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As of 2007, creative employment stood at just under two million. Access to the
skills possessed by these industries is highly valuable to businesses, with
research showing that industry sectors with strong links to the creative
industries display improved innovation in new products and processes. It has
also been shown that businesses which increase their investment in design
simultaneously increase their chances of turnover growth.
The UK has a rich history of pre-eminence in creative talent, particularly in
design. Renowned design courses are offered by universities across the country,
including London’s Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins College of Art
and Design, University College Falmouth in Cornwall and Glasgow School of Art in
Scotland. Scotland is also home to a growing community of successful computer
games studios, including Realtime Worlds, and Rockstar North. It is ranked third
in Europe’s top 50 locations for the industry and the University of Abertay
Dundee was the first university in the world to offer a degree course in
Computer Games Technology.
The videogames sector has been described by NESTA chief executive Jonathan
Kestenbaum as ‘one of the UK’s greatest success stories of recent years’, with
average annual growth of eight per cent between 1997 and 2006, compared to just
three per cent growth for the whole economy. In fact, almost a third (31 per
cent) of total creative industries exports in 2006 was generated by the
software, computer games and electronic publishing sector, ranked the third
largest videogames territory in the world in 2008.
A strong pool of creativity and innovation has produced some of the world’s most
successful videogames titles, including the Grand Theft Auto series, developed
by Rockstar North in Edinburgh, the Tomb Raider franchise, created by developer
and publisher Eidos in London and PlayStation 3’s LittleBigPlanet, the first
release by Guildford-based independent studio Media Molecule. The success of
such studios has already brought foreign investment. In February 2009, Eidos was
acquired by Japanese group Square Enix, while publisher and developer Rockstar
Games’ studios in Edinburgh and Leeds, which date from the late ‘80s and ‘90s
respectively, are now owned by US publisher Take-Two Interactive.
UK design talent is also world-renowned, with global-reach consultancies
including product design group Seymourpowell and branding specialist Wolff Olins
in London and Edinburgh-headquartered Navyblue. Major businesses to invest in
UK-based R&D/design centres include Nissan, LG, Nokia and Panasonic. Having
relocated its European Design Centre from Milan in 2008, Korean giant LG
released its first fully European-designed mobile handset in August that year.
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Yamaha Corporation also chose the UK for its first design studio outside Japan
because of the abundance of creative talent here, says head of Yamaha Design
Studio London Kunihiro Takei. “We chose the UK because we were eager to meet
many distinguished designers and be stimulated by them. And we thought London is
the best place because there is much talent here. We also sent a student to the
Royal College of Art, recognised as one of the most important places in the
world in terms of product design.”
“We chose the UK because we were eager to meet many distinguished
designers and be stimulated by them.”
Kunihiro Takei, head of Yamaha Design Studio, London
There are over 12,000 design consultancies across the UK, as well as 47,400
self-employed, freelance or non-employing designers. Around half of these are
concentrated on London and the south-east, but in-house design teams are spread
across the country, with a significant 12 per cent residing in the North West.
The North East also has a strong design agenda, having hosted 2007’s inaugural
Designs of the Time initiative, which has now moved to Cornwall, South West
England. |
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