As a creative person, you enjoy combining shapes, colours, lines, and other elements to create a work of art. Your aesthetic and visual-spatial senses encourage you to create designs that please your eyes.
But did you know you can turn your hobby into a lucrative career? Yes, you read that correctly: your creativity and imagination can lead you to a secure job.
That way, you can get a full-time job instead of earning money on the side through art commissions or multiple gigs. Working a full-time job may also provide a sense of contentment as you can earn a monthly salary without looking for jobs on your own.
As you read this article, you will find several types of design jobs that allow you to actualise your creativity while rewarding you with a secure income for your living. Continue reading to find one specialisation that suits your interest!
Why Should I Consider A Career in Design?
Aside from having a strong sense of art and a desire to pursue a career as a designer, it would help if you also had a convincing reason before considering a job in this industry. If you’re yet to have a definite purpose for landing a career as a designer, we’ll guide you through below:
Big Career Opportunities
Many industries nowadays are looking to expand their potential markets through creative approaches. It’s a fact that well-designed promotional materials are more likely to attract their audience; thus, career opportunities for designers will continue to grow.
Additionally, as digital marketing trends evolve, these industries will require a strong online presence. Developing a strong online presence involves showing visually intriguing materials, such as landing pages, social media pages, infographics, and many more.
High Salary
Industries that use visual approaches to attract a wider audience are competing with similar enterprises which use similar methods. Because of the fierce competition, they are willing to hire highly skilled designers who will create designs that increase awareness and generate higher profitability.
Hiring highly skilled designers is not cheap, and they must allocate a larger pay rate budget. If you want to be a designer, this is a good sign; just make sure you qualify as a high-paying designer.
Following Your Passion
There’s nothing more enjoyable than getting paid to do what you love. So, if designing is your passion, then you should go for it!
10 Types of Design Jobs
Now, as you’ve gathered enough purpose to land a career in the creative industry as an aspiring designer, we’ll help you identify the types of design jobs you can choose. Read further to pick one of these 10 design job specialisations!
- Web Designer
Web designers are typically IT professionals who oversee website layout, appearance, and usability. They focus more on the aesthetics of a website than on programme development but knowing a little coding will help them understand the perspective of web developers.
What is Web Design?
Web design is an activity that involves the responsibility of a web designer –from layouting, setting the site’s appearance, and ensuring the usability of the site. During the process of web designing, a designer must set the right colour palette, font, theme, and many others according to the site’s brand identity.
As a result, the design will effectively represent the website’s niche and communicate its goals to the audience. As a result, a web designer must have a thorough understanding of design theory to attract website visitors’ attention.
What Industry Usually Need Web Designers?
Digital-based and similar industries looking to expand their markets through the internet will need web designers to craft their online presence. They could, for example, create their websites without the assistance of web designers, but this will take more time and no one can guarantee the quality of the final product.
Therefore, these industries will not want to jeopardise their business by having unprofessional websites. By having a sloppy website, they risk losing potential customers, which can negatively affect them.
Web Designers Salary
According to Glassdoor, the average monthly salary for web designers in Singapore is 4,505 SGD. The figure can increase depending on years of experience and the industry offering the position, which can go up to 7,825 SGD per month.
- Game Designer
A game designer is someone who creates game visualisations. They are in charge of making the game look appealing and enjoyable to play, whether in console or PC mode.
What is Game Design?
Everything a game designer does is part of the game design process. It usually entails creating the game’s environment, characters, plot, and layout. In addition to that, game designers may also need to visualise life-sized environments, especially if the game enables augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) modes.
In some cases, a game designer may also write the code, making them both a game designer and a developer. A game designer who also works as a game developer, on the other hand, is usually a highly skilled professional who requires a higher salary.
Most importantly, a designer must consider the gaming aspects from the audience’s perspective during the game design process. They must ensure that the gaming visualisation is compelling enough to keep players engaged and having fun.
What Industry Usually Need Game Designers?
Game designers typically work at gaming companies like Ubisoft, Naughty Dog, and Santa Monica Studio. These companies require their capabilities to help them develop new games and improve existing ones.
Additionally, in the gaming industry, game designers will work in a team consisting of other designers and programmers. A typical day in the gaming industry may be stressful and filled with tight deadlines, thus they need the problem-solving skills to thrive.
