Graduate Graphic Design Salary

garlex

garlex

Member
Hi all

I am thinking of some time in the near future employing a graduate Graphic Designer. Does anyone have an idea the salary range I would be looking at.

My Company supplies CD, DVD & Blu-ray Replication and so the some of the work would be around design of these type of projects, thats the packaging as well as the discs.

We also provide Digital Printing, so projects of logo design, business stationery, leaflets, booklets, brochures etc. We also provide direct mail marketing, so personalisation not only of names addresses but also the graphics can change on each printed part.
 
I was employed as graduate Graphic Designer - logo design, annual reports, corporate identity, posters, leaflets etc on £16k with a review in 6 months but that review never happened....yet?!

hope that helps!
 
Theres no hard and fast rules.. Depends where your based. I was offered 14k when I was a graduate but managed to get 16. I've heard people getting as low as 12. If you can 'stick it out' for 12 months, you will no longer be seen as a graduate any more as such, you have a year under you belt. For every year (of relevant) experience you get, your salary will start to go up quite a lot. I recon after a full year you should be able to get around 18k or more. 2-3 years you could be on around 20k
I also design for web so that might make me slightly less relevant to you. I also had a couple of years of ongoing freelance under my belt, and had also done about 2 months of design agency work experience the year before i graduated.
 
Why not look for design recruitment agencies on the web and see what kind of salaries are being offered at the moment.
 
Hi garlex,

As a graduate, I started out on 13K in a high-street print shop in 2006. Hope that helps.

Just to add - if you find someone really good and have them on a graduate salary, you won't keep them for long. Not that I'd tell you how to run your business, I'm sure you would reward good work well :)

Let us know how you get on in your search!

Cheers

Doug
 
I started out as a graduate with no work experience on 18k with a 3% pay increase last year, plus 8% bonus, which works out pretty good!
 
linziloop said:
I started out as a graduate with no work experience on 18k with a 3% pay increase last year, plus 8% bonus, which works out pretty good!
Click to expand...

Thats very good!

My 1st professional job paid £16,750 (my 6 month probationary period wasn't extended). My 2nd Professional job paid £12k (I left 2 years ago but friends who still work there are still on £12k). My current job pays £17,500 plus a profit share (£1200 this year) and theres a 'substantial pay rise' due in April. :icon_biggrin:
 
Remember agencies will always try to make you seem less valuable than you are. (This applies more so for people with experience) because at the end of the day they want to serve their clients and give them the best deal. I.e an un named employment agency were saying to me that I should be prepared to accept 12k (lowering my expectation), but I went with my instincts and found an employer myself who offered me 16k (this was about 2-3 years ago before 'the recession' kicked in). On the other hand these days more and more students are leaving uni to do unpaid placement / internships. So you gotta get some kind of middle ground.
 
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