Designer Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Designer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Designer salary in the UK excluding London is £49,750 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 13 January 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 322 349 360
Rank change year-on-year +27 +11 -51
Permanent jobs requiring a Designer 192 234 223
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.46% 0.65% 0.64%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.50% 0.70% 0.68%
Number of salaries quoted 144 126 185
10th Percentile £28,150 £38,125 £29,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £49,750 £55,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.55% +22.22% -5.26%
75th Percentile £65,000 £60,000 £55,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £70,000 £69,800
UK median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -13.04%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 38,179 33,328 33,027
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.48% 92.91% 95.32%
Number of salaries quoted 23,318 16,178 25,075
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £36,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -5.66%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £78,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%

Designer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Designer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Designer job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Designer
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for Designer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Salary distribution trend for Designer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Designer
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Designer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 13 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Designer in the UK excluding London

Designer
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Designer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 13 January 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North of England +23 62 £57,500 +25.00% 18
Midlands +14 36 £50,000 -16.67% 11
South East +9 36 £35,000 -41.67% 40
North West +18 31 £57,500 +15.00% 12
West Midlands +8 30 £55,500 -7.50% 9
South West +22 29 £42,500 +6.25% 18
Yorkshire -6 24 £72,500 +45.00% 5
East of England +11 15 £62,500 +4.17% 21
North East +8 7 £47,500 +11.76% 1
Scotland -8 7 £48,750 +30.00% 7
Wales +2 6 £45,000 +5.85% 4
East Midlands -4 6 £40,000 -5.91% 2
Northern Ireland - 1 - -
Designer
UK

Designer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 13 January 2026, Designer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Designer in the job title.

1 65 (33.85%) User Experience
2 46 (23.96%) Adobe
2 46 (23.96%) Figma
3 43 (22.40%) UX Design
4 40 (20.83%) Service Design
5 32 (16.67%) Agile
6 30 (15.63%) Accessibility
7 29 (15.10%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 27 (14.06%) Degree
8 27 (14.06%) Prototyping
8 27 (14.06%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
9 26 (13.54%) Interaction Design
10 24 (12.50%) Photoshop
10 24 (12.50%) Wireframes
11 22 (11.46%) User Research
12 19 (9.90%) InDesign
13 17 (8.85%) Problem-Solving
14 16 (8.33%) Adobe Illustrator
14 16 (8.33%) Product Strategy
15 14 (7.29%) AI
16 13 (6.77%) CSS
16 13 (6.77%) Customer Experience
16 13 (6.77%) HTML
16 13 (6.77%) Typography
16 13 (6.77%) WCAG
17 12 (6.25%) Adobe XD
17 12 (6.25%) Creative Thinking
18 11 (5.73%) CAD
18 11 (5.73%) JavaScript
18 11 (5.73%) Stakeholder Management

