Complete Information About Graphic Designer Salary in 2021

Whether you're a job seeker or an employer, here is valuable and complete information about graphic designer salary updated in 2021. Let's find out!

Are you someone who is looking to hire a graphic designer? Or are you someone who plans to become a graphic designer as one of your career goals? If so, then you definitely need to know full detailed information about graphic designer salary. Knowing this information is certainly important for you to understand how much a graphic designer makes.

Graphic Designer 

Before going into a deeper discussion of graphic designer salary information, you must first understand what a graphic designer is and what tasks they do in their job. A graphic designer is a career that is currently in great demand, especially for young people and millennials.

In this modern era, the development of media design has grown very rapidly when compared to some time ago. Information and tech development has created big changes in the graphic designer's reputation.

If previously working in the field of art, such as being a graphic designer, was still considered a job that was less prestigious and was often underestimated, now being a graphic designer had become a dream for many people, especially in this information and tech era.

Thanks to the development of the media, which is growing very rapidly. In this era, the demand for graphic design is increasing. Most of the requests come from the entertainment industry, information industry as well as advertising industry.

The advertising and information industry has become a new industry that relies heavily on graphic designers. Graphic designers are needed in this industry to create attractive advertising designs. 

In addition, because the advertising and information industry is now also developing in social media, graphic designers are also very much needed to design social media posts that will benefit product advertising.

Being a graphic designer means that you provide graphic design designs for various needs. As previously mentioned, most of you will design for the needs of the entertainment, information, and advertising industry. 

The salary you will get as a graphic designer also depends on the type of industry in which you work. Not only that, there are many things that will affect your salary. This information will be discussed later on.

Graphic Designer is On-Demand

If you want to become a graphic designer but have doubts about the opportunities and job opportunities in the future, you don't need to worry. Nowadays, in the information and tech era, jobs in the art industry, especially graphic designers, cannot be underestimated.

Over time, the demand for graphic designers is increasing. This is because the industry and companies have realized how important graphic design is for their advertising, information, and entertainment purposes.

Although the demand for graphic designers is quite high, currently, there are still not many graphic designers who can meet the demand in the job market. Therefore, this information means that the salary offered to a graphic designer will certainly be quite high considering the high market demand.

So you don't have to worry if being a graphic designer is a bad career choice. In fact, in this information and technology era, a graphic designer is one of the best career choices that you can pursue because it has been proven to have good job prospects.

In addition, you can not judge the good or bad job prospects of a country or an area alone. You have to thoroughly review the job opportunity information and prospects in other countries as well to be able to really see whether the graphic designer is a good career choice or not.

In this era of information and technology, it can be guaranteed that in the next few years, industrial, graphic design is one of the most developed industries and will experience a lot of demand in the job market.

Things That Will Determine Your Salary as a Graphic Designer

Like other types of work, a graphic designer's salary is also not a sure thing. The salary information of a graphic designer is, of course, determined by many factors and can change according to the conditions in which you work as a graphic designer.

Some things that will greatly affect a graphic designer's salary are skills and also the industry in which a graphic designer will work. But apart from that, there are also several other external factors that will be very influential in determining whether you will get a high graphic designer salary or not.

The following is a further discussion and also information of what things will determine your salary as a graphic designer:

1. Your Specialized Skill

In the world of work in any field, of course, one of the main factors that will be very influential in determining your salary is the skills you have within yourself. This also applies if you are a graphic designer.

Graphic designer salary is very dependent on the skills you have, especially specialized skills. If you have skills that are not possessed by many other people or by other graphic designers, of course, you will become a rare human resource and will also get a high salary.

In addition, large companies and well-known industries will, of course, seek a graphic designer with the specialized skills they want. Usually, what they are looking for is, of course, graphic designers with reliable skills and also rarely to be found in many people. 

Of course, if you can meet the skills they are looking for, you will get a much higher salary when compared to working in a company that is looking for a mediocre graphic designer.

Specialized skills that you usually have to have are mastering applications and well-known design software such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and many others. If you can master this design application or software well, then your chances of getting a higher salary will certainly be much greater.

The more specialized skills you have, then you will also get a higher salary. Therefore, if you plan to become a graphic designer, try to hone your specialized skills so that you get a high salary. Or, if you are looking for a graphic designer with highly specialized skills, then you must be prepared to spend more money to hire them.

2. Location 

The country or area where you work as a graphic designer will, of course, also be very influential in determining whether you will get a high salary or not. If you work in a country with a high demand for graphic designers, of course, your salary will be much higher when compared to working in a country where graphic designers are not really needed by the community.

Several countries that offer job opportunities and high salaries for graphic designers are the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. But of course, not all regions in the country offer the same salary for graphic designers, depending on the region.

Usually developed regions or states will offer salaries which are certainly much higher. Cities like New York or London are two cities you can go to for a higher salary as a graphic designer. However, it is not only the countries or regions that have been mentioned that can offer high salaries for graphic designers. 

There are many countries and regions in the world that can provide job opportunities and high salaries for graphic designers. Usually, these areas are areas that are already developed.

Therefore, if you want to get a higher salary and also better job opportunities, you can consider working in areas that are already developed and also have a high demand for graphic designers.

