Diversity in Design

Losing the Race

The design industry might think of itself as progressive, inclusive, and forward-thinking. But is it, really? We’ve already explored the facts around gender in design, but that’s not the only area where inequalities persist. We crunched the numbers from the 2019 AIGA Design Survey to see how far the industry has come and how far it still has to go to welcome designers that identify as Black, indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC). Take a look for yourself.

The Design Industry’s Diversity Problem

DESIGN POPULATION: Now, what percentage of designers identify as non-white?

29%

31%

45%

U.S. POPULATION: Based on estimates from 2019, what percentage of the U.S. identifies as non-white (including Latinx)?

39%

27%

50%

Learn more

Here’s how that 29% breaks down by race and ethnicity.

3% of designers identify as Black 9% of designers identify as Asian 8% of designers identify as Latinx 5% of designers identify as bi-/multiracial 1% of designers identify as other .3% of designers identify as Native Hawaiian .2% of designers identify as Native American 3% prefer not to say 71% of those in the design industry identify as white.

Where are the Black designers?

Of the 1575 survey respondents who said they were creative directors, only 332 (21%) identified as BIPOC. One advertising executive thinks this is the real root of the representation problem—the lack of leaders of color to hire employees of color, and the natural biases that lead white managers to hire people like themselves.

There’s even less diversity among design leadership.

200K or more

25K or less

200K or more

82.8%

identify as white

17.2%

identify as BIPOC

65%

identify as white

identify as BIPOC

35%

25K or less

Consider the group of designers that makes under $25,000 per year. If this group aligned with the overall ethnic breakdown of the design industry, we should see this group as roughly 71% white, 29% non-white. But the BIPOC group is actually overrepresented here—35% of the designers making less than $25,000 per year are non-white. The same problem is illustrated in the highest income group from AIGA’s survey—those who make over $200,000 per year. Here, BIPOC designers are underrepresented. They make up only 17.2% of this highest tier. So you’ve got a staggering dearth of Black designers in the creative industry overall, an even wider gap in BIPOC leadership in design, and a substantial difference in the amount of money BIPOC designers are paid, on average. Something’s got to give.

BIPOC designers are overrepresented in the lowest income groups.

“It is important for young designers to have role models of their so-called ethnicity. This gives them the feeling, ‘If he or she can become this, so can I.’”

— Graphic designer Archie Boston, AIGA biography

“Everyone still says there’s a [talent] pipeline problem. There aren’t pipeline problems, it’s just that there are still a lot of white people who don’t want to hire a person of color who would quite frankly kick their ass and do a lot better at the job. I’ve been in too many jobs where mediocre white men keep failing up and no one does anything because when you do say something you’re the angry black person. “Agencies aren’t getting to the root of the problem which is HR, too many managers, too many mediocre white people deciding who is hired and fired. The people who make the final decisions are usually CEOs and they’re white males who don’t want to change the status quo.”

— Anonymous Black advertising executive, quoted in this June 2020 Digiday article

71% are white

29% are BIPOC

Here’s how that 39% breaks down by race and ethnicity.

13.4% of people identify as Black 18.5% of people identify as Latinx 5.9% of people identify as Asian 2.8% of people identify as bi-/multiracial 1.3% of people identify as Native American or Native Alaskan 0.2% of people identify as Native Hawaiian 61% of the American population identifies as white.

61% are white

39% are BIPOC

13% identify as Black 26.5% identify as Asian 19.3% identify as bi-/multiracial 33.4% identify as Latinx 1.2% identify as Native Hawaiian 1.2% identify as Native American 5.4% identify as other

79% are white

21% are BIPOC

Source: U.S. Census 2019

Source: 2019 AIGA Design Census

That’s a major discrepancy—one that’s been highlighted in many industries across the workforce, but one that doesn’t seem to be going away. Why?

Request Demo Now

Want to create interactive experiences like this?

Chat with us

Get more fresh interactive stories delivered to your inbox weekly.

One advertising executive thinks this is the real root of the representation problem—the lack of leaders of color to hire employees of color, and the unconscious biases that lead white managers to hire people like themselves.

The same problem is illustrated in the highest income group from AIGA’s survey—those who make over $200,000 per year. Here, BIPOC designers are underrepresented. They make up only 17.2% of this highest tier. So you’ve got a staggering dearth of Black designers in the creative industry overall, an even wider gap in BIPOC leadership in design, and a substantial difference in the amount of money BIPOC designers are paid, on average. Something’s got to give.

Get more fresh interactive stories delivered to your inbox weekly.

Learn more

29%

Scroll down

Story by Eliza Martin & Tom DeVoto