Howdy, I am Katy, the editor of Artistic Increase, and each personally and professionally, I’ve had a improbable 12 months. Which goes to make this text summing up 2025 fairly a tough one to write down. As a result of I am not daft: I do know what is going on on. I hear it every day from creatives everywhere in the world.
Freelancers are struggling to seek out work. Jobs really feel more durable to come back by. Studio budgets stay tight. Confidence has taken a knock. Some illustrators, specifically, have described experiencing months of nothing; the worst dry spells in years.
On this mild, the top of the 12 months brings a second to pause, take inventory and share what we have realized, whereas attempting to remain human in a really un-human time.
In the event you’ll permit me, I will be open about my very own 2025 story; not due to my ego, however as a result of I consider that if we are able to all be clear about what is going on on in our lives and careers, the extra we are able to be taught from one another and transfer ahead collectively.
Time for reflection
For me, this 12 months adopted one of many hardest of my life. A severe again damage in 2024 meant I actually might solely work mendacity down on the ground.
As you would possibly anticipate, this pressured me to decelerate. And when that occurs, it offers you the area to reassess. I began asking myself some uncomfortable questions on what Artistic Increase wanted to do subsequent, simply as algorithmic modifications on social media and the rise of generative AI had been rattling our occupation.
The reply, it seems, wasn’t extra noise. It was extra presence.
Once I was lastly in a position to begin sitting, then standing, then (thank God) strolling, I began exhibiting up once more. Placing my very own face again on Artistic Increase. Talking extra brazenly. Listening more durable. In hindsight, it was one of many wisest choices I’ve made. As a result of what individuals appear to be craving within the mid-2020s is not perfection or polish; it is connection.
With the stunning Chris Wilson, of Stckmn
The Studio: a neighborhood that grew itself
In February, we launched The Studio, Artistic Increase’s non-public neighborhood. I might spent months listening to about how creatives had been not getting any traction on social media on account of altering algorithms that favoured clickbait, ragebait and short-form video. I believed: why are we counting on platforms constructed by billionaires in California after we might simply make our personal? So, we did simply that.
I wasn’t certain what to anticipate. Would individuals flip up? Would they stick round? Would it not really feel pressured? Inside 4 days of going dwell, a thousand individuals had joined. Right now, that quantity sits at almost 7,000. However extra importantly, what really occurs inside The Studio has genuinely stunned me.
Every morning, individuals greet one another. Classes with inventive leaders are packed. Assets are shared freely. The ambiance is heat, supportive and actual in a manner I am unsure I’ve seen anyplace else on-line.
Artistic Increase IRL in Manchester, through The Studio.
It is grow to be the sort of place the place somebody can ask a query about pricing their work at 9am and have 5 considerate responses by lunchtime. It is a area the place individuals rejoice one another’s wins with out a trace of jealousy, and the place creatives who’ve been working in isolation for years all of the sudden really feel a part of one thing greater.
I believe what makes it work is the dearth of a tough promote. There is not any efficiency; simply individuals who perceive what it is love to do inventive work, on this economic system, proper now.
From digital to IRL
The Studio additionally gave beginning to one thing we did not fairly plan for: Artistic Increase IRL.
It seems that whenever you create a protected area on-line, individuals begin wanting to fulfill face-to-face. We did one thing barely mad and launched a sequence of grassroots networking occasions throughout the UK, all run by volunteer hosts from inside the neighborhood.
We now have eight places, from Belfast to Brighton, with extra within the works for 2026. However these aren’t polished business occasions. There aren’t any talks, no panels, and no keynote audio system droning on for 45 minutes.
Artistic Increase IRL in Leeds. Pictures by Jemma Mickleburgh
Artistic Increase IRL in Birmingham. Pictures by Dray Darnell
Why? As a result of we surveyed the neighborhood earlier than we began, the suggestions was clear. Individuals had been fed up with being talked at. They wished dialog, connection, and a pint with somebody who “will get it”. And that’s exactly what we have constructed.
Low-key, high-value, no pretence. Simply creatives exhibiting up for one another.
YouTube and opening up
We additionally launched our YouTube channel this 12 months, and I am so glad we did.
The thought was easy: meet creatives the place they work, journey to cities and festivals, take away the mist and pretension that may cling to this business, and get into the minds of some sensible creatives. We have shared studio excursions, metropolis adventures and artistic festivals galore. It has been about assembly individuals in actual life and having precise conversations.
Touring James Cropper for our new YouTube channel
A vlog in Amsterdam
I will be frank: that is precisely the sort of content material I want I might had entry to once I was beginning out. When the business felt impenetrable, and everybody appeared to know one thing I did not.
Now we’re producing that content material at Artistic Increase. Placing faces and voices to the work, and demonstrating that even essentially the most revered creatives are merely individuals attempting to determine it out, similar to the remainder of us.
