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Presented by Dribbble in partnership with Editor X.

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2021 Design Industry Trends Report

Introduction

Twenty-twenty will go down in history as a year when the entire world changed. But how did it change design?

Dribbble's 2021 Design Industry Trends Report explores the current landscape of design and the evolving lifestyle of work.

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About

With the help of our friends at Editor X—the collaborative web creation platform for designers and agencies—we built this report to share:

Report Highlights

Ready to see how you stack up?

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01.

Insights from over 13,500 design professionals around the world.

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02.

Data behind designer demographics, career trends, and remote work.

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03.

Where the design industry is headed and what's next for your discipline.

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Demographic

Understanding the global design community.

01.

Age

2021 saw an increase in younger designers entering the industry. Just over 83% of global designers are under 35 years old.

41-45
years

36-40
years

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21-25
years

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<20
years

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31-35
years

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26-30
years

51-55
years

60+
years

46-50
years

02.

Education

With limited in-person interaction, fewer designers are pursuing a formal education, while more designers are opting for online training. Nearly 44% of designers are self-taught in 2021.

44%

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Career Trends

How has the pandemic impacted designer jobs?

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01.

The pandemic has proved to affect job stability for designers in 2021. We saw an increase in designers who identified their work environment as unstable compared to 2018.

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02.

With unstable work environments, more designers started new jobs this year versus 2018.

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03.

Full-time employment at agencies dropped by nearly 10% this year with a slight increase in unemployed designers compared to 2018.

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04.

Designers identified business skills as the top critical skill to advance their careers in 2021.

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Design powerful websites for your clients with advanced business solutions.

03.

Flexibility

The majority of designers say flexible hours are what they enjoy most about remote work, with a lack of work-life balance being the biggest challenge.

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                 For remote design teams, collaborative tools like Editor X can help keep your team aligned and stay connected. Streamline your creative process today.

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Remote Work

The state of the workplace.

The pandemic has affected the landscape of work with more design teams moving into permanent remote work environments.

01.

More designers are starting to prioritize a flexible work environment over creative freedom in the workplace.

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02.

Free food and drinks have become less appealing to designers who would rather work remotely.

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Design Tools

What tools are designers gravitating towards?

01.

With remote work on the rise, designers are opting for collaborative design tools in 2021. We learned that:

Figma dominates as the designer's tool of choice in 2021. More designers use Figma to create, share feedback, and store design files than ever before. In fact, when it comes to prototyping, nearly 40% more designers are using Figma compared to 2018.

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02.

Feedback Tools

Slack and Figma are the most popular tools for sharing design feedback, compared to Google Drive and InVision which were favorites back in 2018.

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                 Collaboration-based tools like Editor X make it easy for multiple team members & collaborators to work on the same site, at the same time, through concurrent editing. Start collaborating today.

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03.

Motion

Despite a slight dip in motion design professionals, Adobe After Effects continues to lead as the tool of choice for motion graphics in 2021.

Deliver cutting-edge websites for every client with Editor X.

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Freelance Hustle

The freelance revolution is here.

01.

More designers are freelancing and currently looking for leads in 2021.

02.

2021 saw an increase in designers who would like to freelance full-time in the next 2-3 years.

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                 For freelance designers, Editor X can help you streamline the client feedback process & deliver an outstanding website. Discover the power of Editor X today.

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