London Design Festival

History and festival overview

The inaugural edition of the London Design Festival took place from 20 to 28 September 2003, during which 90 speakers took part in over 60 events. By 2017 participation had grown significantly, as the audience rose to 420,000, increasing further by 2019 to 600,000 attendees. More than 2,000 design businesses, brands, universities, and other organisations now participate in the LDF each year.

The festival sponsors exhibitions, talks, tours, educational initiatives, product launches, and open studios, as well as curating a programme of "Landmark Projects" and various special commissions from its base at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), the Design Museum, and other venues throughout the city – stretching from Kingston upon Thames to the Battersea Power Station to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the Greenwich Peninsula. Alongside London Fashion Week and the Frieze Art Fair, LDF has become an important part of London's autumn cultural events calendar.

The 23rd edition of the London Design Festival took place in September 2025 and the 24th edition is scheduled for 12 to 20 September 2026.

Landmark Projects and special commissions

Working with architects, designers, and engineers together with design businesses, brands and manufacturers, artisans, craftspeople and trade associations, municipal bodies, educational institutions and other community and cultural organisations has resulted in a wide and diverse variety of Landmark Projects and special commissions. Previous examples have included Sclera by David Adjaye (2008), the In Praise of Shadows exhibition at the V&A curated by (2009),Timber Wave designed by Amanda Levete's AL_A (2011), Endless Stair by Alex de Rijke (2013), The Smile by Alison Brooks (2016), Camille Walala's inflatable castle behind Liverpool Street Station (2017), MultiPly by the architects , as well as Es Devlin's Google AI enabled poetry reciting lions (2018), Bamboo Ring by Kengo Kuma (2019), Medusa by Tin Drum and Sou Fujimoto (2021), Into Sight and Affinity in Autonomy by Sony Design (2019, 2022), Bring London Together by Yinka Ilori, and Sonic Bloom by Yuri Suzuki (2021), Sabine Marcelis's swivelling stone chairs on St Giles Square (2022), and What Nelson Sees by in Trafalgar Square (2025).

Location

Since 2009, the V&A has been the central hub for the London Design Festival, celebrating 14 years of partnership in 2022. It has been called the "true epicentre" of the festival. Museum director Tristram Hunt said the "London Design Festival occupies a vital role in London's thriving design sector, reaffirming London's position as one of the world's leading global design capitals." Referring to LDF’s V&A residency, Ben Evans, the festival's director remarked, "I still have to pinch myself that they let us come and play in their museum".

The festival subdivides London into a number of "design districts" such as Bankside, Brompton, Pimlico Road, Clerkenwell, King's Cross, or the Greenwich Peninsula. These districts function as semi-autonomous entities within the LDF. Other such districts that have taken part in the festival over the years include Mayfair, Shoreditch Design Triangle, Islington, Park Royal, William Morris Design Line,Southwark, Paddington Central, Clerkenwell, West Kensington, Marylebone, Fitzrovia, Dalston to Stokey**,** and Chelsea.

Global Design Forum

The LDF also features a thought-leadership programme called the "Global Design Forum" which includes talks, keynotes, daily tours, and workshops. The programme takes place in venues within the V&A such as the Exhibition Road Courtyard, Rotunda, Prince Consort Gallery, and the , as well as other locations throughout the city.** In 2019, the forum had 50 speakers from 18 countries and 2,800 participants.

Graphic identity and logo

The design consultancy Pentagram has created the LDF graphics since 2007. Each year, this includes a thematic variation of the festival's red LDF logo wordmark as part of its overall graphic identity.

Impact

The festival now comprises over 400 events and exhibitions staged by more than 300 partner organisations across the design spectrum and from around the world. By 2015 the LDF was estimated to contribute nearly £80 million annually to London's economy. According to the Creative Industries Council, by 2019 the LDF "attracted 1.1 million visits [...] with more than one third of them from overseas [and] contributed an estimated £118 million [...] to the London economy", creating almost 3,000 additional full time equivalent jobs.

Over the nearly two and a half decades since its inception, the festival has grown to become a significant gathering for the international architecture and design community know "world-over for its temporary, unfailingly iconic, installations." Post-Brexit, and again post-Pandemic, the LDF was also credited with helping London maintain its position as a global design capital.

In a 2022 interview, Ben Evans recollected, "We consciously founded the London Design Festival to be public-spirited. Over the last 20 years, the Festival has had incredible depth of penetration and success in bringing people together and distilling new ideas."

Awards

Each year a jury of established designers, industry experts, critics and commentators, as well as previous award recipients, choose a new cohort of awardees across the four categories of the London Design Medals. The winners are chosen from a wide range of disciplines and recognised for significant contributions to their respective fields.

