Burnout, it seems, has changed. For many creatives, it looks less like exhaustion and more like a vanishing of curiosity.<\/p>\n
It has many faces \u2013 dwindling drive, a persistent sense of underachievement that\u2019s hard to shake, creeping self-doubt, or a dull detachment from work. Burnout, we\u2019re learning, isn\u2019t about running out of energy. Rather, it\u2019s an erosion of purpose, confidence and joy in making.<\/p>\n
\u201cBurnout and tiredness are totally different,\u201d says Chara Smith, co-founder and copy chief at US agency Smith & Diction<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cCreative work is naturally tiring because it requires so much brain power. But on a good day, it\u2019s a satisfied kind of tired, like how you feel after a long run. But with burnout, there\u2019s no longer satisfaction in the work. The work just becomes work, with more piles of work behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n Across the industry, burnout has shifted from taboo to a talking point. Once dismissed as a personal failing, it\u2019s now seen as a structural design flaw baked into agency economics, client expectations and the myth of constant passion.<\/p>\n Designers are often expected to be endlessly inventive, always brimming with the next great idea, yet that pressure collides with a troubling reality \u2013 burnout is widespread.<\/p>\n Nearly 70% of creatives reported experiencing it last year<\/a>, which in one way might be seen as good news. \u201cWe are finally starting to say it out loud,\u201d says Emmi Salonen, a designer and the author of The Creative Wellbeing Handbook<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n The way burnout shows up in the lives of creatives is quickly evolving. As Salonen points out, Dropbox\u2019s 2025 report<\/a> highlights chronic focus loss, procrastination, irritability in collaboration, and creative blocks, shifting the emphasis from burnout as fatigue to burnout as attention and idea depletion.<\/p>\n \u201cGone are the days when being the last to leave the office was a badge of honour.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2023, Salonen conducted the Creative Wellbeing Insights survey with 58 creatives based across 17 countries. She asked designers about the biggest challenges they face in their work and their answers revealed four themes \u2013 motivation, management, time and pay.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pressure to create on-demand, coupled with unclear briefs, poor communication, irregular work hours and project management issues, makes managing creative projects complex. And, with limited time for testing out new ideas, it\u2019s difficult to push boundaries or find new avenues,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cAdded to this, there\u2019s often a lack of appreciation for creative work, and sometimes insufficient financial compensation. This can make it hard to believe in the worth of our work and, ultimately, our own self-worth.\u201d<\/p>\n As complex and varied as its causes are, burnout always has tells \u2013 subtle changes in behaviour, energy or attitude. Design leaders need to learn to spot these signs early.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can often see burnout or feel it in your gut. It\u2019s difficult to hide,\u201d says Nick Howe, CEO at Uniform Group<\/a>. \u201cNotice when and how long people are working; have they taken enough holidays, or are they always \u2018too busy\u2019 or \u2018soldiering on\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs a leader, you need to model healthy habits so your team can see them \u2013 leave on time, take a lunch break, get some exercise, enjoy life outside of work,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n \u201cEncourage balance; make sure people don\u2019t miss their kids\u2019 school performances or meals with friends. Gone are the days when being the last to leave the office was a badge of honour.\u201d<\/p>\n As conversations around burnout deepen, the creative industry is also undergoing a quiet cultural change. The romanticisation of overwork \u2013 once seen as a mark of dedication \u2013 is beginning to lose its shine.<\/p>\n In some corners of the industry, glorifying exhaustion now feels outdated, even tone-deaf. But awareness alone won\u2019t fix things, not unless this shift is matched by tangible structural reform.<\/p>\n \u201cA change I\u2019d love to see industry-wide is to plan to 80% capacity and build pause into the schedule,\u201d Salonen says. \u201cWhen weeks are booked to 100%, there\u2019s no room to think, learn or recover \u2013 the very inputs creativity runs on.<\/p>\n \u201cAn 80% plan gives you space for pause, and protects quality. That goes hand-in-hand with pricing and scoping for a sustainable pace, not \u2018more, faster\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The industry\u2019s built-in obsession with speed has only been amplified by the rise of AI. According to Salonen\u2019s research, AI has become a stressor in itself.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen teams are mandated to adopt generative AI, many describe it as soul-crushing and ethically murky,\u201d she says. \u201cSecondly, job anxiety and morale dips are widespread \u2013 replacement fears, a saturated market, and even client feedback that\u2019s clearly ChatGPT-generated.\u201d<\/p>\n Clients expect agencies to use AI to do more things, more quickly, and more efficiently. But this survey of UK agency workers<\/a> reveals that AI has actually increased workload for one in five staff, turning the promise of automation into a new front for burnout.<\/p>\n With fresh pressures compounding old ones, studios are realising that tackling burnout means acting on several fronts at once, from supporting individuals and redesigning team workflows, to rethinking organisational pace.<\/p>\n But even as studios become more focused on employee wellbeing, one kind of burnout still remains less openly discussed \u2013 the strain on founders and leaders.<\/p>\n After more than 25 years of leading Uniform Group \u2013 and following a period of long COVID \u2013 Howe experienced what he calls \u201ccomplete burnout.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was signed off by the doctor and had to take three months off to recover,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cLots of therapy and accepting that I didn\u2019t have to be everything to everyone helped me take a more balanced approach. Letting go was important, as was managing the guilt of not always being present.<\/p>\n \u201cI learned that protecting my own energy and health allows me to be the best version of me for our board, our team and my family. That starts with looking after yourself mentally and physically, setting healthy boundaries, and trusting the people around you.