Design & Media

Design

Did you know the iPhone was created by a UK designer? No wonder the UK's design industry is recognised as world-class. Over 185,000 people work in design in the UK, helping businesses to stand out in crowded market places and compete on value rather than price. Around 8,500 people are employed in the region with most agencies being small to medium with some larger firms found in Leeds, Sheffield and Doncaster.

Jobs in Design can be varied but popular career routes include graphic design, fashion and multimedia. In all areas you can expect to be working to develop creative ideas and adapting a product or concept to meet a brief agreed with a client or account manager. You need to be naturally creative and understand the industry as well as keeping up-to-date with trends, fashions and new technologies.

But it's not just about being creative, you need to have a professional approach to time, costs and deadlines. You'll also need to be a good communicator as you'll have a lot of contact with clients and will need to work as part of a team with printers, copywriters, photographers, other designers, account executives, web developers and marketing specialists

You could find yourself working in a design agency or an in-house position and many designers work on a freelance basis. The majority of designers in Yorkshire are employed in in-house roles in the industrial and commercial sectors. The Digital Yorkshire website provides an overview of some of the more commonly found design roles in the region including architectural, engineering and industrial process design.

To get in you'll need experience of working with a wide range of media including photography and computer-aided design and you should have evidence to back this up. Working on a student publication can be a great place to start or shadowing in a design agency will give you a taste of what really goes on.

You'll need to keep up-to-date with all the industry latest so check out Brand Republics website or check out a trade press like Marketing, the top weekly for industry professionals or The Drum for the latest from outside the London bubble. These are also great places to find job vacancies as well as the Guardians Media supplement on a Monday.

Useful links:

The Design Council

A government funded body promoting design in the UK.

The Directory of Design Consultants

Allows you to search for design consultancies within the region against different categories of design.

The Chartered Society of Designers

A society for the design profession.

Digital Yorkshire

Find info and contact information for Digital Industries in Yorkshire as well as all the latest news.

Creative Industries Development Agency

CIDA was established in January 2000 to provide support to the development of the creative sector in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

The Drum

Marketing news and job vacancies from outside the M25.

Brand Republic

UK marketing news.