Industry
Is Motion Design Still in Demand? A 2025 Market Deep Dive
5 Jun 2025
As a freelance motion designer, I’ve often wondered: how in-demand is my job, really? Trends change fast. One month everyone’s hiring motion designers, the next month it’s all about content creators or product folks. I wanted something more solid than trends — I wanted data.
So I took a snapshot of the European job market in May 2025. I pulled open LinkedIn Jobs, filtered by region, and ran exact-title searches for a dozen creative roles. Then I looked at how many jobs were available, how many were remote, and what that says about where our industry is heading.
What I Did (and What to Keep in Mind)
Data source: LinkedIn Jobs (Europe)
Method: I searched each job title as an exact phrase — for example, "Motion Designer", "Content Creator", etc.
Work modes: LinkedIn marks each posting as onsite, hybrid, or remote. I broke the counts down by that.
Date of snapshot: 20 May 2025. This is a single point in time, not a trend line.
Caveats: LinkedIn isn’t the whole picture. It doesn’t track agency gigs, freelance platforms, or internal hires. Also, companies label roles in different ways, so some jobs might be missing. Treat this as a strong signal — not a perfect census.
And one more thing: I searched in English. So local-language jobs like "Concepteur Produit" or "Diseñador de Interfaces" may be under-represented.
Who’s Hiring (and for What)
Here’s what I found when comparing twelve creative roles:
Rank | Role | Total | Onsite | Hybrid | Remote | Remote % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Product Designer | 634 | 189 | 275 | 170 | 26.8% |
2 | Content Creator | 624 | 237 | 136 | 251 | 40.2% |
3 | UI Designer | 375 | 138 | 172 | 65 | 17.3% |
4 | Graphic Designer | 286 | 156 | 93 | 37 | 12.9% |
5 | Art Director | 166 | 86 | 75 | 5 | 3.0% |
6 | Motion Designer | 141 | 62 | 56 | 23 | 16.3% |
7 | Video Editor | 103 | 45 | 29 | 29 | 28.2% |
8 | Web Designer | 73 | 39 | 30 | 4 | 5.5% |
9 | Animator | 67 | 37 | 24 | 6 | 9.0% |
10 | Visual Designer | 38 | 24 | 10 | 4 | 10.5% |
11 | Illustrator | 32 | 17 | 13 | 2 | 6.3% |
12 | 3D Artist | 21 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 4.8% |
Some quick takeaways:
Product Designers and Content Creators are way ahead — both over 600 job listings.
Graphic Designers are back in demand — with more roles than Motion Designers or Art Directors.
Motion Design is holding its ground — but others have pulled ahead.
Remote? Not really. Only a few roles offer full-remote options. Content Creators lead here with 40%, but most others stay under 30%.
So what does this mean for motion design? Let’s zoom in.
Is Motion Design Still Hot?
Yes — but the hype has cooled. There’s still strong demand for motion skills, but the gold rush is over. Most job posts now ask for motion as part of a bigger toolkit.
Breadth wins. Roles increasingly want motion skills inside product teams, brand studios or UI projects. If you can animate and understand how it fits into the user journey — you're ahead of the curve.
Remote roles are limited. Motion often ties into live-action production, editing suites and colour-sensitive workflows. That’s tough to pull off fully remote, which explains the 16% cap.
Where the Trends Are Headed (Google Search Says a Lot)
I also looked at Google Trends for France from 2010 to 2025. I compared five job titles: UI Designer, Content Creator, Motion Designer, Graphic Designer, and Product Designer.
Here’s what stood out:
UI Designer had a huge spike between 2021–2024 — likely due to the product design boom post-COVID.
Content Creator went from near-zero to mainstream. Now it’s searched almost as often as Product Designer.
Motion and Graphic Design are steady but flat — no dramatic growth, just consistent interest.
Product Designer saw late growth but topped out. Job growth came before search interest caught up.
Google Trends isn’t the same as job data, but it often hints where things are going — especially 6–12 months ahead. If a role is suddenly getting attention, hiring might follow.
So What Should You Do?
If you're a motion designer looking to stay competitive in 2025–26, here’s where to focus:
Learn to think like a product team. Understand user goals, funnels and A/B testing — that’s how you’ll plug into product roles.
Get fluent in design systems. Learn tokens, components and accessibility so your animations work at scale across apps.
Optimise for content platforms. Master short, vertical and loopable motion for TikTok, Reels and YouTube Shorts.
Stay hybrid-ready. Build a strong home setup, but keep your in-person collaboration muscles warm — most teams expect both.
Show impact in your portfolio. Don’t just show beautiful work — show results. Think engagement metrics, dwell time, brand lift.
Be selective about learning. Don’t chase everything. Pick short, focused courses that build depth — especially in product, content or AI-assisted motion.
Expand your network. Connect with product managers and content leads, not just other designers. Many gigs start outside the design team.
Final Thoughts
Motion design is still a valuable skill — but the roles that need it most are changing. It’s not just about how good your animations look. It’s about where they fit, what they support, and how flexible you are.
If you’re ready to branch out into product, content or hybrid creative roles — and back that with the right tools and mindset — you’ll stay relevant no matter how the market shifts.