Learning graphic design can open the door to a variety of exciting jobs and career paths. Keep reading to learn about the top graphic design jobs and how much they pay.
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There are many compelling reasons to start a career in graphic design. If you love being creative, coming up with new ideas and solving problems, you’ll find yourself right at home in the field.
Besides creativity, a career in graphic design offers great flexibility and variety. Once you’ve learnt the fundamentals of graphic design, you can specialise based on your personal passions—be it motion design or special effects, book design or product packaging, or heading up your own team as an art director.
There’s practically no limit to where your graphic design skills can take you, as you’ll soon find out. Keep reading to discover the most popular graphic design jobs and their corresponding skill sets and salaries.
Without further ado…
The top 10 graphic design jobs in 2026 (and their salaries)
Here are the top 10 graphic design jobs, along with details about their average salaries and required skills.
- Graphic designer
- Product designer
- Motion graphics designer
- Brand designer
- Marketing and advertising designer
- Social media designer
- Packaging designer
- Book designer
- UI designer
- Art director
To excel in any of these roles, holistic training through quality Graphic Design Courses can also come in handy. Let’s move right into the list now!
1. Graphic designer
What does a graphic designer do?
Graphic designers, also known as visual designers, are visual communication experts. They produce designs with the goal of communicating a specific message to the target audience—as set out in the creative brief provided by a client or internal stakeholders.
Such designers design for print (think books, magazines, and business cards) or product packaging (think food and cosmetics labels). They also work in the digital sphere, designing logos, typography, icons, and other assets for digital use—be it for a social media campaign or an email newsletter.
In addition to hands-on design work, graphic designers may be responsible for conducting research, coming up with design concepts and moodboards, and helping to develop a strong brand identity.
This is just an overview; there’s a lot more to the role of a graphic designer. You can read about it in detail here: What Is Graphic Design? Everything You Need To Know .
What are the top skills of a graphic designer?
The most important hard and soft skills for a graphic designer include:
- Knowledge of graphic design principles
- An understanding of colour theory and colour psychology
- Proficiency in digital design (including typography)
- Knowledge of branding
- The ability to design for print
- Proficiency in industry-standard graphic design tools and software
- Communication
- Research
- Creativity and attention to detail
We explore the essential graphic designer skills (and how to acquire them) in more detail here.
What is the average graphic designer salary?
In the US, the average salary for a graphic designer with 1-2 years’ experience is around $52,000 (Indeed). In India, the average graphic designer salary (across all experience levels) is around ₹2,64,900 per year (Indeed).
2. Product designer
What does a product designer do?
Another increasingly popular role within the design industry is that of product designer.
While graphic designers focus primarily on creating designs and design assets (such as posters, book covers, logos, typography, etc.), product designers are responsible for the entire end-to-end process of designing an actual product.
This might be a physical product—say, a hair dryer or a pair of touchscreen gloves—or a digital product, like an accounting software or fitness app. Whatever the product, product designers must focus on both functionality and aesthetics, ensuring a positive user experience.
As such, product designers are very similar to UX (user experience) designers. They’re responsible for conducting research to inform the product, creating wireframes and prototypes, and overseeing user testing.
What are the top skills of a product designer?
The product designer skill set is quite different from that of a graphic designer, focusing less on aesthetics and more on creating a logical, user-friendly experience. The top product designer skills include:
- Research and analysis
- Wireframing and prototyping
- Information architecture
- Communication and collaboration
- Empathy and user research
- An understanding of business goals
- Proficiency in design tools such as Sketch and Figma
What is the average product designer salary?
The average salary for a product designer in the United States is around $121,000 per year across all experience levels (Indeed). The average yearly salary for a product designer in India is around ₹8,00,000 ( AmbitionBox).
3. Motion graphics designer
What does a motion graphics designer do?
Graphic designers typically work with static images. But, if you’re a skilled graphic designer with a passion for animation and visual effects, you could consider a career as a motion graphics designer.
Just as the job title suggests, motion graphics designers create graphics that move. This includes animated logos, moving illustrations, and any special effects you might see in films, YouTube videos, and video games.
