Event History
The DesignTO Festival brings people together to celebrate contemporary design across the city January 24 – February 2, 2025. Since 2011, the DesignTO Festival has welcomed over 1 million visitors, showcased the work of over 6,500 artists and designers, and reached over 2 billion people through print and digital media.
What Makes this event different?
DesignTO Festival is Canada’s largest annual design festival celebrating design as a multidisciplinary form of thinking and making, with over 100 exhibitions and events forming Toronto’s design week each January.
1. Call for Independent Projects
Independent Projects are exhibitions, events, and window installations that are wholly created and executed by an individual or organization during the DesignTO Festival at a venue of their choice. DesignTO welcomes all who want to present, discuss, demonstrate, or exhibit design in any field and related disciplines.
Deadline
October 11, 2024
Apply by August 31 to get $25 off.
2. Venue-Designer Matchmaking Program
Do you have a space that you would like to see activated with design during the Festival?
Do you have a project you want to present at the Festival, and need a place to show it?
Let us be your matchmaker! Through the Venue-Designer Matchmaking Program, DesignTO pairs designers with a venue to host their project during the 2025 Festival.
Guest Designer Deadline
Rolling deadline, with final applications due September 16, 2024
The Call for Guest Designers will open on July 22, 2024.
3. DesignTO Youth: Story Story
‘Story Story’ is the sixth edition of DesignTO Youth, a program that provides youth with access to creative disciplines and professionals. This FREE workshop series will consist of 5 virtual sessions of group activities geared at exploring storytelling through art and design.
Participating youth must be between the ages of 18-29 and a resident of Ontario at the time of application. No prior art or design experience is necessary.
Deadline
September 6, 2024
4. Prototype Exhibition: Surface Impressions
Going into its tenth year, ‘Surface Impressions’ is the latest edition of the annual prototype exhibition organized by DesignTO in partnership with Umbra.
‘Surface Impressions’ will run January 20 - February 15, 2025 (dates TBC) at the Umbra Store, Toronto. All selected prototypes will also be considered for addition to Umbra’s growing roster of quality products, to be manufactured, distributed, and sold through the Umbra brand, with royalty.
Deadline
September 27, 2024
5. Thematic Exhibition: REVIVE
DesignTO invites submissions from artists and designers working in all mediums and formats to submit to ‘REVIVE’, a thematic group exhibition exploring endangered creative practices and materials.
‘REVIVE’ is a call to action to preserve and celebrate sacred and vulnerable creative practices and materials, as it is crucial that we recognize and safeguard them, ensuring they continue to thrive and inspire future generations.
Deadline
September 27, 2024
6. DesignTO Talks: Net Positive
DesignTO invites designers and thinkers to submit to speak ‘Net Positive’, a one-day event exploring design responses to the climate crisis from a perspective of abundance.
Design and its adjacent industries are integral forging a path toward a healthy and thriving planet. As is often cited, the building and construction sector creates approximately 40% of annual carbon dioxide emissions. However, current “green” strategies are proving insufficient. It is urgent that we shift design goalposts from doing “less bad” to doing “more good.”
Talks may be about current research or case studies, new products or technologies, spaces or experiences, speculative design or strategies, or new processes or policies.
Deadline
September 27, 2024
7. Group Exhibition: Hurry Up and Wait
DesignTO invites submissions for an exciting new exhibition at Toronto’s Union Station. ‘Hurry Up and Wait’ is an industrial design exhibition that offers innovative solutions to slowing down in the hustle and bustle of Union Station – Canada’s busiest transportation hub.
What does unwinding amidst the rush of urban travel look like? How can longevity, durability and viability be incorporated into our living and work environments? How do you use function and materiality to implement sustainability into your design practices?
Deadline
September 27, 2024
