What Can You Do with a Graphic Design Major? 15 High-Paying Career Paths
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“You’re majoring in art? Good luck finding a job.” I heard variations of this comment at least fifty times during my college years as a graphic design major. My uncle said it at Thanksgiving. A friend’s parent mentioned it during a graduation party. Even my academic advisor suggested I “keep my options open” by adding a business minor. Three years after graduation, I’m now earning $95,000 annually as a UX designer at a major tech company, more than many of my friends who studied “practical” majors like accounting or marketing.
The question “what can you do with a graphic design major” deserves a comprehensive answer, because the reality is far more diverse and lucrative than most people realize. While traditional graphic design positions certainly exist, today’s graphic design major graduates pursue an astonishing variety of career paths across technology, entertainment, publishing, advertising, healthcare, education, and virtually every other industry. This guide explores fifteen high-paying career options available to graphic design majors, complete with salary expectations, required skills, and strategic advice for positioning yourself for success in each field.
Understanding the complete landscape of graphic design major careers helps you make informed decisions about specialization, skill development, and professional positioning throughout your college years. Whether you’re currently a graphic design major wondering about your future, considering this major and want to understand career prospects, or looking to pivot your design career in a new direction, this comprehensive exploration of jobs you can get with a graphic design major will illuminate possibilities you may not have considered.
Beyond Traditional Design: Expanding Your Career Horizons
The career landscape for graphic design majors has transformed dramatically over the past decade. While foundational design skills remain valuable, the integration of technology, psychology, business strategy, and data science has created entirely new professional categories that welcome graphic design major graduates. Understanding this evolution is essential for maximizing the return on your design education.
Traditional graphic design focused primarily on print media—magazines, posters, packaging, and corporate identity systems. These careers still exist and can be quite lucrative, particularly at senior levels or in specialized niches. However, the digital revolution has expanded what jobs can you get with a graphic design major far beyond these traditional boundaries. Today’s designers work on digital products, create motion graphics for streaming platforms, design virtual reality experiences, develop brand strategies, and lead creative teams across multiple media.
This expansion means graphic design major careers now span a salary range from modest entry-level positions around $40,000-$50,000 to specialized senior roles exceeding $150,000 or even $200,000 annually. The key differentiator isn’t just years of experience—it’s strategic specialization, continuous skill development, and understanding which sectors and roles offer the greatest growth potential. The graphic design majors who thrive professionally are those who view their undergraduate education as a foundation rather than a complete skillset, and who actively cultivate expertise in high-demand specializations throughout their careers.
Core Graphic Design Major Jobs
Despite the exciting expansion into new fields, traditional graphic design positions remain the entry point for most graphic design major graduates. These roles provide essential experience, build professional portfolios, and develop the foundational skills that enable later specialization. Understanding these core positions helps you set realistic expectations for early-career opportunities while planning strategic moves toward higher-paying specializations.
Graphic Designer
The foundational role that most answers the question “what can i do with a graphic design major” is simply Graphic Designer—a professional who creates visual content for various media and purposes. Graphic designers work in-house for corporations, join creative agencies, work for nonprofits, or freelance independently, creating everything from social media graphics and marketing materials to presentation decks and internal communications. This is typically the first position graphic design major graduates pursue immediately after college.
Entry-level graphic designers earn $40,000-$50,000 annually, with mid-career designers earning $55,000-$75,000, and senior graphic designers commanding $75,000-$95,000. Geographic location significantly impacts these figures—designers in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other major metros earn 20-40% more than those in smaller markets. The role requires proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite (particularly Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign), strong typography skills, understanding of composition and color theory, and the ability to translate client briefs into effective visual communications.
What makes graphic designer positions valuable beyond salary is the breadth of experience they provide. Working on diverse projects across multiple media helps graphic design majors discover what types of work they find most fulfilling and where their natural strengths lie. Many designers spend 2-4 years in general graphic design positions before specializing in more lucrative areas like UX design, motion graphics, or art direction. This generalist phase is an investment in your professional development rather than a final destination.
Advertising Designer
Advertising designers specialize in creating persuasive visual content for marketing campaigns across all media—print ads, digital banners, social media campaigns, billboards, and television commercials. This specialization answers “what jobs can you get with a graphic design major” for those who enjoy the strategic challenge of persuasion and the fast-paced environment of campaign work. Advertising designers typically work for advertising agencies, marketing firms, or in-house marketing departments at larger corporations.
