Why The Creative Industry Feels Broken Right Now And Why It Isnt

Creative Boom: Insight Creative Industry Why the creative industry feels broken right now (and why it isn't) From the design-saturated optimism of the 1980s to corporate consolidation, austerity and AI, designer Paul Leon traces forty years of the UK creative industry, and makes the case for why the disenchantment many feel right now might just be the beginning of something better. Written By: Guest Author 5 March 2026 Image licensed via Adobe Stock Over the last 40 years, the creative design industry has undergone enormous change.

Sixteen years of successive governments devaluing the creative fields haven't helped – and over the past four years, I've seen and heard demoralised comments and stories from creative design professionals across the ranks. Why is that? What's happening out there? I think the answer lies in the story of the modern creative industry from the early '80s. By that decade, design felt everywhere in popular culture – magazines, fashion, and television. Every day, people knew who Terence Conran, Jean Paul Gaultier and Philippe Starck were.

Without the internet, we were arguably more conscious of design in the world around us: the sports shoes we wore, the buildings we worked in, the shops we frequented. Bang & Olufsen sound systems were aspirational objects. You saw, experienced, and understood design. Creative design carried such cultural weight that the Design Council had established offices in London's Haymarket – by the '80s, a prominent events, library, materials and exhibition space, complete with a café and design bookshop, front and centre until 1998. There were whole shelves of design magazines in John Menzies (that was a newsagent – look it up).

Bookshops had substantial design sections. It was all accessible. So much so that working-class kids from council estates around the country decided to go to college to study art and design, then onto an HND or degree at art schools across the country. It was hard to get in. It was hard work. And the design education experience was nothing like it is now. You could graduate at 21 and, in London, expect to earn around £21k at an agency – the equivalent of a starting salary of around £42k today. It wasn't easy to break into, but if you had the willingness to learn, a strong folio and determination, you had a shot.

That much hasn't changed much. In London, creative design agencies – small, big, and really big – were everywhere. There was an exciting, rebellious buzz. You could join an agency and move between advertising, branding, and packaging without anyone blinking. A brand project came in, and if you could hold a marker, draw, and, most importantly, have ideas, you were in. The creative director genuinely guided you. You learnt a huge amount. You could sell ideas, and clients listened. Crucially, agencies were founded, owned and operated by the creatives themselves.

There was the '92 crash, and then again in '94, but creative design remained at the forefront of national consciousness. Fashion, advertising, architecture, magazine, retail, interior, product and graphic design – along with the budding web and digital arenas – coalesced into the high point of Cool Britannia. Even after the dot-com bubble burst and the events of 2001, you could still make a good living as a creative designer or freelancer. Meanwhile, something quieter was happening. What some might view as the gradual dismantling of a world-class design education infrastructure was underway.

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The article addresses significant shifts in the creative industry that could influence brand strategies, highlighting the rise of independent agencies and the reevaluation of creative value, making it highly relevant and impactful for professionals in the field.