Digital Designer Career Path

If your best time as a youth was spent on creative tasks like drawing, being curious about a creative career like digital design is natural. Want to learn what it takes to become a Digital Designer? Not only will this article walk you through the skills and qualifications needed for this career, but it’ll also explain the different stages of a digital design career. Along the way, you’ll also receive plenty of tips on how to follow this road for yourself.

Getting Started

Before you take your first steps as a digital design professional, you’ll need to develop the necessary skills and knowledge. You might start by reading about the digital design field on blogs like this one or talking to successful Digital Designers about what it’s like to work as a Digital Designer day to day. Many local libraries and universities offer free design classes and info sessions that can help you identify where to focus your efforts as you prepare for your career. 

Once you move past the beginner stage, free design resources will quickly run their course, and as a result, you may find it valuable to attend a vocational training course (such as a digital design certificate or bootcamp). These programs offer comprehensive career training for a much cheaper price than college attendance and include benefits like one-on-one mentorship, portfolio feedback, and professional experience.

Regardless of how you choose to approach digital design training, there are several key skills you need to master before launching your career. You can start honing these before you participate in a course. In fact, you can even begin experimenting with these skills as a kid. 

While skill sets vary from one digital design expertise to the next, all Digital Designers need to master: 

• The top three graphic design tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign). 
• A prototyping tool (like Figma).
• Design theory.
• User experience design (often shortened to UX design).
• Design soft skills (time management, communication, and creative problem-solving).

Other common digital design skills include:

• User interface design.
• Web design.
• Coding.
• Motion graphics design
• Product design.
• Project management.
• Digital marketing.

Do I Need a Degree to Become a Digital Designer?

By and large, most hiring managers expect digital design job candidates to hold a Bachelor of Art (B.F.A.) degree in a design subject (such as digital design, UX/UI design, graphic design, or web design). However, a degree won’t mean anything if not accompanied by real skills. For this reason, many aspiring designers find it valuable to attend a design bootcamp or certificate class. In these career-focused classes, students learn practical skills by applying them to hands-on projects. With the right digital design bootcamp, it’s possible to start building experience for a design career before completing an expensive college program.

After completing your initial training, be prepared to continue learning throughout your career. Like any industry, digital design changes over time, and it pays to stay up-to-date on the latest design trends, tools, and techniques. 

Some digital design jobs may require specialist certifications that can be attained through a proctored exam. Regardless of whether your job requires certification, however, getting certified can reward you with more opportunities and a higher salary. Throughout the United States, certified workers earn almost $400 more per week than they would without a certification. Following the same market rules, college graduates also earned an additional $500 each week and saw less unemployment as of 2020. 

Internships

Internships are entry-level positions (some paid, others not) created to help you build experience as an early-career designer. Essentially, these formal experience opportunities allow you to step into the role of a trainee at a real company or design studio without requiring two years of experience in advance. While every internship is a bit different, most internships are intended as temporary training to help you prepare for a longer-term design job. 

In addition to adding time to your two-year experience bar, internships can also improve your portfolio. The projects you complete during your time in an internship often make ideal additions to a design portfolio and will come across as less “homework-like” than assignments you complete in a training program. 

Moreover, an internship can give you the chance to network with digital design professionals. In contrast to a traditional networking event, where awkward conversations can easily ruin your networking streak, internships allow you to develop a natural working relationship with other professionals in the industry. 

How to Get Digital Design Internships

You apply for internships the same way you apply for a job, with a packet that includes a tailored:

• Digital design portfolio.
• Resume.
• Designer LinkedIn profile.
• References. 

Finding digital design internships is simply a matter of knowing where to look. For instance, simply searching on Google may turn up a mixed bag of internships in unrelated fields. Instead, use search filters and relevant keywords as you look for internships on platforms like:

• AIGA.
• Beyonce.
• Coroflot.
• Design Jobs Board.
• Girlboss Jobs.
• Glassdoor.
• Indeed.
• LinkedIn.
• Startup Jobs.
• Upwork.
• Zippia.
• ZipRecruiter.

For a better chance at getting an internship position, try to meet as many Digital Designer career requirements as you can.

Entry-Level Digital Designer Jobs

When you imagine your future in the design industry, you likely envision a life of freedom, but as with any job, you’ll have to put in some hard work to reach that point. The first stage of your career is when you do this work, and as a result, it may seem less exciting at first. Because you have less experience, you’ll likely spend most of your early days as a contributing member on projects led by senior designers. Stick with it and you’ll gain more autonomy over time. 

In junior and assistant digital design roles, you may be tasked with scut work such as retouching images in Photoshop or creating interactive PDF forms with InDesign. As a UX/UI Designer or Web Designer, you might be tasked with completing basic web and graphic design tasks. In a web design role, you may even spend the majority of your time coding. 

It’s not that you won’t be designing anything, but more that you’ll be asked to complete small aspects of larger projects. For instance, as a Game Designer, you may end up creating menus or objects that players won’t pay much attention to. Likewise, you may devote many hours as a Motion Graphics Designer to adjusting colors or removing backgrounds in After Effects (rather than creating full animations). 

Learn more about the different areas of expertise within digital design. 

Mid-Level Digital Designer Jobs

By the mid-level, you’ll have developed more of a specialty within your niche, giving you more sway with particular types of projects. As you gain more experience in your area of expertise, you’ll also be given more responsibility and have more opportunities to make decisions that influence the completed projects. Rather than being supervised closely, you’ll spend more time working on projects independently. Because you’ve had time to develop your communication skills, you may even be asked to represent your team in a solo presentation or conference meeting with stakeholders. To help kick projects off the ground, you may also be asked to create conceptual art or transform user research into a design.

