/ Design / All Design articles / Highest Paying Design Careers in India: Salary, Colleges and Hiring Companies
Highest Paying Design Careers in India: Salary, Colleges and Hiring Companies
Call 8585951111
Sayeba Naushad
Assistant Manager
Updated on Dec 4, 2025 16:18 IST
Want to make a career in design? And thinking what are the top high paying career in design? Then you are the right place, because here we will see top career opportunities for design graduates and undergraduates.A diverse and creative door opens up after completing the B.Des and M.Des. It gives opportunities to enter various industries.
Design is one of the most dynamic industries in India. This industry is showing a massive increase in employment and job opportunities for people. Read in detail to know about the highest-paying career opportunities in India.
Highest Paying Design Careers in India
Making a career in Design demands a creative mind and soul, along with hard work. As this industry is booming very fast, it is offering lucrative salaries to people. One can become a Fashion designer, Footwear designer, Jewellery designer, Textile designer, Apparel Developer, Knitwear Designer, Apparel Developer, Sampling Coordinator, Pattern Maker, Fashion Stylist, Visual Merchandiser, Photographer, etc, if he/she pursues Design as a career in India.
Table of contents
- Top Highest-paying Design Career Opportunities in India
- Salary of Design Careers in India
- Colleges and Exams to get Admission in Design Colleges
- Top Companies Hiring Design Graduates and Post Graduates
Top Highest-paying Design Career Opportunities in India
Some of the highest paying careers in Design are given below.
- UI/UX Designer: With the rising demand of IT companies, e-commerce services, apps, etc, UI/UX designer is trending. It focuses on understanding user needs and designing user-friendly interfaces.
- Graphic Designer: This specialization is trending because there is an increase in demand for branding, marketing, advertising, etc. Graphic Designers work on illustrations and layouts. They use various graphical tools, like Adobe Photoshop, Figma, CorelDRAW, etc.
- Advertising and Brand Designer: Here, the main work is to design ad films, short films for brands for promotion. Big companies hire brand designers for their brands and pay them really well.
- Product Designer: This specialisation opens the door to industries like consumer electronics, tech innovations, etc. Many startups are also emerging, which require a Product designer to bring new products to the market. It required designing physical or digital products.
- Animation Film Designer: It is one of the most trending fields as there is a boom in the OTT and gaming industry. It focuses on creating animated content for short films, documentaries, games and social media. Brands like Vodafone, Disney, Mc Donald's hire Animation film designers.
- Fashion Designer: This career can never go out of trend. The fashion industry is dynamic and creative, with new trends every day. It focuses on apparel design and market trends. For example, the revival of Benarasi Saree or Sustainable clothing by famous brands like H&M and ZARA, all comes under Fashion Design.
- Interior Designer: With the increase in infrastructural development, like apartments, studio apartments, cafes, and restaurants, there is a demand for Interior and Spatial Design graduates and post-graduates. They focus on eco-friendly and modern designs.
- Sustainable Designer: The world is now focusing more on curbing the effects of globalisation. More focus is now being given to making recyclable and sustainable products, which are eco-friendly. A career in Sustainable Design helps in getting into organisations that focus on creating such products and services.
- Game Designer: The Gaming industry has seen tremendous growth in recent years. This career focuses on designing games and interactive experiences. This industry is growing at a very fast pace and offeres good salary.
- Social Impact Designer: Social Impact Designer is the new trend as big organisations, NGOs and even the government are hiring professionals to solve social problems by designing products and services that will help in curbing social problems. Graduates with this specialisation will need to focus on solving social, environments and community challenges with their products and services.
Commonly asked questions
Q: Can I apply for Joint Seat Allocation for admission to M.Des programme based on CEED 2026 scores?
A:
IIT Bombay will not conduct any Joint Seat Allotment process for CEED 2026 qualified candidates. Instead, the candidate will have to apply directly to any or all of the eight participating institutes for admission. Note that IIT Bombay conducts a Joint Seat Allotment process for UCEED.
To get admission to a CEED 2026 participating institute, the candidate needs to go to the admission portal of the institute and fill in the counseling registration form. The registration form will open soon after the CEED 2026 results are declared.
Note that the participating institutes may conduct further admission rounds, like interview, before publishing the merit list for admission.
Q: What is the NIFT closing rank for admission to NIFT Panchkula?
A:
The cut-off for NIFT Panchkula is released category and programme-wise. So, candidates seeking admission to a particular programme need to consult the cut-off in their reserved or open category. For the year 2022, the opening CMR of Dom. OBC category for the Fashion communication was 6023; the closing CMR was 6414. The opening CMR for admission to the Fashion Design course was 5182, while the closing CMR was 5298. Meanwhile, for the M.Des programme, both the opening and closing CMR for the Dom. OBC category was 528. Note that CMR stands for common merit rank.
Q: How many seats are sanctioned for the Masters programme through NIFT?
A:
The Masters programs at NIFT (M. Des, M. F. Tech, and MFM) has a combined intake capacity of 1034 seats. The General Ability Test (GAT) is common for all courses, while candidates seeking admission to the M. Des programme also need to appear in the Creative Ability Test (CAT). The final merit list for admission to the M. Des programme will be prepared by giving weightage to the CAT, GAT and Interview. Meanwhile, the merit list for the M. F. Tech and M. F. M programs will be prepared by considering the performance of the candidate in the GAT and Interview. The candidate can select their programme of study at the time of filling out the NIFT application form. Note that the allotment of seats will be as per the merit rank of the candidate.