Designer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 5 (2.60%) CMS
2 4 (2.08%) Confluence
2 4 (2.08%) WordPress
3 1 (0.52%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 29 (15.10%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 24 (12.50%) Photoshop
3 19 (9.90%) InDesign
4 16 (8.33%) Adobe Illustrator
5 12 (6.25%) Adobe XD
6 6 (3.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 4 (2.08%) 3ds Max
7 4 (2.08%) AutoCAD
8 3 (1.56%) Sketch
9 2 (1.04%) Adobe After Effects
9 2 (1.04%) Adobe Premiere
9 2 (1.04%) InVision
10 1 (0.52%) Camtasia
10 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Excel
10 1 (0.52%) Revit
Cloud Services
1 46 (23.96%) Figma
2 10 (5.21%) SaaS
3 6 (3.13%) AWS
3 6 (3.13%) Azure
3 6 (3.13%) Canva
4 5 (2.60%) Adobe Analytics
5 4 (2.08%) GitHub
5 4 (2.08%) GitHub Copilot
5 4 (2.08%) Miro
6 1 (0.52%) Adobe Creative Cloud
6 1 (0.52%) Amazon Cognito
6 1 (0.52%) Amazon S3
6 1 (0.52%) AWS Lambda
6 1 (0.52%) Boomi
6 1 (0.52%) Google Analytics
6 1 (0.52%) MailChimp
6 1 (0.52%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (0.52%) Power Platform
6 1 (0.52%) Serverless
6 1 (0.52%) Vyond
Communications & Networking
1 8 (4.17%) Broadband
1 8 (4.17%) SD-WAN
1 8 (4.17%) WAN
2 6 (3.13%) Wireless
3 5 (2.60%) Firewall
3 5 (2.60%) LAN
3 5 (2.60%) WebEx
4 3 (1.56%) WLAN
5 2 (1.04%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (0.52%) GIS
Development Applications
1 4 (2.08%) Axure RP
1 4 (2.08%) Balsamiq
1 4 (2.08%) Visual Studio
2 2 (1.04%) JIRA
General
1 28 (14.58%) Marketing
2 27 (14.06%) Social Skills
3 23 (11.98%) Retail
4 14 (7.29%) Public Sector
5 10 (5.21%) Finance
6 9 (4.69%) Aerospace
7 7 (3.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 7 (3.65%) Law
7 7 (3.65%) Legal
8 6 (3.13%) Banking
8 6 (3.13%) Games
9 5 (2.60%) Advertising
9 5 (2.60%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.56%) Analytical Skills
10 3 (1.56%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.56%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (1.04%) Digital Health
11 2 (1.04%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.52%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.52%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (6.77%) CSS
1 13 (6.77%) HTML
2 4 (2.08%) .NET
2 4 (2.08%) Blazor
2 4 (2.08%) Material Design
2 4 (2.08%) WebAssembly
3 3 (1.56%) Bootstrap
3 3 (1.56%) Tailwind CSS
4 1 (0.52%) Framer.js
4 1 (0.52%) OpenAPI
4 1 (0.52%) Oracle Fusion
4 1 (0.52%) React Native
4 1 (0.52%) Sass
4 1 (0.52%) Semantic HTML
4 1 (0.52%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 19 (9.90%) Graphic Design
1 19 (9.90%) Social Media
2 12 (6.25%) Motion Graphics
3 10 (5.21%) Product Ownership
4 7 (3.65%) FPGA
5 6 (3.13%) 3D Graphics
5 6 (3.13%) Animation
5 6 (3.13%) Video Editing
6 4 (2.08%) Mobile App
7 3 (1.56%) e-Learning
7 3 (1.56%) Learning Management System
7 3 (1.56%) Web Conferencing
8 1 (0.52%) Blog
8 1 (0.52%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.52%) Data Structures
8 1 (0.52%) FMCG
8 1 (0.52%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.52%) Podcast
8 1 (0.52%) Verilog
8 1 (0.52%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 1 (0.52%) Android
1 1 (0.52%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 65 (33.85%) User Experience
2 43 (22.40%) UX Design
3 40 (20.83%) Service Design
4 32 (16.67%) Agile
5 27 (14.06%) Prototyping
5 27 (14.06%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
6 26 (13.54%) Interaction Design
7 24 (12.50%) Wireframes
8 22 (11.46%) User Research
9 17 (8.85%) Problem-Solving
10 16 (8.33%) Product Strategy
11 14 (7.29%) AI
12 13 (6.77%) Customer Experience
12 13 (6.77%) Typography
13 12 (6.25%) Creative Thinking
14 11 (5.73%) CAD
14 11 (5.73%) Stakeholder Management
14 11 (5.73%) Usability Testing
15 10 (5.21%) Front End Development
15 10 (5.21%) Responsive Web Design
Programming Languages
1 11 (5.73%) JavaScript
2 4 (2.08%) C#
3 1 (0.52%) SQL
Qualifications
1 27 (14.06%) Degree
2 10 (5.21%) Security Cleared
3 9 (4.69%) SC Cleared
4 5 (2.60%) CISM
4 5 (2.60%) CISSP
5 1 (0.52%) AWS Certification
5 1 (0.52%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (0.52%) CCNA
5 1 (0.52%) CCNP
5 1 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (0.52%) HND
5 1 (0.52%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (15.63%) Accessibility
2 13 (6.77%) WCAG
3 1 (0.52%) ISO 9001
3 1 (0.52%) QA
System Software
1 1 (0.52%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 1 (0.52%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 46 (23.96%) Adobe
2 8 (4.17%) Microsoft
3 7 (3.65%) Fortinet
4 5 (2.60%) Juniper
5 4 (2.08%) Aruba
5 4 (2.08%) Cisco
6 2 (1.04%) Extreme Networks
7 1 (0.52%) Google
7 1 (0.52%) Informatica
7 1 (0.52%) MuleSoft
7 1 (0.52%) Oracle
7 1 (0.52%) VMware