The magazine focuses on commercial creativity, covering design, advertising, photography, branding, digital products, film, and gaming.

Creative Review was launched in 1981 as a quarterly supplement to Marketing Week, then becoming a stand-alone monthly magazine.

In 2007, it was reported that the magazine had sold guest editorship of its February 2007 edition to an advertising agency, Mother, for £15,000, although then editor Patrick Burgoyne retained overall editorial control.

He said: “I feel comfortable about it – it’s not about Mother, there’s no interview with them, it’s not puffy but it’s about important issues for the readers.”[3] Creative Review launched a full website in 2009, after running a blog for two years, which Burgoyne had perceived as "successful" but “limiting”.

[5] As of April 2018, Creative Review launched an online subscription, with a selection of articles only available to paying readers.