8 Types of Design & Creative Roles in the Tech Industry

For a long time (and even until now), the perception of designers was plain and simple - they design and make things look good. While that is not entirely false, there are many different types of designers that do so much more, especially with the growth of technology.

Now, designers have specialized skill sets - from conceptualizing product user experiences to website animation - all to match the evolving landscape of tech. So, it’s a no-brainer that many tech companies are now looking for these talents to support different business functions.

If you are looking to branch out into the tech industry, or just scouting around on what your first or next role should be, here are eight types of designers in the tech industry.

Graphic Designer

Graphic designers are those who work on assets such as billboards, posters, digital advertisements, packaging and out-of-home advertising. Graphic designers create designs using typography and photography assets and conceptualize branding items such as logos, print design and more. They often work and plan their designs with copywriters to build the overall concept, ensuring that it works as a means of communication for the targeted audience.

Although this seems more like a traditional role, graphic designers play a large part in the marketing and branding for any company, including in the tech industry. Design is equally important in areas like brand awareness and on-ground activities to promote the product or company.

• Average salary: $48,754 based on talent.com.
• Skills required: typography, creativity, branding and communication.
• Examples of design work: magazines, newspapers, company brand identity, store signages, billboards, digital ads and social postings.
• Commonly used tools: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Fonts.
• You might like this role if… you love art and creativity. This role gives you room to build creative designs based on a brief and you get to design across various assets from billboards to digital advertising. Some graphic designer roles are also tasked with pitching and executing design concepts, usually for large-scale branding or marketing campaigns.

User Experience (UX) Designer

UX designers are very much in demand when it comes to tech companies and for good reason - UX designers are those skilled in designing user experiences, which is usually for websites and apps (a main driver in tech). You may mistake them for web designers who also create layouts and designs for a website. However, UX designers go beyond that - they are strategic designers that explore all aspects of the user's end-to-end journey. This role also creates style guides, tests different designs to see what works best for the audience and is involved in overall content planning. Additionally, UX designers coordinate with developers to bring their design to life.

• Average salary: $105,000 based on talent.com.
• Skills required: wireframing, prototyping, user flow, website mockups, user research, information architecture.
• Examples of design work: website landing pages, app designs (a great example of UX design is Airbnb’s booking experience which ensures the content flow and overall design is easy for the user).
• Commonly used tools: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe XD, Figma, InVision.
• You might like this role if….you love to combine creativity and analytics. This is great for those who want to branch out their skills, as this ventures into the business side of things by understanding what the audience responds to, and how you can optimize your web design for a better user experience.

User Interface (UI) Designer

Many companies confuse or merge both UI and UX designers in one, but in reality, they are two different functions. A UI designer focuses on the visual touchpoints (look and feel) of the design, rather than the entire user experience as a UX designer would. This would be website buttons, animation, color palettes, typography and such.

• Average salary: $100,000 annually based on talent.com.
• Skills required: creativity, branding, color theory.
• Examples of design work: websites, mobile apps.
• Commonly used tools: Adobe XD, Sketch, Figma, InVision Studio.
• You might like this role if…you are keen on exploring design on a strategic level. As a UI designer, you collaborate with various departments to make your design more user-friendly, giving you the opportunity to understand the strategic business objectives. Essentially, a UI designer works with teams including product designers and UX designers, but also gets to explore creativity with your design such as with animation or icons.

Product Designer

A product designer is a mix of a UX and UI designer, but on a larger scale. They oversee the entire product journey from start to finish through understanding the overall business goals and objectives. A product designer not only designs, but they also manage the entire process by evaluating customer needs, conducting usability tests and identifying opportunities for user-friendly experiences. This differs from a UX designer, as UX designers usually work in the kickoff stage of a project and design from scratch, whereas product designers are tasked to improve it further and continuously evolve the design to make sure it is optimized best for the customer.

• Average salary: $119,713 based on talent.com.
• Skills required: analytical skills, UX and UI design knowledge.
• Examples of design work: websites, mobile apps.
• Commonly used tools: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe XD, Figma, InVision.
• You might like this role if… you are analytical and strategic. A product designer works to understand various aspects of user experience and interaction and continuously optimizes or tests the product designs to identify weaknesses and opportunities for the business.

