One of the Top things to do to prepare for NIFT / NID and international design colleges is to follow International Design events. These days a lot of the information is available by following them through their virtual sessions, online viewings as well as their social media channels. This exercise helps expand your mind towards design and makes you aware of what are the current happenings in design on a global stage.
London Design Festival is one such event that you could follow.
London Design Festival was launched by Sir John Sorrell CBE and Ben Evans CBE in 2003. Building on London’s existing design activity, their concept was to create an annual event that would promote the city’s creativity, drawing in the country’s greatest thinkers, practitioners, retailers and educators to a deliver an unmissable celebration of design. The launch of the first Festival took place at Bloomberg on 25 March 2003, with a huge show of support from design, education, government and London organisations. 18 years later, this vision remains ever strong.
In 2019, the Festival welcomed a record-breaking 600,000 individual visitors from over 75 countries. An additional passer by audience of nearly 1 million people had the opportunity to see the four Landmark Projects. In addition, London Design Festival helped drive a total of 120,000 visits to the V&A over the Festival period with 22% of those surveyed saying they had never visited the museum before and were driven there by the Festival.
London Design Festival Director, Ben Evans CBE says “London and Design go hand in hand. It is part of our story. London Design Festival is a platform for hundreds of design stories to be told. Each of them talks to an expanding audience hungry for design ideas and enjoying the quality and diversity of what’s on offer. It all confirms London’s status as the global centre of design.”
Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said: “London Design Festival is a fantastic event which brings together designers from across the globe and demonstrates the capital’s position as a powerhouse for the creative industries. London is known for its creativity and continues to attract the best companies and talent from around the world. I’m delighted to support London Design Festival, which shows that London is open to great ideas, innovation and people from all backgrounds.”