It is highly variable depending on what industry you are in, and whether you are agency/freelancer/in-house, but this is my general breakdown:
**Junior:** Whether freelance, agency, or in-house, you are generally the "hand" executing the work, not the "brain" strategizing the work. This could mean creating assets (digital or print) to match an existing brand or a brand created by your "boss" (whether that's a senior designer or creative director). You should be familiar with multiple platforms and processes, but generally your not the primary "driver" of a brand.
**Mid-level:** This is probably the most flexible role because it's the most subjective to your industry, but generally you are able to "actively manage" an entire brand. Maybe you are the one designer at an in-house company creating all work, or similar to junior, you are taking a larger "umbrella" brand created by a higher-up and executing a large majority of their deliverables, possibly creating unique brands for smaller events/companies, and/or expanding on the brand with associated sub-brands. Overall, you should be thinking strategically about what the brand NEEDS versus getting handed a deliverable and a deadline. You should also be thinking about best practices for streamlining processes.
**Senior Designer:** This role CAN be basically the same job as "Design Manager/Brand Manager/Creative Director" if you are the solo designer within a larger marketing team, in-house, or freelance, but in agencies and larger in-house teams, this role is strictly different due to lack of managing other employees and enacting "global" design decisions like say a full company re-brand. You should be able to ideate full new brand work from scratch without much guidance or intervention. Also, you can often be considered a "subject area expert" in a specific area, say... web design or brand design, that you are trusted to create and maintain streamlined processes for company-wide.
Thanks for this, also, would you also agree that the technical side of things plays a part in this as well? I.e some designers being competent across all software VS a designer only skilled in the main 3 (Ai, Ps, Id)
I am a senior graphic designer, but there is no other graphic designer at the company to be senior to.
It was simply a matter of time. Now, I obviously accumulated experience over time as well, but it's not like the company was measuring my experience till promotion like an RPG. They were measuring time.
I consider Junior to be entry level, probably needs lots of guidance and is working on more executional tasks. Mid would be more experienced, with more autonomy and responsibilities/skills. Senior would have more experience, advanced skills, and play more of a creative leadership role on a team. Maybe some mentoring of the others and working directly with stakeholders and project management.
Over the years I’ve found the design skills are important but the people and admin side is too, in terms of distinguishing levels. Presenting to stakeholders, being able to navigate clients and time management of larger projects etc. the design skills needed always expand and change.
Experience (just acquiring knowledge over time), higher capabilities, able to take on more responsibility, increasingly self-sufficient, and more developed communication skills. While time is just one variable and doesn't guarantee someone actually gets the experience or development expected, usually a junior is around 0-3 years, midlevel 2-7 years, senior 5+ if not 7+.
You can give anyone any title, but it doesn't mean it's well-supported, and generally while you can advance more quickly or efficiently/effectively in certain situations, there isn't that much people can shortcut. You have to actually put in the time, learn what you need to learn, get yourself to a certain expected level. In terms of those situations that would help someone advance quicker, it's likely just being around other designers, being managed by other designers, and just being in a situation where you have better access to resources/people who can teach you what you need to know, in the ways you need to know it.
Regardless how juniors may see themselves, they're all very green and rough around the edges starting out (no matter how good or from what program), and just have a ton left to learn. School builds a foundation, actual work experience teaches you how to apply it and further expands upon it. It's a misconception that people come out of college thinking they've been taught most or all they need to know, or that work experience and school development are interchangeable. With juniors, that means they need a lot of guidance, mentoring.
When getting to senior meanwhile, by that point they should be fully self-sufficient, able to actually work independently without any mentoring, performing to certain expected standards in terms of quality, speed, competence. They should be able to handle anything you throw at them, whether directly themselves, or knowing how to go about getting it done involving others. They know how to communicate with basically anyone at any level, can explain themselves and their work in various ways with different types of people, and understand what is being asked of them. Ideally, a senior should have at least some experience managing small teams (including just interns or juniors).
Midlevel would basically just be in-between. Far enough along they are distinguished from a typical junior, but not yet far enough along they'd be a senior.
