The World's Best Design Events of 2018
As creatives, we draw inspiration from our environment. We never really know what will trigger our next brilliant idea. It’s different for everyone: a book, a movie, profound conversation, a debate, or it might just be an event where you have to face a tsunami of information that’s coming right at you.
Why is an event such a great source of inspiration and insight? Because it encapsulates all of the above: books and movie recommendations, meeting new people, meaningful exchanges.
We put together a list of what we believe are the world’s best design events to help you choose which to attend.
If you are an avid event-goer, this is the perfect list for you. Go ahead and start planning your trip. Keep in mind that many events offer a free live-stream video or video archives of the presentations. Very often, universities, museums, embassies and local bookstores will also offer event-goers free entrance.
Here they are, in chronological order! 2018’s top design events, conferences, festivals and worldwide fairs:
January
Maison & Objet Design Show— Paris — January 19–23, 2018
MAISON & OBJET PARIS’ design show is divided into three sections:
MAISON houses its wide range of interior decorations;
OBJET is the show’s concept store, ideal for retailers;
INFLUENCES has been created to facilitate communication between attendants and the unearthing of new products.
DLD — DigitalLifeDesign — Münich — January 20–22, 2018
DLD stands for Digital, Life, Design and explores how the digital age fundamentally changes our life, society and businesses.
Creative Mornings Events— Worldwide — Jan 6 through Dec 30
CreativeMornings is a worldwide monthly breakfast lecture series for the creative community. Currently hosting design events in 130 cities in 55 countries around the world.
February
IxDA18 Conference— Lyon — February 3–8, 2018
Each year the conference lives in a different city, with a different culture and a different organization team. IxDA is a worldwide membership based organization with over 10 years of history, 173 local groups and 80,000 members.
VFX Festival — London — February 6–8, 2018
During the festival’s three jam-packed days, you can become familiar with the most dynamic and ingenious films, games and animations of the past year. Essentially, VFX brings together industry leaders, who give talks, hold workshops, and speak on panels. There’s also plenty of interactive exhibition spaces.
You can get tips from leading industry studios such as Framestore, The Mill, REWIND, Escape Studios, Blue Zoo and Cinesite. Learn about gaming, VR, animation, motion graphics and much more.
Smashing Design Conference — London — February 7–8, 2018
This is a brand new conference, which is fully dedicated to all things related to web performance. It focuses on issues such as ads, third-party scripts, A/B testing, HTTP/2, debugging, JAM stack, PWA, web fonts loading, memory/CPU perf, service workers.
Design Indaba Festival — Cape Town — February 21–24, 2018
Every year, the Design Indaba Festival creates a ground-breaking program, which includes amazing speakers, musicians, and film and design exhibitions. It showcases the best of the global and African creative industries.
Offgrid Conference— New Zealand & Australia — February 22–27, 2018
Off Grid 18 is an unconventional design conference. We invite you to travel, explore, and discover the Experiential City through a series of curated talks, events and experiences. The conference is held in several locations in the vicinity of Wellington, New Zealand, with stopover events in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane.
March
SXSW Design — Austin, Texas — March 9–13, 2018
Explore how design and design-thinking shapes the way we interact with technology and our world, thanks to Design sessions such as Arts at CERN: When Art Meets Science, Cross-Cultural, Multilingual, and Localized Design, Limitless Creativity: How to Design in an AI World, and more.
TEI Conference— Stockholm — March 18–21, 2018
TEI 2018 is the 12th annual conference dedicated to presenting the latest results in tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction. This year, the theme of the conference is Post-digital Design. In the early days of TEI, a common assumption was that our mundane physical reality could be augmented by sprinkling it with the magic of digital technology. Over the last decade, the realm of digital technologies has become less mysterious. Because we use it in our everyday lives, it is the new mundane.
OFFSET Design Conference— Dublin — March 23–25, 2018
With over 2,500 attendees each year, Offset has become one of the world’s most inspirational, educational and vocational conferences for the design and creative industries. As early as 2009, they have collaborated with creative icons such as Massimo Vignelli, Sir Peter Blake, Paula Scher, David Carson, Milton Glaser, Kyle Cooper, Stefan Sagmeister, Micheal Bierut, Shepard Fairey, Tomi Ungerer, JR, Lance Wyman, George Lois and Louise Fili, who have all graced their wonderful stages.
