Become a web designer in Germany: What do I need to know?

Web designer is a profession for which Germany lacks many workers. Is web design an opportunity for you? Find out here in our guide!

Are web designers in demand in Germany?

In many professions, there are currently more vacancies than applicants in Germany. Currently, more than 2,000 vacancies for web designers are regularly reported via the Federal Employment Agency. This is a very high figure. So if you are regionally somewhat mobile, you will have no problems finding a job as a web designer.

A huge advantage are German skills (German skills at around B1 is good enough for the beginning). However the demand is still so high that German companies are very happy to hire foreign personnel, even if they have only limited German language skills. So you have excellent chances as a web designer, both as a German and as a foreigner.

How much does a web designer earn in Germany?

Web designers’ salaries in Germany can vary greatly depending on factors such as experience, location, specialization, and the size of the employing company. An entry-level web designer might expect to earn between €30,000 and €40,000 annually. Keep in mind that these figures may change due to market conditions.

Mid-level web designers, who possess several years of experience, a strong portfolio, and maybe even some specialty skills such as user experience (UX) design or proficiency in a particular programming language, may command higher salaries. These professionals could expect to earn anywhere between €40,000 and €60,000 annually. Again, these figures should be taken as a rough guide, and actual salaries can vary.

The most experienced and skilled web designers, particularly those in leadership roles or those working in large corporations or prestigious design agencies, can expect to earn even more. Salaries in the range of €60,000 to €80,000 or higher are not unheard of for such positions. In addition to the base salary, many web designers may also receive additional benefits such as bonuses, profit-sharing arrangements, or allowances for equipment and professional development. The specifics will depend on the terms of employment and the policies of the individual employer.

Where can I do a webdesigner apprenticeship?

In Germany, several apprenticeships, often termed as “Ausbildung,” can prepare individuals for a career in web design. The most direct route is to embark on an “Ausbildung zum Mediengestalter Digital und Print” (Media Designer for Digital and Print). This three-year program, which is a blend of on-the-job training and classroom education, provides trainees with a solid foundation in visual design, digital media technology, and web development tools.

Another relevant apprenticeship is the “Ausbildung zum Fachinformatiker Anwendungsentwicklung” (Specialist in IT Systems and Application Development). Although this training is more focused on the software development side, it does equip apprentices with necessary web development skills, as well as a deep understanding of IT systems. These skills are essential for a web designer since modern web design often demands knowledge beyond mere aesthetics and includes usability, responsiveness, and coding.

Opting for an apprenticeship in Germany to become a web designer has several advantages. First, it provides a solid foundation of theoretical and practical knowledge necessary for the field. Given the balance between workplace experience and classroom learning, apprentices not only learn the relevant skills but also understand how to apply them in real-world scenarios. Second, apprenticeships are often seen as an excellent alternative to a traditional university degree, especially for fields like web design, where practical skills and portfolio are just as important, if not more so, than academic credentials.

What does a web designer do in detail?

A web designer is the one who is responsible for the design of internet presences. A good web designer should have a portion of creativity and a lot of up-to-date know-how. In fact, the range of tasks of a web designer is very wide and includes tasks such as the creation or adaptation of graphics to programming work.

The important thing in all these tasks is to meet the customer’s requirements to a great extent. This means that a web designer can draw on a wide variety of sources of information and still always keep the customer’s benefit in mind. This requires a lot of communication skills and the willingness to follow the customer’s wishes closely wherever possible – but also to advise him.

A web designer is a specialist in the field of Internet design. He designs the graphic and content design output of the respective web offer. The main task is the graphic design of the offer, where often not only the layout has to be created, but also all graphics, images and other elements.

Often the web designer has to create or edit the content of the website or web page. This may also include implementing the following elements:

• Connection to social media, especially Facebook, Instagram and Youtube,
• Implementation of different language versions,
• Implementing responsive / mobile-friendly websites.

