Almost all graphic design in England is appalling. It was one of the first things I noticed when I moved there.
There's such a wealth of illustration and color. Of course this is all very personal.
Virtually all graphic designers, at least in Europe use Behance as a portfolio.
So by switching between countries you can get a decent idea of what kind of graphic design is being produced.
Bad to terrible: Commercial work in graphic design (Ad posters in the tube), flyers, small shop signage in high streets, information and calendars. All pretty bad to awful.
Spain, Greece, Italy, southern Europe has overall superior graphic design tradition. You ca verify this by going on Behance and scrolling through the works of individual countries. The UK is one the worse performers in graphic design, but it has very good product design and engineering. UK architecture is also almost uniformly terrible.
I've been told that kids these days receive almost no arts education in the UK in the government funded education. How do you expect them to compete with countries like Portugal and Greece with visual and music education is much stronger?
Same thing about Germany. There is a non-trivial amount of Bauhaus books that are only available in German. Given how crucial that movement is for modern design, it's understandable that you see stronger pupils coming out of Germany since they might have had access to seminal texts that aren't even available in other languages.
It would be the equivalent of Andrew Ng teaching only in Turkish. You'd likely see a good amount of Turkish AI engineers coming out of that with better training than their Western counterparts? At least until the contents were translated, which in the case of Bauhaus, they never were.
There are exceptions like others have pointed out - public signage in Tube and roads, Gov.UK, TFL (TFL has the most consistent good design of any institution or company I’ve ever seen in the UK).
Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal all have far stronger graphic design traditions. Germany and Switzerland too but different styles. (I much prefer the Barcelona/Brazil style myself). You can see this by looking up any individual country on Behance.
Another piece of proof is looking up some senior designers on some of the top agencies in the UK. They are very very often from abroad - usually from the countries I’ve listed above. Most people who work in creative advertising know this (like me). The top agency in London right now - Builders Club - has a Swiss Creative Director. A top 3D studio - Panoply - is headed by Swedes I believe. The only school in the UK that consistently makes top visual designers is Central St Martins.
This is not so much an insult to the country btw - each country has its own strengths. The Uk is incredibly strong in product design and fashion design, and in engineering. But graphic design is just not part of its core strengths I’d say. I’ve been told that kids these days don’t even necessarily receive arts education in public schools - is that true?
This is unsurprising in itself. About 40% of London residents are foreign born, and in any international industry, the chance of top talent being from the same country as the hiring company is low for obvious statistical reasons. You can see a similar effect in e.g. academia.
I do get the sense that I don't know of any major agency however, that employs top UK talent in visual design.
Builders Club, the top agency right now is headed by a Swiss Creative Director. Panoply, whose 3D artists and directors were once the top talent at ManVsMachine, are Swedes I believe.
The Uk quite simply does not have a strong graphic design tradition. They are strong in product design, fashion and engineering. They import good design.
So now it's not the UK but British designers that are terrible. Make your mind up.
I didn’t say British designers were terrible either. The work that’s produced might not be as interesting, sometimes due to client preference as well.
As I’ve explained in other comments, countries have traditions of quality and that matters. The UK is excellent at engineering, product design, and they had one of the most successful fashion designers of the century in Alexander McQueen.
Do you actually believe education quality and teacher cohort is meaningless?