Better Bankside Business Improvement District (BID) has announced its line-up for London Design Festival 2023 including the launch of a new Emerging Talent Collective which celebrates young talent.

The Collective consists of 12 young people who are pioneering new ideas in design including the world’s first variable-gradient colour font and interactive visuals that highlight and raise awareness of the movement of micro-plastics in the ocean.

The students and alumni come from institutions across London including London College of Communication (LCC), part of University of the Arts London, and have been supported by Better Bankside to ensure their work is showcased on a wider stage as part of the wider cross-city design festival.

As well as the Collective initiative, which will include a pop-up exhibition, events and workshops, Bankside Design District will host a range of installations, talks and events from Sat 16th September – Sunday 24 September, including:

Chair of virtue at Borough Yards (16-24 Sept)
An exhibition featuring a selection of 1:1 scale sculptural chair prototypes from 12 London local emerging and established makers with each piece being surrounded by loose assembly of material tracing the process and inspiration behind the work.

Isola Design at Bargehouse (16-24 Sept)
Isola brings to the London Design Festival its community of independent designers and design studios with the exhibition ‘Nothing Happens if Nothing Happens’. Focusing on using regenerative resources and repurposing waste materials in an effort to bring the spotlight on a circular design approach.

Manyone London at their London Studio (21 Sept)
Two talks about new frontiers facing design practice today. The first is ‘Fun as a platform for learning’ and the second tackles ‘Neurodivergence by Design – how do we include everyone in design practice?’

Material Matters at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf (16-24 Sept)
After a hugely successful debut last year, Material Matters returns. The fair features world-class brands, manufacturers, designers and makers, an unmissable talks programme and installations focused on celebrating the importance of materials in design and architecture – and why material intelligence is so important to our collective futures.

Simone Brewster at Sea Containers (19 September)
For the 2023 London Design Festival, Sea Containers London has teamed up with NOW Gallery (Greenwich Peninsula) and Uber Boat by Thames Clippers for an evening with Simone Brewster, one of the leading voices in contemporary design. The evening will include a curator-led tour, in-conversation event and reception.

TDO – Walking tour of the Low Line (20 Sept)
Architects TDO will take guests on a guided tour of three railway arches in Southwark that they have sensitively retrofitted to illustrate best practice in regenerating redundant railway infrastructure. Led by an architect and developer, the tour includes TDO’s own studio, Ewer Street and Redcross Way.

Marina Garlo at The Hilton Bankside (16-24 Sept)
The hotel will be installing one of the designer’s debut pieces, the GARLO I Chaise Longue, in the hotel’s lobby throughout the festival for guests and visitors to experience. The limited-edition, interactive sculpture is inspired by the stars and aims to create a connection between the viewer and an existence that is usually light-years away.

The Tyre Collective at Bargehouse (16-24 Sept)
The Tyre Collective is developing the first on-vehicle device to capture tyre wear and upcycling this waste stream. As part of the Terra Carta Design Lab, this exhibition brings designers, material scientists, and chemical engineers together to create exciting applications, transforming this pollution into products.

This is Bankside: across Bankside (16-24 Sept)
26 colourful artistic bricks celebrate the history, culture, hidden gems and attractions of Bankside in an innovative new placemaking and digital campaign that celebrates the neighbourhood as London’s Other Side. Pick up a map, follow the trail and look out for some playful design installations along the way.

Emerging Talent Collective (21 and 23 Sept) – Arch 23, Southwark St
This year, Bankside will also host its Emerging Talent Collective, with students and alumni from London institutions hosting a pop-up exhibition on 23 September at Arch, as well as a programme of events and workshops based around their final projects. Don’t miss our talk on the future of AI (21 Sept), or learn more about the Foldit font (21 Sept), or even explore your creative side with our raffia workshop (23 Sept.

MYO (19-22 Sept) – Red Cross Way, Bankside
MYO is hosting workshops to unleash everyone’s creative side including a Boob pottery workshop, Terracotta planters workshop, Watercolour painting for beginners, Painted ceramics workshop, Lino print your own tote bag and tea towel and Lino printing prints.

London Design Festival celebrates design on a global scale and highlights the talented creatives, designers and makers that thrive in the city. Bankside is one of London’s most creative and cultural districts and Bankside Design District will encompass east to west along the Thames from Borough Market to Oxo Tower Wharf, reaching south down to Borough and Southwark.

Nicole Gordon, CEO of Better Bankside said:
“As one of the most creative and cultural neighbourhoods in London, we are delighted to present another packed line-up for London Design Festival.

“Throughout history, Bankside has been seen as London’s Other Side – a place for free-thinkers and pioneers, and so we are especially excited to be launching our Emerging Talent Collective. For some of the students, it will be the first time their work has been showcased in a public space and it was important that we were able to provide that platform.

“We hope everyone will enjoy exploring our Bankside Design District and we look forward to being part of the Festival once again.”

Kat Wesley, Strategic Partnerships Manager at London College of Communication said:

“Our students are at the forefront of design innovation, pushing new boundaries that challenge the status quo. Collaborating with London Design Festival and Better Bankside offers a platform for LCC’s emerging designers to showcase their talent in one of London’s most creative and cultural districts, giving them the spotlight that they deserve”

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.