How To Become A Senior Graphic Designer: What It Is and Career Path

Q: How long does it take to become a senior graphic designer?

It takes three to five years of work experience to become a senior graphic designer. A person can start a career in graphic design either by learning graphic design principles themselves or by enrolling in a graphic design course.

Q: How much does a senior graphic designer charge per hour?

A senior graphic designer will charge about $50 an hour, on average. This means the average salary for freelance senior graphic designers is around $100,000 in a year. However, it can be difficult to estimate salaries for freelance or crowdsource senior graphic designers because they get paid job to job rather than a set salary. There are many variables, such as time input versus output and opportunity.

Q: Is graphic design a dying career?

No, graphic design is not a dying career. However, it is a rapidly changing industry that will require significant upskilling to keep up with the changes. The biggest area of growth in graphic design is in digital graphic design. As businesses transition from print advertising and publishing to digital and online marketing, this will increase.

Q: What can I do after being a senior graphic designer?

There are many roles a person can move into after being a senior graphic designer, including the art director and UX designer. Since graphic design is a rapidly changing industry, there are numerous opportunities for graphic designers to pivot in their careers, but this does require significant upskilling to keep up with the changes.

Q: What do you need to be a senior designer?

You need the right educational background, extensive work portfolio, and several years of work experience to become a senior designer. Most senior designers have a bachelor's degree and design or related fields. From there, prospective senior designers will need to put in at least five to eight years working as a designer. Usually, this is the time it takes to advance from a junior designer position into a mid-level designer and finally to a senior designer position.

What is a senior graphic designer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Sarah Satterfield Ph.D.

As a senior graphic designer, you are in charge of all design operations in the company. It is your duty not just to function as a graphic designer but to head the design team and mentor other junior graphic designers. A large part of your responsibility includes generating fresh concepts for every project, managing the design process from conceptualization to delivery, and overseeing the collaboration between your team and other teams like the marketing and sales team to ensure quality delivery. It is your job to ensure that deadlines are met and that the clients are completely satisfied.

To work as a senior graphic designer, you must have a minimum qualification of a bachelor's degree in graphic design, design and visual communications, or other related fields. An eye for detail, proficiency in tools like adobe creative suite, ability to generate creative ideas, and great communication skills are needed to function as a good senior graphic designer.

The average senior graphic designer makes about $$33.69 an hour and $70,085 a year.

What general advice would you give to a senior graphic designer?

Dr. Sarah Satterfield Ph.D.

Department Chair Visual and Performing Arts, Professor of Music and Humanities, College of Central Florida

I was once told, if you do what you love, you will never "work" a day in your life. I have found this true in my own career and hope our VPA graduates will find it true in theirs as well. The arts offer such a unique means of engaging and we, as arts educators, have an ability to "reach" those we have contact with, in a unique way.

ScoreSenior Graphic DesignerUS Average

Salary

5.8

Avg. Salary $73,921

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 46.76%

male 53.24%

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 senior graphic designer

Explore senior graphic designer education requirements

Most common senior graphic designer degrees

Bachelor's

72.5 %

Associate

19.8 %

Master's

4.1 %

Start to develop specific senior graphic designer skills

Skills	Percentages
Sketch	6.80%
Adobe Creative Suite	6.67%
Creative Concepts	5.00%
PowerPoint	4.27%
Art Direction	4.07%

Complete relevant senior graphic designer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior graphic designers 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 senior graphic designer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior graphic designer resumes.

Gain additional senior graphic designer certifications

Senior graphic designer certifications can show employers you have a baseline of knowledge expected for the position. Certifications can also make you a more competitive candidate. Even if employers don't require a specific senior graphic designer certification, having one may help you stand out relative to other applicants.

The most common certifications for senior graphic designers include Master Certified Web Professional - Designer (CWP) and Certified Digital Designer (CDD).

More About Certifications

Research senior graphic designer duties and responsibilities

Create and manage license product lines from concept sketch to production sample.
Manage front-end development of company website, ordering system, and JavaScript presentations.
Create ads, manage copywriting, respond to customer inquiries, generate brand unity, establish clear company identity.
Perform front-end development, navigation, IA, UI, analysis, visual design, and SEO.

Get senior graphic designer experience

Generally, it takes 6-12 months to become a senior graphic designer. The most common roles before becoming a senior graphic designer include graphic designer, art director team lead and graphic artist.

Prepare your senior graphic designer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior graphic designer 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 senior graphic designer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable senior graphic designer resume templates

Build a professional senior graphic designer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your senior graphic designer resume.

Apply for senior graphic designer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a senior graphic designer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do senior graphic designers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

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1 star

Senior graphic designer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2022

Pros

There is so much to like about working as Graphic Designer ... the seeing how all the elements of words, space, colors, visuals (photos, graphics, charts,...) come together on a page...sharing info with others to learn and use

Cons

When working with others who can not make up their minds as deadline approaches nor take responsibility and blames others for their own "misdoings".

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2020

Cons

Interference in mid of work.

Pros

Creativity, Innovation, Intact Brand Integrity through Brand Guidelines

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2020

Pros

What I like most about a designer is doing work with Fonts designing projects designing

What is a senior graphic designer and how to become one

What general advice would you give to a senior graphic designer?

Senior graphic designer career paths

Key steps to become a senior graphic designer

Explore senior graphic designer education requirements

Most common senior graphic designer degrees

Start to develop specific senior graphic designer skills

Complete relevant senior graphic designer training and internships

Gain additional senior graphic designer certifications

Research senior graphic designer duties and responsibilities

Get senior graphic designer experience

Prepare your senior graphic designer resume

Choose from 10+ customizable senior graphic designer resume templates

Apply for senior graphic designer jobs

How did you land your first senior graphic designer job

Average senior graphic designer salary

How do senior graphic designers rate their job?

Senior graphic designer reviews

Senior graphic designer FAQs

How long does it take to become a senior graphic designer?

How much does a senior graphic designer charge per hour?

Is graphic design a dying career?

What can I do after being a senior graphic designer?

What do you need to be a senior designer?

Search for senior graphic designer jobs

Senior graphic designer jobs by state