Similar to graphic designers, motion graphics designers are involved in developing creative concepts (usually in the form of storyboards and scripts), conducting research to inform their work, and using specialist tools and software to design visual assets and create the necessary motion/animation effects.
What are the top skills of a motion graphics designer?
Motion graphics designers possess all the essential graphic design skills with additional expertise in motion and animation. Here’s what you’ll need to specialise as a motion graphics designer:
- Fundamental graphic design skills (color theory and color psychology, typography, layout, etc.)
- Knowledge of the fundamental principles of animation (such as squash and stretch, timing, anticipation, and staging)
- Proficiency in specialist software such as Adobe After Effects, Cinema 4D , and Adobe Animate
- Storytelling and storyboarding
- Communication and collaboration
What is the average motion graphics designer salary?
The average salary for a motion graphics designer in the United States is around $69,000 per year (Glassdoor). In India, the average salary is around ₹4,65,000 per year (talent.com).
4. Brand designer
What does a brand designer do?
Branding is all about the image a company projects to their target audience. It’s what makes them memorable, recognisable, and distinguishable from competitors. A strong brand identity requires a strong visual identity, and that’s where a brand designer comes in.
Brand designers develop the visual aspect of a company’s brand. They define the overarching visual ‘language’, choosing brand colours, designing or choosing typography, creating custom logos, and generally establishing the overall tone and style.
They may also design any assets and materials that are used to represent the brand in some way—for example, designing product packaging, branded merchandise, and visuals for marketing campaigns.
As part of their role, brand designers conduct extensive market research and work closely with key stakeholders (or clients) to ensure branding consistency across all channels.
What are the top skills of a brand designer?
Brand designers are very similar to graphic designers, but their deep specialised knowledge of branding sets them apart. The most important skills for a brand designer include:
- Knowledge and understanding of graphic design principles
- Expertise in brand identity and design, and brand promotion and communication (e.g. familiarity with the process of developing a brand language, plus knowledge of different communication channels across both digital and print)
- Strategic thinking and vision, essential even if they’re not responsible for the brand strategy itself
- Strong communication and collaboration skills
What is the average brand designer salary?
In the United States, the average salary for a brand designer is around $61,800 per year (Glassdoor). In India, the average salary for a brand designer is around ₹6,12,500 (Glassdoor).
5. Marketing/advertising designer
What does a marketing/advertising designer do?
Some graphic designers work specifically in marketing and/or advertising. They use their visual communication skills to create assets for marketing and advertising campaigns.
Marketing and advertising designers can work across digital or print, either in an agency setting where they’ll work on a variety of campaigns for different clients, or in-house in close collaboration with the marketing team.
The role spans everything from developing creative concepts to executing on the delivery—actually designing and producing the visual content for each campaign. Like most graphic design jobs, it’s a highly collaborative, creative, and hands-on role.
Marketing designers may specialise even further—for example, focusing solely on designing for social media (see job title number 6 on our list, social media designer).
What are the top skills of a marketing/advertising designer?
If you’re keen to carve out a career as a marketing and advertising designer, you’ll need the following:
- Graphic design fundamentals—layout, typography, colour, composition, etc.
- Knowledge of marketing, advertising, and branding (for example, understanding concepts such as branding and messaging)
- Strong research and ideation skills
- Communication and collaboration
- Creativity and attention to detail
- Proficiency in industry tools and software
What is the average marketing/advertising designer salary?
The average salary for a marketing and advertising designer in the United States is around $52,400 per year (Glassdoor). In India, a marketing designer earns around ₹6,00,000 per year on average (Glassdoor).
6. Social media designer
What does a social media designer do?
Social media designers specialise in producing visuals for social media. They work closely with the social media manager (or broader marketing team), supporting them in the delivery of effective social content and campaigns.
Social media designers are primarily responsible for creating banners, illustrations, imagery, and perhaps even animations—anything the social media team needs to publish a post or launch a campaign.
What are the top skills of a social media designer?
Social media designers are graphic designers with expert knowledge of social media marketing. Their main skills include:
- Graphic design fundamentals
- Video production/editing and animation (depending on the role)
- Expert knowledge of popular social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn
- Strong communication and collaboration
- Analytical skills
What is the average social media designer salary?
