Logos, websites, packaging, apps. A portfolio matters more than a diploma.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $65,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $42,000 at the lower end to about $110,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.
$600 to $50,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Limited demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$65,000
Lower end
$42,000
Upper end
$110,000
Job Bank's national median for graphic designers and illustrators is $31.25 an hour, about $65,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The low and high are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group, from $20.00 to $52.88 an hour.
$26.77 an hour
Average starting wage for graphic designers and illustrators in Alberta, about $56,000 a year
From the 2023 Alberta Wage and Salary Survey, published by alis, Alberta's career information site. It counts paid jobs only, not freelance work.
$35.00 an hour
The median in British Columbia, the highest in Canada, about $73,000 a year
Ontario's median is $32.69 and Quebec's $30.00. Saskatchewan's is the lowest, at $23.00 (Job Bank, 2023 to 2024). Some designers move up by designing software screens, called UX (user experience) or product design.
Roughly, all in
$600 to $50,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is teaching yourself with online courses that run from nothing to a few hundred dollars and paying for a year of design software while you build a portfolio. Clients and employers hire on the portfolio, not the paper, so this route is real. The high end is a four year university design degree at $12,000 a year with software on top. A two or three year college diploma at $4,000 to $8,000 a year sits in the middle and is the most common choice. A capable computer is not counted here because most people already own one, but if yours cannot run design software, budget $2,000 to $4,000 for a machine.
Salary
Agencies, in-house teams, tech companies.
Freelance
Hourly rates vary widely with experience. Many designers freelance at least part time.
Contract
Common in tech, often without benefits.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Learn the tools, build a portfolio, get hired on the portfolio.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Art, media arts and any computer courses. Start a portfolio now.
Design program
2 to 4 years
A college diploma, 3 years in Ontario (Algonquin, Conestoga, Fanshawe, Seneca), or a 4-year degree such as Graphic Design at OCAD University (once the Ontario College of Art and Design) or Design at York University. Most programs ask for a portfolio.
Internships and freelance
During school
Real client work while in school. This is what employers look at.
Portfolio and first job
After graduation
A strong online portfolio of 8 to 12 projects gets interviews. The diploma gets you through the door; the work gets you hired.
Visual arts
Drawing, composition, colour.
Media arts or communication technology
Software and video.
English
Design is communication.
Business or marketing
Design serves business goals.
Anyone can call themselves a graphic designer. Ontario has a voluntary RGD (Registered Graphic Designer) certification through the Association of Registered Graphic Designers. Quebec has a similar designation, DGA (designer graphique agréé, certified graphic designer), from the SDGQ (Société des designers graphiques du Québec). Neither is needed for most jobs.
In Quebec most graphic designers take a 3 year technical college diploma right after Secondary V. A university degree is optional.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
Colleges ask for a portfolio. Dawson counts Secondary V art as an asset and its deadline is March 1. Start keeping your best drawings and layouts in Secondary IV.
Graphic Design DEC (Diploma of College Studies), 570.G0
3 years
2,640 hours, with no tuition at a public CEGEP (public college) for full-time Quebec residents. In English at Dawson, John Abbott and Heritage. In French at Vieux Montréal, Ahuntsic, Sainte-Foy, Sherbrooke and others.
University, if you want it
3 years
UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal) has a 90 credit bachelor's in graphic design, chosen on portfolio, a test and grades. Concordia's BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) in Design is in English.
Optional certification
7 years in
The SDGQ (Société des designers graphiques du Québec, the Quebec graphic designers' society) gives the DGA (designer graphique agréé, certified graphic designer) title to members with 7 years of study and practice, judged on a portfolio.
Things you don't need, but that help.
UX (user experience) and product design
Figma, user research, prototyping.
Motion design
After Effects and animation. Short supply.
Front-end code
HTML and CSS (the languages web pages are built with) and some JavaScript. It lets you build what you design.
Brand strategy
Moving from making things to deciding what to make.
RGD (Registered Graphic Designer) certification
Shows clients you have been assessed by other designers. Needs 7 years of combined education and experience, case studies, an online test and a presentation.
Design competitions and awards
Applied Arts, the ADCC (Advertising and Design Club of Canada), RGD Awards.
Personal projects
Posters, zines, an app concept. Shows taste and initiative.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Briefs from clients or a marketing team, then concepting and making: layouts, logos, social graphics, web pages, packaging. Rounds of feedback and revisions. Presenting work and defending decisions. At an agency, several clients a day. In-house, one brand deeply. Product designers spend more time in research and prototyping tools.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
In 1964 the flag committee looked at a few thousand ideas sent in by Canadians. After it picked the single maple leaf, graphic artist Jacques St-Cyr redrew the leaf from 13 points to 11 so it would stay clear from a distance.
OCAD University (once the Ontario College of Art and Design) has been in downtown Toronto since 1876 and calls itself Canada's oldest and largest art and design university.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Design first, then the rest of the field. See every career in creative.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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