Section I — Who is designing in 2019?
A wide-angle view of the backgrounds of designers practicing in the field today.
- Years experience
- Education
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Gender by employment type
- LGBTQIA+
- Ethnicity
Designers are leveling up: In 2019, most designers have 5-9 years experience. It’s not a huge jump, but compare that to 2017, when the majority of designers had 1-4 years experience.
This year we honed in on education experience with an expanded set of 11 answer options that better represent the increasingly alternative paths to education sought by designers. (Previous censuses provided just three options: no degree, college degree, and advanced degree.) Bachelor's degrees are still the most common, with online learning and other workshops and programs on the rise. Hats off to the designers who were “born this way.” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Respondents could select multiple answer options
Size of bubble represents the number of designers
“As someone who has lived both inside and outside of major metropolitan design hubs, I can say that my career moves slower when I'm not in a large city. There are fewer events and opportunities, so it's on me to keep everything moving at a fast pace. I'm in charge of utilizing the local community or creating more opportunities through the magic of the internet.”
—Meg Lewis, 31, freelance brand experience designer (Minneapolis, MN)
“As someone who has lived both inside and outside of major metropolitan design hubs, I can say that my career moves slower when I'm not in a large city. There are fewer events and opportunities, so it's on me to keep everything moving at a fast pace. I'm in charge of utilizing the local community or creating more opportunities through the magic of the internet.”
—Meg Lewis, 31, freelance brand experience designer (Minneapolis, MN)
Age is on the X axis
More women than ever are in the design workforce, as are non-binary designers—though unfortunately this data set is still too small to be statistically significant.
Women outnumber men in every category, especially in school as students, which has been a common trend for years. The number of women and men designers is most equal in the self-employed/small business owner category. Most non-binary and gender fluid designers work full-time in-house or at an agency/consultancy.
The number of designers who identify as LGBTQIA+ has increased 5% since 2017.
“Companies, programs, and people who hire designers should be looking outside of the expected four-year programs on the coasts. There are scores of non-traditional programs and two-year community colleges that are graduating highly skilled designers who, quite often, come from a from a much wider range of diverse backgrounds.”
—Seth Johnson, design program director at IBM (Austin, TX)
“Companies, programs, and people who hire designers should be looking outside of the expected four-year programs on the coasts. There are scores of non-traditional programs and two-year community colleges that are graduating highly skilled designers who, quite often, come from a from a much wider range of diverse backgrounds.”
—Seth Johnson, design program director at IBM (Austin, TX)