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27 May 2010 | 0

I recently received this years Industry Insights, which is published each year by the Design Council. It’s a supplement that details all kinds of interesting facts and figures about the design industry in general, and it often contains some interesting (and surprising) fact & figures about Freelance Designers.

I recommend every designer grabs a copy, which can be downloaded freely form their website.

To give you a taster, I have listed a few interesting results below.

  • The total annual fee income of UK freelance designers was estimated to be £3.6bn for the last financial year.
    This is a great sign, because it shows that British businesses are placing their trust in independent designers more and more each year – the figure is up 22% on 2009.

  • Freelance designers are less likely than design consultancies to do work abroad. 95% of freelance designers work predominantly for clients based in the UK.
    This figure surprised me, as my personal percentage is about 80% UK, and 20% overseas    .
  • There are 65,9001 freelance designers in the UK.
    Wow, that is a lot of competition :)

  • Just over 60% of freelance designers work in communications design and just under half work in digital and multimedia design. The number of freelance designers working in product and industrial design has decreased by 13% since 2005.
  • More than half of freelance designers have increased the number of clients that they work for over the last three years.
    Another good sign for independent designers, and more proof that businesses are gravitating away form larger design firms and the higher prices associated with them – the recession is perhaps par of the reason.
  • 96% of Freelance Designers work for Private sector clients, only 47% Public Sector.
    Quite a key fact here, would be interested to see a comparison to last year but I don’t have this to hand. There is without a doubt more private sector work available, which explains the gap, but I know there is a reluctance for government to invest in small design agencies and independents for public sector work. They don’t seem to have made the leap of trust in the same way that the private sector has.
  • UK design industry has grown since 2005, despite the recession
  • There are 232,0001 designers, 29% more than in 2005 and earnings have increased by £3.4bn. The combined budget of in-house teams and fee income of freelances and consultancies is £15bn.

You can download and read the full document by clicking here [PDF]


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