Podcast insights
The Artistic Increase podcast saved rolling this 12 months too, with one other two seasons beneath our belt. Our company have included Pentagram’s Ashley Johnson, Hollywood legend Kenny Gravillis, and Brian Collins, co-founder of COLLINS. Massive names, sure, however extra importantly, beneficiant people who find themselves prepared to share what they’ve realized alongside the way in which.
Someplace in the midst of all this, we surpassed a million downloads. It felt unusual to shout about this when so many individuals are struggling, but it surely’s a milestone price noting. 1,000,000 occasions, somebody pressed play and determined our conversations had been price their time. That is not nothing.
Social technique and design that also works
Regardless of The Studio’s success, we did not wish to abandon social media fully; it is nonetheless the place a lot of you favor to work together with us. However to be brutally trustworthy, algorithmic modifications meant our social attain dropped. And whereas we did a good bit of moaning about that, we could not simply preserve moaning endlessly.
As an alternative, we labored with Love & Logic in Manchester to overtake our social technique. And guess what? It labored. Seems that high quality design nonetheless issues. Good content material, thoughtfully introduced, nonetheless cuts via the noise. Who knew? It was a reminder that typically you simply have to step again, work with sensible individuals, and belief the method.
AI and staying human
Clearly, I can not write a year-in-review with out mentioning AI. It is dominated each dialog, convention and anxious message in my inbox. At this level, illustrators have been hit the toughest. I’ve watched gifted individuals query whether or not their expertise nonetheless matter, or if there is a future for them in any respect. It is brutal and unfair. I will not faux in any other case.
However here is what I believe: AI is not going away, any greater than analogue-based creatives might want away digital media or the web again within the Nineties. Similar to the online was then, AI is quickly turning into the infrastructure on which every thing will finally be constructed. Denial will not assist anybody.
What is going to assistance is adaptation, honesty and assist. So we have tried to take a balanced method at Artistic Increase, acknowledging the challenges whereas exploring how creatives would possibly work alongside these instruments, reasonably than get replaced by them.
I haven’t got all of the solutions; no one does but. However I do know that the human intuition for creativity, connection and that means is not going anyplace. That is what we’re defending.
Partnerships that preserve us going
Ever seen how Artistic Increase simply appears to “occur” with out anybody attempting to get you to subscribe or asking for donations? None of that is potential, although, with out assist. Fortunately, we have had the privilege of working with some sensible manufacturers this 12 months, who genuinely care concerning the inventive neighborhood.
Adobe. Thames & Hudson. Stills. James Cropper. These aren’t simply logos on a web page. They’re companions who perceive that sustaining Artistic Increase means preserving an area open for creatives to be taught, join and develop.
Touring DixonBaxi and assembly Simon Dixon and Aporva Baxi
I am actually grateful for that. It implies that, together with the neighborhood work, occasions, podcasts, and movies, we have printed over 800 articles this 12 months. Our journalists have spoken with individuals throughout the business and attended occasions right here and overseas, protecting tales that matter and amplifying voices that should be heard.
We additionally ran 10 Beneath 10K on Instagram once more, spotlighting rising creatives who’re doing unbelievable work however do not have large followings. It is about creating actual, measurable affect for individuals who want it most.
A private notice
On a smaller stage, I’ve additionally began sharing my outfits and writing about private type on my new Substack, The Lower Dispatch. This may appear trivial, however for me, it feels symbolic. I am rising from the ashes as I method 50, giving myself permission to take up slightly area.
We had been all the time taught as journalists that it is “not about us”; it is concerning the individuals we interview and the tales we inform. However I’ve come to grasp that typically, it is okay to step into the sunshine and say: “I am right here too. I exist. I’ve one thing to supply past the platform I’ve constructed.” And if that offers only one different individual permission to do the identical, it is price it.
Wanting forward
Finally, Artistic Increase has simply loved its strongest 12 months but as a media platform, and I say that rigorously. Not everyone seems to be feeling hopeful proper now, and I by no means wish to gloss over that. However I do consider there’s one thing quietly highly effective taking place beneath the floor.
Individuals need “actual” once more. Actual individuals, actual conversations, and actual connections; each on-line and off. That intuition I had firstly of 2025, that pull in direction of neighborhood and exhibiting up as my true self, feels extra proper with each passing month.
Wanting forward, there’s lots to be enthusiastic about. Subsequent 12 months, we’ll be supporting festivals just like the Northern Design Competition and All Flows, bringing you tales from Mexico, Abu Dhabi, Miami, New York, and Barcelona. Loads extra possibilities to fulfill creatives, wherever they’re.
If 2025 has taught me something, it is that survival is not about standing nonetheless. It is about adapting. Staying curious. Being open to vary with out dropping your values. That is how Artistic Increase has endured, and it is precisely what is going to carry us into 2026 and past.
We’re not out of the woods but, however we’re strolling ahead collectively. And that appears like one thing price holding on to.
