London Design Festival

We're hiring! - join our team and shape the programme for upcoming iterations of the Global Design Forum, the thought-leadership platform bringing together luminaries in the field to further design innovation and creativity. The Forum runs alongside both the London Design Biennale, next up June 2025, and the London Design Festival, Sept 2025, and is a great opportunity to build profile and relationships in the creative sector. Full information in JD attached. If interested, send CV and cover letter to me by EOD, Friday, 22 November - and please share on! London Design Festival London Design Biennale #design #jobs

“Energetically, I believe it serves as a space for dimensional transition, with a very high aura”. With Turkey celebrating 101 years of the Republic earlier this week, it is more than apt that 'Duo' by Turkish artist and designer, Melek Zeynep Bulut is on display at the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich – home to the world famous Royal Observatory, where the Prime Meridian divides the East and West Longitude. Befittingly, Zeyep Bulut's 'Duo' encapsulates the essence of ‘two’: a dialogue, an agreement, and the dynamic interplay between both centre and periphery. This idea of collaboration and partnership resounds throughout the installation as well as Turkey's long bilateral relations with the UK. Duo also responds to the charged, cavernous setting of the Painted Hall – originally designed in the 18th century by Sir James Thornhill as a dining hall for the Greenwich Pensioners adorned with 3,700 square metres of Baroque paintings of 200 kings, queens, and mythological figures. 📍Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College, London SE10 9NN 🗓️ 28 October to 3 November 🎟️ LDF is offering 10% off tickets booked online using the promo code: LDFDUO24 🔗 Book your tickets at the link https://lnkd.in/egKzqn4j Valid until Saturday 02 November. Visitors on Sunday 03 November can benefit from the Painted Hall's First Sunday offer with entry for only £5. Under 16's go free but booking is required. Please go to the Old Royal Naval College box office to redeem your wristband and gain access to the Painted Hall. 📸 Mark Cocksedge

Accessibility in design isn’t just a feature; it’s the foundation of a truly inclusive world. At London Design Festival, we believe that great design serves everyone, regardless of ability, background, or circumstance. Design should act as a bridge that connects people, not a barrier. To support this vision, we’ve partnered with Samsung Electronics UK as part of their #DEI commitment, along with #AmyFrancisSmith, RIBA Architect & Accessible Design Specialist, to spotlight the gaps in accessibility awareness and consumer confidence in brands adapting for people in the UK with visible and invisible disabilities. Samsung undertook research that revealed that 80% of people believe brands miss out on over £274 billion annually by overlooking disabled consumers and not investing in products that cater to diverse individual needs. Ironically, three-quarters (76%) say they would stay loyal to companies offering accessible options. Samsung’s research underscores a vital message: accessibility isn’t just a core value - it’s an opportunity for brands to connect meaningfully and build lasting loyalty. Yet there’s more work ahead. We must continue to showcase spaces, products, and systems that promote inclusive design, driving both innovation and creativity. It’s inspiring to see Samsung leading this important conversation. We’d love to hear your thoughts. You can find out more by visiting: https://lnkd.in/eAsjj2fr #AD #InclusiveDesign #SamsungUK #DEI #DesignForAll

Accessibility in design isn’t just a feature; it’s the foundation of a truly inclusive world. At London Design Festival, we believe that great design serves everyone, regardless of ability, background, or circumstance. Design should act as a bridge that connects people, not a barrier. To support this vision, we’ve partnered with Samsung Electronics UK as part of their #DEI commitment, along with #AmyFrancisSmith, RIBA Architect & Accessible Design Specialist, to spotlight the gaps in accessibility awareness and consumer confidence in brands adapting for people in the UK with visible and invisible disabilities. Samsung undertook research that revealed that 80% of people believe brands miss out on over £274 billion annually by overlooking disabled consumers and not investing in products that cater to diverse individual needs. Ironically, three-quarters (76%) say they would stay loyal to companies offering accessible options. Samsung’s research underscores a vital message: accessibility isn’t just a core value - it’s an opportunity for brands to connect meaningfully and build lasting loyalty. Yet there’s more work ahead. We must continue to showcase spaces, products, and systems that promote inclusive design, driving both innovation and creativity. It’s inspiring to see Samsung leading this important conversation. We’d love to hear your thoughts. You can find out more by visiting: https://lnkd.in/eAsjj2fr #AD #InclusiveDesign #SamsungUK #DEI #DesignForAll