IDSA Medical Design: EXPERIENCE — Boston — March 29, 2018
The event will explore the impact of researching and designing healthcare products and environments that weld human performance, business and the dignity of users. The timing couldn’t have been better, as this fourth IDSA Medical Design Conference follows the HFES International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care, which will be held March 26–28 at the same location.
IDSA South Conference — North Carolina State University — March 23–24, 2018
April
An Event Apart — Seattle — April 2–4, 2018
An Event Apart Seattle: Special Edition is a three-day conference with 18 sessions and an intense focus on digital design, UX, content, code, and more.
TED — Vancouver — April 10–14, 2018
They say that TED2018 will be an event not to be missed! We believe them.
IDSA Northeast Conference — Rochester Institute Of Technology — April 13–14, 2018
Smashing Design Conference — San Francisco, CA — April 17–18, 2018
This conference features front-end ingredients, UX recipes and practical advice from the hidden corners of the web. A great chance to learn tips and tricks you can apply to your career straight away!
Salone Del Mobile — Milano — April 17–22, 2018
The Salone Internazionale del Mobile was founded in 1961 as a vehicle for promoting Italian furniture and furnishings exports. It became the most anticipated event in the world of furniture design.
IDSA Central Conference — Columbus College of Art & Design — April 27–28, 2018
EAD Conference | Design For Next— Rome — April TBD, 2018
The 12th EAD Conference is hosted by Sapienza University of Rome in Italy, and it will foster discussions among designers, academics and experts about the articulated scenario of contemporary design and its perspectives, with intent to nurture diversity and interdisciplinary.
May
Pictoplasma Conference— Berlin — May 2–6, 2018
Since its inception in 2004, the annual Pictoplasma Berlin Conference & Festival has established itself as the main meeting point for an international audience of visual creators and producers. The event is an unconventional design conference, a forward looking animation film festival, a communal playground for collaborative creation, a surprising tour of gallery exhibitions — and is all about the fun of encountering like minded people.
99U Conference— New York City — May 9–11, 2018
The 99U Conference is a one-of-a-kind live experience that inspires creative professionals to bring their ideas to life and shape the future of the industry.
TYPO — Berlin — May 17–19, 2018
TYPO Berlin will be about the practice of change, about scenarios, about heroes and evaluation. It will be about big data and personal data. It will offer insight regarding the digital home. Do we really want one? The transparent consumer has become a reality, but certain people have begun to cover their digital tracks.
By Design — Bratislava — May TBD, 2018
Central Europe's out of the box design and entrepreneurship conference wants to to create a network between designers in Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
RGD Design Thinkers — Vancouver — May 29–30, 2018
For 18 years, the Association of Registered Graphic Designers has hosted the annual DesignThinkers Conference. Their mission is to gather diverse perspectives and to explore the processes of design and creativity.
IDSA Women+Design Summit — San Diego — May TBD, 2018
This new event focuses on the unique challenges and accomplishments of women in design by learning from other fields as well. It is an amazing opportunity to network, collaborate, learn, and grow together.
What Design Can Do — Amsterdam— May TBD, 2018
What Design Can Do (WDCD) was initiated in 2011 as a platform to showcase design as a catalyst of change and as a way of addressing the societal questions of our time.
June
NeoCon — Chicago — June 11–13, 2018
Held from the 11th to the 13th of June at The Mart in Chicago, NeoCon has evolved into one of the most widely attended trade shows in the industry. This year will be no exception. Thanks to the help of their Advisory Council, the show is still at the forefront of changing commercial design and business trends.
An Event Apart — Boston — June 25–27, 2018
An Event Apart Boston consists of two days of sessions from 12 speakers with intense focus on digital design, UX, content, code, and more. After the two-day conference, the “Day Apart” takes place, during which a single speaker deep-dives into an important topic.
Smashing Design Conference — Toronto — June 26–27, 2018
What’s the best way to learn? By observing designers and developers working live. For their new conference in Toronto, speakers aren’t allowed to use any slides at all. Welcome SmashingConf #noslides, a brand new conference in Toronto, full of interactive live sessions which show you how web designers design and how web developers build. It covers setup, workflow, design thinking, naming conventions and everything in-between.
July
Cities for Tomorrow — New York — July 10–11, 2018
On the 10th and 11th of July, The New York Times will bring together the world’s top industry experts, policymakers, developers, creative visionaries, and entrepreneurs at Cities for Tomorrow. This event is a go-to for leaders who are shaping the urban environments of the future.
