What No One's Saying About Junior Salaries in London's Creative Scene.

With another 4% minimum wage increase on the horizon, I've been having a lot of conversations lately. The kind where everyone's frustrated, no one feels heard, and honestly, I think we're all missing the bigger picture.

Junior candidates in London's creative and design sector are walking into interviews with salary expectations that would've been mid-level just two years ago. At the same time, agencies and studios are pulling back on hiring anyone without a few years under their belt. The gap is widening, and it's not helping anyone build the career they actually want.

So let's talk about what's really happening here.

What I'm Seeing From Both Sides

If you're a graduate or junior candidate looking for that first proper role in project management or operations, you're probably thinking: London is expensive, my degree cost a fortune, and I need to live. All true. All fair.

If you're running a creative agency or design studio, you're thinking: our clients haven't increased their budgets, our costs keep climbing, and hiring someone junior means investing serious time and money before we see any return. Also true. Also fair.

The thing is, you're both right. And you're both stuck.

The Part Junior Candidates Don't Always See

When a company hires you fresh out of uni or with less than a year's experience, they're not hiring someone who can hit the ground running. They're hiring someone they believe in enough to invest in, knowing it's going to cost them before it pays off.

That investment looks like this:

• Your senior colleagues spend billable hours training you instead of working on client projects. That's real money they're choosing not to earn so you can learn.

• Projects take longer because you're still figuring out the systems, the tools, the way the company works. That's expected, but it impacts the bottom line.

• You're not bringing in revenue yet. In project management and operations, you're supporting the people who do. That doesn't make you less valuable, but it does mean the business is banking on your future, not your present.

• There's more oversight needed to make sure client work stays at the standard they expect. Again, totally normal, but it requires resources.

When I explain this to candidates, I'm not trying to justify low pay. I'm trying to show you why companies see junior hires as a bet on potential, not an immediate contributor. It usually takes 12 to 18 months before that bet starts paying off.

Why This Matters More Now

Here's the part that's making everything harder: costs are going up across the board, but creative work isn't getting more expensive for clients. Agencies are working with the same fee structures they had two years ago, sometimes less. The margin they're operating on? It's shrinking.

So when salary expectations rise but client budgets don't, companies have fewer options. What I'm seeing is:

• They're hiring fewer junior people altogether.

• They're redefining what 'junior' means, expecting more experience for the same title.

• They're cutting back on training programmes and development opportunities to protect their margins.

And honestly? That's terrible news for anyone trying to break into the industry.

What Actually Works

I'm not here to tell junior candidates to accept less than they're worth or to tell companies to just pay more. Neither of those things solve the actual problem.

If you're starting out:

Think about what you're really looking for in your first role. Yes, salary matters. But so does who's going to teach you, what kind of work you'll be exposed to, and where this role could take you in two years' time. The highest offer isn't always the smartest one to accept.

Do your research on what people with your exact level of experience are actually earning in the creative sector right now, not what your mate in tech is making or what you think you should earn. London's expensive, but the market is what it is.

Be realistic about what you bring on day one versus what you could bring in a year. Companies want to know you understand that difference.

If you're hiring:

If you're asking someone to accept that they're an investment, show them what they're investing in too. What will they learn? Who will mentor them? Where could this role go? Make the full picture worth it.

Be transparent. If your margins are tight and you can't compete on salary, say so. Then explain what you can offer instead. People respect honesty, especially when it comes with a genuine development plan.

Junior talent isn't getting cheaper, so make sure the experience you're offering is genuinely valuable. If you're not committed to proper training and mentorship, you probably shouldn't be hiring junior at all.

The Bit No One Wants to Hear

The tension between rising costs and flat client fees isn't going away anytime soon. The creative industry needs to have some serious conversations about pricing, value, and what sustainable actually looks like. But while we're figuring that out, we need both sides to meet somewhere in the middle.

For candidates: your first role isn't about maximising salary. It's about maximising what you learn and who you become. Pick the opportunity that sets you up properly, even if it's not the biggest number.

For employers: if you want good people to stick around and grow with you, you have to make that growth real. Junior hires are still worth it, but only if you're doing it right.

London's creative scene is built on fresh ideas and new talent. Let's not price out the next generation before they've even had a chance to prove themselves.

How a Strong Client Services Team Elevates Your Design Potential.

Let's talk about something that doesn't get nearly enough credit in design studios: a really good client services team.

I'm not talking about someone who just answers emails and books meetings. I'm talking about the kind of team that creates actual space for your designers to do their best work. The kind that means your creative director isn't spending half their day managing client expectations or decoding vague feedback.

If you've ever thought "we need another designer" when what you actually need is someone to handle everything around the design work, this one's for you.

What Happens When Designers Are Also Client Managers

Here's what I see all the time: talented designers spending huge chunks of their day on calls, writing follow-up emails, chasing approvals, managing scope creep, and trying to translate "can you make it pop more?" into something they can actually action.

It's exhausting. And it's expensive, because those are hours they're not spending on the work you actually hired them to do.

A strong client services team changes that equation completely. They become the buffer, the translator, the organiser. They let your designers be designers.

What This Actually Looks Like in Practice

They handle the communication so your designers don't have to. Every back-and-forth with a client, every status update, every "just checking in" email. That's all managed by someone whose job is communication, not creation. Your designers get clear, actionable briefs instead of messy threads and last-minute panic calls.

They're really good at getting useful feedback. Not all feedback is created equal, and not all clients know how to give it. Client services teams know how to dig deeper, ask the right questions, and translate "I don't like it" into something your designers can actually work with. Less guessing, more doing.

They figure out what actually needs to happen first. When everything feels urgent, nothing is. A good client services team assesses what's genuinely time-sensitive, what can wait, and what needs the most attention right now. Your designers stop firefighting and start focusing on work that actually moves the needle.

They build the relationships that make projects easier. Trust takes time, and someone needs to be building it consistently with your clients. When that's handled well, clients are more patient, more collaborative, and way less likely to derail a project with constant changes. Your designers get the breathing room they need to do great work.

They spot opportunities your designers might miss. Because they're in regular contact with clients, they hear about upcoming projects, shifting priorities, and new needs before anyone else does. That means more work coming in and your design team getting to stretch into new areas instead of wondering where the next brief is coming from.

They balance workloads so no one burns out. A good client services team knows who's swamped, who's got capacity, and what's coming down the pipeline. They manage expectations on both sides so your designers aren't over-promised to clients and under-supported by the studio.

What This Actually Gets You

When client services and design work together properly, everything shifts. Projects run smoother because communication is clearer. Quality goes up because designers have time to actually think. Capacity increases because you're not losing half your team's hours to admin and client management. And clients? They're happier because someone's genuinely looking after them, not squeezing them in between design tasks.

It's not about adding headcount for the sake of it. It's about structuring your team so everyone's doing what they're actually good at.

Is Your Team Set Up Right?

If your designers are spending more time managing clients than designing, or if you're turning down work because you "don't have capacity" when really you just don't have the support structure, it's worth looking at how your team's built.

Sometimes the answer isn't hiring another designer. Sometimes it's hiring the right client services person who makes your existing team twice as effective.

I'd genuinely love to hear how your studio's currently set up and whether this is something you've thought about. If you're trying to figure out whether you need to expand your client services team or restructure what you've already got, let's talk. I work with studios navigating this exact question all the time.

Looking to build or strengthen your client services team? Let's have a conversation about what would actually make a difference for your studio.