“Energetically, I believe it serves as a space for dimensional transition, with a very high aura”. With Turkey celebrating 101 years of the Republic earlier this week, it is more than apt that 'Duo' by Turkish artist and designer, Melek Zeynep Bulut is on display at the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich – home to the world famous Royal Observatory, where the Prime Meridian divides the East and West Longitude. Befittingly, Zeyep Bulut's 'Duo' encapsulates the essence of ‘two’: a dialogue, an agreement, and the dynamic interplay between both centre and periphery. This idea of collaboration and partnership resounds throughout the installation as well as Turkey's long bilateral relations with the UK. Duo also responds to the charged, cavernous setting of the Painted Hall – originally designed in the 18th century by Sir James Thornhill as a dining hall for the Greenwich Pensioners adorned with 3,700 square metres of Baroque paintings of 200 kings, queens, and mythological figures. 📍Painted Hall, Old Royal Naval College, London SE10 9NN 🗓️ 28 October to 3 November 🎟️ LDF is offering 10% off tickets booked online using the promo code: LDFDUO24 🔗 Book your tickets at the link https://lnkd.in/egKzqn4j Valid until Saturday 02 November. Visitors on Sunday 03 November can benefit from the Painted Hall's First Sunday offer with entry for only £5. Under 16's go free but booking is required. Please go to the Old Royal Naval College box office to redeem your wristband and gain access to the Painted Hall. 📸 Mark Cocksedge

A look back at the highlights from ‘Resilience and Repair’ supported by Türkiye Design Council Türkiye Tasarım Vakfı at this year’s Global Design Forum. Talks centred around how can design help to preserve cultural identity post disaster? And how can architecture and design protect, and reinforce cultural identity, trust and belonging in a time of crisis, and how much of a priority should this be? Speakers included #LDFEmergingDesignMedal Winner #HarryBlakistonHouston, Founder, #InsulateUkraine #IevgeniiaGubkina, Architect, Architectural and Urban Historian, and Curator #AmmarAzzouz, Research Fellow, University of Oxford #MehmetKalyoncu, Founder and Member of the Board of Trustees, Türkiye Design Council #MarioBalducci, Humanitarian Architect, Article 25 #LoukiaIliopolou, Partner, Foster + Partners; #FurkanDemirci, Chairman, #TürkiyeDesignCouncil and #Cem Yilmaz, Co-founder, KEYM Urban Renewal Centre #BeaSennewald, Director of Projects, Article 25 Full recorded sessions available on the LDF YouTube channel #LDF24 #GDF

“First, I perceive an abstract energy field, and then I find myself shaping it.” A unique creator and capacious thinker with a background in visual arts and architectural design, #MelekZeynepBulut, founder of melekzeynepstudio has been exploring the interplay between mind and matter “for as long as I can remember”. To round up the 2024 edition of LDF, an equally audacious and ambitious new work, Duo, is situated in the Painted Hall at Greenwich’s Old Royal Naval College. Conceptually inspired by notions of duality and oppositional forces – centre and periphery, inside and outside, night and day, time and space, or simply, two people in conversation. The intensity, balance, and oscillation that occurs through the space and its parts depend on the contact with whoever enters it. Bulut sees it as a “game of perception” that turns visitors into active participants – or, as she puts it, “game-changers”. 'Duo' now showing in the Painted Hall at Old Royal Navy College until 3rd November. Tickets required. Book at the link https://lnkd.in/egKzqn4j *** TICKET INFO *** LDF is offering 10% off tickets booked online using the promo code: LDFDUO24 Valid until Saturday 02 November. Visitors on Sunday 03 November can benefit from the Painted Hall's First Sunday offer with entry for only £5. Under 16's go free but booking is required. Please go to the Old Royal Naval College box office to redeem your wristband and gain access to the Painted Hall. 📸 IAMJACK #LDF24 #MelekZeynepBulut #Duo