Here is some information about how much salary you will receive if you work in a different country:

• United States: 42.000-72.000 us dollars (depending on the area and the experience that you have)
• United Kingdom: 23.000-33.000 pound sterling (depending on the area and the experience that you have)
• Australia: 49.000-85.000 Australian dollars (depending on the area and the experience that you have) 

3. Experience

How long you have worked or how much experience you have while working as a graphic designer is also one of the most important determinants of a graphic designer's salary. Companies and also the industry that hires you will certainly offer a higher salary if you have long enough work experience.

In addition, there are many industries and well-known companies that just want to hire a graphic designer who already has a lot of experience. Usually, they will set a standard on how much experience you should have, whether 2 years, 3 years, and so on. This, of course, is not a foreign thing. Determination of salary based on work experience also occurs in almost all types of work. 

As someone who has more and longer work experience, you will surely be labeled as someone who already understands the graphic design industry as a whole. This is what makes your salary will certainly be higher if you have more experience.

However, if you are a fresh graduate or someone new to the graphic design world, you don't need to be discouraged. You can still get a high salary by taking advantage of other factors that determine a graphic designer's salary, such as skills or the location where you work.

4. Role That You Take

In the graphic design industry, there are many different roles that you can choose from. Graphic designers don't just cover all roles or job desks. These various roles or jobs certainly have different roles and different salaries.

Graphic designer salary, of course, will later be determined based on the difficulty of the job desk or role you will be working on. In graphic design, several roles that are usually available are internal graphic designers, senior graphic designers, graphic designers, creative directors, web designers, visual designers, and many others.

As can be seen from the name of the role, each role certainly has different duties and responsibilities. The salary given by the company or industry that hires them will certainly be different. If you are an internal graphic designer, of course, your salary will be much lower than that of a senior graphic designer.

To be able to take a role with a higher salary will need lots of qualifications or conditions that are required. One of the conditions that are usually used is based on the experience you have.

5. The Industry or Companies That Hire You

Each company or industry will offer a different graphic designer salary. This salary difference is of course accompanied by the number of job desks and responsibilities that you will do. 

In addition, a well-known company will certainly offer a salary that is much more than an ordinary company. The industry in which you work will also greatly affect the graphic designer salary you will get. If you work in an industry that is in high demand, such as the advertising industry, usually your salary will also be higher. 

Therefore, if you want to get a high-salary graphic designer, you have to apply to an industry or company that is already well-known or is in high demand.

Average Salary Information for Graphic Designer

Finally, we come to the discussion of the information we have been waiting for, which is how much a graphic designer's salary is on average.

As discussed in the previous discussion, in fact, graphic designer salaries vary depending on several main factors that have also been discussed. However, there is information you can get to find out how much graphic designers earn on average.

In explaining the information about how many graphic designers earn, we will divide graphic designer salaries into 3 categories depending on their experience. The experience of working as a graphic designer is one of the main factors that will determine how much salary you will get.

1. 0-2 Years Experience

If you have just worked for 0-2 years as a graphic designer, then the salary you will get on average is in the range of 39,000 to 54,000 us dollars. This salary difference depends on the skills you have. 

This information about the average salary also only includes information about the average salary of graphic designers in the US. Graphic designer salaries in other countries may differ depending on the demand for graphic designers in that country.

2. 3 to 5 Years Experience

Furthermore, if you are an intermediate graphic designer who has worked for 3 to 5 years in the graphic design field, then the salary you will get is certainly higher when compared to graphic designers who have only worked for 0-2 years.

If you have experience for 3 to 5 years, you can get a salary of 48,000 to 64,000 us dollars. This information also mainly applies if you work in the US or countries around the US that have a high demand for graphic designers only.

3. 6 to 8 Years Experience

After working in the graphic design field for 6 to 8 years, you can be categorized as a senior graphic designer. As previously mentioned, if you have a role as a senior graphic designer, you can get a much higher salary when compared to fresh graduates and internals.

If you are a senior in the graphic design industry, you can earn as much as 54,000 to 79,000 us dollars each year.

Freelancing in Graphic Design Industry

Due to the rapid development of information and technology, nowadays people can work remotely and also freelance wherever and whenever they want. People no longer need to work as corporate employees for a company as well as an industry.

One of the most popular areas of freelancing by people is freelancing as a graphic designer. This means you can build your own brand by working as a freelancer and finding your own clients.

Being a freelancer in the graphic design industry can make you earn more money even when compared to regular corporate employees. All of this also depends on your skills and branding.

Now there are lots of platforms that people can use to become freelancers in the graphic design world. One of the most famous is Fiver. If you work on a freelance basis, you can determine your own target market and also the costs for each commission, and also the projects you work on. There are lots of successful graphic design freelancers, and they can even get 6 figures every year.

Final Words

Working in the graphic design field can be one of the best career choices you can make in this age of technological and information development. The demand for graphic design makes this industry get high demand and also good job prospects in the job market.

If you want to get a high salary in the graphic design industry, you have to develop your skills well and also look for the best possible job opportunities so that you can be offered a high salary by the company or industry that wants to hire you.

But if you don't want to work as a corporate employee or work 9 to 5 in the graphic design field, becoming a graphic design freelancer can be one of the best paths you can choose. Graphic design freelancers also have excellent job prospects and opportunities.