2009 DESIGN FESTIVAL
The inaugural Liverpool Design Festival got off to an exciting start in 2009. A rich and diverse programme of events ran between 30th October and 8th November.
At the heart of the Festival was our Eco Design Show as part of the City’s celebrations of Year Of The Environment. As well as offering a unique shopping opportunity by bringing together over 45 British based designers in one place, the designers taking part demonstrated how energy efficiency, care for the environment, consumption of resources and use of materials shape and affect design practice. The preview evening was a huge success and offered exhibitors a chance to network with a specially invited audience.
Finishing School saw the delivery of a intensive five-day series of workshops specifically for fashion design businesses and included a comprehensive programme of master classes created for designers of all experience from recent
graduates to established professionals. The School aimed to raise the awareness and knowledge of what it takes to be successful within the fashion industry. Topics included Presentation to Buyers, Brand Adjacency, Intellectual Property, Styling, Pricing, Fashion Marketing and Brand Image - specially selected to equip new and emerging designers with the skills and knowledge to grow rewarding and profitable businesses.
Our design competition for Liverpool schools, Design Stars, was also launched at the Festival. Created for young people aged between 11 and 16 years old, it encourages the city’s budding design talent to think about the design industry as a realistic career option by working alongside inspirational, professional role models from this exciting sector. Open to all secondary schools in Liverpool, the competition will seek out the next generation of design stars by challenging pupils to produce innovative and exciting designs in video games, graphic and fashion design categories.
Winners will be invited to take part in a weekend design masterclass at the Bluecoat in May 2010, and the very best work will be exhibited and rewarded at a special Awards Ceremony during Liverpool Design Festival 2010.
Partner events included the Liverpool Design Symposium 2009, produced by Uniform, Smiling Wolf, Black&Ginger in association with the DBA and D&AD. The headline speaker was Michael Wolff of Michael Wolff & Company, recognised globally as a leader in thinking on brands, courtesy of D&AD as part of the President’s Lecture Series. Another of the day’s key speakers was Andy Chambers, co-founder of Digit, one of the UK’s longest established digital design companies. The DBA also ran a session on Effective Design in the Public Sector led by Peter Mills, Consulting Director at TheTeam. Aspiring creatives and students of design and advertising were also offered a series of education-related sessions run by D&AD, whilst the DBA ran a session for students on designing effectively, delivered by Ian Thompson of Thompson Design Partners.
As part of an ever evolving Design Trail we also supported Manchester Jewellers Network’s stunning exhibition, ‘Articles of Hope, Adornments for Justice’ hosted by the Met Quarter, offering a new body of work inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Bluecoat Display Centre’s exhibition of the work of internationally recognised ceramicist Magdalene Odundo, world leading structural engineers Atelier One's celebration of 20 years of their practice with a stunning photographic exhibition with work by Magnum photographer Peter Marlow, and an exhibition at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall of work by current Liverpool Hope University design students.
Graphic designer and artist John Ford was commissioned by HOST on Hope Street to create a stunning new window especially for the Festival and graphic designer and photographer Michael Barooah exhibited his work at Coffee Union on Bold Street.
We hope you'll agree that all of the above was a pretty good start for the first year of the Festival. So let's move on to 2010 and don't forget to keep in touch with us about any events and shows you're doing during November and December 2010 because we'd love to see them included in an all new programme...
