The city of London is set to shapeshift into a global stage for creativity as the 23rd edition of the London Design Festival starts today. Over nine days from September 13 – 21, 2025, and across 10 design districts, installations, exhibitions, talks and events will place design at the heart of public life. The design festival will bring together emerging and established creatives to respond to this year’s theme: A Softer World. A remarkable breadth of disciplines and ideas will urge Londoners and visitors alike to envision design as not just an aesthetic pursuit, but a ‘soft’ act of care and empathy. “Design is not just about aesthetics. It’s a fundamental driver of innovation, economic growth and societal progress. This year's Festival demonstrates our commitment to supporting the entire design ecosystem, from emerging talent to established brands, all while showcasing London's unparalleled creative energy,” says Ben Evans, Director, London Design Festival, in an official statement.

Among the most anticipated offerings are this year’s Landmark Projects, large-scale public installations that will inject design, innovation and sustainability into the public realm—turning familiar sites into spaces of discovery. Trafalgar Square will host What Nelson Sees by Paul Cocksedge in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture. The sculptural arrangement of intersecting tubes and viewing portals will let visitors, for the first time, see London from Admiral Nelson’s perspective. AI-generated vignettes will visualise the city’s past, present and a speculative future, inviting the audience to reflect on history, technology and urban change.

On the South Bank, British designer Lee Broom’s lighting installation Beacon will illuminate the entrance to the Royal Festival Hall. With a glowing cluster of black lamp posts crowned with recycled glass shades, the sculptural composition draws inspiration from the area’s brutalist architecture and the 1951 Festival of Britain. Beacon, pulsing with light every hour, is designed for longevity and will be repurposed into lighting fixtures after the design event.

In the Brompton Design District, Heal, Home, Hmmm, a sculptural pavilion by Roo Dhissou, recipient of the V&A’s Emerging Designer Award, co-designed with Intervention Architecture, will be built from reclaimed HS2 clay using traditional Punjabi mud-building techniques. With a sound installation and public programming, it will explore access, care and environmental responsibility that fuel built environments. The Design Museum’s More than Human exhibition invites visitors to rethink design’s relationship with the natural world, showcasing over 140 works that encompass traditional and contemporary practices. The Global Design Forum will return to the V&A’s Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre. Curated in partnership with STIR by its curatorial director, Samta Nadeem, the three days of talks will dissect Design At / From The Seams. STIR will also launch ADFF:STIR with a special curtain raiser on September 13, screening Green Over Gray: Emilio Ambasz, followed by a conversation with director Francesca Molteni.

The Shoreditch Design Triangle, returning for its 18th consecutive year, will host three large-scale industry-focused showcases as part of Design London Shoreditch. The new multi-venue event experience will bring together a repertoire of leading global brands, cutting-edge designers and emerging talent in a curated potpourri of installations, brand activations, talks and showcases across the district. Highlights include Self Portrait by Ben Cullen Williams, an immersive exploration of memory, identity and ephemerality through advanced generative AI models and visual storytelling. Stage Left, Letter Pressed by Rosie Reed Gold in partnership with Hart Shoreditch, will feature workshops and masterclasses, offering visitors a hands-on experience of traditional printmaking techniques.

Mint Gallery’s Second Skin, set to take stage in the Mayfair Design District, explores the theme of experimentation with works that challenge perceptions of surface and form. The design exhibition will present furniture design, objects and textiles that reimagine materials and conventional processes, hosting designers such as Dirk Van Der Kooij, Tellurico Design Studio and Daniel Stefanita. At the William Morris Design Line, the Biofab Fair by Biofabricate will spotlight pioneering biomaterials—allowing visitors to see, feel and learn about them—and regenerative design, showcasing possibilities of a future where biology, nature and design are harnessed to yield more sustainable ways of living.

Bankside, a place of rich industrial heritage and one of London’s most visited districts, will return with a diverse programme interweaving food, craft and material innovation. In The Flavour Library by One Bite Design Studio, visitors will embark on a multisensory journey where taste, memory and design converge. Each encounter with flavour will be connected to the experience of a place, leading to a flavour map of the city. Nearby, Collaborative at County Hall Pottery will embrace community participation, with ceramic artists such as Joe Hartley, Carla Wright and Fran Fossi co-creating shared narratives from clay with creatives including architects, woodworkers, musicians and visual artists. Oxo Tower Wharf will come alive with open studios, exhibitions, demos and workshops for the craft-loving crowd. This year also marks a major shift as Material Matters relocates from its Oxo Tower home to a new venue—the iconic Space House in Covent Garden—expanding its offering of installations, talks and displays focused on sustainability and circular design.

In the Chelsea Design District, ArtEvol 2025: Voices from the Undefined by the London Art Collective challenges rigid categories, celebrating artistic movement in a state of flux and foregrounding voices often excluded from mainstream discourses. Also in the district, Harvest Moon by The New Craftmaker responds to seasonal cycles through traditional making techniques. The exhibition will present a tactile reflection on craft’s enduring connection to nature through lighting and an autumnal collection of sculptural and functional pieces. Further east, in Dalston to Stokey, Morrama’s From the Ground Up will examine sustainable design through the lens of local production, showcasing objects and processes rooted in community and material responsibility. The presented work aims to rethink materials and practice, envisioning more thoughtful products and systems.

As London gears up for the London Design Festival 2025, the city evolves into a living gallery, with its streets, squares and cultural institutions becoming backdrops for creativity and dialogue. From monumental public installations to intimate district tours, the 2025 edition approaches with a promise to engage, inspire and challenge notions around design and its role in shaping the future of A Softer World.