Game Designers Salary
In Singapore, the average base monthly salary for game designers is 3,450 SGD, according to Glassdoor. However, the figure does not include additional cash compensation, which can average up to 3,650 SGD per month.
Years of experience and the hiring company, on the other hand, could also impact the amount of salary they receive. Starting onStating to the same site, Glassdoor, game designers in Singapore can earn as high as 7,800 SGD per month.
- Graphic Designer
Graphic designers are professionals that serve as the foundation for the various branches of the design field. If you’re an aspiring graphic designer, you would have wider career options as any type of industry will need your artistic capabilities to help with their visualisation.
What is Graphic Design?
Graphic design is visualising messages through a combination of typography, illustrations, colour palettes, and many more that effectively catch the eye of the audience. You can see graphic design outputs on almost everyday things, such as billboards, product packaging, social media posts, and many others.
Because of the audience’s short attention spans, delivering messages through words alone may be insufficient for any type of company –thus, graphic design has a significant role in persuading, informing, directing, and attracting the audience’s attention.
What Industry Usually Need Graphic Designers?
Industries that need graphic designers range from creative agencies and news media to SMEs. In short, almost any enterprise looking to expand its markets through visual communication will need a graphic designer.
Hiring graphic designers, on the other hand, will assist these companies in thriving as graphic designers understand design theory. It is critical to create designs that adhere to design theory. Otherwise, the design will appear clunky and confuse the audience, resulting in ineffective message delivery.
Graphic Designers Salary
According to Payscale, the average annual salary for graphic designers is 30,820 SGD. The figure, however, is subject to years of experience and the hiring companies. For example, graphic designers with 20+ years of experience could earn up to 47,000 SGD annually. You can plan your career as graphic designer by joining graphic design course.
- User Interface (UI) Designer
UI designers are those who create the visual appearance of mobile and desktop applications. They may also design the website’s layout to make it aesthetically pleasing and intuitive for the users to interact with.
What is UI Design?
UI design is a branch of design discipline that focuses on visualising apps and website appearance. The main goal of UI design is to ensure that the user feels comfortable while interacting with the apps and websites, thus they’re willing to spend a longer time on them.
For that reason, the concern of UI design should be on the users. The designers must develop their empathy towards the user and create the appearance to be visually appealing. In most cases, UI designers will collaborate with UX designers to ensure that the final product is both enticing and simple to use.
What Industry Usually Need UI Designers?
Because of the growth in digitalisation, UI designers are in high demand, resulting in a high level of job security. In most cases, industries that strongly emphasise digital innovation will hire UI designers.
The companies requiring UI designers may include IT, software, and information technology industries. In addition, UI designers will work with a team of other UI designers, UX designers, and front-end developers –ensuring that the design they create will work effectively.
UI Designers Salary
According to Payscale, the average yearly salary for user interface designers in Singapore is 46,419 SGD. However, the figure could be affected by benefits, which average 4,000 SGD per year.
The data statistics also show that the number of years of experience can affect the salary of UI designers. Designers with less than a year of experience, for example, would be paid 38,000 SGD per year. Those with 5 – 9 years of experience, on the other hand, could earn 48,000 SGD per year.
- User Experience (UX) Designer
Do you ever think about how an application or website can be either simple or difficult to use? If this is the case, the ease or difficulty of interacting with an application or website is heavily influenced by how they design its User Experience or UX.
What is UX Design?
UX design is the process of creating the appearance of an application or website so that it is simple to use. Typically, it involves organising several features in an application or website in such a way that the user can quickly understand and interact with it intuitively.
Since the primary goal of UX design is to create an appearance that allows users to use the product easily, UX designers must concentrate on developing intuitive designs that can assist users in navigating through the product.
Users would become frustrated and abandon the apps or websites if the design was not intuitive. It may result in unresolved problems that users are attempting to solve with the products.
What Industry Usually Need UX Designers?
Industries that rely on digital platforms to offer their services are usually those that require UX designers the most. We can take healthcare, education, and software companies as an example.
By hiring UX designers, they can effectively solve their customers’ needs. When their customers think their platforms are easy to use, they will most likely trust their services and use them repeatedly –thus increasing their profitability and customer loyalty in the long run.
UX Designers Salary
According to Glassdoor, the average monthly salary for UX designers in Singapore is 4,500 SGD. However, the amount is subject to additional cash compensation, which can total up to 5,325 SGD per month.