Salaries for advertising designers range from $50,000-$65,000 for junior positions to $70,000-$95,000 for experienced designers, with senior advertising designers and associate creative directors earning $100,000-$130,000. Top advertising markets like New York and Los Angeles offer the highest compensation but also the most competitive environments. Success in advertising design requires not just visual skills but also strategic thinking, understanding of consumer psychology, ability to work within brand guidelines while pushing creative boundaries, and resilience in the face of frequent revisions and tight deadlines.
The advertising specialization provides graphic design major graduates with valuable business acumen and strategic thinking skills that translate well to other high-paying design careers. Many creative directors and brand strategists began their careers as advertising designers before moving into leadership or strategic roles. The ability to create work that achieves measurable business results—increased sales, higher engagement, improved brand perception—makes advertising designers particularly valuable and positions them well for career advancement.
Publication Designer
Publication designers create layouts for magazines, newspapers, books, annual reports, and digital publications. This career path appeals to graphic design majors who love typography, enjoy working with long-form content, and appreciate the marriage of text and image that defines editorial design. Publication designers might work for publishing houses, magazines, newspapers, corporations producing annual reports or internal publications, or design studios specializing in editorial work.
Entry to mid-level publication designers typically earn $45,000-$70,000, while senior designers and art directors at major publications can earn $80,000-$110,000. Prestigious publications in major cities offer higher salaries but also face intense competition for positions. The role demands exceptional typography skills, strong understanding of grid systems and layout principles, attention to detail, ability to work within established brand identities while keeping layouts fresh, and increasingly, skills in digital publishing platforms and responsive design for online publications.
While print publication opportunities have contracted somewhat with industry consolidation, demand remains strong for designers who can work across both print and digital platforms. Additionally, many corporations and organizations produce high-end publications (annual reports, customer magazines, thought leadership publications) that require publication design expertise. Graphic design majors interested in this path should develop strong typography skills, build portfolios showcasing layout work, and understand both traditional print production and digital publishing technologies.
Digital and Interactive Careers for Graphic Design Majors
The highest-paying and fastest-growing careers for graphic design major graduates exist in digital and interactive design. These roles combine graphic design foundations with technology, psychology, and strategic thinking, creating positions that command significantly higher salaries than traditional design work. Understanding and preparing for these digital careers dramatically expands what you can do with a major in graphic design.
UX/UI Designer
User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design represents the most lucrative career path for graphic design majors, with salaries ranging from $85,000-$130,000 for experienced designers and exceeding $180,000-$250,000 for senior and principal-level positions. UX designers research user needs and create the overall structure and functionality of digital products, while UI designers focus on the visual interface elements and interactions. Many professionals work across both disciplines, particularly at smaller companies.
According to Glassdoor, the median total salary for UX designers in the US is $109,000 annually, making this the highest-paying career path readily accessible to graphic design major graduates. Entry-level UX/UI designers with 2-4 years of experience earn around $95,000-$109,000, mid-career designers earn $120,000-$150,000, senior UX designers earn $160,000-$180,000, and principal or staff UX designers can earn $200,000-$253,000. These salaries far exceed traditional graphic design positions, making UX/UI design an attractive answer to “what can you do with a graphic design major” for those seeking financial security.
Transitioning from graphic design to UX/UI requires developing additional skills beyond visual design. Essential UX competencies include user research methodologies, information architecture, wireframing and prototyping, usability testing, and interaction design. UI skills build on graphic design foundations but require mastery of design systems, component libraries, responsive design principles, and collaboration with developers. Many graphic design majors successfully make this transition through online courses, bootcamps, self-directed learning, and gradually taking on UX-related projects in their current positions. The investment in learning UX/UI skills typically pays for itself within months through significantly higher earning potential.
Web Designer
Web designers create the visual appearance and layout of websites, working closely with developers to ensure designs are both aesthetically appealing and functionally effective. This career path directly leverages graphic design major skills while adding technical knowledge of web technologies, responsive design, and user experience principles. Web designers work in agencies, as in-house designers for corporations, for digital marketing firms, or as freelancers serving multiple clients.
Salaries for web designers range from $50,000-$65,000 for entry-level positions to $70,000-$95,000 for experienced designers. Specialized web designers focusing on e-commerce, complex web applications, or working in high-paying tech sectors can earn $90,000-$120,000 or more. The role requires proficiency in design tools (Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch), basic understanding of HTML/CSS (even if you don’t code extensively), knowledge of responsive and mobile-first design, understanding of web accessibility standards, and familiarity with content management systems like WordPress.
