Design isn't one job — it's a whole family of careers that all start from the same foundation: understanding an audience and solving a visual problem for them. This page turns our "Careers in Design" map into something you can click through. Pick a career below to see what people in that field actually do, the skills and tools that come up again and again, the lessons in this course where you'll practice them, and the chapters in our eight free companion books that go deeper.
UI/UX
UI/UX designers plan how a person moves through an app, site, or product — sketching screens on paper, testing ideas with real users, and turning that research into layouts that are easy to use before anyone writes a line of code.
📋 Full career deep-dive — requirements, income & 5 projects →
Skills on the map
Analog Design
- Paper prototyping
- Wireframes
- Storyboards
- Layout & typography
Digital Mockups
- Figma
- Adobe XD
- Adobe Creative Cloud apps
Research & Prototyping
- Human-centered design
- Wireframing
- User testing
Explore in this course
- 11 The Design Process: A Tool You'll Use Again and Again
- 11 Understanding Your Audience: Research Methods & Personas
- 9 Design Principles for Layout: Repetition, Contrast, Proximity, Alignment & Scale
- 9 Typography & Color Basics
- 10 Portfolio Website with Google Sites
In the companion books
Video Design
Video designers carry a project from an idea to a finished, published video — writing the story, planning shots, filming, editing everything together, adding effects, and getting it in front of an audience.
📋 Full career deep-dive — requirements, income & 5 projects →
Skills on the map
Pre-production
- Story writing
- Storyboarding
Production
- Camera work
- Lighting
Post-production
- Video editing (iMovie)
- Analog video effects
- Adobe Premiere Rush/Pro
- Final Cut Pro
File Mgmt. & Output
- File & project organization
- Visual effects
- Publish / submit to film festivals
Explore in this course
- 12 Production Skills: Video Capture & Editing Basics
- 10 Intro to Motion: Animated GIFs in Photoshop
- 11 Preparing Files for Print, Web & Video Export
- 9 Managing a Design Project
In the companion books
No dedicated video/film book yet — the closest material is process and history: The Path to Design's Chapter 4 covers Saul Bass & the birth of motion graphics, and Book Seven has real numbers on freelance video and creator-economy work.
Web Design
Web designers plan and build websites — starting with wireframes and rough layouts, testing alternatives, then turning an approved design into a real, working page with code.
📋 Full career deep-dive — requirements, income & 5 projects →
Skills on the map
Design Phase
- Wireframes
- Experimental mockups
- Digital tools
- Presentation & redesign
- Final wireframe
Alternative Designs
- Iterating on layout options
Code & Tech
- HTML/CSS
- JavaScript
- freeCodeCamp
- W3Schools
- CodeSandbox.io
Explore in this course
- 10 Portfolio Website with Google Sites
- 11 The Design Process: A Tool You'll Use Again and Again
- 9 Design Principles for Layout: Repetition, Contrast, Proximity, Alignment & Scale
Tools named on the map
In the companion books
Digital Designer
Digital designers build both 2D and 3D visual assets for games, apps, and other media — flat illustrations and collage on one side, sculpted 3D props, sets, and characters on the other.
📋 Full career deep-dive — requirements, income & 5 projects →
Skills on the map
2D
- Scrapbook collage
- Digital painting
3D Sculpting
- Unity
- Unreal Engine
- Prop making
Adobe Skills & Asset Creation
- Adobe Firefly
- Props & sets
Explore in this course
- 9 What Does a Digital Designer Actually Do?
- 10 3D Modeling with TinkerCAD: Designing & Printing a Keychain
- 12 Production Skills: 3D Printing for the School
- 10 Creating Vectors & Adding Pizzazz in Photoshop
- 9 Career Research + Analog Mood Board
In the companion books
Animation
Animators bring drawings, puppets, and objects to life through motion — using the classic 12 principles of animation across both traditional pipelines (stop motion, hand-drawn) and digital ones.
