Welcome to the London Design Festival guide, here to help you navigate the design capital of the world. For nine days in September, London provides the stage for thousands of exclusive designers and artists, corporations, associations and societies to come together to display their latest works. London Design Festival is an annual event, held to honor and promote London as the gateway to the international creative community. The Festival returns to venues and institutions across the city from 15-23 September 2018.

Throughout the Festival, we invite you to take a closer look at their diverse output, from the understated to the flamboyant, the commercial to the conceptual, and the practical to the improbable. This London guide was created to help you navigate the incredibly diverse list of events, exhibitions, and installations, and design districts taking place across the capital. Enjoy exploring this year’s edition with our city guide dedicated to the celebration of design.

DESIGN DISTRICTS

Bankside Design District

Tate Edit Design Week Tate Edit- Tate Modern | 15-23 September 2018
Tate Edit is excited to be taking part in LDF this September. Tate Edit offers art and objects for your home, chosen by Tate. We will be holding a number of events with designers, makers and authors in the store throughout the festival, ranging from workshops, talks and product launches

CitizenM Bankside Secret Garden | 16 September 2017
Secret Garden at Bankside Design District’s hub. As part of its annual Secret Garden series, citizenM Bankside has commissioned The Spaces in Between, a planted installation by Carly Rogers Flowers.

Brompton Design District

“Design for living” By B&B Italia | 15-23 September 2018 | 250, Brompton Road

Nature meets Interior Architecture at Liaigre | 15-23 September 2018 | 52 Conduit St, Mayfair, W1S 2YX

A collaboration with Liaigre, Rainforest is an immersive installation arranged as a large mobile playing with shadows and the soothing sounds of porcelain. Inspired by nature, it highlights a link between the finest materials such as wood and ceramic and the interior architecture house.

Pentagram X 14-18 NOW By 14-18 NOW | 15-23 September 2018 | Victoria and Albert Museum, London
London Design Festival is collaborating with 14-18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War centenary – on a commissioned project inspired by the First World War concept of Dazzle.

CITCO SHOWROOM | 15-23 September 2018| 270 Brompton Rd,London
After the first collaboration with Zaha Hadid in 2012, in 2016 CITCO starts its collaborations with renowned international designers such as Stefano Bigi, Norman Foster, Arik Levy, Daniel Libeskind, Jean Nouvel and Ora ïto enriching its Design Collection of lamps, tables, complements, vases and shelves, each with a different way of interpreting the material.

Arvo Pärt X Arup: Memory & Light | 15-23 September 2018 | Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Clerkenwell Design Quarter

Celebrate 80 years of design and discover our 2018 collection by Knoll | 17-21 September 2018 | 91 Goswell Road London

Zaha Hadid Gallery | 18-22 September 2018 |101 Goswell Road
Exhibited for the first time in London, the Gallery will feature recent product collaborations including Zaha Hadid Design for Royal Thai, Zaha Hadid Architects for Nagami and an exhibition by the studio’s Computation & Design research group (ZHCODE).

Fitzrovia Design District

Dodo Pavone Travels from The Museum of Extinct Animals By Moooi | 15 & 17-22 September 2018 | 23 Great Titchfiled Street London
Participants of The Museum of Extinct Animals, first shown during Salone del Mobile this year, have started their own adventures and London showroom is delighted to welcome glorious Dodo Pavone. The Museum of Extinct Animals celebrates nature’s diversity, offering endless creative inspiration.

Joyce Wang Studio presents FLINT: a collection of terrazzo objects | 15-21 September 2018 | 1 Warren Mews London

Mayfair Design District

Jean Royère by Galerie Patrick Seguin | 17-22 September 2018 | 45-47 Brook Street
Founded in 1989 in Paris, Galerie Patrick Seguin has brought the talents of French designs such as Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand, Pierre Jeanneret, Le Corbusier and Jean Royère into the international spotlight.

Konstantin Grcic « VOLUMES » By Galerie Kreo | 15 & 17-22 September 2018 | 14A Hay Hill
Galerie kreo presents VOLUMES by Konstantin Grcic, an alphabet of six distinct forms referencing, without defining, their functions. The works are sculpted into solid Bleu de Savoie marble and are defined by a rough finish which highlights the inner paradox between the natural and the man-made.

Sahara By Achille Salvagni Atelier | 15 & 15-23 September 2018 | 12 Grafton Street

Vincenzo De Cotiis “En Plein Air” by Carpenters Workshop Gallery | 15 & 17-22 September 2018 | 4 Albemarle Street London
‘En Plein Air’ (translated: Open-Air) refers to the special moment in art history, at the end of the 19th Century when painters decided to leave their studios to start painting in nature.

