London Design Festival

17th September to the 25th September London is over run with designers and artists with events all around the city including fairs, workshops, talks and galleries to show the newest trends in design and engaging everyone in them. Its a great concept and works extremely well to promote current disciplines and their trends this year.

However, I found it difficult to find many events for graphics. There were some don't get me wrong. Jonathon Barnbrook hosted a talk among many print displays (print is definitely not dead which excites me so much!) but there weren't many design events tailored around designers who created commercial work. I don't just been big shiny ads for faceless companies, I wanted to be inspired with everything that graphic design could offer. The London design fair showcased the newest products based on interior design which I thought was brilliant and originally thought it would include all disciplines of design. In short I found the name "The london design fair" rather misleading.

I went to brixton as it held one of the few graphics displays and met two lovely volunteers who agreed, the graphics workshops, talks and displays were inspiring and fantastic, however larger scale events and more based on the newest trends in graphics and a place for people to network would of been perfect. They also mentioned that volunteering at the event allowed you to network with lots of different people form different backgrounds which was food for thought.

I understand that every discipline of art should be inspiring to someone who is creative, which is was, but for me, thats what art galleries are for. There was a balance missing between beautiful creative work and how you can get involved more which I think is essential. I've seen in my secondary school and foundation course intake and interest slow dramatically and large scale event like the London Design Festival have an amazing opportunity to improve this and showcase inspiring work and talks and bridge the gap between enjoying a piece of art and showing how you can make this your life.

Note to self; find networking event for graphic designers