Most notably, due to the high demand for this position, statistics show that UX designers in Singapore can earn up to $17,000 per month. To earn this generous pay, however, one must be highly skilled and have several years of experience. You can start to plan your career as UX designer by joining UX designer course.
- Illustrator
Many people mix up the terms illustrators and graphic designers and use them interchangeably. It happens for a reason and mostly because many companies hire only one person to fill these two distinct roles.
What is Illustration?
An illustration is a process of creating visualisation to make many objects look more attractive. The artists, or illustrators, will draw the visualisation, either digitally or on paper, to create the desired output.
While graphic design focuses on conveying messages through visualisation, illustration is all about developing original work of art that resonates well with the products that you want to improve to be more aesthetically appealing.
What Industry Usually Need Illustrators?
Illustrators typically work in various industries, such as book publishing, production houses, and advertising agencies. However, the list of industries can expand as long as they create products that rely on captivating visuals.
Illustrators, on the other hand, can work for themselves. Several illustrators collaborate with creative writers to create comics, for example. The comics they create can then be published digitally or in print editions.
Illustrators Salary
According to Payscale, the average annual salary for illustrators in Singapore is 35,799 SGD. Though it may appear tight, illustrators often receive additional compensation, which can make their salaries higher than stated.
The years of experience can also affect the salary illustrators receive. Payscale notes that illustrators with 5 – 9 years of experience can earn up to 60,000 SGD per year. As a result, you don’t need to be concerned about your junior salary because you’ll earn more as time goes on.
- Film and video editor
Film and video editors play an important role in creating visually appealing results. Without them, movies and videos can become dull and lack a sense of cinematic art.
What is Film and Video Editing?
Film and video editing is the art of combining various audiovisual elements. It’s mostly done through computer software such as Adobe Premiere, iMovie, Adobe After Effects, and many more.
By using the editing software, film and video editors can trim, edit, and apply transitions and effects to the video. Not only that, but they can also adjust the colouring and add supporting graphics to the content.
Audio producers and film and video editors may work together. After the audio producers have completed the audio materials, the editors must insert and adjust them into the video. As a result, high-quality audiovisual content will be produced.
What Industry Usually Needs Film and Video Editors?
Job opportunities for film and video editors are wide. It is because many enterprises and corporations need their expertise, such as news television media, content creators, production houses, and many more.
As we discussed earlier, the final audiovisual output would be lame and boring without the help of editors. Therefore, as an aspiring film and video editor, you must hone your skills and taste; thus your chance of you getting your desired job could increase.
Film and Video Editors’ Salary
According to Glassdoor, the average monthly salary for video editors is 2,600 SGD. The number could be higher because there is usually additional cash compensation, which could amount to 3,000 SGD per month.
Furthermore, the years of experience and hiring companies would also determine the salary that video editors receive. Glassdoor states that video editors in Singapore could earn pay as generous as 12,000 SGD per month.
- Animator
Have you ever thought about how Studio Ghibli, Madhouse, and Ufotable films were created? If you did, then it is because they hire multiple excellent animators who create animations by representing real-life situations.
What is Animation?
Animation is the art of making cartoon objects that look like they are moving. In traditional animation, the movement process is created by combining several images. Meanwhile, modern animation manipulation techniques can make use of computer software such as
- Adobe Character Animator
- Autodesk Maya
- Cinema 4D
- Powtoon
- Adobe Animate
- Blender
In addition, the animators must also create characters that match the storyline. They also need to consider the uniqueness of each character. For example, the superhero abilities that exist in some characters.
What Industry Usually Need Animators?
The most common industries requiring animators are animation production companies and studios. They require the animators’ artistic abilities to continue producing animations that sell well in the market.
If you want to be an animator, you should start by applying for jobs at small and medium-sized businesses. Only after you have gained experience and a strong portfolio can you advance your career by joining larger corporations.
Animators Salary
According to Glassdoor, the average monthly salary for animators in the Singapore area is 3,000 SGD. Please understand that the number could be higher as the stated amount is subject to compensationcompensations and benefits.
Furthermore, the years of experience and your portfolio could affect your salary positively. Therefore, make sure that you seriously hone your animation skills so that you can earn more money in the future.
- Photographer
Photographers are those who capture real-life objects and make them look appealing. To do so, they must understand various aspects of photography, including angles, lighting, composition, and many more.