For these tasks, you must have knowledge of website architecture and design. At the end of the day, it’s his job to bring everything together and coordinate it so that the client likes the result.

Where do I work as a web designer in Germany?

The largest number of web designers can be found in internet agencies, advertising agencies and media companies. Here you are mostly employed as a web designer and the company mainly deals with the creation of content/design on the web. The advantage of being employed here is that you get the most up-to-date knowledge very quickly.

Another area of employment are the communication and IT departments of companies. It doesn’t matter if it’s a car manufacturer, a machine manufacturer, a consumer goods producer or a retail group: every larger company operates Internet and Intranet presences and needs web designers for this.

Finally, the third area: Very many web designers also work freelance. Partly from home / remotely or partly on site at customers, they take on temporary assignments in companies – either for special completed projects or on an hourly basis with long-term cooperation.

What software and programming languages should I know as a web designer?

HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript are still the basics for web design. Today, however, it is often no longer necessary to develop complete program code yourself from scratch.

There are frameworks and tools that make it much easier and more automated for you to develop and maintain websites using these programming languages. Your task is rather to put existing parts together and to make a system functionally run from different building blocks.

Other software you should be proficient in are in particular:

• WordPress, Joomla, Typo3 and other content management systems (CMS)
• Adobe Creative Suite (for image and video editing)
• DigiKam (for photo editing)
• Blender (for 3D modeling)
• Gimp (for smaller graphics work)
• Inkscape (for characters and logos)
• Audacity (for editing audio files)
• VirtualBox (for virtualization)
• Zoom Player (as multimedia player)
• Gwibber & Pidgin + Skype (for instant messenger and phone calls).

Beyond that, there are many more tools and programs you’ll be working with. You also need to be pretty familiar with databases, for example MongoDB or MySQL. To know Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel well can make your life much easier in case you have many texts and data to process.

The future of web design

According to our assessment, web design has very good job prospects in the present and also for the next few years. In many industries, digitization is in full swing and it is not to be expected that creating websites will simply stop any time soon.

In the medium term, however, the occupational field will change. This is because there are a whole range of currently maturing developments that are likely to change the nature of web designers’ jobs. Along with this, the number of required web designers will probably change as well.

Modular systems

The first technology that will change the activities of web designers in the future is modular systems. These modular systems will make it much easier in the future to create certain standard solutions that are still done manually by experts today. The automation that will take place here will affect questions of programming as well as design and marketing. Modular systems will significantly reduce the number of staff required.

AI Content

A second development is the use of artificial intelligence: Here, the focus is on the automatic search and insertion of images and the automatic search engine optimized text generation. Even this article you are reading right now has already been written to about one third by an AI algorithm. Another third has been dictated (iOS) and only the remaining third has been written classically in WordPress. Other articles on this website are already more than 85 percent automated.

It can be assumed that AI will therefore lead to a significant change in the activities of web designers (as well as editors). In combination with SEO and AI, as well as more modern content management systems, large parts of websites will probably be written automatically in the future. This changes the occupational field of the web designer. But on the other hand, it also opens up opportunities for new qualitative solutions or outstanding designs. This may be the point where you will still have excellent perspectives as a web designer.

Economic concentration processes

The number of web designers will probably also be limited in the future by upcoming economic concentration processes. In the area of e-commerce as well as in the area of news/media and other areas of the economy there will probably continue to be mergers, which will reduce the number of websites on the one hand.

On the other hand, the past of the Internet has always shown that there were constantly new approaches and even complete newcomers can rise to successful large companies within a few years. I therefore believe that as a web designer you have little to worry about in the future, especially if you are constantly learning new technologies.

Need to catch up

For the time being and for the next few years, we continue to have an overall excellent outlook for this profession. There is still a lot of catching up to do in large parts of the German economy in the area of digitalization and in the area of e-commerce.

So your future as a web designer can look very good in all likelihood. This is true even if you only decide to take up this profession today, and even if you don’t yet live and work in Germany.

Questions and answers