Do you dream of a career that blends creativity with technology? When you browse websites or use apps, do you often think about how the design could be better? Is experimenting with AI video tools or using software like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator one of your favorite hobbies? If any of that resonates with you, you might want to consider a degree and career in digital media design, a fast-growing field with opportunities in many different industries.
Table of Contents
- What is Digital Media Design?
- Essential Skills for Digital Media Designers
- Educational Pathways and Certifications
- 7 Popular Career Paths for Digital Media Majors
- Build Your Portfolio and Connections
- Earn Your Digital Media Design Degree
What is digital media design, and what essential skills does someone need to thrive in this field? What types of degree programs can prepare you, and what are some job roles to consider pursuing after you graduate? This guide answers all of those questions, so let’s jump straight in with the details.
What is Digital Media Design?
Digital media design is a broad field that incorporates disciplines like graphic design, web design, and multimedia design. It requires a combination of artistic talent and vision, technological literacy and expertise, and a deep understanding of concepts like user experience (UX) and user interface (UI). While their specific tasks and duties depend on the employer and job title, the overall role of digital media design professionals is to create seamlessly functional, visually pleasing digital content for businesses and consumers.
Essential Skills for Digital Media Designers
To succeed in the digital media design field, you’ll need to develop a diverse, cutting-edge repertoire of skills that combine artistic creativity, technical proficiency, and critical thinking. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills are also essential for designers who rely on a combination of software expertise and outside-the-box thinking to overcome design challenges.
Here are some examples of essential skills that will help you flourish in your digital media design career, including hard and soft skills:
- Attention to Detail — Subtle, tiny details, like the width of a margin or the exact hue of a typeface, can have an enormous impact on users’ perceptions of and reactions to products.
- Creativity — As a digital media designer, you’ll need to possess a strong sense of creativity and an eye for aesthetics. Aim to sharpen your skills in areas like drawing, color theory, typography, and composition.
- Software Experience — Most employers expect applicants to have experience using graphic design software and web development tools, such as Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch, Figma, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Unity. The more platforms, tools, and systems you know how to use, the more you can differentiate yourself from less experienced candidates.
Educational Pathways and Certifications
Multiple types of college degrees can help you prepare to enter a career in or related to digital media, such as majoring in graphic design or web design. Depending on factors like the education requirements for your desired job role, how many months or years you’re willing to spend completing an academic program, and what sort of certification, degree, or work experience you’ve already obtained, here are a few types of programs that you may want to consider applying for:
- Bachelor of Arts in Digital Media Design — The Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Digital Media Design is a four-year undergraduate degree that provides a solid foundation in different areas of digital media, such as web design, video game design, motion graphics, animation, and audio production. For instance, students enrolled in the BA program at National University explore subjects like e-Publishing, vector graphics, video editing, 3-D modeling, 2-D design, visual storytelling, and digital image compositing.
- Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Graphic Design — The BFA is an undergraduate degree that focuses on developing foundational art and design skills, with courses generally covering subjects like typography, color theory, branding, and digital imaging.
- Bachelor of Science (BS) in Web Design — These degrees focus specifically on web design and interactive media, covering topics such as user experience design, front-end web development, responsive design, and multimedia integration.
- Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (BSCS) — Computer science degrees provide a strong technical foundation in programming, software development, and digital media technologies, which can be a useful asset for careers in multimedia design or interactive media.
Earning a professional certification is an even faster, more affordable way to build core technical knowledge and skills, with many courses that can be completed in months or weeks. Some examples include:
- Adobe Certified Professional (ACP)
- CareerFoundry online courses
- Google UX Design Certificate
- Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) UX Certificate
- Springboard online courses
7 Popular Career Paths for Digital Media Majors
Here are seven examples of popular, in-demand careers you can explore with a degree in or related to digital media:
- Graphic Designer
- Web Design Specialist
- User Experience (UX) Designer
- User Interface (UI) Designer
- Digital Media Specialist
- Multimedia Artist or Animator
- Social Media Manager
Read on to learn about typical job duties, essential skills, and salary information for these positions.
Graphic Designer
A graphic designer creates distinctive, compelling visual compositions that simplify complex concepts, tell compelling stories, and show off recognizable branding elements. They use numerous types of design skills, including typography, color theory, layout design, digital illustration, and photography, to produce designs for print or digital media, such as logos, brochures, advertisements, and product packaging.
According to the BLS, the median annual salary for a graphic designer is $58,910. The top 10%, however, earn salaries over $100,000. BLS data also shows that New York and California are some of the states with the highest pay and the most employment opportunities for graphic designers.
Web Design Specialist
Web designers specialize in creating user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing websites and web graphics for mobile and desktop. They combine graphic design principles, such as balance and repetition, with an understanding of digital technology, user experience (UX) principles, and fundamentals of user interface (UI) design.
Web designers ensure that websites are appealing to look at, simple to navigate, and feature responsive designs that are compatible with various devices and screen sizes. That means they need an extensive set of technical skills, including knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, web server management, and content management systems (CMS) like Shopify, Squarespace, HubSpot, and WordPress.
According to data submitted to ZipRecruiter, the national average salary for a web design specialist is $91,584 in the U.S.
