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Will you join us to Design Brighton?

So let’s deal with the first burning question – what is Design Brighton? In truth it will be what we collectively make it.

The prosaic answer is a week celebrating design, focused on the built environment and public realm, but our ambitions are great. We see the opportunity to bring together all those great initiatives and ideas which have been simmering away in our city. All those questions we have asked ourselves about our city, our place in the city and our city’s place.

We want Design Brighton to represent us all and to tell a story about Brighton and its greater regions, about how we do things differently, because of context, and why that is a good thing.

We care about creating a thriving circular economy where greater opportunity is generated locally and where talent is nurtured locally.

Collaboration between commercial and academic design talent is a key component of the Design Brighton vision and we have to encourage those in school to believe they can find a home for their ambitions within the design sector and in our city.

Our ambitions are great. So Design Brighton will be a prism through which we will collectively shout (or whisper if we choose) about our skills, our thoughts, our collaborations to a global audience.

We can shout about our outreach to universities across the globe, about our innovations with leading brands. About the agility of our small nimble businesses which team up to make great effect.

This can be a design week to rival any other but made different by context, by approach.

When we started talking about Design Brighton everyone said – why isn’t this already a thing? In truth many people have had the idea, most share the passion and a few have devoted time and effort to ignite the spark of something. Today John Cowell and Sophie Law-Smith of Stickland Wright have dedicated an inordinate amount of time and energy to get this to where it is today. This has created what feels like an unstoppable momentum which is very exciting indeed.

“ There has never been a better time to promote and celebrate diversity. And we have the best city in which to do this. Architecture and design should be embedded in our city’s culture and this festival is the ideal opportunity to promote the talent we have here on our doorstep. The RIBA is happy to support this”
Paul Zara
RIBA Chair (Sussex Branch)

THE VISION

We could not achieve our vision without the support of our great sponsors and the local community.

Getting involved is easy, if you can imagine it, together we can achieve it. You can sponsor one of our

curated events, you could design your own, showcase your product through open studios, sponsor installations, support round tables or public consultations, explore thought leadership opportunities, network with key individuals and inspire the emerging talent.

Engaging with Brighton communities and the greater region is pivotal to making Design Brighton a success so whatever you want to do we welcome your involvement.

With thanks to partners: Cowell Consulting group, Hotel Property UK, Stokes Group Events, Richard Wolfstrome, University of Brighton, Midnight Communication, Lollipop Print, Healys, Groundsure, RLF, Minton Young, Sam Widdows, RIBA and last but my no means least 23D for their fantastic video.

For more information visit www.designbrighton.org or email [email protected]