📋 Full career deep-dive — requirements, income & 5 projects →
Skills on the map
Principles
- The 12 Principles of Animation
Traditional
- In-betweens
- Clean-up
- Set & puppet design
- Stop motion
- Storytelling & storyboards
Digital
- Storytelling & storyboard skills
- Drawn skills
- Painting
- In-betweens
Explore in this course
In the companion books
No dedicated animation book yet — Paper First builds the hand-drawing and storyboarding foundation every animator starts from, and The Path to Design's Chapter 4 covers Saul Bass & the birth of motion graphics.
Illustration
Illustrators create original artwork by hand and on screen — sketching, painting, and rendering images for books, branding, editorial work, and more, mixing traditional media with Adobe software.
📋 Full career deep-dive — requirements, income & 5 projects →
Skills on the map
Adobe Skills
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
Sketching / Drawing
- Painting
- Ink & charcoal
- Sketching & prototyping
- Compositing
Traditional Media
- Watercolors
- Paper sculpting
- Calligraphy & cursive lettering
- Background textures
Explore in this course
- 10 Photoshop Toolbar: Learning the Tools on Paper First
- 10 Intro to Illustrator: Getting Started
- 11 Illustrator Deep-Dive: Building a Vector Icon Set
- 10 Ink Portrait
- 9 Typography Deep-Dive: Hand-Lettering & Poster Design
- 11 ACP Practice Exam & Personal Review Plan
In the companion books
🧭 Other Design-Adjacent Careers
None of these are "design" job titles — but each one shares at least half its foundational skills with the six design careers above. If you like the thinking behind design but want to end up somewhere else, these are worth a look.
Fine Art
~80% sharedPainters, sculptors, and studio artists use the exact same visual language we teach: line, shape, color, value, texture, balance, and composition. The difference is purpose — fine art doesn't have to solve a client's problem, design does.
In this course
- 9 Elements & Principles of Design: Line
- 9 Elements & Principles of Design: Color
- 9 Elements & Principles of Design: Texture
In the books
Architecture
~60% sharedArchitects run the same design process we teach — research a client's needs, sketch options, revise, present — just applied to buildings instead of screens. Space, scale, and proportion are core to both.
In this course
- 9 Elements & Principles of Design: Space & Perspective
- 9 Elements & Principles of Design: Proportion & Scale
- 10 3D Modeling with TinkerCAD
In the books
Industrial & Product Design (Mechanical Design)
~65% sharedProduct and mechanical designers sketch an idea, model it in CAD, 3D print a prototype, and test and revise — the same iterative design process we use, aimed at physical objects instead of images.
In this course
- 10 3D Modeling with TinkerCAD: Designing & Printing a Keychain
- 12 Production Skills: 3D Printing for the School
- 11 The Design Process: A Tool You'll Use Again and Again
In the books
Fashion Design
~55% sharedFashion designers sketch concepts, choose color palettes, work with pattern and proportion on the body, and build a brand identity around a collection — color theory and branding transfer directly.
In this course
- 9 Elements & Principles of Design: Pattern
- 11 Color Theory Deep-Dive: Psychology, Culture & Accessibility
- 11 Client Project: Brand Style Guide
In the books
Photography
~70% sharedPhotographers compose a frame using the same layout principles we teach, control lighting the same way video production does, and finish nearly every image in Photoshop — one of the closest overlaps on this list.
In this course
- 9 Behind the Image: File Types, Resolution & Visual Hierarchy
- 11 Filters, Retouching & Photo Restoration
- 12 Planning & Running In-School Photoshoots
In the books
Advertising & Marketing
~60% sharedAdvertising is design with a persuasion goal added on top — audience research, color psychology, typography, and campaign concepting are all skills this course already teaches directly.
In this course
- 9 Purpose, Audience & Demographics
- 11 The Industrial Revolution & the Birth of Advertising
- 11 Client Project: Ad Campaign Inspired by Design History
In the books
Not sure which career fits you?
These three lessons are built for exactly that question — use them to research, talk to a working designer, and practice pitching yourself for a career you're interested in. The Career Path book backs all of it up with real numbers.
- 9 Career Research + Analog Mood Board
- 10 Career Connections: Meet a Working Designer
- 11 Mock Interview & Career Pitch
In the companion books
View the original hand-drawn map