What distinguishes successful web designers from struggling ones is understanding the strategic and technical context of their work. Web design isn’t just making websites look pretty—it’s creating interfaces that achieve business goals, convert visitors to customers, communicate brand values, and function flawlessly across devices. Graphic design majors who develop this strategic perspective, combined with solid technical foundations, position themselves for the higher end of web design salaries and create pathways to UX design, product design, or creative director roles.
Motion Graphics Designer
Motion graphics designers create animated visual content for film, television, streaming platforms, advertising, social media, and user interfaces. This career path appeals to graphic design majors who love animation, enjoy storytelling through moving images, and want to work in entertainment, advertising, or digital media. Motion graphics designers might work for production studios, advertising agencies, streaming platforms, broadcast networks, or as freelancers.
Motion graphics designers earn $60,000-$80,000 at entry levels, $80,000-$110,000 at mid-career levels, and $110,000-$140,000 or more at senior levels. Designers working for major entertainment companies, top advertising agencies, or in specialized niches like broadcast design can earn even higher salaries. The role requires mastery of After Effects (the industry standard), understanding of animation principles, strong sense of timing and pacing, 3D software skills (Cinema 4D, Blender), and increasingly, understanding of real-time engines like Unreal Engine for interactive motion graphics.
The motion graphics field has grown dramatically with the explosion of video content across digital platforms. Every social media platform prioritizes video, streaming services produce massive amounts of content requiring motion graphics, and even traditional print brands now create video content. This sustained demand makes motion graphics an increasingly attractive answer to “what jobs can you get with a graphic design major” for visually-oriented designers who enjoy the technical challenges of animation. Graphic design majors can transition to motion graphics through online tutorials, personal projects, and gradually incorporating animation into their design work.
Specialized and Niche Jobs You Can Get with a Graphic Design Major
Beyond core design positions and digital roles, numerous specialized careers offer exceptional compensation for graphic design major graduates who develop specific expertise. These niche positions often command premium salaries because they require both design skills and additional specialized knowledge. Understanding these opportunities helps answer “what can i do with a graphic design major” in ways that maximize both earning potential and career satisfaction.
Branding Specialist / Brand Identity Designer
Brand identity designers create comprehensive visual systems that define how organizations present themselves across all touchpoints—logos, color palettes, typography systems, photography styles, illustration approaches, and application guidelines. This specialization appeals to graphic design majors who think systematically, enjoy strategic challenges, and want to create work with lasting organizational impact. Brand identity designers work for branding agencies, design studios, as in-house brand managers, or as independent consultants.
Salaries for brand identity designers range from $60,000-$75,000 for junior designers to $75,000-$100,000 for mid-career specialists. Senior brand strategists and directors can earn $100,000-$150,000 or more, particularly at prestigious agencies or in consultant roles. The role requires deep understanding of semiotics and visual meaning, strategic thinking and business acumen, comprehensive knowledge of design systems, excellent presentation and communication skills, and ability to defend creative decisions to skeptical stakeholders.
What makes branding particularly valuable as a career path is its strategic nature and high-stakes impact. A successful brand identity can transform an organization’s market position, and executives understand this value. This strategic importance means experienced brand identity designers are consulted at executive levels and compensated accordingly. Graphic design majors interested in branding should develop strong conceptual thinking, study business and marketing, and build portfolios showcasing systematic thinking rather than just pretty logos.
Information Designer / Data Visualization Specialist
Information designers translate complex data and information into clear, compelling visual forms—infographics, data dashboards, interactive visualizations, wayfinding systems, and instructional graphics. This specialization suits graphic design majors who enjoy analytical thinking, have aptitude for understanding complex information systems, and want to make meaningful impact by making information accessible. Information designers work for news organizations, research institutions, healthcare organizations, government agencies, consulting firms, or as independent specialists.
Information designers typically earn $65,000-$85,000 at mid-career levels, with senior specialists and those with data science skills earning $90,000-$130,000. The highest salaries go to information designers working in tech, finance, or consulting, where data visualization skills are highly valued. Success requires understanding of data and statistics, ability to identify meaningful patterns and insights, mastery of information hierarchy and visual organization, technical skills in data visualization tools (D3.js, Tableau, etc.), and increasingly, coding skills for interactive visualizations.
Information design has grown increasingly important as organizations struggle with “information overload” and need skilled professionals who can make complex data understandable. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical importance of effective information design, as public health communications required clear visualization of complex epidemiological data. This growing recognition of information design’s strategic value makes it an increasingly lucrative specialization for graphic design major graduates with analytical inclinations.
