Design Talks Institute Launches Calgary’s First Design Week

Passionate about design, architecture and art? Meet some of the city’s most talented designers, architects and city builders at Calgary’s first-ever Design Week.

Running from August 7 to 9, the festival highlights Calgary’s design and creative industries through a variety of art exhibitions, speaker sessions, pop-up events and more.

Design Week is held by the non-profit organization Design Talks Institute (d.talks), which puts on design-related events for the public throughout the year. Since 2013, d.talks has been educating Calgarians about architecture and design through engaging workshops, seminars, exhibitions and more. The organization created Design Week as a way to connect skilled designers across the city and showcase the talents of Calgary’s creative sectors.

“We’ve been experimenting with new ways to engage not only the public in the conversation of design, but to start to build community across the design sector more broadly. Part of our overall strategy in doing that is creating a design week, which invites the public into the everyday world of designers here in our city,” says d.talks managing director and co-founder Shannon Lanigan.

The theme of Design Week’s inaugural festival is “In Plain Sight,” which focuses on the visible and invisible aspects of design. Attendees will learn how design integrates into everything in our daily lives from architecture and urban planning, to fashion and movies.

“It’s like when you might look at something initially and think one thing. But then, you learn about how it works or why it was designed that way and then you see it in a new way that you’ve never seen before,” says Lanigan.

Design Week is held in partnership with local organizations like the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), Contemporary Calgary, the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL) and more. Guests can attend events like CMLC’s architectural tour of the newly expanded BMO Centre or an exhibition about urban landscapes curated by students from SAPL. There will also be sessions with famous designers like Stuart Trevor, founder of the AllSaints clothing brand, and Natalie Papageorgiadis, a Bridgerton set designer.

“Our city is progressing and changing and the appetite for this type of arts programming is there,” says Lanigan. “The response from our communities alone from when we launched our Design Week programs just shows that this is something that people are wanting.”

Tickets to Design Week events are available at designweekcalgary.com

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