\u201d<\/p>\n Burnout has a way of forcing change. It can sometimes be so unsettling that it alters the course of a creative\u2019s career journey.<\/p>\n That was true for Smith, who experienced burnout while working at an agency in 2021, near the end of the pandemic \u2013 a period that would ultimately push her to rethink how, and why, she wanted to work.<\/p>\n \u201cBack then, everyone was still working from home, on Zoom calls nine hours a day, and with actual work to do after that.\u201d<\/p>\n After \u201ca miserable few months\u201d Smith where co-founder Mike Smith was \u201crunning Smith & Diction essentially alone,\u201d they rethought the culture, taking time to define what they wanted, and what they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n This meant making intentional changes, including a \u201cno after-hours work\u201d policy, turning down projects once the team reaches capacity, and avoiding the creative stagnation that comes from sticking to the same types of projects.<\/p>\n \u201cTo help protect our team from burnout, we actively try not to get stuck in specific niches. This business is constantly trying to convince you to make more of the same, and it\u2019s hard not to get burnt out and lose that creative spark when you\u2019re working on, say, your 11th financial services rebrand in a row,\u201d says Smith.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we always try to keep different kinds of projects coming into the studio, which helps the work feel fresh and unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t about working too much, it was about caring too much about everything, all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n Underpinning this approach is a commitment to transparency, and a quiet challenge to the expectations of what a studio should deliver, and how.<\/p>\n While working on the identity for Perplexity, the team spent about two weeks \u201cbanging their heads against the wall\u201d trying to create a second logo option.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just didn\u2019t have anything that could hold up to the first logo. So we told the clients, \u2018We can burn ourselves out forcing another idea, or we can show you the one we believe in,\u2019\u201d says Smith.<\/p>\n \u201cLuckily, they got it immediately, and we were able to move forward without virtue signalling by trying to have more options in the mix that we didn\u2019t really believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n That same philosophy extends beyond process to principle.<\/p>\n As they see it, burnout isn\u2019t just about long hours or deadlines; it\u2019s what happens when passion drains out of the work.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many ways that happens,\u201d says Smith, \u201clike lowering your standards or letting mediocre work out the door. Mediocrity sucks the life out of creatives just as quickly as overwork.\u201d<\/p>\n Quality often erodes as it passes through layers of hierarchy, leaving creatives feeling they\u2019ve lost control over the very work they make.<\/p>\n That was precisely what Penelope Stephens and Eden Brandenburg aimed to escape when they left full-time jobs to start Boring Studio<\/a>s. It\u2019s a creative studio turned e-commerce brand now offering tools, templates and courses that help creatives \u2013 especially those leaving 9-to-5s \u2013 learn business skills and scale on their own terms.<\/p>\n \u201cIn agency life, everyone has a say in client work, and no-one wants to stand up for what is actually going to move the needle or produce the best creative. Designers are always so defeated and just need to get through the day,\u201d says Stephens.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were tired of creative work going back and forth with advice from departments that aren\u2019t creative. We felt our opinions, work and ideas as creatives weren\u2019t valued,\u201d she adds. \u201cBoring Studios was built out of the craving for freedom in our work \u2013 to be able to complete the vision from beginning to end. And to be able to do it on our terms.\u201d<\/p>\n As founders who left behind employee life to become entrepreneurs \u2013 and who now create tools for other creatives taking that same leap \u2013 they\u2019re acutely aware that running your own practice can be even more demanding than a steady day job. And it comes with its own heightened risk of burnout.<\/p>\n \u201cBurnout usually comes from a lack of clarity, not overwork. You need systems, plans, structure, discipline \u2013 that\u2019s where freedom is found,\u201d says Stephens.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen starting your own business, the goal isn\u2019t to escape structure \u2013 it\u2019s to design your own version of it. And yet, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. We always say it\u2019s easier to work for someone else, because frankly, it is. You go home and you get your paycheck.\u201d<\/p>\n Where burnout once came from overwork, it now comes from overexposure \u2013 \u201ctoo many platforms, opinions, and comparisons,\u201d says Stephens.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s also the new wave of digital fatigue that\u2019s hard to avoid as a freelancer or business owner,\u201d she adds. \u201cYou have to be ever reachable, build a personal brand, build a business brand. It\u2019s exhausting.\u201d<\/p>\n That kind of always-on culture can quietly push even the most self-aware creatives to the edge. Stephens says she and Brandenburg recently came out of what she describes as a six-month \u201cburnout slump\u201d \u2013 their first real experience of it.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t about working too much,\u201d she says, \u201cit was about caring too much about everything, all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n To course-correct, the duo stepped back completely \u2013 switching off social media, rebuilding their routines, and learning to draw clearer lines between their work and their wellbeing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe build breaks into the work, not around it. Rest isn\u2019t the reward; it\u2019s part of the system,\u201d says Stephens. \u201cWhen things feel heavy, we zoom out, remembering that we don\u2019t need perfection, just progress.\u201d<\/p>\n Having come out the other side, Stephens has a grounded message for anyone caught in a similar cycle.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to keep the momentum rolling \u2013 living in the real world, talking to people, going outside, learning, growing. And at the end of the day, protect your curiosity like you protect your profit. Once curiosity dies, burnout isn\u2019t far behind.\u201d<\/p>\nFrom taboo to talking point<\/h5>\n
Spotting the early signs<\/h5>\n
AI exacerbates the problem<\/h5>\n
The pressure on leaders<\/h5>\n
\u201cProtect your curiosity\u201d<\/h5>\n