DesignTO 2024

Details

The DesignTO Festival returns January 19-28, 2024!
Celebrate art and design online and in person at venues across Toronto. The festival brings people together to design a better future, one that is more sustainable, just, and joyful.

Going into its 14th year, Canada’s leading and largest annual design festival will see over 100 free exhibitions, installations and events, from artists and designers working in various disciplines. The Festival features bold and ambitious design ideas that respond to the climate crisis and sustainability, technology, ethics and social justice, city building, and more.

Since its founding in 2011, the Festival has been transforming Toronto into a hub for creativity, taking art and design out of the studio and into the urban sphere, and bringing people together to design a better future, one that is more sustainable, just, and joyful. DesignTO celebrates contemporary culture, provides opportunities for emerging talent, and engages the community with exceptional and accessible public programming.

DesignTO is a non-profit arts organization that produces Canada’s largest annual design festival, forming Toronto’s Design Week. It curates exhibitions, presentations and educational programming to increase the public’s knowledge and appreciation of design and its role in creating a sustainable, just and joyful world.

DesignTO Festival Launch Party
Friday, January 19, 2024 | 7-11 PM EST
Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto
Ticketed

The Launch Party is taking over Harbourfront Centre on Toronto’s waterfront this year. It features a one-night-only immersive multimedia installation by Toronto-based elsewhere Collective. Be the first to see ‘Future Matters’, a DesignTO-curated group exhibition in Gallery 235 featuring the work of nine local and international artists and designers.

Selected Projects-
A room is a home, is a playground
A site-specific event championing fun by design, led by Studio Rat and produced by Ace Hotel Toronto. From January 26 through 28, Interspace becomes a playground, quite literally, of wonder.

Art Intelligence: The Near Future of Art in Canada
Features original artworks featuring the next wave of exciting artists such as Hau Pham, Jason Zante, Chico Togni, and many more. Visitors can also experience “PAAS”, Partial’s AI-assisted Art Sommelier, on-site.

Circular Living Lab
Lab’ aims to act as an incubator for circular construction and urban mining in Toronto, supporting innovative designers who are leveraging the cultural and environmental potential of the existing.

DesignTO Talks: Dematerialized
DesignTO’s ninth annual symposium brings together eight multidisciplinary experts to explore the complexities of dematerialization in an increasingly digital world. Speakers cover topics including the future of digital artefacts, the ecological impact of computation, spaces for Indigenous self-determination, walking as an immaterial urban practice, material representation in digital environments, and more.

DesignTO Tours: Space & Sanctuary
This walking tour invites visitors to look closely at three installations on display in the Yonge + St. Clair neighbourhood. With firsthand insight from the artists and designers behind the projects, delve deeper into the installations, their stories and how they came to be.

Future Matters
‘Future Matters’ is a group exhibition featuring the work of nine local and international artists and designers exploring themes related to material expression, innovation, and environmental sustainability.

Lucid Ideas
Showcasing the work of designers from Canada and abroad, ‘Lucid Ideas’ is a group prototype exhibition exploring translucency through concept, material and form.