Traffic designer vs art director

The differences between traffic designers and art directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, an art director has an average salary of $88,367, which is higher than the $53,183 average annual salary of a traffic designer.

The top three skills for a traffic designer include traffic studies, traffic control and impact analysis. The most important skills for an art director are graphic design, art direction, and creative concepts.

Traffic designer vs art director overview

	Traffic Designer	Art Director
Yearly salary	$53,183	$88,367
Hourly rate	$25.57	$42.48
Growth rate	7%	4%
Number of jobs	45,467	11,472
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 55%	Bachelor's Degree, 75%
Average age	41	40
Years of experience	-	6

Traffic designer vs art director salary

Traffic designers and art directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Traffic Designer	Art Director
Average salary	$53,183	$88,367
Salary range	Between $36,000 And $78,000	Between $57,000 And $135,000
Highest paying City	-	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	-	Washington
Best paying company	-	The Walt Disney Company
Best paying industry	-	Technology

Differences between traffic designer and art director education

There are a few differences between a traffic designer and an art director in terms of educational background:

	Traffic Designer	Art Director
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 55%	Bachelor's Degree, 75%
Most common major	Civil Engineering	Graphic Design
Most common college	Carnegie Mellon University	Harvard University

Traffic designer vs art director demographics

Here are the differences between traffic designers' and art directors' demographics:

	Traffic Designer	Art Director
Average age	41	40
Gender ratio	Male, 75.9% Female, 24.1%	Male, 57.4% Female, 42.6%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 2.9% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 12.1% White, 71.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 4.4% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 14.5% Asian, 7.8% White, 67.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage	5%	11%

Differences between traffic designer and art director duties and responsibilities

Traffic designer example responsibilities.

Develop marketing and brand awareness initiatives through social media outlets; create and manage company Facebook and Houzz profiles.
Design and produce plans for commercial and residential projects using Autodesk Autocad/Civil3d, interacting with clients, subcontractors and project managers.
Train and recruit transportation personnel ensuring compliance with numerous transportation and DoD regulations.

Art director example responsibilities.

Manage a small group of graphic artists for PC/Mac catalog.
Lead the conception, design and execution of cross channel initiatives for healthcare and pharmaceutical clients.
Monitor the day-to-day activities on projects working with editorial, design and technical teams to execute and achieve project goals.
Collaborate on marketing strategies and concept creation for sketch presentations, and photo shoots with talent.
Utilize working knowledge of HTML, CSS and PHP in the creation of web sites and social media campaigns.
Perform vast typesetting and paste-up duties.

Traffic designer vs art director skills

Common traffic designer skills

Traffic Studies, 53%
Traffic Control, 13%
Impact Analysis, 10%
Traffic Signals, 9%
Cost Estimates, 8%
MUTCD, 7%

Common art director skills

Graphic Design, 11%
Art Direction, 7%
Creative Concepts, 7%
Sketch, 7%
Adobe Creative Suite, 5%
Adobe Photoshop, 5%