Design

A growing and vibrant labour market

The Creative Industry Monitor 2023 shows that design is the fastest-growing sector of the entire creative industry in the Netherlands. Between 2012 and 2022, the design sector grew by 35.5 thousand jobs, with an average annual growth rate of 12.1 per cent (see figure ‘Number of jobs in design as a cultural subsector’). This makes design alone responsible for 38 per cent of job growth in the entire creative industry in the 2012-2022 period. The Creative Industry Monitor 2023 calls this growth exceptional but cannot explain exactly why design's growth is so large and encourages further research into this.

These figures include all jobs within the design industry: from creative to support staff. But design manifests itself both inside and outside the creative sector. In the Netherlands, almost 40 per cent of the creative professionals work outside the creative industry; after all, design professions also occur in, for instance, the trade, industry and care sectors (also called: 'embedded creativity'). It is therefore important to also look at available figures on the entire labour market.   

As for the broad labour market, for example, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) maps creative occupational groups, with design being classified as design (ontwerpende) occupations (CBS 2021). For design, data are monitored herein for the two specific occupational groups ‘product and clothing designers’ and ‘graphic and multimedia designers’. Like the Creative Industry Monitor, CBS reports growth in the design labour market. The number of product and clothing designers rose from 14,000 in 2013/2015 to 18,000 in 2017/2019. In the same period, the number of graphic and multimedia designers increased from 36,000 to 40,000 (see the figure ‘Number of designers in the entire labour market’). The numbers presented therefore include designers working outside the cultural sector (embedded creatives), such as in the corporate sector, painting a broader picture of a growing labour market. More recent data from the CBS are not (yet) available.

Value of image, image of value (Waarde van beeld, beeld van waarde) in 2023 published figures on the ‘image sector’ which includes design. This provides a snapshot of, among other things, the number of people employed, but also figures on the economic value of the image sector (see figures below from Waarde van Cultuur 2023). Design-related occupations are found in the image sector in the industries of Communication and Graphic Design, Industrial and Product Design, and Interior and Spatial Design. When adding up the number of people working in these industries, we see similar numbers to those of the number of people employed according to CBS and the Creative Industry Monitor.

However, Value of Image, Image of Value also charts the growth of these industries over the past decades. Growth in the number of people employed in the communication and graphic design industry is by far the strongest, averaging 34.6 per cent growth per year between 2010-2021, and less strong but still large growth averaging 16.1 per cent per year between 2017-2021. In recent years, the strength of this industry's growth drops slightly. The rapid growth of communication and graphic design, according to Value of Image, can be explained by the demise of traditional printing as a result of digitalisation - paper was exchanged for the digital medium and printing companies positioned themselves differently or disappeared as a result. The industrial and product design industry, on the other hand, has been growing faster in recent years. Between 2010-2021, growth here averaged 1.1 per cent per year, but 7.4 per cent per year between 2017-2021. A similar growth trend can be seen in the increase in the number of business establishments in these branches of the image sector. The value added to the total economy for these three industries added up to over 1 billion euros in 2019, out of a total economy of 744 billion euros in that year, or 0.13 per cent of GDP. The three design industries in 2019 represented 30.1 per cent of the total value added produced by the image sector (Manshanden et al. 2023).

Designing for system change

Designers are forward thinkers and have great organisational skills. They identify problems and take a solution-oriented approach. In doing so, they often focus on social issues, or problems they identify in the systems around us. They recognise the seriousness of those problems yet remain optimistic in their responses to them. Think of themes such as the climate crisis, inequality of opportunity or decolonisation. At the Dutch Design Week (DDW) in 2023, which it organised, the Dutch Design Foundation described five missions (current social issues at play in the design field) and five design perspectives (from the full breadth of the design field) that describe current trends among designers in the sector (Dutch Design Foundation 2023). During Dutch Design Week 2022, the theme Get Set... We're on a mission! took centre stage and designers showed a strong sense of urgency. Concrete actions, solutions and meaningful collaborations for all kinds of problems facing our society took the limelight, with the underlying idea that together we can create a better (and more sustainable) future (DDW 2022).

At the What Design Can Do Live 2024 event, numerous world-improving concepts were also presented. A few (international) examples: Electric Skin, which, in response to the growing mountain of electronic and battery waste, invented a way to use bacteria to naturally produce electronically charged proteins in the form of a ‘skin’ that can then provide energy to devices. Or Celium, a revolutionary biomaterial that can be used as an alternative to leather, made by having fruit waste converted into cellulose through bacteria. Or Looop can, which combats menstrual poverty and makes it possible for people in areas with little water supply to still have a hygienic menstruation. There were also numerous examples that offered solutions to the polluting and exploitative fast fashion industry. In general, designers have been experimenting more and more with new, organic materials (such as mycelium or banana leather) in recent years, joining the global push for recycling and circularity.

