Melbourne Design Week 2021

In 2021, Melbourne Design Week explores the theme ‘design the world you want’ where designers demonstrate how they can collaborate to create a better and healthier future for the planet.

Over eleven days, Melbourne Design Week presents emerging and established designers to address the theme in an array of talks, tours, workshops, exhibitions and launches across Melbourne and Victoria. Through this, it celebrates the diversity of the Australian design and architectural sector offering both industry professionals and design enthusiasts the opportunity to engage with individuals, institutions and practices at the vanguard of design world-wide.

Melbourne Design Week is ideas-driven. Inspired by the theme ‘design the world you want’, designers respond to this provocation through three pillars: Care, Community and Climate. Events under the Care thematic reflect the desire for design processes that consider the emotional needs of others, including other species; Community celebrates collaboration across disciplines, disseminating knowledge and embracing new cultures; and Climate examines the ways in which designers can mediate the effects of climate change, including the necessary shift to a zero-carbon future.

The design festival is complimented by specially curated programs: Melbourne Art Book Fair, Melbourne Design Week Film Festival and Waterfront. The extensive Waterfront program, presented by Centre for Architecture Victoria | Open House Melbourne, extends to Lakes Entrance and Lake Tyers in 2021 with the School for unTourists. Exploring the future for this post-fishing community, audiences will be introduced to sites around the lakes district through a series of walks, tours, talks, kayak and boat trips; and hear about the issues affecting the waterways of the Gippsland Lakes from the perspectives of Traditional Owners, local community members, designers, artists and marine experts.

An initiative of the Victorian Government and delivered by the National Gallery of Victoria, the inaugural Melbourne Design Week was launched in 2017. Since 2017 the program has grown in scope and scale from just under 100 programs in 2017 to over 300 in 2020 making it Australia’s largest international design event.

Welcome to Melbourne Design Week 2021, which this year invites us in with the empowering theme: ‘design the world you want’.

Victoria is a leader in design, with our design community working in fields such as sustainability, medical technology, fashion, architecture, manufacturing, artificial intelligence and many more areas of innovation.

This program traverses the wide world of design, showcasing the local and international designers who are leading the way with over 300 events taking place across Melbourne and beyond. In keeping with the times, there are also a range of online events which will open the Melbourne Design Week action up to audiences across the globe.

Design helps to shape how we live, work, learn and interact. Ultimately, it’s about tackling challenges and finding solutions to problems we face. After the events of 2020, design has never been more important and our design sector will play a crucial role in our economic, social and cultural recovery, helping to shape a new future for our city, our state and beyond.

Melbourne Design Week was established by the Victorian Government in 2017 and we are proud of how this celebration has grown in scale, profile and reach. Congratulations to the NGV team and all of this year’s participants who have designed a program that will entertain, educate and inspire.

Whether you’re joining in online or attending in person, in Melbourne or at a satellite event, enjoy all that Melbourne Design Week 2021 has in store.

Danny Pearson
Minister for Creative Industries

Reflecting the dynamism of Melbourne’s design community, Melbourne Design Week has undeniably cemented its position as the country’s largest annual international design event. A testament to Victoria’s status as Australia’s most design-focused state, this festival of design has grown year on year since 2017 and now offers an annual focal point for Australia’s design sector to share their ideas, products, innovations and plans for tomorrow. Now in its fifth year, the event draws exhibitors and visitors from across the country as the one event in the design calendar not to be missed.

Responding to the theme ‘Design the World You Want’ the 2021 program will challenge and inspire us as we reflect on the capacity of design to shape our lives and the world-at-large. As we reactivate our cities together, there is no better time than now to celebrate the sense of collaboration and positivity that define Victorian design. Together, the design disciplines offer immense potential and opportunity to reinvigorate our economy while enriching society and the environment. The Victorian Government and NGV are dedicated to supporting and embracing the design sector, with Melbourne Design Week as a key initiative in an ongoing strategy.

This year’s festival takes place across Melbourne and Victoria in a range of spaces, with a new dedicated regional program in Gippsland. Highly accessible, and open to all, there are exhibitions, workshops, tours, talks, and more. Melbourne Design Week also includes the Melbourne Art Book Fair, which for 2021 spreads out across the city in a celebration of Melbourne’s vibrant independent publishing community.

We are excited with the sense of optimism and opportunity that abounds in our design community. As Melbourne Design Week brings people together, it is a great time to look at what we have achieved and think about the world we want to make together for tomorrow.

Tony Ellwood AM
Director NGV

In 2021 MABF brings together ideas and practices that seek to explore the connections between art, design, publishing and language.

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