Salary of Design Careers in India
The average salary of design careers in India is given below.
| Career | Average Salary |
|---|---|
| UI/UX Designer | 5.6 LPA |
| Graphic Designer | 1.7 to 6.3 LPA |
| Advertising and Brand Designer | 3.8 to 19.0 LPA |
| Product Designer | 3.5 to 26.0 LPA |
| Animation Film Designer | 4 - 8 LPA |
| Fashion Designer | 5 - 10 LPA |
| Interior Designer | 9 to 25 LPA |
| Sustainable Designer | 4 to 20 LPA |
| Game Designer | 4.7 to 15 LPA |
| Social Impact Designer | 4.5 to 6 LPA |
Staying updated about the latest educational events is just a click away
Enter Mobile Number
Colleges and Exams to get Admission in Design Colleges
Some of the top institutes to study design are given below.
| Exam Name | Conducting Body | Top Institutes | Course Offered (B.Des and M.Des) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NID DAT | National Institute of Design | NID Ahmedabad, NID AP, NID Haryana, NID Madhya Pradesh | Graphic Design, Animation, Product Design, Textile, Film & Video, Exhibition, etc. |
| UCEED | IIT Bombay | IIT Bombay, IIT Guwahati, IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIITDM Jabalpur | UI/UX, Product Design, Visual Communication, Mobility Design, etc. |
| NIFT Entrance Exam | National Testing Agency (NTA) | NIFT Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, etc. | Fashion Design, Textile, Knitwear, Accessory, Leather, Fashion Communication, Apparel Prod. |
| SEED | Symbiosis Institute of Design (SID) | SID Pune | Communication Design, Industrial Design, Fashion Communication, Fashion Design |
| AIEED | ARCH College of Design & Business | ARCH Jaipur | Fashion, Interior, Product, Graphic, Jewellery Design |
| Pearl Academy Entrance | Pearl Academy | Pearl Academy (Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Jaipur) | Fashion Design, Product Design, Communication Design, Interior Design |
| IIAD Entrance Exam | Indian Institute of Art and Design | IIAD | Fashion Design, Communication Design, Interior Architecture |
| Srishti Entrance (SMEAT) | Srishti Manipal Institute | Srishti Manipal (Bangalore) | Animation, Industrial Arts, Digital Media, Visual Communication, Contemporary Art |
| MIT DAT | MIT Institute of Design | MIT Institute of Design, Pune | Product, Transportation, Interior, Graphic, Fashion Design |
| UPES DAT | University of Petroleum and Energy Studies | UPES School of Design, Dehradun | Game Design, Product Design, UI/UX, Interior, Animation |
Commonly asked questions
Q: Can overseas candidates apply for admission to GEN-EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, and ST seats through NID DAT?
A:
As per information given in the NID admission handbooks, overseas candidates cannot apply for admission to GEN-EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, and ST seats. Such candidates can't also apply for age-relaxation, scribe, etc.
Also, the fee structure for overseas category is different.
Q: How many students appeared for NTA 2026 NIFT Stage 1?
A:
Shift | NIFTEE Stage 1 2026 Exam | Registered (expected) | Appeared (expected) |
|---|---|---|---|
Shift 1 | General Ability Test (GAT) | 18000+ | 17000+ |
Shift 2 | Creative Ability Test (CAT) | 16000+ | 15000+ |
Total |
| 34000+ | 32000+ |
Q: How many seats are there in CEED?
A:
Seats available for CEED admission vary from one institute to the other (that accept the exam scores for admission). For e. g, IIT Hyderabad has 30 seats, while IISc Bangalore has 18 seats. Candidates are informed that CEED is just a qualifying exam. Thus, any aspirant who clears CEED exam may have to appear in further admission rounds that may be conducted by the participating college. The application process at the participating colleges typically open once the CEED entrance exam results are announced.
Explore colleges based on CEED
Based on ,M.Des,CEED
Want better recommendations?
There is a 90% more chance of getting best college recommendations by sharing preferences.Confused about which college or exam to opt for?
- Chat with our counselor
- Get your personalised list of colleges & exams matching your preferences
View allCollections
Explore more Design exams with upcoming date
CEED Scorecard 2026
10 Mar '26 - 31 Jul '26
Top Companies Hiring Design Graduates and Post Graduates
Some of the companies which hire people from design background are given below.
- Raymonds
- Arvind Garments
- Levis
- Madura Garments
- Omega Designs
- Pantaloon
- Shahi Exports
- Spykar
- Uni Style India
-
Pearl Global
-
Kimaya
- Indus League Clothing
- United Colors of Benetton
- ITC Ltd.
- Lifestyle
- Modelama Exports
- Orient Craft
- Proline
- Span India
- Swarovski India
- Texport Overseas
- Shoppers Stop
- Mahajan Overseas
- Gokuldas Images
- H&M
- Zara
- Marks and Spencer
- FabIndia
- Aditya Birla Fashion
- Myntra
- Nykaa
- Ajio
Videos you may like
About the Author
Sayeba Naushad
Assistant Manager
Sayeba Naushad is a commerce postgraduate from Banaras Hindu University. She has over five years of experience in content writing and editing. She has a nose for current events in design field. At Shiksha.com, she s
Read Full Bio