Motion Designer

To understand what a motion designer does, you’ll first have to understand what motion design is. While animation is a broad term that covers anything from cartoon animation to claymation, motion design is a subset of animation that involves animated graphic design elements. Think loading spinners on a website, animated ‘heart’ buttons on social media or animated logos. Motion designers create these elements for websites, mobile apps and other platforms. For tech companies, the use of animation can be used to demonstrate the user journey, or to work with their brand identity.

• Average salary: $76,205 based on talent.com.
• Skills required: creative mind, detailed eye, color theory, drawing, computer graphics.
• Examples of design work: motion design elements like loading spinners, microinteraction elements, animated logos, animated characters.
• Commonly used tools: Adobe After Effects, Adobe Character Animator, Animaker.
• You might like this role if… you are skilled in drawing and love to showcase your creativity. When it comes to animation, you have plenty of room to build and create characters, or designs that literally come to life.

Creative Director

A creative director takes charge of brand or advertising campaigns, which is especially important for marketing initiatives. They set and oversee style guidelines to ensure that key communication items are streamlined for the audience, as well as lead key branding items such as logo design.

Creative directors are mostly involved in conceptualizing and overseeing projects from the get-go. However, they are not involved in website design which requires the expertise of UI, UX and product designers. Instead, they work on concepts and designs for the same marketing assets that graphic designers work on (out-of-home advertising, digital ad designs, logos, etc.). In some companies, graphic designers work under the supervision of a creative director.

• Average salary: $100,000 annually based on talent.com.
• Skills required: design leadership, presentation, project management, creative, detailed eye, skilled in all areas of design concepts such as color theory.
• Examples of design work: magazines, newspapers, company brand identity, store signages, billboards, out of home advertising, digital marketing ads, social posts.
• Commonly used tools: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Fonts.
• You might like this role if…you are a seasoned graphic designer looking to take your career to new heights. This role leads a team of graphic designers, and is in charge of conceptualizing marketing or branding assets, as well as design briefs to meet the creative requirements of the business.

Illustrator

Illustrators can be considered as masters of drawing. You may associate illustrators with books or magazines, but they also have a place in the tech industry. Illustrators are skilled in creating art that builds a specific message that can be used for websites, or general product assets including social media posts, digital advertising and out-of-home advertising (i.e. any advertising that can be found outside your home).

• Average salary: $58,033 annually based on talent.com.
• Skills required: drawing, sketching, painting, color theory.
• Examples of design work: books, magazines, website graphics.
• Commonly used tools: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator.
• You might like this role if…you are incredibly skilled in drawing. The skills required mostly revolve around drawing, sketching and painting so if you love artistic expression, this is a great role for you to explore.  

8. 3D Artists

Three-dimensional (3D) art is commonly used for tech companies these days, especially on websites - they stand out, capture attention, and overall, create a more engaging design. 3D art involves many fields of specialization – including animation, modeling, visual effects, illustration and graphic design. Some 3D artists are generalists who are familiar with all these fields, but there are also 3D artists who specialize in a specific field.

• Average salary: $74,818 annually based on Glassdoor.
• Skills required: rendering, modeling, texture, composition.
• Examples of design work: website icons, logos, animation.
• Commonly used tools: Blender, Cinema 4D, Vectary, Autodesk Maya.
• You might like this role if… you are artistic and creative. 3D artists need to have an eye for the smaller details as 3D art can be tricky - you’ll need to understand design concepts to make it as realistic in detail (if you’re aiming for realism). You will also be glad to know that the demand for 3D artists is rising, especially in the 3D industries of animation, printing, and modeling.

Monetize your design or art skills

Design is a constant wave of learning. With these new, dynamic design roles popping up as technology evolves, designers now have more avenues and opportunities to explore their skills.

With that, comes the need for creative assets. Luckily, technology has also brought us the World Wide Web, giving you access to platforms such as IconScout. Iconscout has over 4.5 million design assets, including curated SVGs, vector icons, illustrations, 3D graphics, Lottie animations and more.

In fact, over 5,000 assets are added every day and we are always on the lookout for talented designers to become contributors. If you love creating your own assets, consider becoming a contributor for us; we have some of the highest royalty payouts in the industry. So, find out more about becoming a contributor here so you can get started!