2025 creative and design salary guide

Our specialist creative and design recruitment consultants have released our 2025 digital design salary guide. This resource is perfect for candidates and employers who want to benchmark pay and learn the latest recruitment trends in the creative industry.

We've created this guide using data from over 1,300 respondents to our 2025 Salary Survey alongside our recruiters' expertise. Whether you're looking for design jobs or growing your team, our salary guide is an invaluable resource.

Why download our 2025 design salary guide?

By downloading this year's salary guide, you will receive the average UK pay ranges for jobs across the creative and design sectors. We have covered a wide range of roles for both agency and in-house design teams, such as:

• UX, digital and graphic design
• Digital product design
• Copywriting and art direction

For more information outside of creative salaries, access our complete 2025 Annual Pay & Hiring Report.

Why should you benchmark your salaries?

Salaries have continued to rise in 2024, with an average increase of 7.7%. If you haven't hired over the past 12 months, we'd highly recommend benchmarking your creative jobs pay brackets. Companies offering below the market rate find it incredibly difficult to attract applicants, with 46% of candidates placing salary as the most important factor in a job search.

An unprecedented number of Designers will be searching for a new role in 2025. 81% of survey respondents told us they will be looking for a new opportunity over the next 12 months. Their main motivator for this search is higher pay.

Use our creative salary guide to ensure that you're offering the right renumeration to attract and retain talent.

What is the average design salary in the UK?

Many wonder if design is a well-paid career path. With the average design role paying between £50,000 - £69,999, we can confirm that the sector pays better than the average UK salary at £37,430.

We break down each of the digital design and creative job titles in our salary guide, but here's a sample of pay brackets to get you started.

Digital Designer

The average Digital Designer's pay ranges between £28,000 - £40,000 at a mid-level role. This can change based on industry and business size, with those in the tech sector usually paying more than retail.

Art Director

Salaries may also vary based on seniority. For instance, a Junior Art Director, can expect to be paid between £27,000 - £33,000. Meanwhile, a Senior Art Director can command a salary of £55,000 - £80,000.

For a complete break down of all job titles, including contract day rates, download the salary guide above.

Design recruitment trends in 2025

55% of all hiring managers told us they have plans to grow their team in 2025. Once businesses truly understand the impact of political changes taking affect in April, they will have more confidence to bring in new talent. As a result, we only expect the number of jobs to grow throughout the year.

What are candidates looking for?

As mentioned above, we expect to see high levels of attrition in the design sector this year. 81% of Designers have told us they will be looking for a new role with the aim of finding:

1. Increased pay
2. Better company culture
3. A new challenge

Outside of benchmarking pay brackets, we recommend that employers assess their company culture when thinking about talent attraction plans. Internal employee surveys are a great option to ensure you're offering employees the work environment they want.

You should also ensure that you're selling the opportunity when writing job adverts and speaking to prospective candidates. Describe what a day in the life could look like as a Digital Designer in your company.

Searching for more recruitment support? Get in touch!

For more in-depth advice tailored to your business, get in touch with our specialist design recruiters. Speaking to hundreds of candidates every week, their knowledge of design and proven experience in the industry is unrivalled. We work closely with you to deliver the best recruitment experience you will ever have.