05-08-2025
These creatives moved to Europe and designed a better life and career. Should you?
BY
Thinking of leaving the United States for life abroad? You're not alone. A record-setting 21% of Americans expressed a desire to emigrate in 2024.
While politics might play a role in the uptick, an increasing number of creative professionals are also leaving for career reasons. They want to embrace work cultures that foster balance over burnout, escape design echo chambers, and have the ability to afford launching their own studios.
'In the Bay Area in particular, it just felt like the treadmill was getting faster and faster,' says Lisa Baird, president and principal strategist of the creative consultancy Fraîche Design Thinking. Baird moved to Paris with her family in 2022. 'I knew that quality of life was sort of slowly but surely disintegrating, because people were becoming more and more attached to work, like a religion.'
We were curious about how creatives like Baird made the move, so we checked in with designers who have decamped for other countries to learn more.
