Design as a profession is not a career which people generally enter into for financial reasons. It is something which ignites passion rather than supplies financial security. Indeed it is not uncommon for designers to turn down better paid jobs so they can pursue creativity. However in this post I wanted to ask the question: How well are designers paid?
I suppose what motivated me to ask this question was seeing a chart of salaries both freelance and permanent. What supprised me most of all was the comparison to rates for people who work alongside designers in design based agencies, but perform account roles. It seems to me the job consists of several elements: managing internal specialist, such as designers, meeting deadlines, issuing briefs after discussing projects with clients and of course, once the work is done, presenting and defending the results. The job may well have its creative elements, but it’s just as much about admin and project management.
I must admit that I am speculating to some degree here as I’m a designer an accounts manager, I don’t fully know. And whilst these skills are all admirable and definitely necessary, I am not sure why it justifies higher pay rates to that of a designer. Surely much of what this entails is presenting a designer’s work. As good as your presentation skills may be, most of the outcome of that particular meeting will depend on the quality of the design work.
To point out the differences, below are the comparing tables from major players (a design recruiters website). It appears to give career stages and experience in contrast to salary expectations. A graduate designer’s wage starts out at 17k, where a graduate account handler is 18-20k. Thats a difference of up to 3k, at a very early career stage, and quite a big one. The senior account handler, which is shown to be the same level as a middleweight designer, earns up to 8k more for a similar experience level (26-30 in comparison to 30-38). Its a bit less clear towards the very top end, but a design director earns 45-60k, in contrast to a board director, which is 70k plus. Again quite a difference.
So why the differences? I think probably the sad truth is that it all comes down to what an employee can get away with, to how much competition there is and supply and demand. As already mentioned, design is a profession that is born from passion and therefore is considered an enjoyable profession. An artistic one if you will. Therefore, there are a lot of designers and thus competition for individual jobs. So designers, no matter how much talent they possess are forced to take low wages to gain employment. Perhaps there is less competition or more demand for account handling positions?
So what is the solution for the designer of today? The sad fact is that there is only a limited number of highly paid jobs available and probably not every designer will end up with one. Do they therefore drift over to account management? Is that the next step in career evolution following a path to studio manager? Or do they follow the increasing trend of going freelance or starting their own studios? Either way, the decisions are difficult ones to make and not without risk.
Of course, not being an expert on the account side, it is very possible I have got much of this information wrong, so apologies for any inaccuracies or offence. But I would love to hear your opinions? Do you think the salary differences are justified? Is account handling a step up in the career ladder from design? Be great to hear your views. Happy designing or account handling everyone…
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I think some designers have a hard time communicating to their customers how much the design is worth. As an industry it is our responsibility to communicate the value of a product. Although competition can be tough, I agree that your portfolio will do the selling in the end.
Hi Brett, thanks for the comment. I think your right, design as a profession is probably not given the credit it deserves. In my experience a lot of clients hire a designer and then dictate exactly what they want to them. This of course rarely brings good results.
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I’ve been a designer, art director, studio manager and now freelance designer and studio owner. I say this not to brag, but to illustrate how my career path shows how I’ve been asking myself this question for many years. In my opinion, for some reason designers aren’t taught many business related topics in school so they are not ready to negotiate on their skills. Most of them just stick to doing their job as well as they can and expect for the best. It’s as if they knew that they truly enjoy their work and feel like it’s wrong to charge for it.
I think there are many factors as to why designers are not paid nearly enough. Clients to not understand the hours and hours of research that go into a project. They think the end product is just magically produced right away. I have been asked (more times than I would have like to) why using a web template isn’t a good way to go. I think also, the market is saturated. It seems that all schools offer a graphic design program. Therefore, it brings that value down. It is too bad, creativity is not something that everyone has. I see a high value, but unfortunately not many people do.
I do think communication skills are part of the equation – designers have to be able to express themselves as professionals. We also need to show what good design will do for a client’s business.
And, frankly, that starts with improving our writing skills. Designers have caught on to the importance of blogging – a good thing. The next step: Let’s all learn to write better.
Thanks for the comments everyone. Pato, thats a really good point, designers maybe need to be more forceful. It is often thought as such an enjoyable job, but that doesn’t mean it is easy. AJ, Mary Baum, both great points too. I think designers do need to educate more as to what goes into a design project in terms of research and marketing also. Big branding companies do this, but the majority of designers just show the end product. Communication and the increase in blogging is a great start. Improved writing is also crucial as thats the only way people will respect a designers intelligence.
Thanks guys.
I came upon a relevant graphic on FreshBump.com, by MWM graphics (found here: freshbump.com/special/10-design-quotes-designed/, this image in particular: fresh-quotes.s3.amazonaws.com/mwm-picasso.jpg), and it’s an issue I’ve been sort of beating my head against lately.
How many design jobs do you refuse because of what you feel is unfair pay before you, as the artist, start losing out overall? In theory, if no artist ever agreed to do jobs for less than the price they demanded for it without being afraid to go without a job or gig for a very long time (out of turning down “cheap” ones), clients and employers would have nobody to hire without paying the price demanded. But the theory breaks down. What a sad catch-22.