This is written by Jason Schwartz, Founder and Creative Director at Bright Bright Great.
This post reflects my perspective as a small business owner (of 18 years) working in a drastically changing design industry environment in 2025. I’ve worked in the design industry for approximately 25 years.
I had entirely written my 2024 Agency Review and State of the Union for 2025 but BUT DELETED IT IN ENTIRETY because I am already seeing trends change, even in the first 8 weeks of the year.
A quick look at 2024
Let me start this entire section off with the fact that I hate election years/cycles. Elections mess with business big and small. Will things become more expensive? Will the dollar become cheaper? Will the market explode? What policy will be rolled back, what progress will we make (if any)? Will there be a 50% tariff on French wine?
2024 was surprisingly more difficult for BBG as an agency than 2023. We were shocked to come out of 2023 having one of our best years. This was entirely from pre-existing relationships, not new work.
As an agency we didn’t see 2024 coming at all.
Most RFPs never actually turned into projects. We saw ghosted RFP after ghosted RFP. We also saw a parallel between the economic squeeze (to no fault of the people we were working with), cutting teams, restructuring, eliminating whole positions. It was safer for a worker to “hide in the middle” to keep their job safe, opposed to poke their head out to be cut off in a restructure. We wrote about it mid-year as well. Embracing Anti-Success: Low Expectations and 2024 Survival… A Think-Piece.
That said, the clients we were actively working with in 2024 mostly wrote 2024 off waiting to hit 2025 hard out of the gate. So far that has been mostly true.
I want to take a second to acknowledge that the only way we stuck around last year was from the support of our amazing clients and partners kept projects moving in 2024. Thank you, I can’t say it enough. We wouldn’t be here right now without your support.
Mid-year was all about the rumble of AI. VC’s cannot figure out how to put enough money into the space. It has been said that AI alone can even out the entire rest of the economy. Again, we will see. Is an entirely copyable LLM valuable? We will see.
December 25th (yes a Christmas miracle), BBG signed our first new client of 2024.
2025 Agency State of the Union, not all bad, but it is the year of layoffs and consolidation
Although 2025 is starting again with huge layoffs in the tech space, business is starting to move again. Projects that have been halted for 18 months are re-appearing on our agency radar. We are seeing new work (with urgency) come through our doors and it seems that other agencies are as well.
I spent most of Q3 and 4 2024 taking calls and meetings with every agency I could speak with their Creative Director, just to read the room. Some agencies planned more layoffs in Q1/Q2 2025, some were status quo, some growing, and some closing. Literally, ALL of the possible options.
Agencies will close doors
A lot of agencies called it quits in 2024. Once numbers come through for the year, more will close up in 2025. We’ve been an oversaturated market for 10 years and graduating college with a degree in something that can be hired by big tech was a guaranteed $100K paycheck. Gone are those days.
Good agencies will close. Mediocre agencies will close. Tenured agencies will close. New agencies will close.
Big tech will continue to shrink in size
Now that numbers are coming in, people who aren’t super paperwork skilled are seeing that 2024 didn’t quite hit the goals, Q1 will be major layoffs. Meta, Amazon and Microsoft have already announced this for Q1. Meta announced a 5% reduction AND have already predicted that in 2 years AI can handle a mid-level developers job. Scary.
Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft all announced that layoffs would be based on low-performing reviews. I hate to say it, but Meta wouldn’t know the high performers from the low ones without bias if a list was literally presented to them that said, keep these good people. It’s just a skewed biased way to fire people.
Uncertainty, mergers & acquisitions, limiting the playing field
2025 will be the year for mergers and acquisitions. Those who are teetering will need security in a merger, or sale. There are no guarantees in business, and it’s been a really good 20 years in tech.
Many articles show that hundreds of applications lead to 2-3 options that even with acceptance are lasting 3-6 months. A designer posted on LinkedIn a flow of his 914 job applications in 2024—resulting in 3 interviews. At some point, those who aren’t abnormally strong willed are going to just open themselves to more of what is available.
I’ve spoken to multiple agencies where talent is leaving as the company falters. I get it. We all have bills to pay. Finding a needle in the haystack right now is as good as it gets. Go forth and find those haystacks!
Weather the storm
2025 is going to be a good year for agencies who can weather the storm, meaning to deal with a difficult situation without being harmed or damaged too much. Too much is the key here. For everyone coming off a rough 2024 (or most), those who have been unemployed for a good portion of the year, I finally see movement.
We’ve been here before: 2001, 2005, 2015, Covid, and again in 2024. Those who have been around the block know how to navigate years like 2024 and plan accordingly for 2025. I personally spent the entire second half of 2024 planning for 2025.
There will always be those who have the love for design and this industry and no matter the ups and downs, want to stick around. BBG falls under that category. We always want to stay small-medium and we have to make some tough decisions with the time, but I’m looking forward to 2025.
Those who are out there to make it happen no matter the circumstance, I see you. ❤️
How did this year compare to previous years?
How did 2024 compare to 2023? See BBG’s 2023 Design Agency State of the Union