Art Director
Art directors supervise creative teams, make high-level visual decisions for projects and campaigns, and ensure creative work aligns with strategic objectives. This is typically a mid-to-senior level position that graphic design majors work toward after gaining experience in specialized design roles. Art directors work in advertising agencies, design studios, publishing houses, entertainment companies, corporate creative departments, or as freelance creative leads.
Art director salaries range from $70,000-$90,000 for junior art directors to $90,000-$130,000 for experienced professionals. Senior art directors and associate creative directors at major agencies can earn $130,000-$180,000 or more. The role requires broad design expertise across multiple media, leadership and team management skills, strategic thinking and business understanding, excellent communication and presentation abilities, and creative vision combined with practical execution knowledge.
Becoming an art director typically requires 5-10 years of design experience, a strong portfolio demonstrating range and excellence, and proven ability to lead projects successfully. Many graphic design majors pursue this path by excelling in specialized design roles, gradually taking on more responsibility, mentoring junior designers, and positioning themselves as creative leaders within their organizations. Art director roles represent a natural career progression for designers who enjoy the leadership and strategic aspects of creative work as much as the hands-on design itself.
3D Designer / 3D Modeler
3D designers create three-dimensional digital assets for product visualization, architectural rendering, game design, animation, virtual reality, augmented reality, and motion graphics. This technical specialization attracts graphic design majors interested in spatial design, cutting-edge technology, and working in entertainment, product design, or emerging media. 3D designers work for game studios, animation companies, product design firms, architectural practices, advertising agencies, or as freelancers.
3D designers earn $55,000-$75,000 at entry levels, $75,000-$100,000 at mid-career, and $100,000-$140,000 or more at senior and specialized levels. Those working in major entertainment hubs or specializing in high-demand areas like real-time 3D for games or AR/VR can earn even higher salaries. The role requires mastery of 3D software (Blender, Cinema 4D, Maya, 3ds Max), understanding of lighting, materials, and rendering, spatial reasoning and form-making ability, increasingly, real-time 3D skills using game engines, and often specialized knowledge in specific domains (character modeling, hard surface modeling, architectural visualization).
The 3D specialization has become increasingly accessible to graphic design majors as software becomes more user-friendly and online educational resources proliferate. Many designers start incorporating 3D elements into their 2D work, gradually building skills and portfolios that enable full-time 3D careers. With the growth of AR/VR, 3D printing, and real-time rendering, this specialization offers strong long-term career prospects for graphic design major graduates willing to invest in technical skill development.
Emerging High-Value Careers
Several cutting-edge career paths are emerging that offer exceptional opportunities for forward-thinking graphic design major graduates. These roles combine design skills with emerging technologies and methodologies, creating positions with excellent growth potential and premium compensation.
AR/VR Designer
Augmented reality and virtual reality designers create immersive digital experiences for gaming, education, retail, training, healthcare, and entertainment. This emerging field offers salaries ranging from $90,000-$120,000 for mid-level designers to $140,000-$176,000 for experienced specialists. The role requires 3D design skills, understanding of spatial design and human perception, UX design knowledge adapted for immersive environments, and technical skills with Unity or Unreal Engine.
Product Designer
Product designers work on digital products (apps, software, platforms), combining UX research, interaction design, visual design, and strategic thinking. Salaries range from $90,000-$120,000 for mid-level designers to $135,000-$180,000 for senior product designers at tech companies. This role bridges UX design and traditional graphic design, offering excellent career prospects for graphic design majors in tech.
Creative Director
Creative directors lead entire creative departments, set vision and strategy, and make ultimate creative decisions across organizations or agencies. This senior leadership position offers compensation ranging from $120,000-$200,000 or more depending on organization size and industry. Reaching creative director level typically requires 10-15 years of experience, proven creative and strategic leadership, and exceptional portfolios.
Freelancing and Entrepreneurship
One of the most attractive aspects of answering “what can you do with a graphic design major” is the viability of independent practice. Many graphic design major graduates pursue freelancing or entrepreneurship, offering flexibility, autonomy, and potentially unlimited earning potential.
Specialized Freelance Designer
Freelance designers specializing in high-value niches (branding, UX, motion graphics, 3D) can earn $60,000-$120,000 or significantly more annually. Success requires not just design skills but also business development, client management, project management, and financial management abilities. The freelance path offers maximum flexibility but also requires entrepreneurial mindset and tolerance for income variability.