The British equivalent of international design prizes like the Compasso d’Oro (Italy), iF Product and Red Dot (Germany), G-Mark Good Design Award (Japan), AIGA medal, National Design Awards, and Pritzker (US), the London Design Medal is considered a “major award” in the field.

LDF's Ben Evans explains that, "While there is no shortage of design awards, we wanted to do it differently. So we took the Nobel Prize route – there's no shortlist, just a winner. So that means there [are] no losers either."

The prize medals themselves are created each year by jewellery designer Hannah Martin and feature a London bird, the Cockney Sparrow, in flight.

The London Design Medal categories

• London Design Medal: The highest accolade bestowed upon an individual who has distinguished themselves within the industry and demonstrated consistent design excellence.
• Design Innovation Medal: Celebrates entrepreneurship in all its forms, both locally and internationally. It honours an individual for whom design lies at the core of their development and success.
• Emerging Talent Medal: Recognises an impact made on the design scene within five or so years of graduation.
• Lifetime Achievement Medal: Honours a significant and fundamental contribution to the design industry throughout a career.

Previous medal winners

• Sir Ken Adam, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2015)
• Sir David Adjaye, London Design Medal (2016)
• Pooja Agrawal, Design Innovation Medal (2023)
• , London Design Medal (2025)
• Paola Antonelli, London Design Medal (2020)
• Ron Arad, London Design Medal (2011)
• Ross Atkin, Emerging Design Medal (2019)
• Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, London Design Medal (2015)
• Grace Wales Bonner, Emerging Design Medal (2018)
• Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, London Design Medal (2014)
• Peter Brewin and Will Crawford, Design Innovation Medal (2015)
• Sinéad Burke, Design Innovation Medal (2025)
• Margaret Calvert, Lifetime Achievement Medal, (2017)
• Hussein Chalayan, Panerai London Design Medal (2018)
• Daniel Charny, Design Innovation Medal (2019)
• Natsai Audrey Chieza, Design Innovation Medal (2024)
• Mac Collins, Emerging Design Medal (2021)
• Sir Terence Conran, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2012)
• , Design Entrepreneur Medal (2013)
• Ilse Crawford, The London Design Medal (2021)
• Will Crawford and Peter Brewin, Design Innovation Medal (2015)
• Es Devlin, Panerai London Design Medal (2017)
• Tom Dixon, London Design Medal (2019)
• Robert Feo and Rosario Hurtado, London Design Medal (2012)
• Lord Norman Foster, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2025)
• Ken Garland, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2020)
• Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Emerging Design Medal (2012)
• Kenneth Grange, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2016)
• Dame Zaha Hadid, London Design Medal (2007)
• Thomas Heatherwick, London Design Medal (2010)
• Harry Blackiston Houston, Emerging Design Medal (2024)
• and Robert Feo, London Design Medal (2012)
• Yinka Ilori, Emerging Design Medal (2020)
• Eva Jiricna, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2018)
• , Design Innovation Medal (2022)
• Rei Kawakubo, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2024)
• Hanif Kara, London Design Medal (2023)
• , Emerging Design Medal (2025)
• Roland Lamb, Emerging Design Medal (2014)
• Joycelyn Longdon, Emerging Design Medal (2022)
• Dame Ellen MacArthur, Design Innovation Medal (2020)
• Sir Don McCullin, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2022)
• Pat McGrath, London Design Medal (2024)
• Dame Magdalene Odundo, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2023)
• Julian Melchiorri, Emerging Design Medal (2017)
• Marc Newson, London Design Medal (2008)
• Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh, Design Entrepreneur Medal (2012)
• Jay Osgerby and Edward Barber, London Design Medal (2015)
• Neri Oxman, Design Innovation Medal (2018)
• Sandy Powell, London Design Medal (2022)
• (PriestmanGoode), Design Innovation Medal (2017)
• POoR Collective (Power Out of Restriction), Emerging Design Medal (2023)
• Dieter Rams, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2013)
• Lord Richard Rogers, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2014)
• Nicolas Roope, Design Innovation Medal (2014)
• Daan Roosegaard, Design Innovation Medal (2016)
• , Emerging Design Medal (2013)
• Vidal Sassoon, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2011)
• Peter Saville, London Design Medal (2013)
• Sir Paul Smith, London Design Medal (2009)
• Marjan Van Aubel, Emerging Design Medal (2015)
• Eyal Weizman, Design Innovation Medal (2021)
• Dame Vivienne Westwood, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2019)
• Michael Wolf, Lifetime Achievement Medal (2021)
• Bethan Laura Wood, Emerging Talent Medal (2016)

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