 | |
| Industry | Design |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2003 |
| Headquarters | |
| Products | Festival |
| Parent | IDEA Operations Ltd. |
| Website | londondesignfestival.com |
The London Design Festival (LDF) is an annual cultural event that takes place throughout London every September. It was founded by Ben Evans and John Sorrell in 2003, and presented its 23rd edition in 2025. [3] [4]
The first edition of the London Design Festival took place from 20 to 28 September 2003, during which 90 speakers took part in over 60 events. [5] By 2017 participation had grown as the audience rose to 420,000 people, increasing again in 2019 to 600,000 attendees. [6] [7] More than 2,000 design businesses, brands, universities, and other organisations participate in the LDF each year. [8] [9] [10]
The festival commissions and curates a programme of "Landmark Projects", sponsors exhibitions, talks, tours, educational initiatives, and special projects from its base at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and at other venues throughout the city. [11] [12] [13] [14] Alongside London Fashion Week and the Frieze Art Fair, LDF has become an important part of London's autumn season cultural events calendar. [15] [16]
The 23rd edition of the London Design Festival took place from 13 to 21 September 2025. [17] [18] [19]
Working with architects, designers, and engineers together with design businesses, brands and manufacturers, artisans, craftspeople and trade associations, municipal bodies, educational institutions and other community and cultural organisations has resulted in a wide and diverse variety of projects. [23] Previous examples have included Sclera by David Adjaye (2008), Timber Wave by Amanda Levete (2011), [2] [24] Endless Stair by Alex de Rijke (2013), [25] The Smile by Alison Brooks Architects (2016), [21] [26] MultiPly by Waugh Thistleton as well as Es Devlin's Google AI enabled poetry reciting lions (2018), [27] Bamboo Ring by Kengo Kuma (2019), [28] Medusa by Tin Drum and Sou Fujimoto (2021), [29] Into Sight and Affinity in Autonomy by Sony Design (2019, 2022), [30] [12] [31] Sabine Marcelis's swivelling stone chairs on St Giles Square (2022), [32] and What Nelson Sees by Paul Cocksedge in Trafalgar Square (2025). [33] [34] [35]
Since 2009, the Victoria and Albert Museum has been the central hub for the London Design Festival, [36] [37] [38] celebrating 14 years of partnership in 2022. [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] It has been called the "true epicentre" of the festival. [44] [45] Museum director Tristram Hunt said the "London Design Festival occupies a vital role in London's thriving design sector, reaffirming London's position as one of the world's leading global design capitals." [46] [47] Ben Evans, the festival's director said: "I still have to pinch myself that they let us come and play in their museum". [48] [16]
In 2022, 12 design districts across London participated – Bankside, Brompton, [50] Pimlico Road, Clerkenwell, King's Cross, Greenwich Peninsula, Mayfair, Shoreditch, Islington, Park Royal, [51] William Morris Design Line and Southwark. Other districts have taken part in the LDF including Paddington Central, [52] West Kensington, Marylebone, Fitzrovia, Dalston to Stokey, and Chelsea. [53] [54]
![Sonumbra by Rachel Wingfield and Mathias Gmachl pictured in the In Praise of Shadows exhibition curated by Jane Withers [d] at the V&A (2009) In Praise of Shadows at the V&A.JPG](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/In_Praise_of_Shadows_at_the_V%26A.JPG/250px-In_Praise_of_Shadows_at_the_V%26A.JPG)
The LDF also includes a thought-leadership programme called the "Global Design Forum" [58] which features talks, keynotes, daily tours, and workshops. [59] [60] The programme takes place in venues within the V&A such as the Exhibition Road Courtyard, Rotunda, Prince Consort Gallery, and the Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, as well as other locations throughout the city. [61] [62] [63] [64] In 2019, the forum had 50 speakers from 18 countries and 2,800 participants. [65]
The design consultancy Pentagram has created the LDF graphics since 2007. Each year, this includes a thematic variation of the festival's red logo as part of the overall visual branding. [66] [67] [68]
The festival now comprises over 400 events and exhibitions staged by more than 300 partner organisations across the design spectrum and from around the world. [69] By 2015 the LDF was estimated to contribute nearly £80 million annually to London's economy. [70] According to the Creative Industries Council, by 2019 the LDF "attracted 1.1 million visits [...] with more than one third of them from overseas [and] contributed an estimated £118 million [...] to the London economy", creating almost 3,000 additional full time equivalent jobs. [6] [71] [37]
In a 2022 Wallpaper magazine interview, Ben Evans, the festival chairman recounted "We consciously founded the London Design Festival to be public-spirited. Over the last 20 years, the Festival has had incredible depth of penetration and success in bringing people together and distilling new ideas." [72] [73] [74]
Each year a jury composed of established designers, industry experts, critics, and commentators, as well as previous award winners choose awardees across the four categories of the London Design Medals. The recipients are chosen from a wide range of design disciplines and awarded for significant contributions to their respective fields. [75] [76]
The British equivalent of international design prizes like the Compasso d’Oro (Italy), iF Product and Red Dot (Germany) , G-Mark Good Design Award (Japan), AIGA medal, Chicago Athenaeum Good Design award, and Pritzker (US), the London Design Medal is considered a “major award” in the field. [77]
LDF director Ben Evans explains that, "While there is no shortage of design awards, we wanted to do it differently. So we took the Nobel Prize route – there's no shortlist, just a winner. So that means there's no losers either." [78]
The prize medals themselves are created each year by jewellery designer Hannah Martin [79] [80] and feature a London bird, the Cockney Sparrow, in flight. [81] [82] [83]
