Events
Set the Agenda - Autumn 2022
Vicky Stoakes
Communications Director
Set the Agenda – Autumn 2022
Want a round-up of the best design events this autumn? Well look no further!
The leaves are turning, there’s a change in the air and everyone’s talking about back to school. That means it’s the time of the year that design gets serious. There’s a cluster of design weeks in a host of leading cities, from Paris, to Helsinki, Dubai and Beijing and Shanghai. And yes, the London Design Festival is back in full swing with a packed timetable.
These are our handpicked events to put in your diary if you’re looking to get your ‘design-on’ this autumn.
WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD: The World of ASMR - Design Museum (until 16 October)
Social media has racked up millions of views of slime making and cats purring and other unusual sources of soothing sounds that create a physical sense of calm or euphoria. ASMR videos —short for autonomous sensory meridian response – have become one of the biggest viral trends in recent years. This is the first exhibition of its kind to lift the world of ASMR out from behind a screen and into a physical space. Visitors are invited to step into an acoustically tuned environment to understand how ASMR is being used by brands and content creators to trigger responses in our complex world. This is on our countdown agenda as our whole team will be going along later this month - watch this space!
Dutch Design Week (22-30 October 2022)
Of all the design weeks happening this autumn, we’re giving a big nod to Dutch Design Week because we’re also going! Having clients in the Netherlands gave us a very good excuse this year to visit Eindhoven and Dutch Design Week for the first time. It’s billed as the largest design event in Northern Europe and brings together over 2,600 designers and creatives each year to showcase the latest in design and innovation. We’re on Eurostar countdown already!
AIGA Design Conference – Seattle and Virtual (20-22 October 2022)
We’re all keeping our fingers crossed that someone grants our wish and books us tickets in person to this year’s AIGA Design Conference in Seattle. Under the theme of ‘re-connect’ this year it promises to ‘inspire and re-energize’ whilst offering up the opportunity to learn in person from the community and from designers at the cutting edge of today’s hot topics. Conference hosts include some of design's most influential figures with Debbie Millman, Brian Collins and conference chair Rick Griffith.
If you can’t make it to Seattle, you can join events virtually and we recommend checking out the AIGA Design Adjacent Podcast series, with AIGA’s Executive Director, Bennie F. Johnson, in conversation with industry leaders who are innovating and designing the future. It’s a good one.
Immersive Events – Various – Autumn 2022
London has gone immersion crazy this autumn with an ‘experience’ for everything from Stranger Things, to Peaky Blinders to a Gunpowder Plot Conspiracy event.
For design enthusiasts our pick would be one of the three leading art immersions, from Impressionist Vincent Van Gogh, Austrian Symbolist Gustav Klimt and Mexican Surrealists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Taking the artists’ work and digitally projecting them from floor to ceiling, combined with other immersive elements and multi-sensory experiences, visitors get a 360-degree look and reappraisal of their work. The ultimate in combing art, design and tech.
London Design Festival (17-25 September 2022)
We gave this a nod in our last Set the Agenda to make sure it’s in your calendar, but the full programme has finally gone live, so head over and take a look. It’s going to be a big one, the 20th anniversary edition, celebrating and promoting London as the design capital.
The festival includes thought provoking talks at the Global Design Forum at the V&A, various pop-up events, design districts and installations. A few have caught our eye including an immersive installation at The Conran Shop in partnership with It’s Nice That to present Meet Me in the Metaverse and INTO SIGHT, a life-sized media platform installation where Sony Design plays on sensorial effects that transform simple boundary surfaces into an infinite vista through shifting light, colour and sound. Check out the various colourful and intriguing Landmark projects too popping up over the city as well.
Let’s go autumn!