LDF24 isn't over just yet! We're thrilled to announce that the previously postponed exhibition ‘Duo’ by Melek Zeynep Bulut will be bringing the Festival to a close. The installation is all set to open in Greenwich at the Old Royal Naval College Painted Hall from 28 October to 3 November. 'Duo' is an immersive installation that comes to life through an interdependent mechanical system of magnets, sensors, perception-altering surfaces, and acoustic reflectors, that are altered by a visitor's presence. The intensity, balance, and oscillation that occurs through the space depend on the contact with whoever enters it. Bulut sees it as a "game of perception" that turns visitors into active participants - or, as she puts it, "game-changers". 📍 Don't miss 'Duo' at #LDF24 during half term week (28 October - 3 November) at the Painted Hall in Greenwich's Old Royal Naval College. 🎟 For more info and to book your ticket: https://lnkd.in/e8C63TGE

“Kawakubo's work is unalloyedly original, idiosyncratic and free from convention” In honour of LDF’s Lifetime Achievement Medal to Rei Kawakubo, four esteemed figures from the world of art, design and architecture reflect on the designer's incredible legacy. #ReiKawakubo has defied convention to redefine fashion for nearly five decades. Since founding Comme des Garçons in 1969, her iconoclastic vision has made her one of the most influential garment designers of the 20th century; subverting shape and function, reframing ideas of beauty, and proposing a new relationship between body and dress. Kawakubo was the first Japanese designer to bring their brand to the Paris Fashion Week schedule and, 40 years in, she continues to set international trends. In 2004, Kawakubo and her husband, Adrian Joffe, opened Dover Street Market in London’s Mayfair district – conceived to sell new, conceptual and trendsetting brands, and which later expanded to Ginza, New York, Singapore, Beijing, Los Angeles and Paris. In 2017, she was the focus of a major retrospective at the New York Met, ‘Art of the In-Between’ – the first living designer to be honoured as such since Yves Saint Laurent in 1983. Watch our short film at the link to hear the full testimonials from : #GusCaselyHayford #AmandaLevete #GregorMuir #AliceRawsthorn https://lnkd.in/gX6AprGc The Lifetime Achievement Medal is supported by Fortnum & Mason

“Innovation only comes from being fearless and seeing beyond what is to what could be.” - Pat McGrath DBE, London Design Medal Winner 2024. It is this obsession with what’s next that makes the achievements of Dame Pat McGrath – the most influential makeup artist in the world, according to Vogue; one of the most influential and powerful people in fashion, per CNN; and the most powerful person in fashion, in the words of Ebony magazine – all the more remarkable. Having worked as the creative design director behind CoverGirl, Max Factor, and Giorgio Armani’s makeup collection, McGrath launched her own brand, Pat McGrath Labs, in 2015. Inclusivity and innovation were at the brand’s core, long before other beauty brands were catering to an array of skin tones. By 2018, it was valued at $1 billion. In 2021, McGrath was awarded a damehood by the queen for her services to fashion, beauty and diversity. As well as her pioneering editorial work, she has spent the past three decades masterminding the theatrical beauty of thousands of fashion shows, including 20 last season alone. From the haunting displays of the late Alexander McQueen, to Marc Jacobs, Miuccia Prada, John Galliano and more, she has literally put a face on the biggest fashion shows going. (The glazed doll skin looks created for Maison Margiela’s haute couture show broke the internet.) Watch our full interview with Pat and discover more about our medal winners at the link: https://lnkd.in/gmyKNh6z. The London Design Medal is supported by Johnnie Walker #LDFMedals #LondonDesignMedal #LDF24 #PatMcGrath PAT McGRATH LABS 🎥 @iamjack