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Senior graphic designer vs designer

The differences between senior graphic 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 senior graphic designer and a designer. Additionally, a senior graphic designer has an average salary of $73,921, which is higher than the $66,347 average annual salary of a designer.

The top three skills for a senior graphic designer include sketch, adobe creative suite and creative concepts. The most important skills for a designer are sketch, customer service, and graphic design.

Senior graphic designer vs designer overview

Senior Graphic DesignerDesigner
Yearly salary$73,921$66,347
Hourly rate$35.54$31.90
Growth rate3%3%
Number of jobs46,31052,433
Job satisfaction-5
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Average age3838
Years of experience1212

What does a senior graphic designer do?

A senior graphic designer oversees all of the designing operations in a company, from conceptualization to production. One of their primary responsibilities is to ensure that all designs produced are according to a client's preference and brand. They also encourage fresh ideas from the team, communicate with clients or representatives, and manage the schedules to meet all deadlines. Furthermore, as a senior graphic designer, they are responsible for leading and mentoring a team of graphic designers, all in the joint effort to reach project goals.

What does a designer do?

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.

Senior graphic designer vs designer salary

Senior graphic designers and designers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Senior Graphic DesignerDesigner
Average salary$73,921$66,347
Salary rangeBetween $51,000 And $105,000Between $45,000 And $97,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASeattle, WA
Highest paying stateWashingtonWashington
Best paying companyPractice FusionMeta
Best paying industryTechnologyTechnology

Differences between senior graphic designer and designer education

There are a few differences between a senior graphic designer and a designer in terms of educational background:

Senior Graphic DesignerDesigner
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 72%Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Senior graphic designer vs designer demographics

Here are the differences between senior graphic designers' and designers' demographics:

Senior Graphic DesignerDesigner
Average age3838
Gender ratioMale, 53.2% Female, 46.8%Male, 56.9% Female, 43.1%
Race ratioBlack 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 Percentage13%13%

Differences between senior graphic designer and designer duties and responsibilities

Senior graphic designer example 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.
  • Produce and maintain sales literature, posters, trade show materials, print ads and marketing promotional materials for print media.
  • Design and execute production of marketing collateral; including annual catalogs, brochures, and a special contest information package
  • Show more

Designer example responsibilities.

  • Lead & design all creative content stemming from apparel design to web identity.
  • Manage various PCB designs utilizing state of the art DFM techniques and comply with company standards.
  • Utilize CSS, DHTML, HTML, and JavaScript for cross browser, cross platform compatibility and consistency.
  • Develop different kinds of functions globally, locally for the development of forms using JavaScript, CSS.
  • Transform customer specifications into usable SolidWorks 3D models and assemblies from which all manufacturing are derived.
  • Process ECR's and ECO's using Windchill.
  • Show more

Senior graphic designer vs designer skills

Common senior graphic designer skills
  • Sketch, 7%
  • Adobe Creative Suite, 7%
  • Creative Concepts, 5%
  • PowerPoint, 4%
  • Art Direction, 4%
  • HTML, 4%
Common designer skills
  • Sketch, 10%
  • Customer Service, 7%
  • Graphic Design, 6%
  • CSS, 5%
  • HTML, 4%
  • PowerPoint, 4%

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