salary rangeBetween $29,000 And $92,000Between $39,000 And $83,000
Highest paying City--
Highest paying state--
Best paying company--
Best paying industry--

Differences between magazine designer and freelance designer education

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

Magazine DesignerFreelance Designer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 74%Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Magazine designer vs freelance designer demographics

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

Magazine DesignerFreelance Designer
Average age4038
Gender ratioMale, 50.6% Female, 49.4%Male, 48.0% Female, 52.0%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 4.4% Unknown, 5.8% Hispanic or Latino, 14.4% Asian, 7.7% White, 66.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%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 Percentage11%13%

Differences between magazine designer and freelance designer duties and responsibilities

Magazine designer example responsibilities.

  • Manage and develop a stream line Intranet site for better communication purposes and quicker access to documents and company information
  • Create a dynamically updating, database driven website for updating faculty publications and seminars with a custom content administration system.
  • Use architectural and structural-base external reference drawings files as backgrounds for communication, electrical, HVAC mechanical and structural revisions.

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

Magazine designer vs freelance designer skills

Common magazine designer skills
  • Photo Shoots, 32%
  • Adobe Indesign, 19%
  • Adobe Creative Suite, 18%
  • Adobe Photoshop, 13%
  • Concept Development, 10%
  • Digital Materials, 9%
Common freelance designer skills
  • Sketch, 11%
  • CSS, 7%
  • HTML, 6%
  • Adobe Photoshop, 6%
  • Adobe Illustrator, 6%
  • Photography, 5%

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