Nature and sustainability

Nature, climate change, sustainability and bio-design: these are major themes within the design sector. In ‘naturing’ (as this trend is described in the Dutch Designers Yearbook ‘23-’24), designing with and for nature is central. In collaboration between humans, nature and technology, responses to for example the climate crisis or fast fashion are given. ‘Nature is the most successful product of our time,’ writes Koert van Mensvoort, founder of Next Nature, in Dutch Designers Yearbook ‘23-’24. ‘We live in a time in which created and born things are increasingly intertwined. This also makes the distinction between nature and culture difficult to make,' he says. Natsai Audrey Chieza, founder of Faber Futures, also highlights the power of nature in design during What Design Can Do Live 2024: ‘How is bio-design different from normal design? It is not just a technology - it's a gateway to cultural revolution, to getting us closer to nature'.

Interdisciplinary collaboration as a force for innovation

As designers consider these overarching, societal problems and processes, their field of work broadens. The importance of external expertise increases, because designers often need knowledge from others to realise their idea. Crossovers between design and other sectors therefore often take place, interviews with the design field also show. Material designers seek contact with biologists, social designers collaborate with anthropologists and designers in the broad sense of the word are increasingly involved in innovation areas such as nanotechnology or energy transition. With the young generation of designers, thinking in disciplines or pigeonholes even seems to be disappearing, fostering the emergence of interdisciplinary collaborations.  

Social design & Design thinking

Conscious design. Design thinking. Process-makers. Design with impact. These are different ways of interpreting an overarching trend within design: the importance of design in addressing, solving or investigating pressing problems in society. The so-called discipline of social design is a concrete example of this. Whereas a few years ago social design gained increasing social support (Dijksterhuis 2020), it is now a more established form of design and is developing considerably. In 2023, for instance, the Council for Culture deployed the design power of design thinking to feed its advice for the revision of the cultural system (Raad voor Cultuur 2023). Also, within the Creative Industries Fund NL, social design is treated as a fully-fledged discipline within design (vormgeving), for which separate advisers exist within the fund.

Precisely because the field of social design is currently evolving so much, there is not yet a single conclusive definition of what it means in practice. On the one hand, social design is used to name the changing attitude of designers, signalling an increasing awareness of the social and societal environment. Nynke Tromp (professor at TU Delft) and Stéphane Vial (design researcher at UQAM) identify five goals that social designers are broadly concerned with:
1) the welfare of disadvantaged people;
2) improving government services;
3) helping citizens take more control;
4) developing strong communities;
5) sustainable, future-proof systems
(Department / Extraordinary Affairs s.a.)

On the other hand, social design is seen as a concrete subdiscipline (as in the case of the Creative Industries Fund NL) within the design field rather than as a way of thinking. Social designers aim to initiate social change with their work, for example by looking at the design of certain social processes. 'A social designer's approach is characterised by focusing on the people who are ultimately what matters and looking for appropriate next steps together with them in co-creation. Step by step, they work towards a change that works better for both the individuals involved and the system as a whole,' writes Department / Extraordinary Affairs, one of the few agencies specialising in social design (ibid.). An example of a social design project of theirs is Seev, which responds to the relatively high number of young people in the Netherlands with problematic debts.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI has been used in society, at work and in daily life for a long time, but with the arrival of Midjourney and ChatGPT it suddenly developed rapidly in the design sector (Dd Yearbook 2023). Designers need new competencies, for example you need to know which prompts to use to get an answer from AI. AI has added value, according to discussion partners from the sector. For example, more data and tools are available to test concepts, software can be developed faster and easier, processes can be automated and it can also be used creatively to create 'new' images.

But AI also raises plenty of questions. How will it affect the job market for designers? Is it ethical, and where does ownership lie when AI is involved in a process? How do we deal with this and how do we assess it? AI is fed and trained by existing information and is therefore biased by the ‘normative’ information present online. There is also criticism of this: it would instead be important to also include information from different marginalised social groups - which often cannot be found online and are, in fact, close to nature and traditions - in the current system (What Design Can Do Live 2024).

The BNO conducted a survey among its members in 2022 and asked them for their opinions and experiences with AI. The questionnaire was completed by 67 design agencies and 145 independent designers in the Netherlands. The figures below show the results.

Crafts

Crafts are becoming an increasingly strong part of design courses. Students are encouraged to learn crafts themselves or collaborate with artisans in their design. This was also highlighted in interviews with creators/designers, who further explained that craftspeople are often less visible as they do not work much with galleries or public institutions and often sell their work on the internet. The Creative Industry Fund NL launched the ‘Open Call Contemporary Use of Crafts’ a couple of times in recent years, through which the fund, with a focus on a sustainable future of crafts, wants to strengthen the equal collaboration between designers and craftspeople (Stimuleringsfonds 2023).

Fair pay

Fair pay in the design profession, as in many other creative professions, is not yet always on the agenda. A large number of designers are self-employed, others are employed by a design agency, and a third group works as employees within companies, (semi-)public organisations or social organisations where design is not the main activity. In all these different constructions of the profession, the question of what constitutes fair and appropriate remuneration for designers comes into play (Arnoldus et al. 2022). Also, the government's ARVODI (General Government Procurement Terms and Conditions for Services), for example, is not well aligned with the profession. The Platform ACCT (Labour Market Cultural and Creative Future) is committed to designers by, for example, giving the sector a helping hand with a publication on pay structure. Fair pay remains an urgent issue that needs attention in the design sector.