Hire designers whose skills match your business needs
- Written byArts Temps
- Published date 16 June 2026
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Hire designers and creatives: Choosing the right skill for the job
Key takeaways
- A designer covers many distinct disciplines, and hiring the right type starts with understanding what the work involves
- Permanent, freelance, and temporary each suit different kinds of work. The right choice depends on the nature of the project, not the budget alone
- A strong brief shapes who applies, how fast you can move, and how well a candidate hits the ground running
- A specialist recruitment partner who knows the creative sector takes care of sourcing and shortlisting, so you can focus on the hire itself
Design is one of the most in-demand skill sets across London's creative sector.
It is also one of the hardest to hire for well.
65% of hard-to-fill vacancies in the creative industries are attributable to skills shortages, compared with 41% across all other sectors. That gap is not simply about candidate availability. It reflects how often the skills a role genuinely requires and the skills an employer asks for are not the same thing.
When you hire designers, getting that match right starts before the search begins. This article helps you identify the specific discipline the work calls for, choose the right engagement type, and put a process in place that brings in the right person.
One job title, many different skills
The UK's creative arts sector spans a wide range of distinct disciplines, and design sits at the centre of much of it. The breadth of roles that fall under the creative arts reflects just how varied the skills, outputs, and working contexts across this sector can be. When a business advertises for "a designer," they could be describing several different roles with very different skill sets, tools, and outputs.
A smart approach for hiring the right designer
Getting the discipline and engagement type right sets the conditions for a good hire. The steps below apply regardless of which design role you are filling.
- Define the role and the skills it actually requires. Name the specific type of designer you need and what they will be working on, not just the job title you want to advertise.
- Write the brief. Scope the deliverables, set the timeline, and be clear about who the person will work with and what they will have access to. The way a role is written shapes who applies and what kind of candidate it attracts, so specific, well-constructed briefs consistently outperform vague ones.
- Decide on the engagement type. Use the framework above. Permanent, freelance, or temporary. Make the decision deliberately before you start sourcing.
- Source candidates. Once you know what you need and how you want to engage them, the question is where to look. The next section covers the main options.
- Review portfolios and work samples with intent. Look for relevance to the brief, not just visual polish. Range and thinking matter. A portfolio that shows how someone solves problems is more useful than one that only shows outputs.
- Interview and test fairly. Where possible, ask each candidate the same questions to keep the process consistent and comparable. Unpaid work trials should not ordinarily exceed one day, and the National Minimum Wage applies if a trial is not genuinely for recruitment purposes. If you want to assess practical skills, keep tasks short, scoped, and paid.
- Onboard with a plan. Set up reporting lines before the person starts. Be clear about what good looks like at 30, 60, and 90 days, for both of you.
The visual communication needs of a brand launch differ entirely from those of a product interface or an investor deck. These are the design disciplines businesses in London most commonly hire for:
- Graphic designer: layout, print, digital assets, and visual communications across a range of media
- Brand/branding designer: brand identity, visual guidelines, and brand-led creative work
- Digital/UI designer: websites, apps, and product interfaces, often with UX overlap depending on the role
- Content designer: copy structure and information design within digital products and services
- Presentation designer: investor materials, pitch decks, and reports built to communicate clearly under pressure
- Motion designer: animated content for social, advertising, and product walkthroughs
- Illustrator: editorial artwork, packaging, and campaign visuals
These design disciplines are not interchangeable. A motion designer and a brand designer may share some software knowledge, but they are trained to solve different problems. Naming the specific discipline the work requires is the first step to writing a brief that works.
Permanent, freelance or temporary: Matching the engagement to the work
Once you know the discipline you need, the next decision is how you bring that skill in. The right engagement type depends on the nature of the work, not on budget alone, and many businesses use all three depending on the project.
Freelance and temporary working is well established across the creative sector. Close to 30% of the creative workforce works freelance, compared with around 15% across the UK as a whole, reflecting how project-based much of the work is.
Engagement type | Best suited for | Commitment level | Speed to hire |
Permanent | Ongoing brand work, in-house design systems, growing creative teams | High, structured hiring process | Slower |
Freelance | Defined deliverables, campaigns, specialist skills not held in-house | Low to medium, project-based | Fast |
Temporary | Cover, busy seasons, launches, trialling a role before making it permanent | Medium, fixed term | Fast |
Thinking about how to hire a freelance designer, or whether temporary creative staff makes more sense? The table above is a starting point, but the decision comes down to what you need the person to deliver and for how long.
Where to find the right creative talent
With the engagement type decided, the next step is sourcing. The right channel depends on what you are hiring for and how quickly you need to move.
Advertising and your own network
Direct job ads and referrals can work well, particularly for permanent roles in well-networked organisations. Costs are lower, and a referral from someone you trust carries real weight.
The limitations are reach and time. Advertising through your own channels draws from an existing audience. Managing applications, chasing candidates, and coordinating interviews falls entirely to you.
Freelance platforms and marketplaces
For freelance or project-based work, marketplace platforms give access to a large pool of candidates quickly. They work well for short-term, defined briefs where you know exactly what you need.
The trade-off is vetting. Platforms vary in how they quality-control the talent on them, and more of the assessment burden falls on you. Factor in the time it takes to review profiles, request samples, and manage back-and-forth before anyone is confirmed.
A specialist recruitment partner
For roles where matching matters, where the discipline, seniority, or working context is specific, a specialist creative recruitment partner that London businesses can draw on brings real advantages. They already know the talent landscape, understand what different design disciplines actually involve, and take on the sourcing and shortlisting so you do not have to.
A good partner works across permanent, freelance, and temporary engagement types, which is particularly useful when building out creative teams quickly or filling specialist gaps at pace.
UAL Arts Temps: Helping you find the right creative talent
UAL Arts Temps is a specialist recruitment partner for London's creative sector, connecting employers with UAL students, graduates, and alumni across the full range of design disciplines covered in this article.
The UAL talent pool is particularly strong in graphic design. UAL is ranked 2nd globally for art and design, with dedicated graphic design programmes across multiple colleges. Graduates from those programmes have gone on to work at organisations including the Guardian, the V&A, Adidas, and Channel 4.
Arts Temps takes a consultative approach. Share a brief, and the team handles sourcing, shortlisting, and introductions across permanent, freelance, and temporary placements, with the design knowledge to match candidates to the work rather than just the job title.
As a London Living Wage accredited employer, every candidate Arts Temps places meets that pay standard. The social enterprise model that shapes how Arts Temps operates, including REC membership and reinvestment into creative careers, means the hiring process reflects your values as well as your brief. That commitment to ethical, value-led recruitment is part of what makes Arts Temps a different kind of partner for London's creative sector.
The right hire starts with matching skills to the work, not the job title. Know the discipline, choose the engagement type deliberately, and write a brief that reflects what you actually need.
If you would like support finding the right design talent for your organisation, get in touch with the Arts Temps team.
Submit a hiring brief or contact us to discuss your recruitment needs.
