Many different types of designers exist. Each of them is important in their own way. If you’ve been in the design field for a long time you probably already know all of this, but in case you don’t this list will give you insight into how broad the design industry is and what type of design field is good for you. It won’t detail every single designer out there as there are too many to name and the design field is constantly evolving, but this list will give a good amount of design professions out there.
Graphic Designer
A graphic designer is skilled in the art of communicating a message and works with different mediums both digital and print. They need to understand typography, color theory, and layout principles. They can work in ad agencies, freelance, and work in other places.
Brand Designer
There are a lot of definitions for what a brand is. Long story short, IMHO, a brand is an identity. A brand is a combination of the tangible and intangible characteristics that make up a business. Being a brand designer can mean making things such as the logo, typeface, color palette, brand strategy, and all the other assets that make a company recognizable.
Motion Graphics Designer
Motion graphics designers will edit and make graphics for videos. This will usually involve them using software such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Media Encoder.
Presentation Designer
Presentation designers make powerpoints for companies. Usually, these people tend to have a background in graphic design or something similar, but not always. Some graphic designers may feel like they are above designing things like PowerPoint presentations because PowerPoint presentations can be made by people without design backgrounds, but I say give it a try. You might like this type of design and have a knack for it just because those design skills you have give you an extra edge.
Infographics Designer
Infographics designers are graphic designers who make design content that is based on data. They take data and make it look visually appealing to whoever is reading it.
Editorial Design
The editorial designer is a graphic designer who specializes in design for print. If it goes on paper, editorial designers are most likely involved. They can make newspapers, magazine covers, book covers, and other related things.
Digital Designer
Digital designers are graphic designers who specialize in designing for digital mediums such as the web, apps, and social media. Other skills that a digital designer might have in their toolbox including motion graphics skills or knowing programming languages like HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
Marketing Designer
Marketing designers make things such as email ads, and content for social media. They work on anything that gets the world to notice the company they work for. They also work on things like brand guidelines and creating a style guide for a company.
UI Designer
UI stands for User Interface. UI designers make the layouts for apps, website layouts, and everything in between. Tools they use can include Figma, Sketch, Invision, Adobe XD, Zeplin among other types of software.
UX Designer
User experience is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the experience behind something that a user uses. If UI is the exoskeleton, then UX is the skeleton underneath it. UI and UX are not the same but they are intertwined, which is why you’ll see the title UI/UX designer used so much.
Product Designer
Product designers are similar to UX/UI designers in that they use the same process to get to their end goal. This process is known as EDIPT also known as Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test. Product designers have to come up with products that are not only good for the users but products that stakeholders approve of.
Visual Designer
If a UI designer and a graphic designer combined their skill sets they would be a visual designer. They make sure that all the graphics and visuals in an interface look nice and work smoothly as well.
Service Designer
Service designers work on improving the customer experience for businesses. The issue with service design is that they aren’t a whole lot of degree programs and bootcamps to learn service design. It’s not necessarily a new field but it’s still being defined and trying to gain momentum when it comes to popularity.
Full-stack Designer
The full-stack designer is kind of new on the list of designers. Full-stack designers are good at are generally good at programming, UI, and UX. Because the title of Full-stack designer is relatively new you won’t find a large number of job postings for these types of designers. Give it a few years and I think things will most likely change.
Web Designer
This one is pretty straightforward. They make layouts for desktop and mobile websites. Most likely they also know how to code to some extent. The programming languages they know would most likely be HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
One of the biggest keys to success for any designer is to continue to learn and grow your skills as a designer otherwise known as upskilling. Upskilling will give you the ability to fit into a variety of places as you are not a one-trick pony. It’s very possible to have a job as a designer where you have more than one title such as but not limited to: digital marketing designer, UI/visual designer, or product/graphic designer. It depends on how a company is structured and the needs that a company has. How much you get paid depends on where you live, the company you work for, and how high up your job title is meaning entry-level, junior, mid-level, senior designer, or even director. The great thing about design is that there are multiple ways to increase your skills. Degree programs, bootcamps, and online courses are all there. Learn in a way that is best for you.
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