Design Studio Owner
Some graphic design majors eventually launch their own studios, hiring teams and serving multiple clients. Studio owners’ income varies dramatically based on size and specialization, but successful studios can generate significant revenue. This entrepreneurial path requires design excellence, business acumen, leadership skills, and sustained commitment to building a practice.
Salaries and Job Growth Summary
To synthesize the salary information for various jobs you can get with a graphic design major, here’s a comprehensive overview of earning potential across career paths:
| Career Path | Entry-Level | Mid-Career | Senior-Level | Peak Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graphic Designer | $40k-$50k | $55k-$75k | $75k-$95k | $95k-$110k |
| Web Designer | $50k-$65k | $70k-$90k | $90k-$110k | $110k-$130k |
| Motion Graphics Designer | $60k-$75k | $80k-$100k | $100k-$130k | $130k-$150k |
| Brand Identity Designer | $60k-$75k | $75k-$95k | $95k-$120k | $120k-$150k |
| UX/UI Designer | $85k-$95k | $109k-$130k | $160k-$180k | $200k-$253k |
| Product Designer | $90k-$110k | $120k-$140k | $140k-$170k | $170k-$200k |
| Art Director | $70k-$90k | $90k-$120k | $120k-$150k | $150k-$180k |
| Creative Director | $100k-$130k | $130k-$170k | $170k-$220k | $220k-$300k+ |
| AR/VR Designer | $85k-$100k | $110k-$140k | $140k-$176k | $176k-$200k+ |
| 3D Designer | $55k-$70k | $75k-$95k | $95k-$125k | $125k-$150k |
These figures demonstrate that what you can do with a major in graphic design includes career paths ranging from solid middle-class earnings to genuinely lucrative positions rivaling traditional high-paying professions.
Strategic Career Development for Graphic Design Majors
Understanding graphic design major careers is only valuable if you strategically position yourself for success in your chosen path. Several key strategies maximize your career prospects and earning potential.
Specialize Strategically
The data clearly shows that specialized designers earn significantly more than generalists. Rather than remaining a general graphic designer throughout your career, identify a specialization that aligns with your interests and market demand, then systematically develop expertise in that area. UX/UI design, motion graphics, 3D design, and brand strategy all offer substantially higher earning potential than general graphic design.
Build T-Shaped Skills
The most successful graphic design major graduates develop T-shaped skills: broad competency across design fundamentals (the horizontal bar of the T) combined with deep expertise in one or two specializations (the vertical bar). This combination makes you versatile enough to contribute to diverse projects while specialized enough to command premium compensation. For example, a designer with broad skills across print and digital media but deep expertise in UX design and data visualization is far more valuable than someone with only surface-level knowledge across many areas.
Never Stop Learning
The most consistent finding across all research on graphic design major jobs is that continuous learning is essential. Design tools, technologies, and best practices evolve rapidly, and designers who stop learning quickly become obsolete. Successful designers invest in courses, workshops, conferences, and self-directed learning throughout their careers. This commitment to growth isn’t optional—it’s the price of maintaining relevance and competitive earning power in design careers.
Cultivate Business Understanding
The highest-paid designers aren’t necessarily the most talented artists—they’re the ones who understand how design creates business value. Developing strategic thinking, learning about marketing and business, understanding metrics and ROI, and communicating in business terms dramatically increases your value to employers and clients. This business acumen distinguishes designers who plateau at mid-level positions from those who advance to art director, creative director, and executive roles.
Conclusion
The question “what can you do with a graphic design major” has a far richer answer than most people imagine. From traditional graphic design positions starting around $40,000-$50,000 annually to specialized roles like UX design, creative direction, and AR/VR design offering $120,000-$250,000 or more, the career landscape for graphic design major graduates is diverse, dynamic, and genuinely lucrative for those who approach it strategically.
The keys to success are clear: develop strong foundational design skills during your undergraduate years, identify promising specializations that align with your interests and market demand, commit to continuous learning throughout your career, and cultivate business understanding alongside creative abilities. Graphic design majors who follow this approach consistently build satisfying careers with solid earning potential across an astonishing variety of industries and roles.
If you’re currently considering whether to major in graphic design, let the breadth of career opportunities reassure you that this path offers genuine professional possibilities. If you’re already a graphic design major, use this guide to think strategically about your skill development and specialization choices. And if you’re a practicing designer looking to increase your earning potential, identify which high-value specializations appeal to you and create a plan to develop the necessary expertise. The opportunities are there—what you do with your graphic design major is ultimately up to you.
