This year the European Design Festival (ED-Festival) will be held in Tallinn, 17-19 June 2022.

Creative people from all over Europe are expected to take part in the Festival Programme that will also be open to the general public. The Programme includes the Design Conference “Beyond Design”, Workshops, Exhibitions, Design Walks, Design Talks, Studio Crawls and of course, the European Design Awards Ceremony!

The Festival Programme 2022 is being curated by the Estonian Design Centre. The Programme and ticketing are available on the European Design Awards website.

‘‘There were this time over 1 400 submissions to the ED-Awards 2022 Competition. The participants were from 34 different countries – from Lichtenstein to Germany and from Iceland to Turkey, so from big to small, east to west and north to south‘‘ says Mr Demetrios Fakinos, the European Design Festival director and added: ‘‘The winners will start receiving notifications in the second half of April, but the official announcement of winners will take place during the European Design Festival 2022 Award Show, on 18 June at 7 pm at the Creative Hub/Kultuurikatel – one of the most unique creative and event spaces in Northern Europe.‘‘ 

In the picture: Cultural Hub (Kultuurikatel)

The European Design Conference 2022 “Beyond Design”, also takes place on 18 June at the Creative Hub/Kultuurikatel. The Conference addresses the core questions of the future of design and the future through design, as well as themes related to the position and responsibilities of the designer. The work will take place through practical workshops, discussions and multidisciplinary future visions. The speakers at the Design Conference include designer, sociologist and sustainability provocateur Leyla Acaroglu; futurist Angela Oguntala (founding partner at Greyspace, a foresight and design studio); professor, design and technology ethicist Ariel Guersenzvaig; creative strategist and problem solver Marksteen Adamson and many more. The Conference will also cover several interesting cases from leading European design agencies. 

Find out more about the Design Conference speakers.

The whole ED-Festival Programme is available here.

In the picture: Angela Oguntala (Design Conference Speaker)

In the picture: Leyla Acaroglu (Design Conference Speaker) ©James Duncan Davidson

 ‘‘We are very excited to host the European Design Awards in Tallinn. The ED-Festival covers this year a wide range of activities and is also open to the general public, allowing us to present the potential impact of design and show design as an empathetic tool for providing the best solutions to needs or problems of people’’, says the Head of Estonian Design Centre Ms Tiia Vihand. ‘‘The ED-Festival, from the viewpoint of the Design Community, has become an important arena for European designers. We can come together to discuss the core questions of the future of design, what are the responsibilities of current designers, get inspired or just communicate and network with each other‘‘, asserts Ms Vihand. 

In the picture: Ariel Guersenzvaig (Design Conference Speaker)

In the picture: Estonian design Agency Velvet office (Design Walk programme)

The European Design Awards is an annual event, bringing together the best examples of communication design in Europe. It is widely recognised as one of the most prestigious design awards on an international level, as a joint initiative of the major communication design media on the continent. The ED-Festival has since 2007 been hosted in cities such as Stockholm, Zurich, Rotterdam, Helsinki, Istanbul, Vienna, Porto and Oslo, to name a few. Its mission is to celebrate European design, facilitate meetings between designers, be inspired and build networks, as well as assist in promoting the design discipline, to wider audiences.
 
The European Design Festival 2022 is a collaborative event of the European Design Awards and Estonian Design Centre.
 
The ED-Festival 2022 Tallinn, main local partners and supporters are: City of Tallinn, Republic of Estonia Ministry of Culture, Helmes, Visit Estonia, Nordic Hotel Forum, Tallink Hotels, Tallink, airBaltic, Nortal, Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Estonian Academy of Arts, Cultural Endowment of Estonia.