2024: a year in review for the creative industries

We look back at the biggest creative stories of 2024, what was behind them, and why they mattered.

It's been a rum-old year, hasn't it? The challenges facing creatives and agencies have been multifold, from economic disruption to political change and a rapidly evolving media landscape. More broadly, it's felt like the tech giants are increasingly against us, from the generative AI tools robbing illustrators of work to the social media giants burying quality content in favour of the divisive and dumb.

At the same time, there's been light amongst the dark, with many creatives proving their ability to turn challenges into opportunities and several cultural moments providing global inspiration. Plus, as ever, there's been a ton of great work from creative studios, and we've worked hard to bring you the brightest, best and most interesting case studies to help inspire your own practice.

Let's take a whirlwind tour of some of the year's highlights.

A year of facing the future

2023 was the year when creatives first got slapped in the face by AI, which suddenly graduated from an interesting tech concept to a real-world juggernaut. This prompted a lot of fear, a fair amount of loathing, and headlines such as Should the world put a pause on AI?2024, however, has been a different story.

While few of us have made our peace with AI, there's certainly a broad sense that it's unavoidable, and we need to learn to live with it.

Finally, even Adobe managed to upset creatives this year when it required everyone to sign controversial terms and conditions before they could log in to Creative Cloud apps, prompting us to ask Should we ditch Photoshop with immediate effect?

To sum it all up, 2024 has been a memorable year for me . Right now, I’m just as excited to see what 2025 has in store. I promise to be there for you every step of the way, offering insights, inspiration, and a platform for creatives to connect with one another.