This eight-day celebration highlights San Francisco as the world’s most influential design center, offering visitors a rare opportunity to engage with the region's thriving design industry. Dynamic change is creating a community of purpose among Bay Area creatives and tech entrepreneurs, with collaborations on the rise between digital professionals, craft-makers, design studios, and artists. 

Over 350 events across the San Francisco Bay Area, from Silicon Valley to San Francisco, will be promoting dynamic design-led ideas from more than 60 partners.

“San Francisco is the innovation capital of the world ,” says Dawn Zidonis, executive director, San Francisco Design Week. "Powerful ideas have taken root from the region's nimble start-ups to become global phenomena, affecting the daily lives of billions of people across the world. Designers are often key participants, either as entrepreneurial partners, or as problem-solvers, bringing high value to a business concept. San Francisco Design Week offers a rare window into the future."

This year’s program continues to reflect the diversity of design disciplines practiced across the Bay Area. A major part of Design Week is the Design Hub, a central location which houses a broad range of activities, including talks, installations, and exhibitions, followed by a week-long series of events hosted across the city at design studios and other local venues, such as museums, shops, restaurants, and pop-up locations.

Engage, and interact with design products from leading brands and independent makers as you enjoy panoramic views of the San Francisco Bay. The exhibition space is free and open to the public throughout the day.

The 5,000 sq. ft. Design Hub exhibition showcase reaches thousands of designers across multiple disciplines, from interior to industrial, VR to product, AI to graphic and more.

San Francisco Design Week is a community event organized by AIGA San Francisco, the professional association for design in partnership with industry organizations IDSA, Center for Architecture and AIA SF, SFFAMA, and IXDA.

THE DESIGN HUB HIGHLIGHTS:

SFDW 2019 Design Awards

Following the success of last year's SFDW Design Awards, the international design competition returns, seeking to encourage thought leadership by supporting designers whose works can contribute towards a positive future for society. The Design Awards celebrates and recognizes exemplary work in all fields of design, including architecture, interior design, industrial design, communication design, and user experience design. The awards celebrate "Where Innovation Meets Social Responsibility".

Eighteen winning projects will be selected by a jury comprised of distinguished professionals. This year's judges include:

• John Maeda, Global Head, Computational Design and Inclusion, Automattic, Maeda Studio
• Katie Dill, VP of Design, Lyft
• Eche Martinez, Founder/Interior Designer, Eche
• Diane Dorrans Saeks, Interior Design, Author
• Shawn McLean-Bergel, Founder, Interior Design/Workplace Design, McLean-Bergel
• August de los Reyes, Director of User Experience, Google
• Michelle Hatton, Design Director/Senior Associate, Gensler
• Tung Chiang, Creative Lead, Studio Director, Heath Ceramics
• Tiffany Chu, Co-Founder, Remix
• Jonah Becker, VP of Design Fitbit
• Ana Arriola, General Manager and Partner Design Director, Microsoft

Last year, overseas applicants included Italy, China, USA, United Emirates and Japan. Winning entries will be displayed during the SF Design Week Opening Night Gala, as well as inclusion in the permanent online showcase for honorees.

2019 CommUNITY Theme Silent Auction
Leading San Francisco and acclaimed international designers will celebrate the 2019 CommUNITY theme by showcasing original artifacts they have produced especially for the event—posters, typeface, product, sculpture, motion graphic or artwork–– a response to the concept of “communicating unity.”

The original works will be sold in a silent auction during the opening night party with proceeds benefiting San Francisco Design Week (SFDW) enabling its mission to bring together the local Bay Area and international design community. The 2019 theme is the result of a collaboration with MUCHO.

“CommUNITY” is a public event benefiting San Francisco Design Week. The artifacts and posters on display will be available for purchase in a silent auction at the SFDW Opening Night Gala on June 20 at Pier 27, San Francisco. Bids can be received online at this website as of June 7th: community.sfdw.com including bids during Opening Night. To view all submissions, the link opens from May 28, 2019.

