25 of the Highest Paying Arts Jobs in 2024

The best Arts jobs can pay up to $400,000 per year.

High Paying Arts Jobs

• FX Artist

  Salary range: $92,500-$400,000 per year

  An FX artist creates visual effects for television shows, commercials, and movies. As an FX artist, your job duties include designing animation, graphics, and motion effects using computer programs, collaborating with artists, illustrators, and animators, conducting research for upcoming projects, creating storyboards, and making edits based on feedback. The qualifications for this career include a bachelor’s degree in animation, fine arts, or graphic design and experience with UX wireframes, Adobe Creative Suite, MAYA, and 3D modeling. You need strong creativity and math skills as well as the ability to work well with a team.

• Medical Illustrator

  Salary range: $74,500-$250,000 per year

  As a medical illustrator, your job is to provide illustrations that display anatomical accuracy. To produce this art, you research body parts and unusual conditions, find and use similar work for reference, or observe medical treatments. Your illustrations may be used in print, for video, or even animated as part of a guide. Medical illustrators often provide graphics for textbooks, medical journals, museum exhibits, research reports, and special events. Some medical illustrators work entirely by hand, while others use graphic design software to produce the desired products. You may work with a project manager who makes the final decision on art.

• Game Artist

  Salary range: $79,000-$170,500 per year

  A game artist creates characters and environment images for computer games and video games. Their responsibilities include concept design, animation, and user experience. Job duties involve collaborating with other artists and graphic designers, creating sketches for storyboards, and contributing style to the look of games. To succeed in this career, you need computer animation skills with both 2D and 3D programs, as well as drawing skills and an understanding of color theory, scene design, and illustration. You must be good at juggling multiple projects at once and working with others.

• Lead Game Designer

  Salary range: $134,500-$167,000 per year

  A lead game designer takes the general ideas for a video game and turns them into an executable project. In this career, you work closely with graphic designers, programmers, and other production teams to come up with a concise plan for designing the game. As a lead designer, your duties include following up with each department involved in the game production process to ensure everyone is on task and following the design and story templates. A lead designer usually reports to the creative director of the project.

• Director of Design

  Salary range: $109,500-$163,000 per year

  A design director oversees the creative visual team for a marketing firm, advertising firm, or PR agency that produces visual material, such as posters, brochures, manuals, or books. Sometimes the term is also used to describe directors at fashion houses, apparel companies, or interior design firms who oversee clothing or interior design. In communications companies, your duties and responsibilities as the design director are to collaborate with your clients and other marketing and ad workers to determine the type of graphic art; you then execute design projects. The same applies to fashion and interior design.

• Content Director

  Salary range: $84,000-$162,000 per year

  As a content director, you work to develop a variety of content across print, online, TV, and radio industries. Responsibilities include overseeing a team of staff to pitch and produce content, researching and developing creative content, and producing presentations and materials for consumption. Your duties also cover marketing strategy and PR campaign development, photo and copy editing, project management, communicating with clients, and social media administration. Skills in team leadership, communication, time management, writing and editing, and advertising are all valuable in this role.

• Content Designer

  Salary range: $83,500-$160,000 per year

  A content designer works as part of the creative team that develops the visual components of a marketing strategy or online advertising campaign. Typical duties and responsibilities are to create different visual assets of a website, social media platform, or other web services, such as a blog or online news source. While some designers work for traditional print media, this term often refers to positions in digital media. A content designer can specialize in different content, such as music or sound, but often works with visual graphics and text.

• Graphic Engineer

  Salary range: $140,000-$159,000 per year

  As a graphics engineer, you design, develop, write, and debug code for video games and related tools. Additional responsibilities include engine programming for rendering, writing portable and maintainable code with object-oriented design while employing the best software engineering methodologies. In some positions, you create avatars, render and shade objects, and develop additional features requested by clients. Other duties include creating documentation for other programmers to use, identifying problem areas, and developing solutions. You also test code and provide feedback for other engineers.

