Junior Designer vs. Senior Designer? What’s the difference?!?! Graphic designer titles can be confusing. I honestly don’t think there’s a clear description because there are so many responsibilities that carry over from position to position.
In this video, I’m covering the progression of a graphic designer’s career and what responsibilities there are at each stage.
I’m doing this in the context of magazine publishing, but this is different for everybody and also depends on the company as well. I’m going to do this in 2 parts because I want to make sure I cover everything. I’ll also show you some of the work I did at each position of my career.
Here is a full list of what I covered in the video.
Bonus! I created a cheat sheet for you to download here
Art Assistant
Primary Responsibilities
– Assisting the Creative Director and art department
– Doing photo research
– Trafficking layouts
– Assisting during photoshoots
Opportunities
– Break into an industry
– Get first-hand experience
Tirso’s advice:
“If you’re not doing the work you want to be, take the time to become great at a particular skill. I learned how to retouch and become an expert at Photoshop. It’s a skill that is extremely valuable to any creative team. Some other niche areas that would be great for you to master: Illustrator, After Effects, Hand Lettering”
Junior Designer
Primary Responsibilities
– Smaller design tasks (sidebars, banner ads, pages with fewer elements)
– Develop design concepts and creative solutions that meet our business objectives and budgets
– Assist during photoshoots
– Photo research
Opportunities
– Learn from senior designers/art directors
– Understand what graphic designers actually do (no, it’s not what they told you in design school. I mean yes, but also, no)
– Build a portfolio of real-life projects showcasing your skills
Tirso’s advice:
“Everyone wants to move up in their career so fast that they skip the learning in this stage of the career. The more you learn from the people above you, you’ll be a significantly stronger designer later on. If you know how to learn, you’ll have some idea of how to teach. Later in your career, you’ll need to mentor and grow a team. You can’t do that unless you learned everything, to begin with. Take the time to learn. I promise it’ll be worth it.”
Designer
Primary Responsibilities
– Working on more involved projects with less direction needed
– Can begin to lead junior designer
– Support the art director or creative director on larger projects
Opportunities
– Break into an industry
– Get first-hand experience
Tirso’s advice:
“You’ll start to grow in your career a little bit more at this stage. Continue building on your skillset. Larger projects in this position might seem intimidating, but ask questions from your art director or creative director so you can learn how they approach designs.”
Senior Designer
Primary Responsibilities
– Handle design projects on your own with very little direction
– Assist during photoshoots
– Mentor/lead junior designers
– Support the art director or creative director on larger projects
Opportunities
– Learn from art directors and creative directors
– Start to build really impressive projects in your portfolio
– Introduction to art direction
Tirso’s advice:
“As much as we focus on ourselves, pay close attention to mentoring the junior designers. Overlooking someone else’s work will allow you to build your taste in design by seeing what you like and don’t like. Also, providing feedback allows you to work on finding solutions simply from looking at a design, which is an important skill for you to have in the art director stage of your career.”
No matter where you’re at in your career, make sure to do the leg work to get to the next stage. Keep on creating and the best of luck in your job search!
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