CommUNITY participants include representatives from all over the world, including:

• Pentagram, UK/US
• Kit Hinrichs, US
• Jennifer Morla, US
• Peter Saville, UK
• Vince Frost, Australia
• Stockholm Design Lab, Sweden
• Studio Dumbar,The Netherlands
• Jonathan Barnbrook, UK
• David Carson, US
• Fanette Mellier, France

The exhibition is designed by leading exhibition designer Mitchell Mauk, who will create a sleek display for over 100 artifacts.

2019 Art Exhibitions

Interactive Art, AI, Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality Installations

"Shore" art installation by Swiss Designer Adrien Rovero: the designer unveils the installation which features 120 “Dolos” modules that are playful inflatable two-sided seats. Together they create a common gathering space for conversation and community. The artist partnered with PCH and SFDW on this venture.

CITY & BAY AREA VENUES:

"Dynamic Minds" Series
Led by best-selling author and leading interior design blogger Diane Dorrans Saeks, this year's expanded interior designer program follows on the great success of last year's program.

The program offers a rare opportunity to tour top architecture and interior design studios, meet with designers and architects one-on-one, as well as attend talks and seminars led by Dorrans Saeks, including visits to top offices such as: Aidlin Darling, BAMO, BCJ, De Sousa Hughes, Ken Fulk, Stanley Saitowitz, and ODADA.

 --“Inside the Creative World of Ken Fulk” featuring an inspiring visit to Ken Fulk's new St. Joseph’s Arts Society, a former historic church, and the Carpenter's Workshop with a reception to follow.

--"Inside the Studio"—Visits to Saitowitz, Jonathan Browning and The Wiseman Group; ODADA, BCJ and Modernism gallery / Aidlin Darling architects; Geoff de Sousa studio and showroom of de Sousa Hughes, and BAMO.

–Designer John Maeda's talk, "How to Speak Machine" explores new thoughts on how to demystify the nature of computation and its underlying impact on digital products made today, including the 2019 Design In Tech Report.

--Design heroine Gere Kavanaugh's book event, "A Colorful Life" Meet designer Gere Kavanaugh, and her co-authors, Louise Sandhaus and Kat Catmur, during a lively conversation and booksigning. Gere Kavanaugh is an irrepressible talent who epitomized the craft and folk vibe of the ’60s and ’70s California design scene and she remains a larger-than-life personality today.

– Designing with Machine Learning: This Stanford d.school workshop will explore the intersection of machine learning and design in a lower resolution and experiential way. An essential workshop if the following apply to you: Do you tune out when people mention machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other big words that reference emerging technologies? Do you want to understand what they are and how they might support your work and impact society? Are you “not a tech person”?

Design Sites Map
This year, SFDW's new city map identifies top lifestyle hot spots favored by design aficionados, including public art, retail, coffee shops, restaurants, pop-ups and exhibits around town.

About SF Design Week

The Future Started Here

Launched in 2006, San Francisco Design Week (SFDW) is an essential week-long regional festival that showcases the unique intersection of ideas, design, business &entrepreneurism that makes the Bay Area the birthplace of the future.
 
Now a global phenomenon, San Francisco’s international success is born from an historically free-spirited entrepreneurialism, coupled with the imaginative vision of contemporary design and state-of-the-art technology. Pioneers of new ways of looking at the world, nimble Bay Area start-ups are now among the world’s most influential design-led companies, producing products, services and experiences that profoundly influence the daily lives of billions of people globally.

Through approximately 350 events, SFDW celebrates this spirit of newness by providing approximately 45,000 attendees unique access to exhibitions and conversations with the designers who are shaping the future — from architecture to fashion, product design to digital services, and everything in between. 
 
San Francisco Design Week is a community event led by a team of advisors and a core committee which represents the diversity of design disciplines in the Bay Area. SFDW is organized by AIGA San Francisco, the professional association for design in partnership with IDSA, Center for Architecture  and AIA SF, SFFAMA, SEGD, SDN, IXDA, local consulates, design universities, neighborhood associations and museums. 

For more information PRESS KIT

2019 San Francisco Design Week CommUNITY Campaign by Mucho.

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