A big thank you if you took part, your answers will help to reflect and shape the future of the design industry in the region. We’ve listened to feedback and amended questions where necessary, this has had an impact on some results but comparisons can still be made to last year’s survey. You will see some additional questions this year – including the impact COVID-19 has had on our industry.

With this being our second year we can start to see trends amongst our results. We have included our own highlights of the statistics at the beginning of each section.

The final report can be downloaded below.

As before the survey covered key areas such as gender, age and ethnicity. Aiming to show a true snapshot of our working lives, it included questions about job roles, location, and pay. The skills and sectors element of the survey shows how we continue to play a huge role in supporting all manner of businesses and organisations.

There are some new questions and sections – new hires, internships, software and design publications are fresh entries. Students now have their own section, with questions around digital exclusion. And COVID-19, a subject we couldn’t avoid, also features in this year’s survey.

We hope the information provided in the results is helpful to you, we believe that it provides valuable data for anyone working in or with the industry. To quote Peter Drucker, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”

All feedback is welcome, if you have any comments or questions regarding the survey, please contact the team by email hello@birminghamdesign.co.uk

Download the 2021 annual survey

Here’s some more from us: