London Design Festival 2024 has announced details of its upcoming programme, including a major installation at Fortnum & Mason by renowned artist and designer Jaime Hayon, celebrating 25 years of Hayon Studio.
The Festival also announced details of the Partner Programme, with over 300 events across 11 Districts, and Material Matters as well as the Global Design Forum, the Festival’s curated thought leadership programme, which will bring together over 60 speakers to discuss how design can be more accessible, inclusive, sustainable, and drive meaningful change.
Festival Commission
London Design Festival and Fortnum & Mason today announce details of an immersive installation by renowned artist and designer Jaime Hayon. Taking over the store windows and atrium of Fortnum & Mason’s flagship store on Piccadilly, this vibrant display celebrates the British luxury retailers’ longstanding commitment to design and craftsmanship and marks the 25th anniversary of Hayon’s distinguished art and design studio.
The window installation titled ‘Celebration I’, will comprise of a retrospective of decades of radical creative innovation through silhouettes in motion, odd shapes, bright hues and friendly beasts, showcasing a wide spectrum of materials—ceramics, bronze, glass, and wood—each chosen as examples of Jaime Hayon’s creative virtuosity.
The installation will also feature ‘Malabarista’, an intricate laser-cut panel taking over the Fortnum & Mason atrium. Depicting a man juggling stars and celestial elements, ‘Malabarista’ symbolises Hayon’s perspective on creativity as a dynamic juggling act, where materials and experiences serve as tools for artistic exploration.
Partner Programme
Over nine days, Design Districts, Partners and Material Matters, will host over 300 events, sparking discovery through exhibits, installations, workshops and more. From Bankside to Battersea, Chelsea to Dalston, neighbourhoods across London will harness community spirit, bringing global talents and local makers together.
The global creative industries will gather in London to showcase work that engages in a myriad of topics including our relationship with technology, the growth of AI, materials and bio-materials, eco-conscious design, sustainability and community-driven design, as well as prototypes, experimental work and future-facing initiatives.
The notion of play also emerges as a growing trend with designers examining its integrity as a concept and celebrating its manifestations across different areas of our lives. From enhancing our wellbeing and fostering creative exchange to reimagining and enhancing everyday experiences.
There will be 11 Design Districts as part of this year’s Festival each with its own unique personality that reflects the local community and enables visitors to explore events a short walking distance from each other. As part of the programme, the commercial pillars of the Festival are key meeting places for designers, manufacturers, buyers, specifiers, the media and design enthusiasts to discover new product releases and identify current trends.
Global Design Forum
Global Design Forum, the Festival’s curated thought leadership programme celebrates design and the minds shaping its future. The talks programme returns to the V&A this year celebrating 10 years since it first took place at the Museum.
The programme for 2024 will focus on some of the most pressing and crucial challenges that designers currently face. Daily themes will include Please Design Responsibly; The Healthy City; Resilience and Repair and More than Human. Within these headers there will be a focus on: responses to conflict and disaster; communication of cultural heritage; what it means to be human; designing through a non-human lens; design for connection; creating resilient, healthy, green cities; redefining the role of the designer; designing a regenerative society and opening up collaboration to move towards critical shared goals.
Over 60 speakers from across the global design and creative community will share new perspectives on how design can be more accessible, inclusive and sustainable and at the forefront of change.
This year GDF is excited to be partnering with Johnnie Walker Blue Label, VELUX and Türkiye Design Council. MORE INFO: londondesignfestival.com/GDF
London Design Festival, 14th – 22nd September 2024, londondesignfestival.com / @l_d_f_official
About
Established in 2003 by Sir John Sorrell CBE and Ben Evans CBE, London Design Festival celebrates and promotes London as the design capital of the world. London Design Festival has since earned the reputation as a key calendar moment of London’s autumn creative season, alongside London Fashion Week, Frieze Art Fair and the London Film Festival, attracting the greatest thinkers, practitioners, retailers and educators to the capital, in a citywide celebration.