• Digital Artist

  Salary range: $51,000-$157,000 per year

  Digital artists have a few career paths from which they can choose. Many of these involve designing visual effects and animated images for various media like videos and computer games. You can find digital artist work with film production, advertising, video game, and software design companies. In any digital artist role, you use computer software to bring your art to life, whether it be a drawing or a sculpture. Depending on your field, these may then become 3D, interactive graphics for websites or visual characters. You can specialize in a niche such as game design, web design, multimedia, or animation. Whichever area you choose to work in, creativity is a top focus.

• Game Designer

  Salary range: $155,000-$155,000 per year

  A Video Game Designer works closely with a video game design team to create computer and video games for specific gaming consoles. The Game Designer is the creative driving force behind the game and conceives the mechanics and layout. This can include the story, characters, levels, and scenarios of the game. Depending on the size of the project, the Game Designer may work on their own or with a large team. Some Game Designers may have a niche or specialty within the industry such as the type of game they like to make or a certain creative style.

• Associate Creative Director

  Salary range: $74,000-$153,000 per year

  An associate creative director works under a creative director at advertising and marketing companies or in a marketing department. They are responsible for managing a team of designers and creatives. As an associate creative director, you help create and develop designs and materials for marketing campaigns. A qualified associate creative director candidate should be creative with strong leadership, communication, and multitasking skills.

• Texture Artist

  Salary range: $152,000-$152,000 per year

  A texture artist develops 2D and 3D art and textures for video games, movies, and other forms of digital media. Their job duties include painting the exterior textures, such as sweat, wrinkles, fur, water, on digital shapes, characters, and surfaces for the images to be as realistic as possible. This job involves working on a variety of animation software platforms. A texture artist often works with a team of artists responsible for the entire visual layout of the media.

• Technical Artist

  Salary range: $127,000-$152,000 per year

  A technical artist works in the video game industry. In this career, you take the art created by the animation team and make sure that it runs within the technical parameters of the video game and hardware. You may develop or use special shading tools to make certain that the animation looks realistic in different settings within the game. The diverse duties of a technical artist require both creativity and technical skills.

• Creative Director

  Salary range: $99,500-$152,000 per year

  A creative director guides, directs, and approves all creative projects for marketing, graphic design, advertising, and other firms. Also, a creative director strategizes a company’s artistic direction, accepts design samples, devises marketing plans, and leads teams in creating unique fashion, art, music, game, or film concepts. A core duty of a creative director is to collaborate with designers, writers, and marketing associates to develop visuals that align with the company brand and mission.

• Visual Effects Artist

  Salary range: $88,500-$152,000 per year

  As a visual effects artist, your job is to create special effects for the film industry to portray visuals or action sequences that are too difficult or too costly to film. Your primary responsibilities center on consulting with clients, supervisors, and other artists to create visual effects (VFX) to their specifications. Your job duties include using computer animation software programs and working with the various production departments to meet the film’s needs. You need creativity and imagination to work as a visual effects artist, and you must be proficient with animation, graphic design, and visual effects computer programs.

• Graphics Artist

  Salary range: $127,000-$152,000 per year

  A Graphics Artist works within a commercial environment, often for an advertising agency, magazine, or other marketing-related organization. Their role is to listen to their client’s goals and needs and create the actual images for their specific project. Graphics Artists work in a range of mediums to help develop a brand’s colors, logos, and other public-facing materials. Graphics Artists employ basic design elements and best practices but are always exploring ways to push their creativity and deliver a unique product for their clients. They should be open to iterating their designs and allow the client to provide feedback and request adjustments. Graphics Artists are sometimes independent contractors, in which case they may have several different clients at one time.

• Digital Director

  Salary range: $85,000-$150,000 per year

  A digital director is in charge of the digital strategy for one or more brands. As a digital director, your job is to manage all online marketing and social media efforts for your organization. Typical duties include designing the strategy, overseeing its implementation, and assessing its effectiveness. Other responsibilities are to assign tasks to team members, analyze marketing data, and interact with clients. This career requires a proven understanding of online marketing and branding, usually backed up by work experience in the field and a relevant college degree. Additional qualifications include strong analytical, communication, and management skills.