What is Photography?
Photography is the art of capturing lights using a camera. The captured lights will then be converted into an image.
Photography can be done with either a digital or an analogue camera. If you use a digital camera, the images are automatically saved on the memory card and are viewable on a computer. Analogue cameras, on the other hand, require films that must be washed before the final images can be seen.
Moreover, photography requires several techniques, which you must adhere to if you wish to produce high-quality images. For example, you must understand the objects’ composition, angles, colour combinations, and lightness. As a result, simply clicking the camera will not result in appealing images.
What Industry Usually Need Photographers?
In the photography industry, there are several specialities that photographers can choose from, such as photojournalists, portrait photographers, still-life photographers, and many more. For that reason, the hiring industry will depend on the photographers’ specialisation.
For example, news media corporations will require photojournalists to capture various news events. They also expect the photojournalists they hire to be able to tell stories through the objects they capture.
On the other hand, portrait photographers may be suitable for work in event organisers. Typically, event organisers will juggle multiple projects, such as a birthday party, wedding, newborn celebration, etc. Portrait photographers will be the ones to capture the moment beautifully.
Photographers Salary
According to Indeed, photographers’ average monthly base salary is 2,549 SGD. It’s important to note that the stated salary may be subject to bonuses, benefits, and other factors. As a result, the salary of photographers in Singapore will likely be higher than stated.
- Brand designer
Brand designers put together a visual representation of a brand to make a certain impression on the eye of the audience. Many people often confuse brand designers with graphic designers. Yet, these two professions are different from one another.
What is Brand Design?
Brand design is the process of developing a brand’s visual identity that resembles its signature look. It is also the art of highlighting the brand visually and making it easily recognisable in the highly competitive market.
For that reason, brand design requires extensive research on the target market, particularly the psychological aspects of the audience after seeing certain types of designs. The brand designers must also ensure that their design is unique and not a copy of another brand, which can be extremely damaging to the brand.
What Industry Usually Need Brand Designers?
Industries that are selling products will most likely need brand designers. The companies range from startups, small to medium-sized enterprises, established corporations, and many more.
Since the options are so diverse, brand designers typically work as freelancers for multiple clients. However, if you’re looking for a full-time job, you might want to consider applying to an agency; this way, you can earn money without having to look for work on your own.
Brand Designers Salary
According to Glassdoor, the average monthly salary for brand designers in Singapore is 4,650 SGD. However, the stated figure could be higher because compensation and benefits usually increase take-home pay.
How to Start Design Career
Since you already have a strong interest in designing, you are probably now wondering how to start a career in this field. In that case, we’ll walk you through the tangible steps that can help you thrive by working the jobs of your dreams.
Enrol in Design School or Design Course
The first thing you might want to do to hone your creativity is to enrol in a design school or design course. By enrolling in reputable schools or courses, you will be taught and guided by professionals in the design field.
Moreover, design schools and courses typically have structured syllabuses tailored to the student’s ability level. This allows you to digest the material systematically, which is beneficial if you are a beginner.
Interestingly, enrolling in design schools or courses allows you to connect with others who share your interests. It allows you to share knowledge and job opportunities with the other students.
Build Your Portfolio
The next thing you should consider doing after acquiring your design knowledge is by building your portfolio. You can do anything that suits your interests when creating your portfolio. Just make sure that every piece of art you put in your portfolio has its unique stories to tell.
In addition, you can put your previous work on an online portfolio platform. You can choose from several options, such as Dribbble, Behance, Portfoliobox, and many more. That way, you can save time and reach more potential clients by putting your portfolio online.
Join Internships
If you want to apply for a job but the requirements demand applicants to have work experience, consider joining internships. Typically, internship positions do not require applicants to have prior work experience, so this opportunity is ideal for you as an aspiring designer with no previous experience.
Internships are available on online job boards such as LinkedIn, Glints, Tech In Asia, and many others. On the other hand, you might want to ask your design school or course lecturers about internship opportunities.
Final Thought
Landing a career in the designing industry could be confusing, especially if you’re a beginner. Therefore, we hope that we’re clear enough in guiding you to determine which type of design job suits you best in this article.
Before we conclude this article, we would like to encourage you to continue honing your design skills and exploring what the design industry has to offer. That way, you can stay current with trends and become the talented designer you’ve always wanted to be!
