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What does a Senior Graphic Designer do?

Updated January 8, 2025
9 min read
Quoted Expert
Dr. Sarah Satterfield Ph.D.
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.

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Senior graphic designer responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior graphic designer resumes:

  • 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
  • Convert news articles and advertisements in PDF to XML and publish to client websites.
  • Handle tasks relate to design illustration, sketch storyboard and concept development in various projects for clients.
  • Design logos, advertisements, banners, and posters for clients supporting a wide spectrum of assignments.
  • Execute expert diagramming and screen layout skills and creating hi-level concept maps, navigation maps and UI models.
  • Operate Itek Digi- tek 1600 and Quadritek 1200 typesetting equipment and used traditional board methods for paste-up and layout.
  • Used knowledge of CSS, XHTML and understanding of JavaScript, PHP and AJAX to interface closely with software developers.
  • Create designs for clients that include large and small banners, posters, vehicle wraps, or commercial business windows.
  • Provide professional photography services on such events.
  • Support photography retouch projects, coordinate photo shoot projects.

Senior graphic designer skills and personality traits

We calculated that 7% of Senior Graphic Designers are proficient in Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, and Creative Concepts. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Artistic ability, and Communication skills.

We break down the percentage of Senior Graphic Designers that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Sketch, 7%

    Handled tasks related to design illustration, sketch storyboard and concept development in various projects for clients.

  • Adobe Creative Suite, 7%

    Provided design/production services via Adobe Creative suite for primary packaging for Unilever consumer products.

  • Creative Concepts, 5%

    Led the development and execution of creative concepts and style guidelines for interdepartmental educational materials and advertising and recruitment materials.

  • PowerPoint, 4%

    Created PowerPoint presentations and presented educational materials on user-centered design and how to implement global design changes across DTIC.

  • Art Direction, 4%

    Performed other responsibilities including photographic art direction, corporate photography, print purchasing, forms typesetting, and overseeing production employees.

  • HTML, 4%

    Streamlined production by engineering an interactive web program delivering complex HTML documents to non-HTML- competent staff.

"sketch," "adobe creative suite," and "creative concepts" are among the most common skills that senior graphic designers use at work. You can find even more senior graphic designer responsibilities below, including:

Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a senior graphic designer to have is analytical skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "graphic designers must be able to perceive their work from their consumers’ point of view to ensure that the designs convey the client’s message." Senior graphic designers often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "transformed data communication concepts and engineering documents into sales and marketing collateral assets. "

Artistic ability. Many senior graphic designer duties rely on artistic ability. "graphic designers must be able to create designs that are artistically interesting and appealing to clients and consumers," so a senior graphic designer will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways senior graphic designer responsibilities rely on artistic ability: "lead and produced artistic designs and static/motion graphics for multiple insurance industries, applications, print and web pages. "

Communication skills. This is an important skill for senior graphic designers to perform their duties. For an example of how senior graphic designer responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "graphic designers must communicate with clients, customers, and other designers to ensure that their designs accurately and effectively convey information." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a senior graphic designer: "coordinated efforts in collaboration with the pr/communications department to create marketing collateral for all corporate/social events and activities. ".

Computer skills. For certain senior graphic designer responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "computer skills." The day-to-day duties of a senior graphic designer rely on this skill, as "most graphic designers use specialized graphic design software to prepare their designs." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what senior graphic designers do: "supervised two graphic artists and two cad artists in the creation of computer product manuals and marketing collateral for consumer product releases. "

Creativity. Another common skill required for senior graphic designer responsibilities is "creativity." This skill comes up in the duties of senior graphic designers all the time, as "graphic designers must be able to think of new approaches to communicating ideas to consumers." An excerpt from a real senior graphic designer resume shows how this skill is central to what a senior graphic designer does: "supervised art department, production and creative of advertising and marketing collateral projects. "

Time-management skills. Another skill commonly found on senior graphic designer job descriptions is "time-management skills." It can come up quite often in senior graphic designer duties, since "graphic designers often work simultaneously on multiple projects, each with a different deadline." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day senior graphic designer responsibilities: "work directly with customers to develop aesthetically pleasing and affordable design solutions, often under strict deadlines. "

All senior graphic designer skills

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Compare different senior graphic designers

Senior graphic designer vs. Designer/art director

An art director collaborates with the design and art staff for books, public relations firms, advertising agencies, or newspaper publishers. Art directors create designs and layouts that embody the organization and send the message they want the audience to get. They work with producers and directors of theatres, television, and movie productions to oversee set designs. Being an art director also includes critiquing people's work, working to reach deadlines while still following the budget allocated for a certain project, and (on occasion) disciplining designers who are slacking off on the job.

