The Industry Is Open. The Circle Isn't

Despite countless debates and initiatives around access and diversity, the creative industries remain hostile to new talent: who you know remains far more important than your actual skillset.
In response, young creatives are developing their own routes for developing early-career experience, and building professional status on their own terms.
For brands, this is both an inclusion and cultural intelligence problem: remaining culturally relevant means doing more to find and support talent from beyond traditional insider networks.

Growing up in Northern Ireland, Leah Fan couldn’t see a clear route into the creative industries. Speaking to Dazed in 2025, she explained that “There were no mentors at home… no one to guide you.” Her response was to launch her own magazine, which she titled NYAD. “The magazine’s mission is to be that guide,” she said. “To answer questions. To break down barriers and help others from similar backgrounds find their footing in the industry.”

Fan is a success story, someone who overcame the barriers facing her to find a way into journalism. But the fact that emerging creatives are having to build their own routes into the industry reflects a wider contradiction around professional access and openness.

Creative work has never been easier to see, but access to the people commissioning it remains difficult to navigate. Brands and agencies say they want fresh voices, yet still gravitate towards familiar signs of professional status: the right university, the right agency, an established client list or a recommendation from somebody already trusted.

That gap between being seen and being chosen is where many emerging creatives now find themselves. The work is visible. The route in is not.

The problem is not that talented people are difficult to find. It is that opportunity still moves through private channels. A 2025 Bectu survey found that 75% of creative workers had secured work through a friend or professional contact, while only 37% said the role had been publicly advertised. In film, TV drama and fashion, 82% had found work through their networks.

Behind those figures is a hiring culture built heavily on familiarity. Bectu’s head Philippa Childs, said that many talented professionals find it ‘impossible to build a career in the sector because they lack the correct connections’. When opportunities circulate through recommendations, former colleagues and existing networks before being publicly advertised, emerging creatives are not judged solely on talent or ability. They are competing with candidates who already have the advantage of being known and trusted by employers.

That becomes clearer when class enters the picture. Research highlighted by Channel 4 News in 2024 found that only 8% of film and TV workers came from working-class backgrounds. Filmmaker Sam Oddie described feeling judged at industry events and said that, although he eventually reached a point where he felt involved and welcome, “there wasn’t [that feeling] in the beginning”. Despite winning awards, he still struggled to make filmmaking his full-time work. His talent got him into some rooms, but it didn't automatically give him security or a sense of belonging.

Recommendations are not automatically unfair. Creative work is expensive, campaigns move quickly and familiarity feels safe. But when familiarity becomes the main proof of ability, private events, friendship circles, former colleagues, WhatsApp groups and prestigious universities become informal gateways. Nobody has to announce that the industry is closed. The same opportunities simply keep moving between the same people.

Digital platforms were supposed to break down those barriers. A designer can build an audience on Instagram, a writer can grow a newsletter without an editor, and a filmmaker can reach thousands on TikTok before a production company knows their name. But visibility is not the same as access.

Too many brands are not really scouting. They are scrolling. For early-career creatives, follower and engagement numbers, or previous work for recognisable clients, have replaced genuine talent as the main way to get noticed. A creative who’s already worked with a recognisable brand, or has a large social media following, looks safer than one who has not. Previous approval becomes easier to trust than potential.

For brands, this is not only an inclusion problem. It is a cultural intelligence problem. A 2026 study published in Nature found that design students who relied more heavily on popular platform content for creative inspiration were also more likely to produce work that looked similar to what had already circulated online. The researchers also found that when ideas of what looked ‘good’ were shaped by things like popularity, rankings and engagement, creative styles were more likely to converge.

When ideas keep passing through the same networks, brands inherit the same references and blind spots. South London graphic designer Mitchell Bradshaw, for example, has worked across independent publishing while designing projects for photographer and archivist Simon Wheatley, including Lost Dreams and Silverlink. His work did not suddenly become culturally valuable once it gained institutional recognition. Recognition simply made value that already existed easier for the wider industry to see.

If brands only become comfortable backing creatives once somebody else has already taken the chance on them, they are not really discovering new talent. They are arriving once the risks have already been removed.

Instead, brands which are genuinely interested in groundbreaking talent need to be attending degree shows outside London, working with independent publications and community organisations, asking agencies to bring names beyond their usual shortlist and using transparent open calls for selected briefs. They can also question what counts as proof. A creative may not have a major campaign on their CV, but they may have built a trusted audience, documented a scene for years or created work that has tangible grassroots value.

There are already models for this. We Are Parable's Momentum programme supports Black UK-based filmmakers and content creators through mentoring, mental-health support and access to industry professionals. Its co-founder Teanne Andrews has spoken about entering the industry without studying film or having friends inside it to give her a leg-up, arguing that "It doesn't matter that I didn't study film or come from a film background... What matters is my voice." D&AD's New Blood Awards approach the problem differently, allowing students and emerging creatives to respond to real brand briefs before accumulating years of conventional experience. Programmes like Momentum matter because they do not assume talent will somehow find its own way into the room; they deliberately create the relationships, guidance and access that informal networks have historically provided to others.

Finding talent is only the first step. Paid test briefs, proper feedback, mentoring and first commissions can create a route into future work. Exposure without payment does not. A workshop with no path to a brief does not. Inviting emerging creatives into the room means little if nobody is willing to trust them once they arrive. As Anthony Andrews explained when discussing Momentum,"We want to leverage all of the goodwill we've accumulated in this sector and turn that into helping filmmakers progress their careers." The aim is not simply to identify talent, but to give that talent a realistic route into sustained creative work

The point is not that brands should lower their standards. It is that they should stop confusing familiarity with quality. A strong portfolio, an original point of view, knowledge of a community and the ability to make people care about all forms of creative status.

The creative industries do not have a talent shortage, they have a discovery problem. The next generation of culture-makers is already here: the brands that stay closest to the culture of tomorrow will be the ones willing to look beyond the familiar names of today.