As a mid-level UX Designer, you might spend the majority of your time conducting user research, creating prototypes, and wireframing. You’ll likely have similar responsibilities as a UI Designer, and spend hours creating logos, icons, menus, buttons, and other features that make up part of a whole. In a mid-level Web Designer role, you’ll spend more time designing components of websites and/or apps than coding unseen structures. 

As a Game Designer, you’ll have the chance to contribute more meaningful elements of a game, such as weapons or NPCs. Similarly, you’ll likely have the opportunity to create a wider range of two and three-dimensional animations as a Motion Graphics Designer or Animator. 

Senior Digital Designer Jobs

Senior roles stand at the pinnacle of the career ladder holding the greatest responsibility and influence in the digital design field. Senior Digital Designers often take the lead on design projects, delegating team-member responsibilities, and organizing workflows. These professionals communicate directly with stakeholders and have the final word on big creative decisions. 

As primary decision-makers, Senior Game Designers come up with a vision for a game and supervise other designers as they bring it to life. In like manner, Senior Motion Graphics Designers and Animators may give more attention to developing storytelling sequences for projects that others execute. At the senior level, Web Designers bring a big-picture focus to projects that ensures the finished product conveys a cohesive message, mood, and aesthetic. Meanwhile, Senior UX Designers become the driving force behind their teams’ aesthetic vision, systems design, and user research. Similarly, Senior UI Designers manage team priorities as they work toward building a dynamic interface. 

In addition to traditional “designer” roles, senior designers with leadership experience can also qualify for management positions like:

• Design Director.
• Creative Director.
• Art Director.
• Product Manager. 
• Chief Creative Officer. 

Another Path: Freelancing

While many digital design professionals work their way up the career through traditional studios and in-house design teams, you can give yourself a bit more freedom by choosing to freelance. Rather than being closely supervised by a manager, this path allows you to operate as your own boss (a self-employed worker) interfacing directly with clients. As opposed to only taking grunt work, you’ll get to choose which projects you accept. You’ll also benefit from the liberty to choose your work hours and location. 

For some, freelancing can have downsides, but these are often subjective. They may include:

• Having only yourself to depend on for marketing your services and keeping up with administrative work. 
• Earning an inconsistent income from one month to the next.
• Lack of regular employment benefits, such as insurance, retirement accounts, and income tax withholdings. 

Read more about becoming a freelance Digital Designer.

How Do I Find A Digital Designer Job?

You’ll be most successful at finding a design job if you set yourself up with the right qualifications beforehand. Because job responsibilities can vary extensively from one digital design job title to the next, you should take the time to research the qualifications you need for your intended role and then acquire them. While each job is different, most digital design jobs will expect you to bring the following with you to start:

• A four-year college degree (preferably in a design field). Some jobs may also include additional requirements, such as certification in design software like Figma. 
• A portfolio that demonstrates professional digital design skills relevant to the role. 
• Two to five years of relevant professional experience. 

You can explore Digital Designer job requirements on Noble Desktop’s Blog. 

Once you’re ready to start looking for a job, your best bet is to play several job markets at once. In addition to developing your presence on mainstream job sites such as LinkedIn, you can also build connections through online design organizations (like AIGA), forums (like Reddit), and education platforms. 

When searching for a job, you can find more relevant opportunities by using keywords, like:

• Advertising Designer or Digital Marketing Designer
• Animator
• App Designer
• AR/VR Designer
• Brand Designer
• Design Director, Creative Director, or Art Director
• Digital Media Designer
• Graphic Designer
• Fashion Illustrator
• Motion Graphics Designer or Motion Designer
• Multimedia Artist or Multimedia Designer
• Packaging Designer
• Product Designer
• Project Management
• Social Media Designer
• User Interface Designer or UI Designer
• User Experience Designer or UX Designer 
• Video Game Designer
• Web Designer

For more tips on how to use Digital Designer job sites to your advantage, check out the Learn Design Blog. 

Learn the Skills to Become a Digital Designer at Noble Desktop

Want to learn design in a supportive environment? Noble Desktop offers highly-rated design classes covering a range of digital design topics for students at all levels. In addition to shorter classes, you’ll find a variety of career certificates that provide comprehensive training, complete with one-on-one mentorship and professional experience opportunities. Start your journey now by signing up for training live online or participating in face-to-face classes at the school’s NYC campus. 

With the hands-on training you’ll get in the Digital Design Certificate, preparing for a digital design career isn’t hard. Even if you start with no experience, you can learn the UI design and graphic design skills you need to launch your career in a matter of weeks. Instead of sitting through dull lectures, this program will teach you practical skills through activities and projects. In addition to mastering tools like InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Figma, you’ll gain the expertise necessary to apply design principles for truly stunning results. 

Learn the skills to make websites and apps that are truly user-friendly in UX & UI Design Certificate. Working with a team, you’ll create your own interactive digital interfaces from start to finish, resulting in work you can proudly display in your portfolio. Rather than focusing only on aesthetics, you’ll learn how to research your target users and prototype to improve accessibility. This course also includes a job preparation segment designed to help you workshop your resume and create the perfect portfolio website. 

If websites are your jam, you can make it into a career by joining Noble Desktop’s Web Design Certificate program. Work toward an impressive portfolio with hands-on assignments that will help you learn a combination of design, coding, and software skills. Quicker than you know, you’ll acquire a versatile skill set that includes UI design theory, Figma, WordPress, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Before you’re through, you’ll also have the chance to build a high-quality portfolio website with help from your expert mentor.