• Director of Creative Services

  Salary range: $87,500-$149,000 per year

  As a director of creative services, you oversee and support design, branding, and marketing activities for a company or organization. You manage a team of employees or contractors whose duties focus on developing the brand or creating marketing materials, websites, and other content. You define the goals of each project and come up with a concept and plan to meet those goals. Your responsibilities can also include managing the budget for creative projects, hiring employees and contractors, and tracking progress. Some creative services directors manage projects directly, while others delegate management duties to other staff members.

• Creative Lead

  Salary range: $71,500-$146,500 per year

  Creative leads are responsible for driving the design and creative aspects of a project. You find creative leads in a variety of industries, such as film, television, music, advertising, and video game development. As a creative lead, your job duties include developing the overall design elements of a project, overseeing the creation of art elements, and ensuring that the final product matches the original design concept. The become a creative lead on a project, you need a bachelor’s degree in art, graphic design, or a related field and several years of industry experience.

• Concept Artist

  Salary range: $127,000-$146,000 per year

  As a concept artist, your job duties are to take clients’ ideas and create visualizations of their thoughts that serve as a springboard for the design phase of projects. Concept art could be a storyboard or a collection of rough drawings and sketches, depending on the client and the nature of their project. You can work in many industries as a concept artist, including film and digital entertainment, the video game industry, architecture and building, and even interior design. You can find concept artist jobs at design studios or work as a contractor for companies that need your services.

• Brand Designer

  Salary range: $70,500-$146,000 per year

  A brand designer is a creative professional with an expertise in branding. Your job is to help companies and clients develop a brand identity that conveys a specific idea or feeling to customers. Your duties encompass developing and overseeing a wide variety of advertising, marketing, and content creation strategies, including website design and social media. Brand designers also help design logos and other graphics as well as in-store branding such as merchandise displays and packaging. The career encompasses a wide range of creative fields. Exact job responsibilities may vary depending on the needs of the client or company.

• Design Manager

  Salary range: $83,500-$144,000 per year

  A design manager oversees a design team during a project and typically works in the construction and architecture industries. As a design manager, you may work for specialty companies that contract out to construction firms on a per-project basis. Or, you may spend your career working as an in-house design manager for a construction company or architect firm. Regardless of the location of your job as a design manager, your duties revolve around supervising the design of a building project and include adhering to legislation and codes, eliminating safety and financial risks, and advising clients during development.

• Freelance Photographer

  Salary range: $125,500-$142,000 per year

  As a freelance photographer, you are a self-employed professional who takes photos for clients. You perform jobs on a contract basis, managing your client list and workflow on your own. Freelance photographers work in a variety of specialties including wedding photography, urban journalism, and photography for travel magazines and websites—your specialty, or if you even have a specialty, is up to you. Since you work on a freelance basis, job duties are defined however you choose, but common contracts might require you to take on the role of photographer, editor, curator, contract negotiator, promoter, printer, and anything else required to run a successful business.

• Gallery Director

  Salary range: $63,000-$138,000 per year

  A gallery director manages the day-to-day operations of an art gallery. Typical duties include establishing policies on art exhibitions, interacting with the public, marketing to increase the number of daily visitors, and building the gallery’s reputation. Exhibitions are a great way to enhance the local art community, and marketing and exhibition management require a gallery director to build community relationships. Gallery directors do so by organizing workshops, adult education opportunities, and field trips. Qualifications include a bachelor’s or master’s degree in art management or art history as well as a sincere appreciation of art plus experience honing business or marketing skills, ideally gained by working in a gallery.

• Design Checker

  Salary range: $102,000-$135,000 per year

  As a design checker, you are responsible for examining the engineering drawings of parts, assemblies, and installations to ensure accuracy and completeness. You have interpretation duties to detect any errors or discrepancies within these 3D design documents. Your responsibilities require you to annotate any changes that need to be made and communicate with others how to pursue a better design for manufacturability. You consult for angles, dimensions, bend allowances, and tolerances to avoid mistakes during and after development. You also determine material and tool selection using your knowledge of drafting and manufacturing methods.

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