In the US, the average yearly salary of a social media designer is around $52,800 ( Glassdoor ). In India, the average salary is around ₹2,45,808 per year ( Glassdoor). (Salary average for this role in India is based on a small sample.)
7. Packaging designer
What does a packaging designer do?
A packaging designer applies their graphic design skills to product packaging. Their goal is to design packaging that is functional, accurately represents the brand, and makes the product appealing to consumers.
Packaging designers work with clients or product owners to understand their needs before conducting research and sketching out their ideas. As their designs evolve, they’ll move from sketches and digital mockups to physical prototypes, gathering feedback and iterating before the packaging is developed.
Not only do packaging designers create the artwork for product packaging; they also carefully select the materials that will be used. They may also oversee the production process, liaising with external vendors and suppliers.
What are the top skills of a packaging designer?
The main skills employers look for when hiring a packaging designer are:
- Knowledge and experience of graphic design and/or industrial design
- Proficiency in industry tools (including 3D packaging design software)
- Knowledge of the packaging print and production process, including knowledge of different materials
- Strong attention to detail
- Communication and collaboration
- Problem-solving
What is the average packaging designer salary?
The average salary for a packaging designer in the United States is around $53,600 per year (Glassdoor). The average yearly salary for a packaging designer in India is around ₹4,30,000 (AmbitionBox).
8. Book designer
What does a book designer do?
Book designers occupy a very special niche at the intersection of graphic design and publishing.
They collaborate closely with authors and publishers to design all the visual aspects of a book—from the artwork and typography on the front cover to the formatting and texture of the pages, right through to the design of the back cover.
A book designer’s goal is to accurately capture and convey the essence of the book (consider how the design of a non-fiction self-help book may differ from that of a supernatural novel). At the same time, they consider the overall reading experience, ensuring that the text is legible and well-formatted.
Now, with the rise of e-readers, book designers must also translate their designs from paper and print to digital.
Book designer is just one job title within the niche of page layout and publication design. Similar roles include magazine designer, publication designer, layout designer, cover designer, and typesetter.
What are the top skills of a book designer?
Book designers are skilled graphic designers with expert knowledge of designing for publishing and print. The top skills of a book designer are:
- Graphic design skills
- Expert knowledge of book and print design—including a deep understanding of typography and typesetting, as well as the overall book production process
- The ability to design for both print/paper and for digital e-readers
- Proficiency in graphic design and book design software such as Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress and Affinity Publisher
- Excellent communication skills
- Some understanding of branding and marketing
What is the average book designer salary?
The average book designer salary in the United States is around $54,200 (Glassdoor). In India, a graphic designer working in the printing and publishing industry can expect an average annual salary of around ₹3,00,000 (AmbitionBox).
9. UI designer
What does a UI designer do?
UI designers are like graphic designers for the web, working exclusively on designing digital user interfaces. A user interface is the user-facing ‘surface’ of a digital product, enabling humans to interact with websites, apps, software, video games, and more.
UI designers create all the visual aspects of a digital product, including colour schemes, typography, icons, logos, imagery, and animations. While graphic designers are primarily focused on aesthetics and on connecting with the target audience, UI designers are focused on usability.
They work closely with UX (user experience) designers to create digital products that are not only visually compelling and on-brand, but also perfectly functional and easy to use.
For a more detailed exploration of UX/UI design (and what UI designers do), refer to this UX/UI design introductory guide.
What are the top skills of a UI designer?
UI designers are both creative and digitally savvy. To excel as a UI designer, you’ll need the following skills:
- Visual design and visual communication
- Deep knowledge of UI design and interaction design principles (including responsive design)
- Knowledge of UX design and designing for accessibility
- Proficiency in UI design tools such as Sketch, Adobe XD, and Figma
- Excellent communication and collaboration
Learn more: 15 Must-Have UX/UI Design Skills (And How To Develop Them).
What is the average UI designer salary?
In the US, the average UI designer salary is around $97,700 per year (Indeed). In India, the average salary for a UI designer is around ₹8,00,000 per year (talent.com).
10. Art director
What does an art director do?
Art directors define the ‘big picture’ vision and provide creative direction for a project or product and oversee its delivery.
