There's so much to see and do at London Design Festival, back in the capital this September 17-25 for its 20th time, it's hard to know where to start. That's why we've picked out the not-to-be-missed highlights below...
Lead Image: INTO SIGHT LDF
1 Bankside Shakespeare Trail
Marking The Globe's 25th year, Better Bankside has created a trail around Bankside featuring 25 of Shakespeare's quotes along with photography, illustration and design. The quotes were chosen to show how even 400 years on, Shakespeare still resonates today. A good one for the kids and family.
Dates: Open 24 hours
Address: Various locations around London Bridge and Borough
Website: londondesignfestival.com
2 Street Art Tours, Walthamstow
Stroll around the wilds of Walthamstow as part of the William Morris Design Line on one of six guided street art tours. A project grown out of lockdown walks, these tours combine what once was your daily dose of exercise with art, previously when galleries and museums were closed. On each tour which run for about 1.5 hours each, you'll see at least 10 artworks. This one is also one for every member of the family.
Dates: September 19-23
Time: Various time slots from 10.30am to 9pm
Tickets: From £5, available on eventbrite.co.uk
Address: Wood Street Studios, 1 Barrett Road, Walthamstow E17 3FU
Website: londondesignfestival.com
3 Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration: In Progress
Set to open in 2024, the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration sees a a 300-year old water works in east London become a new cultural hub. Here's your chance to mosey around the pretty spectacular site - which dates back to the 18th and 19th century - while looking at the plans of what it will become.
Date: September 17-18
Time: 12pm-5pm
Ticket: Free, but register
Address: Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, Rear of 28 Amwell
Street, EC1R 1XU
Website: londondesignfestival.com
4 Batik Clothing Workshop, Southwark
Learn how to batik your clothing and materials in this two hour workshop, led by Ken Kweku Nimo, author of Africa in Fashion and an art scholar who knows more than just a thing or two on the dying technique. The workshop will also look at African style and how it relates closely to certain craft cultures, as well as looking at fashion in Africa's history and what it looks like today.
Date: September 24
Time: 3pm-6pm
Ticket: By donation, available through eventbrite.co.uk
Address: The Africa Centre, 66 Great Suffolk Street, SE1 0BL
Website: londondesignfestival.com
5 Yinka Ilori: Parables of Happiness, Kensington
You've probably seen a lot of Yinka Ilori's bright and cheerful patterns on London's streets in recent times, and here's your chance to see even more of his mood-lifting creations. The Design Museum hosts an installation of his that pulls together Nigerian design elements with British postmodernism to create a fun and energising space.
Date: September 17-25
Time: 10am-6pm
Tickets: Free, unticketed
Address: The Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High Street, W8 6AG
Website: londondesignfestival.com
6 INTO SIGHT, South Kensington
As part of the Brompton Design District in South Kensington, Cromwell Place plays host to one of this year's landmark project.s INTO SIGHT is an all consuming light installation by Sony Design. Striving to highlight the blur of physical and meta realities, you'll experience tricks on the eyes and reality created by sound, light and colour.
Dates: September 17-25
Times: 10am to 4pm, 6pm or 9pm
Tickets: Free, but ticket required
Address: Pavilion Gallery, 4 Cromwell Place, South Kensington SW7 2JE
Website: londondesignfestival.com
7 Swivel, Tottenham Court Road
Another landmark project for this year, Swivel brings pops of colour to central London. A kind of functional public art piece, Swivel brings colourful playground-esque seating to St Giles Square - a grey pocket of London heavy on the concrete - for passersby to sit on and enjoy.
Address: Centre Point, St Giles Square, WC2H 8NH
8 Design London Fair
Whether you're a designer yourself, looking for something in particular or just curious, LDF's Design Fair is a major trade show for people in the industry and design fans to discover new products and trends. Design London sets up shop in Greenwich Peninsula, which is your chance to see big brands such as Artemide, Bert Plantagie and HAY. International pavilions Denmark, Portugal and Korea.
Date: September 21-24
Tickets: From £10
Address: Magazine London, 11 Ordnance Crescent, Greenwich Peninsula SE10 0JH
Website: designlondon.co.uk
9 Design London's Opening Party
The opening day party of Design London your opportunity to bring your mates and peruse the stalls, free drink in hand, with DJs playing in the background. You can then stop perusing all together and enjoy the sunset over the Thames and the music.
Date: September 21
Time: 4pm-9pm
Tickets: Free, but register to get a ticket
Address: Magazine London, 11 Ordnance Crescent, Greenwich Peninsula SE10 0JH
Website: designlondon.co.uk
10 Design Districts
If you want to keep it local, the festival's 12 Design Districts champion their community's creativity. The twelve locations are Brompton, Islington, King's Cross, Mayfair, Southwark South, Greenwich Peninsula and Park Royal over Acton way. Bankside and Pimlico will also become design districts, and you've also got the William Morris Design Line that will take you on a creative stroll through Walthamstow, the Clerkenwell Design Trail and the Shoreditch Design Triangle to discover. Each one comes with their own distinct flavour, from Shoreditch's experimental ideas and Pimlico's antiques, to Brompton's luxury and high-end design.
11 Global Design Forum
A curated line-up of talks and in-conversations which look at challenges and issues facing the design community, and celebrating the thinkers and the doers at the forefront of change. While the 2022 programme is yet to be announced, last year's line-up shared different perspectives and fresh ideas on how to make design more accessible, inclusive and sustainable, which is a pretty good steer on what to expect this time round.
Website: globaldesignforum.com
12 V&A Festival Hub
Grand any date on the calendar, the V&A takes it up a notch during LDF with a packed programme of talks, events, exhibitions and displays, most of which are free. Watch out for special event R is for Repair (Sept 17-30, free) a project that looks at our attachment to stuff, an short animation imagining Natural History Museum whale skeleton coming to life to swim the Thames demanding climate action (Sept 17-25, free) as well as the family friendly Digital design Weekend (Sept 24-25, free) which has a stack of drop in workshops, interactive installations and events for young and old.
Address: Cromwell Road SW7 2RL
Website: vam.ac.uk
London Design Week takes place across London September 17-25.
For the full programme of events, head to londondesignfestival.com
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