User Experience (UX) Designer
As a user experience (UX) designer, you’ll have roles and responsibilities like conducting research into consumer behaviors and user preferences, designing prototypes of products or websites to test their functionality, and creating wireframes. To perform these types of tasks successfully, you’ll need to cultivate strong interaction design skills, gain experience conducting usability testing, and learn effective methods of conducting user research, such as holding focus groups, performing A/B testing, and interviewing subjects.
According to Indeed, the average base salary for UX designers in the U.S. is around $122,700.
User Interface (UI) Designer
As a user interface (UI) designer, your role is to ensure that a product’s physical or digital interface (such as an online dashboard) is as intuitive, navigable, and easy to use as possible. You’ll work on style guides, design interface elements like dropdown menus, and analyze user interactions with various designs. This requires well-developed visual design and branding skills to create intuitive and visually appealing experiences.
UI is an important component of the overall user experience, and depending on their size and complexity, some organizations hire a single individual to perform both roles. The difference is that UI is strongly focused on visual elements like buttons, colors, and screen layouts, while UX is broader in scope and deals with consumers’ overall brand perceptions.
The BLS doesn’t provide salary data for UI designers, but does provide information for digital designers, whose job duties which the BLS describes as “develop[ing], creat[ing], and test[ing] website or interface layout, functions, and navigation for usability,” align with those of a UI designer. The BLS reports that digital designers earned a median salary of $92,750 in 2023, with “faster than average” 8% job growth expected over the coming decade.
Digital Media Specialist
Digital media specialists carry out a wide range of tasks and responsibilities, such as researching trends in advertising, analyzing web traffic metrics, creating and measuring the impact of digital campaigns, developing and supervising content creation strategies, and conducting keyword research. They need to have strong digital literacy skills as they typically use a wide range of software and online tools, including Google AdWords, Adobe Creative Suite, GA4, and others.
According to Glassdoor, the salary for a digital media specialist typically ranges from around $54,000 to $92,000. ZipRecruiter reports that the average salary is approximately $68,920 per year.
Multimedia Artist or Animator
As a special effects artist or animator, you’ll have exciting opportunities to create animations for movies, video games, advertisements, and other types of media. An interest in animation could also lead to a career as a motion graphics designer working with video effects, 3-D modeling, and kinetic typography. Whether you opt to specialize in 2-D or 3-D animation, you’ll need fundamental strengths like illustration, storytelling, and character design, plus strong teamwork and communication abilities.
According to the BLS, in 2023, special effects artists and animators earned a median annual salary of $99,060. However, the top 10% earned salaries above $169,500. And with expected job growth of 4% through 2032, the field is keeping pace with the national average.
To boost your earning potential as an animator or special effects artist, consider exploring opportunities in software publishing, the film or video game industry, advertising and PR, or computer systems design. According to the BLS, these are some of the top-paying industries for professionals in this field.
Social Media Manager
As a company’s social media manager, you’ll be responsible for tasks like developing digital campaigns, tracking analytics, and producing original content for social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. You’ll need well-developed organization and communication skills, along with plenty of creativity and strong digital literacy.
The BLS doesn’t report on social media managers, but reports that PR managers, whose role involves using social media to enhance the brand’s image, earn median salaries of $130,480. According to the employment review site Glassdoor, social media managers earn an average salary of around $55,230 per year in the United States.
If you’re enthusiastic about a career in social media, but aren’t sure whether a digital media degree is the right fit for you, consider exploring degrees in marketing, such as a Master of Science (MS) in Marketing, which will also prepare you for roles as a social media marketing manager or supervisor.
Build Your Portfolio and Connections
No matter what type of digital media career you ultimately decide to pursue, you need to assemble a solid design portfolio, which is crucial for demonstrating your skills — and landing career opportunities.
Your portfolio is a visual representation of your visual creativity, technical prowess, and design expertise. Depending on your academic, artistic, and professional background, your portfolio might include logos, typography, web pages, animations, motion graphics, or other projects you’ve designed.
Here are some tips and best practices for building an impressive graphic design portfolio:
- Build a narrative. For every item in your portfolio, give context and discuss your design process, the challenges you faced, and how you overcame them. Explaining your thought process gives potential employers and clients insights into how you approach problem-solving.
- Show off your range. Feature a diverse assortment of projects that highlight your skills across multiple disciplines and mediums, such as print, web, and interactive design. By demonstrating your versatility and adaptability, you show prospective employers that you’re equipped to tackle all types of assignments and challenges.
- Keep your portfolio updated. Regularly update your portfolio with your latest and most impressive work. As you gain more experience and refine your skills, your portfolio should evolve to reflect your growth as a designer and artist.
It’s equally important to build a strong professional network of peers, more experienced mentors, and potential clients and employers. Consider attending networking events, participating in social media groups on platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn, and joining professional associations that you’re eligible to participate in, such as the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).
Earn Your Digital Media Design Degree Online at National University
Whether you’re creating visually powerful graphics, developing easy-to-navigate user interfaces, or producing immersive multimedia experiences like VR, digital media design is an exciting field that blends art and creativity with technology and computer skills. Take the first steps on your digital media career path by applying to the Bachelor of Arts in Digital Media Design program at National University. With flexible weekend and evening courses, the option to earn your degree online, and accelerated study options, National University offers a fast-paced path for aspiring designers. Contact admissions for more program information, or apply to NU online today.
This content has been reviewed and approved by the National University Editorial Advisory Board. Learn more about our editorial process.