Personal recommendation is the most popular way for businesses to find a designer, and to find information about design generally. The vast majority of UK businesses don’t buy any design services from abroad.
The details
Who commissions design?
In 57% of UK companies, the owner, managing director or chief executive is responsible for commissioning design work.This figure is of course strongly influenced by answers from micro-businesses, 72% of which report owners or CEOs as being responsible for design purchasing.
The proportion of company heads commissioning design drops to just 20% in larger firms; it is the responsibility of marketing managers in nearly half of cases (49%).
Who do UK companies employ to do their design?
42% of UK companies employ external design consultants on an ad hoc basis. The same percentage have some kind of dedicated in-house design function.
In larger companies, the percentage with an in-house design function jumps to 84% - and 68% use external consultants.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, compared to other industry sectors manufacturing has the highest instances of in-house design capabilities (74%). The finance and business sector is the most likely to use consultants – 49% of firms say they commission such services.
Once again, rapidly growing businesses demonstrate a greater commitment to design both internally and with consultants. Twice the proportion of these fast-moving companies have dedicated design departments (37%) compared to businesses who reported moderate growth in the past year (18%). In addition, than half (57%) use consultants and only 15% have employees doing design work as a secondary part of their job.
How many UK businesses have commissioned design in the past year?
39% of UK businesses have commissioned design work in the past twelve months.
The proportion of businesses commissioning designers tends to rise with the size of firm, from about one third (32%) of micro-businesses to 61% of larger companies.
Compared with 2005 figures, design commissioning has risen for all sizes of business.
By industry sector, finance and business leads the way in design commissioning with 46% having tried to source an external consultant in the past twelve months. This tallies with its previous results as the sector with the highest proportion of companies employing external consultants. Of the companies that said they employ external consultants, only 56% had done so in the past twelve months.
How do UK businesses commission design?
67% of UK companies that commissioned design work in the past twelve months selected a design consultant through a personal contact.
Personal contacts tend to become slightly less important among larger businesses, but even so they remain the most significant factor by a sizable margin.
Compared to three years ago, reliance on personal contacts has grown in importance, overtaking the use of a preferred list of suppliers, which used to be the main route to design consultants among companies of all sizes. Tendering has likewise become more prevalent.
Personal or business contacts are also important when sourcing a designer or design advice, with 43% of businesses asking friends or colleagues.
Do UK companies buy design from abroad?
88% of UK companies do not commission any design work from overseas.
This figure remains largely consistent across different business sizes and sectors. Even among larger companies (which are more likely to make use of overseas resources in other areas of the business), only 5% commission design from abroad for a significant part of their design activity.
Asked whether this situation was likely to change over the next three years, only 11% thought they might increase their use of overseas designers.