The graphic design industry: an attractive proposition for young people
When I started out as a graphic designer in the late 90’s I had no idea where it would take me.
At the time, I aspired to work as a graphic designer for album covers and skateboard brands, two personal interests where I could see graphic design as a conduit between music and fan, skateboard and skater.
30 years on, graphic design delivered for me, I designed the brand Rhude Skateboards in my hometown of Melbourne and worked with Rick Ward (ex Creative Partner at The Team), designing the artwork for The Beatles ‘1’ album.
It also took me to places across the world and introduced me to clients I never imagined being trusted to enhance their brands, from IBM, the NHS, English National Ballet and bp.
So, why is the graphic design industry an attractive proposition for young people in 2024?
We asked this question in our recent YouGov poll and learnt that:
- 61% of people across the UK agree that the graphic design industry is an attractive proposition for young people
- 31% neither agreed or disagreed
- 8% disagreed.
It’s re-assuring to see a strong leaning towards the design industry being a sector fit for the future, but what makes it so?
What skills will be in demand in the future jobs market?
Design is a way of thinking to solve problems, drawing upon cognitive and creative skills.
And it’s these skills that appear to be those most in demand in the future jobs market.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs 2023 report finds analytical thinking, creative thinking and AI and big data will be top in-demand skills by 2027.
Analytical thinking is considered to be a core skill by more companies than any other skill, making up, on average, 9.1% of the core skills reported by companies.
Creative thinking comes second, ahead of three self-efficacy skills – resilience, flexibility and agility; motivation and self-awareness; and curiosity and lifelong learning – which recognize the importance of workers’ ability to adapt to disrupted workplaces.
Seeing that change appears to be the only constant in today’s working world, design skills are an invaluable asset to help companies navigate, embrace and maximise the opportunities created by disruption.
AI is another powerful tool within the designer’s expanding toolbox
AI is showing us that we can now accelerate many of the tasks which would eat into our sacred time to design.
Though, this powerful new tool is not entirely a new concept.
In the 60’s, Thomas Watson Junior said the computer would ‘reduce the requirement for drudgerous, repetitive, non-creative thinking’.
To a degree, the computer has certainly achieved this.
But it can also be argued that it has brought about new forms of drudgerous, repetitive, non-creative tasks such as managing the multitude of desktop communication platforms we’ve all had to succumb to in today’s way of working.
He also said the computer will allow us ‘to create, to think new thoughts, put two known thoughts together and come out with a third new thought and increase the opportunity … to think on the imaginative, creative lines.’
I think this message is equally relevant to AI, in my mind, a powerful co-pilot supporting designers to realise their ideas quicker, pushing ideas further and when applied in the right way, creating the potential for far more effective outcomes.
How does the UK value the creative sector?
According to Creative UK, from 2020 to 2022, the sector’s GVA (Gross Value Added) grew by 19% and 175,000 new jobs were created.
The creative sector is growing at a rate that exceeds the national average by more than a factor of three.
Most recent statistics from the House of Lords Library estimates that creative industries generated £126bn in gross value added, representing almost 6% of the economy, and employed 2.4 million people in 2022.
The new Labour government have shown positive signs in their vision for the cultural sector, pledging to transform arts access and education across the country and ensure that “creative skills won’t be treated as a luxury, but as a necessity”.
This is encouraging for the creative sector, as GCSE enrolment in arts subjects have dropped by 47% since 2010.
The numbers are a promising sign for the creative industries and Keir Starmer’s stance on the arts as, “essential to our economic growth and our national identity”, will hopefully give aspiring designers belief in the creative industries as a sector to fulfil ambitions and build a successful career.
Coupling the skills in demand by companies with the value placed upon design as a priority leaver for organisations to succeed in realising the purpose, suggests the design industry is a strong proposition for young people both today and in the future.
As our most recent design intern told us, “I’m excited to see where design can go in the future, with ever-developing new technologies, it’s exciting to see the change in design and how designers work.”
