Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media · Holland code ACE

Graphic Designers

Design or create graphics to meet specific commercial or promotional needs, such as packaging, displays, or logos. May use a variety of mediums to achieve artistic or decorative effects.

Also called: Artist, Designer, Graphic Artist, Graphic Designer, Brand Designer, Graphic Design Coordinator, Online Producer, Production Artist.

O*NET 27-1024.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $62,960; Middle half earn $49,040 to $81,830. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Most common education: Bachelor's Degree; 65% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 4 of 5; Considerable preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.
US employment outlook, 2024 to 2034: +2% · Slower than average; 265,900 jobs in 2024, projected 271,500. BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, which groups this with similar roles as "Graphic designers".

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

Key information into computer equipment to create layouts for client or supervisor.
Review final layouts and suggest improvements, as needed.
Determine size and arrangement of illustrative material and copy, and select style and size of type.
Develop graphics and layouts for product illustrations, company logos, and Web sites.
Create designs, concepts, and sample layouts, based on knowledge of layout principles and esthetic design concepts.
Use computer software to generate new images.
Prepare digital files for printing.
Confer with clients to discuss and determine layout design.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Active Listening3.8 / 5
Speaking3.4 / 5
Writing3.3 / 5
Critical Thinking3.3 / 5
Active Learning3.3 / 5
Reading Comprehension3.1 / 5

Knowledge areas

Design4.7 / 5
Computers and Electronics4.4 / 5
Fine Arts4.4 / 5
Communications and Media4.3 / 5
English Language3.8 / 5
Sales and Marketing3.6 / 5

Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic40
Investigative31
Artistic100
Social19
Enterprising41
Conventional49

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

illustrator · DE Illustrator/Illustratorin · FR illustrateur/illustratrice
animation layout artist · DE Layouter Trickfilme/Layouterin Trickfilme · FR layout man/layout woman
digital artist · DE Digitalkünstler/Digitalkünstlerin · FR artiste numérique
graphic designer · DE Grafikdesigner/Grafikdesignerin · FR graphiste
creative director · DE künstlerischer Leiter/künstlerische Leiterin · FR directeur de création/directrice de création
cartoonist · DE Karikaturist/Karikaturistin · FR dessinateur de presse/dessinatrice de presse

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Advertising and marketing associate professionals (3554)211,800 employed
Graphic and multimedia designers (2142)123,000 employed
Artists (3411)64,500 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Japan

Japan classifies jobs in its own way. The closest category that names the same work is “デザイナー”, which may be narrower or broader than this occupation.

Median monthly pay: ¥326,500; Middle half earn ¥266,100 to ¥421,500 a month.
Workers in the category: 91,450; Regular employees in firms of ten or more.

Scheduled monthly pay before tax, excluding overtime and bonuses, so it is not comparable to the annual figures above. Source: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025, via e-Stat, under the Japanese Government Standard Terms of Use. The category match was made by hand.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Professionals”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Professionals, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€61,714
Germany	€59,529
Ireland	€56,877
Austria	€55,374
Netherlands	€53,595
Sweden	€43,567
France	€41,515
Spain	€35,735
Italy	€33,649
Portugal	€26,072
Poland	€14,380

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the higher third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of +0.72. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (27-1024).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

Take the career interests test