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Skills that raise your pay

• CAD (computer-aided design) and surface modeling

  Being genuinely fast in the software the studio uses is the difference between a junior and a mid-level designer.

• Prototyping and 3D printing

  Designers who can put a physical object on the table get their ideas chosen.

• Design for manufacturing

  Knowing what injection molding, casting and sheet metal can and cannot do stops your design being redrawn by an engineer.

• User research

  Watching people use a thing and changing the design because of it. The part that separates design from styling.

• Color, materials and finish

  A specialty of its own inside car and consumer product companies.