An Event Apart — Washington — July 30-August 1, 2018
An Event Apart Washington DC: Special Edition is a three-day conference with 18 sessions, and an intense focus on digital design, UX, content, and code.
August
IDSA International Design Conference — Atlanta — August TBD, 2018
Design is among a handful of disciplines that really, really values and strives to improve the human condition. It doesn’t solely focus on its intrinsic value, but also on its fundamental, instrumental value. Whatever the world throws at us — digitization, electrification, sensorification, autonomy or connectivity — industrial designers surmount barriers, leveraging them as elements. We make “design at scale.”
An Event Apart — Chicago — August 27–29, 2018
An Event Apart Chicago is two days of sessions from 12 speakers with intense focus on digital design, UX, content, code, and more. After the two-day conference, the “Day Apart” is held by a single, central speaker that focuses their panel on an important topic.
September
Brand New Conference — New York — September 13–14, 2018
The Brand New Conference is a two-day event organized by UnderConsideration, which focuses on best practices in the field of corporate and brand identity. The conference consists of eight sessions, and each day offers attendees a broad range of POVs, with speakers from around the world which practice in different environments, from global consultancies, to in-house groups, and small firms.
London Design Festival — London — September 15–23, 2018.
London Design Festival is an annual event, held to celebrate and promote London as the design capital of the world and the gateway to the international creative community.
October
The Big Draw Festival — Worldwide — October 1–31, 2018
The Big Draw Festival is for anyone who loves to draw, as well as those who think they can’t! It’s an opportunity to join a global community in celebration of the universal language of drawing.
Every year, thousands of enjoyable and experimental drawing activities connect people of all ages with schools, galleries, museums, libraries, heritage sites, village halls, refugee organizations, outdoor spaces, artists, scientists, designers, illustrators, inventors and each other.
An Event Apart — Orlando, Florida — October 8–10, 2018
An Event Apart Orlando: Special Edition is a three-day conference with 18 sessions and an intense focus on digital design, UX, content, code, and more.
AIGA Design Conf — Minneapolis, Minnesota — October TBD, 2018
Hosted annually by AIGA, the professional association for design, as a means of connecting the design community through rich conversation, inspiration, networking and education.
The theme for the 2017 conference was “connect”. Aren’t we all searching for meaningful connections to our work, and to each other? Connection happens when we use empathy in what we do, when we include the stories and perspectives of others, and when we come together to move our professions and humanity forward.
MAX Adobe — Los Angeles, California — October 15–17, 2018
Come to MAX to rejuvenate your work, your processes, and your own creative journey. MAX is the perfect blend of information, inspiration, practical knowledge and creative magic.
World Design Summit — Montreal, Canada — October TBD, 2018
All Congress sessions are designed to intersect, encouraging the sharing of knowledge between 6 disciplines: architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, landscape architecture and urban planning.
VIEW — Turin, Italy — October TBD, 2018
VIEW Conference is the premiere international event in Italy on Computer Graphics, Interactive Techniques, Digital Cinema, 2D/3D Animation, VR and AR, Gaming and VFX.
November
AA XX 100 — London, UK — November TBD, 2018
An international conference organized by the Architectural Association and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, with a rich program consisting of presentations, panel discussions, distinguished keynotes, and an open jury to celebrate the centenary of women at the AA.
AA XX 100 is the project to commemorate the centenary of women’s admission to the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London in 1917. To date, it has laid out the foundation for several complementary enterprises, including an annual lecture series and an ongoing program to conduct filmed interviews with AA alumnae.
December
The London Illustration Fair — London, UK — December 1–3, 2017
The London Illustration Fair is an annual, artist-led illustration, print and graphic design fair, bringing artists and buyers together in a unique environment. The fair offers the chance for illustration lovers to come face to face with their favourite artists and discover amazing new artwork from emerging illustrators. You can find something at every price point. Items range from exclusive original pieces to prints and gifts for under ten pounds.
An Event Apart — San Francisco, California — December 10–12, 2018
An Event Apart San Francisco consists of two days of sessions from 12 speakers, with intense focus on digital design, UX, content, code, and more. After the conference, there’s a day dedicated to a single speaker, which elaborates on a topic of interest.
An Event Apart — Denver, Colorado — December 11–13, 2017
An Event Apart Denver: Special Edition is three days of intense focus on digital design, UX, and more. The Denver show is sold out, but you can look into the above mentioned AnEventApart upcoming events.
We hope this offers you a wide perspective of the upcoming world design events.
Stay creative.