We looked at the average senior graphic designer salary and compared it with the wages of a designer/art director. Generally speaking, designer/art directors are paid $23,527 higher than senior graphic designers per year.Even though senior graphic designers and designer/art directors are distinct careers, a few of the skills required for both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require sketch, adobe creative suite, and creative concepts in the day-to-day roles and responsibilities.

There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, senior graphic designer responsibilities require skills like "html css," "art direction," "digital marketing," and "project management." Meanwhile a typical designer/art director has skills in areas such as "photography," "product design," "design projects," and "multimedia." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.

Designer/art directors tend to make the most money working in the media industry, where they earn an average salary of $100,319. In contrast, senior graphic designers make the biggest average salary, $78,796, in the technology industry.The education levels that designer/art directors earn slightly differ from senior graphic designers. In particular, designer/art directors are 2.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a senior graphic designer. Additionally, they're 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Senior graphic designer vs. Graphic artist

A graphic artist is either an illustrator or an animator who creates art work that will be used in graphic projects such as advertisements, posters, or even book covers. Although a graphic artist has his/her own style of artwork, he/she may be often commissioned to create art specifically for a particular project. A graphic artist may work with a graphic designer in order to convey the overall message of a project. The portfolio of a graphic artist includes cartoons, illustrations, and graphic novels.

Graphic artist positions earn lower pay than senior graphic designer roles. They earn a $19,021 lower salary than senior graphic designers per year.Only some things about these jobs are the same. Take their skills, for example. Senior graphic designers and graphic artists both require similar skills like "adobe creative suite," "powerpoint," and "art direction" to carry out their responsibilities.

Each career also uses different skills, according to real senior graphic designer resumes. While senior graphic designer responsibilities can utilize skills like "sketch," "creative concepts," "html css," and "digital marketing," graphic artists use skills like "photography," "posters," "sample layouts," and "web design."

Graphic artists earn a lower average salary than senior graphic designers. But graphic artists earn the highest pay in the non profits industry, with an average salary of $68,382. Additionally, senior graphic designers earn the highest salaries in the technology with average pay of $78,796 annually.In general, graphic artists achieve similar levels of education than senior graphic designers. They're 0.9% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for Senior Graphic Designers in the next 3-5 years?

Dr. Sarah Satterfield Ph.D.

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

Technology is constantly evolving and changing the way we experience the arts, generally for the better. I anticipate great strides in the fields of digital media and digital music. Technology affords us the opportunity to connect with a larger, more global audience on the one hand, and also kindle, in a younger generation, an interest in the arts.

Senior graphic designer vs. Designer

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.

An average designer eans a lower salary compared to the average salary of senior graphic designers. The difference in salaries amounts to designers earning a $7,574 lower average salary than senior graphic designers.senior graphic designers and designers both have job responsibilities that require similar skill sets. These similarities include skills such as "sketch," "adobe creative suite," and "powerpoint," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a senior graphic designer is likely to be skilled in "creative concepts," "brochures," "digital marketing," and "motion graphics," while a typical designer is skilled in "customer service," "revit," "aided design," and "design projects."

Designers make a very good living in the technology industry with an average annual salary of $87,754. On the other hand, senior graphic designers are paid the highest salary in the technology industry, with average annual pay of $78,796.Most designers achieve a similar degree level compared to senior graphic designers. For example, they're 2.6% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Senior graphic designer vs. Production designer

A production designer is responsible for monitoring the visual presentation of a media or theatre production, ensuring the set's adherence to the theme, and presenting visual elements according to the production requirements. Production designers research the current industry trends for creative ideas that would attract the audience, creating outstanding visual pictures throughout the production. In most cases, production designers also operate software systems and tools to suggest graphic effects and support the artistic team for deliverables. A production designer develops all visual plans within the budget goals and discusses adjustments to the production management team as needed.

Production designers average a lower salary than the annual salary of senior graphic designers. The difference is about $19,161 per year.While their salaries may vary, senior graphic designers and production designers both use similar skills to perform their duties. Resumes from both professions include skills like "sketch," "adobe creative suite," and "powerpoint. "

Even though a few skill sets overlap between senior graphic designers and production designers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a senior graphic designer might have more use for skills like "creative concepts," "html css," "brochures," and "motion graphics." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of production designers require skills like "production design," "layout design," "digital assets," and "quality standards. "

The internet industry tends to pay the highest salaries for production designers, with average annual pay of $91,521. Comparatively, the highest senior graphic designer annual salary comes from the technology industry.In general, production designers hold similar degree levels compared to senior graphic designers. Production designers are 1.1% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of senior graphic designer

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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