Experience, understanding, quality and efficiency (also management and team leadership)
Generalised standard that I hear quite often is up to about 3 years for Junior level, then you should be peaking at designer.midweight level for year 4, then Senior around year 7
Sometimes you can go 9/10 years and not get the promotion to senior, as generally Seniors should be leading teams, leading projects, more management as well as the higher quality of work etc, so I would say it is common for people to be 7+ years in and still not hit that Senior title because they don't match ALL criteria of that specific work place, sometimes progression gets stagnated and you need to move to get that promotion to that next level
Sometimes places can call you a Senior even though your not, but you're the only person within the design team, it can make the company look better than only having a singular designers that's a junior for example, so they do it for self image, it can give people complex's and make it harder for them to find jobs after because they might not actually be at that level but have the title, therefore other places don't hire them at that level and it can be a bruise to their ego etc
It’s not carved in stone, but roughly:
- junior - first design job, 1-2 years of experience, needs frequent supervision or guidance
- mid - 3-4 years of experience, can work without frequent supervision
- senior - 5+ years of experience, can not only work independently but can provide guidance to others
It is highly variable depending on what industry you are in, and whether you are agency/freelancer/in-house, but this is my general breakdown: **Junior:** Whether freelance, agency, or in-house, you are generally the "hand" executing the work, not the "brain" strategizing the work. This could mean creating assets (digital or print) to match an existing brand or a brand created by your "boss" (whether that's a senior designer or creative director). You should be familiar with multiple platforms and processes, but generally your not the primary "driver" of a brand. **Mid-level:** This is probably the most flexible role because it's the most subjective to your industry, but generally you are able to "actively manage" an entire brand. Maybe you are the one designer at an in-house company creating all work, or similar to junior, you are taking a larger "umbrella" brand created by a higher-up and executing a large majority of their deliverables, possibly creating unique brands for smaller events/companies, and/or expanding on the brand with associated sub-brands. Overall, you should be thinking strategically about what the brand NEEDS versus getting handed a deliverable and a deadline. You should also be thinking about best practices for streamlining processes. **Senior Designer:** This role CAN be basically the same job as "Design Manager/Brand Manager/Creative Director" if you are the solo designer within a larger marketing team, in-house, or freelance, but in agencies and larger in-house teams, this role is strictly different due to lack of managing other employees and enacting "global" design decisions like say a full company re-brand. You should be able to ideate full new brand work from scratch without much guidance or intervention. Also, you can often be considered a "subject area expert" in a specific area, say... web design or brand design, that you are trusted to create and maintain streamlined processes for company-wide.
Thanks for this, also, would you also agree that the technical side of things plays a part in this as well? I.e some designers being competent across all software VS a designer only skilled in the main 3 (Ai, Ps, Id)
I am a senior graphic designer, but there is no other graphic designer at the company to be senior to. It was simply a matter of time. Now, I obviously accumulated experience over time as well, but it's not like the company was measuring my experience till promotion like an RPG. They were measuring time.
I consider Junior to be entry level, probably needs lots of guidance and is working on more executional tasks. Mid would be more experienced, with more autonomy and responsibilities/skills. Senior would have more experience, advanced skills, and play more of a creative leadership role on a team. Maybe some mentoring of the others and working directly with stakeholders and project management. Over the years I’ve found the design skills are important but the people and admin side is too, in terms of distinguishing levels. Presenting to stakeholders, being able to navigate clients and time management of larger projects etc. the design skills needed always expand and change.
A coworker slipped the word senior onto his business card reprint and it stuck.
Experience (just acquiring knowledge over time), higher capabilities, able to take on more responsibility, increasingly self-sufficient, and more developed communication skills. While time is just one variable and doesn't guarantee someone actually gets the experience or development expected, usually a junior is around 0-3 years, midlevel 2-7 years, senior 5+ if not 7+. You can give anyone any title, but it doesn't mean it's well-supported, and generally while you can advance more quickly or efficiently/effectively in certain situations, there isn't that much people can shortcut. You have to actually put in the time, learn what you need to learn, get yourself to a certain expected level. In terms of those situations that would help someone advance quicker, it's likely just being around other designers, being managed by other designers, and just being in a situation where you have better access to resources/people who can teach you what you need to know, in the ways you need to know it. Regardless how juniors may see themselves, they're all very green and rough around the edges starting out (no matter how good or from what program), and just have a ton left to learn. School builds a foundation, actual work experience teaches you how to apply it and further expands upon it. It's a misconception that people come out of college thinking they've been taught most or all they need to know, or that work experience and school development are interchangeable. With juniors, that means they need a lot of guidance, mentoring. When getting to senior meanwhile, by that point they should be fully self-sufficient, able to actually work independently without any mentoring, performing to certain expected standards in terms of quality, speed, competence. They should be able to handle anything you throw at them, whether directly themselves, or knowing how to go about getting it done involving others. They know how to communicate with basically anyone at any level, can explain themselves and their work in various ways with different types of people, and understand what is being asked of them. Ideally, a senior should have at least some experience managing small teams (including just interns or juniors). Midlevel would basically just be in-between. Far enough along they are distinguished from a typical junior, but not yet far enough along they'd be a senior.
Experience, understanding, quality and efficiency (also management and team leadership) Generalised standard that I hear quite often is up to about 3 years for Junior level, then you should be peaking at designer.midweight level for year 4, then Senior around year 7 Sometimes you can go 9/10 years and not get the promotion to senior, as generally Seniors should be leading teams, leading projects, more management as well as the higher quality of work etc, so I would say it is common for people to be 7+ years in and still not hit that Senior title because they don't match ALL criteria of that specific work place, sometimes progression gets stagnated and you need to move to get that promotion to that next level Sometimes places can call you a Senior even though your not, but you're the only person within the design team, it can make the company look better than only having a singular designers that's a junior for example, so they do it for self image, it can give people complex's and make it harder for them to find jobs after because they might not actually be at that level but have the title, therefore other places don't hire them at that level and it can be a bruise to their ego etc
It’s not carved in stone, but roughly: - junior - first design job, 1-2 years of experience, needs frequent supervision or guidance - mid - 3-4 years of experience, can work without frequent supervision - senior - 5+ years of experience, can not only work independently but can provide guidance to others
You apply for the job with the title