This is a senior role which usually involves managing a team of designers. The art director works closely with clients or project/product owners to develop a creative vision and define the budget and timeline for a given project.
They then assign work to the team and/or freelance creatives, monitoring progress, providing feedback, and refining the final designs.
What are the top skills of an art director?
The most important skills for an art director are:
- Extensive graphic design and creative experience
- Excellent visual design skills
- Strong leadership and people management
- Project and budget management
- The ability to think strategically
What is the average art director salary?
The average yearly salary for an art director in the US is around $78,500 (Indeed). In India, the average salary comes in at around ₹8,02,255 per year (Glassdoor).
Where to look for graphic design jobs
We’ve outlined some of the most exciting roles in the graphic design industry. So where can you find such jobs, or simply learn more about them?
Here are some of the best job boards advertising graphic design roles:
- Indeed —a global job board and salary database for all kinds of roles and industries, including graphic design.
- LinkedIn —the go-to place for building your personal brand, growing your network, and finding jobs.
- AIGA Design Jobs —the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) is the oldest and largest professional membership organisation for design. Browse their job board for internships, paid roles, and pro bono gigs.
- The Design Kids —a thriving community for aspiring graphic designers. Browse for career advice and current job opportunities.
- Dribbble —one of the most popular online communities for designers. Share your work, network, and discover graphic design jobs.
- Naukri.com —the largest employment website in India.
- Apna —India’s number one job app, connecting job seekers with employers.
- We Work Remotely—the largest remote work community in the world, your go-to destination for remote graphic design jobs.
How to chart a successful graphic design career
If you’ve ever wondered “What’s the typical career trajectory for a graphic designer?” , you may now have your answer.
As we’ve established in this post, a career in graphic design has the potential to be incredibly varied.
Perhaps you’ll start out as a junior graphic designer before moving into a mid-level or senior role, gradually working your way up to a strategic leadership position such as creative director or art director.
Maybe you’ll move from a graphic design role into one of the more niche positions on our list.
Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all graphic design career path. Once you’ve got fundamental graphic design skills under your belt, you can chart a unique career based on your personal passions and aspirations. How exciting!
With that, let’s consider how to get your graphic design career off the ground.
Are you brand new to graphic design? Then your first step is to master the fundamental theory, principles, tools, and practices. You’ll notice that all the jobs we listed in this guide require graphic design expertise, regardless of industry or niche—so make that your starting point.
A professional graphic design course will provide much-needed structure and guidance if you’re learning from scratch. Look for a course that offers expert instruction, practical project work, and support with finding a job.
Take a look at some of our student projects:
- Print and Publication Project by Bibin S
- Brand Identity Design Project by Roohani Goyal
- Poster Design Project by Dushyant Singh
We’ve also compiled a list of the best graphic design courses and certifications here.
Are you already a skilled graphic designer with some experience in the field? Then perhaps you’re looking to venture into a specific niche such as motion graphics, book design, or packaging design.
If that’s the case, we recommend researching your desired career path in more detail to gauge exactly what skills and experience you’re currently missing. Enter your ideal job title (e.g. book designer) into the job boards we shared earlier to see what requirements employers typically have, making a list of those you already fulfil and those you’ll need to develop.
From there, focus on picking up the missing skills—be it through an upskilling course, online tutorials, or some additional work experience. As your skill set and experience evolves, be sure to update your portfolio accordingly. This will prove key in demonstrating your competence for your next role.
Whichever direction you take, we can guarantee one thing. A career in graphic design is creative, exciting, varied, and full of opportunity!
Next steps
Are you ready to explore the wonderful world of graphic design? Here’s what you can do next:
- Watch this session by design veteran and AND’s Academic Head, Prachi Mittal, and our Course Lead, Soumya Tiwari.
- Talk to a course advisor to discuss how you can transform your career with one of our courses.
- Pursue our Graphic Design courses - all courses are taught through live, interactive classes by industry experts, and some even offer a Job Guarantee.
- Take advantage of the scholarship and funding options to overcome any financial hurdle on the path of your career transformation.
Note: All information and/or data from external sources is believed to be accurate as of the date of publication.