Now and Then by Gallery FUMI | 15-23 September 2018 | 2 Hay Hill London
To mark its 10th anniversary, Gallery FUMI is proud to present a special exhibition ‘Now and Then’, charting the trajectory of the gallery’s programme since its opening in 2008.
A celebration of the gallery’s represented artists and designers, the exhibition will showcase a curated selection of key pieces created over the last 10 years.

Pimlico Road Design District

An Immersion in the World of Craftsmanship showcasing the Art of Marquetry by LINLEY | 17 September 2018 | 60 Pimlico Road, Belgravia
On this evening, LINLEY’s master craftsman will concentrate on surface design and will do a live demonstration of marquetry techniques as they create small samples. The marquetry technique can be applied to any furniture pieces or decorative small objects with smooth, veneerable surfaces.

Regent Street & St James’s Design District

Italian Design at Christies | 15 – 23 September 2018 | 8 King Street, Saint James’
To celebrate the pioneering Italian identity during the London Design Festival, Christie’s will present a survey of important Italian Art & Design, featuring works by PierLuigi Giordano, Paolo Buffa and Paolo Venini, which will be offered at auction in October.

David Gill Gallery presents Daniel Libeskind: Fundamental Elements | 14 – 27 September 2018 | 2-4 King St, St. James’s
David Gill Gallery is pleased to announce an upcoming solo exhibition ‘Fundamental Elements’ by Daniel Libeskind.

Designed to Inspire Performance by Equinox | 22 September 2018 | 12 St James’s Street London

Equinox Design Run | 15 September 2018 | 12 St James’s Street London

Shoreditch Design Triangle

Alphabet by Kellenberger White | 15-23 September 2018 | Broadgate, London
Known for their playful approach to typefaces, Kellenberger–White has designed a new series of alphabet chairs as a Landmark Project at Broadgate, supported by Festival Headline Partner British Land.

Observatory By Lee Broom | 18-23 September 2018 | 93 Rivington Street, London

Lee Broom will transform his London showroom to present the third and final installment of OBSERVATORY, his new award-winning, stellar-inspired lighting collection that plays with proportions of vertical and horizontal space, sculptural, spherical form, and the refraction and reflection of light.

West Kensington Design District

Where Are My Glasses? by Ron Arad for VENINI by Vessel Gallery | 15 & 17-23 September 2018 | 114 Kensington Park Road London W11 2PW Notting Hill Gate
Vessel Gallery presents an extraordinary fusion of form and material combining glass and metal, creativity and technique that characterizes Ron Arad’s first project for VENINI. Where Are My Glasses? is a collection of three vases with exclusive new unique pieces launched at Vessel Gallery for LDF

Sé presents ‘Below the Heavens’, Collection IV by Ini Archibong | 15-23 September | Sé, 60 Fulham Road, London

Belonging By The Design Museum | 15-23 September 2018 | 224-238 Kensington High Street London
Let’s celebrate design together! This LDF the Design Museum is exploring the theme “belonging” through a series of events curated by Ameena M. McConnell, Curator at Large and commissioner for the museum’s atrium installation by London-based spatial laboratory Loop.ph.

OTHER EVENTS OF INTEREST

Live Bespoke Shirt making and Hand Embroidery at Emma Willis’ Jermyn Street Shop | 20 September 2018 | 66 Jermyn Street
Visit Emma Willis’ Jermyn Street Shop on the 20th September to see a live display of Bespoke Shirt making and Hand Embroidery by their talented team. Additionally, CEO of Swiss Cotton Mill Alumo, Sandra Geiger, will discuss the production process of finest cotton from planting to finishing.

V&A

Visual feast –with Silvia Weidenbach, former V&A Gillbert Collection Resident and jeweler.
Silvia Weidenback explores the role of technology on her creative process. Dates: 17 September – Visual Feast: Tour with the Artist, Meeting point: Grand Entrance, 11 – 11.30
Silvia Weidenbach and digital artist John Emmony give insight into their creative process. Dates: 18 September – Visual Feast: Moving Image (in conversation with Jon Emmony), Meeting point: Seminar Room 1, 12.15 – 13.00

London Design Festival at the V&A
Free guided tour of the LDF at the V&A from 17^th until the 21^st September, Meeting point: LDF Desk (Grand Entrance), at 12, 14, 16 on weekdays, as well as 18 and 19.30 on Friday.

Tour: V&A Furniture & Woodwork Archives
Tour of the furniture archive, that consists of over 14k furniture pieces and other decorative objects from all over the world and dating back to the Middle Ages. Date: 21 September, Meeting Point: Blythe House at 11.