Preview: Graphic Design Festival Scotland

Last year’s Graphic Design Festival Scotland – organised by James Gilchrist, Beth Wilson and Toria Donnelly of Glasgow-based design practice, Warriors Studio – saw over 12,000 people attend.

This year’s festival is set to be Scotland’s largest design event, and will focus largely on learning and collaboration, with opportunities to attend workshops with big name consultancies such as Putput and work on live projects with Scottish design studios.

Here are some of the key events to look forward to at the festival.

Talks and panel discussions

New this year, the New Worlds conference and panel discussion will play host to four speakers from consultancies noted for their focus on new technologies and ways of thinking within the design industry.

These consultancies are New York and Amsterdam-based Emblemmatic, The Future Laboratory and Wikihouse, with one more speaker still to be announced.

Live Project

Working with 12 Scottish design studios, students and recent graduates will be given a live brief to work on over the course of two days, competing for the festival’s up-and-coming award.

All of the entrants will be judged by a panel, which will feature Rachael Steven from Creative Review.

Workshops

Visitors can take their pick of 15 workshops over the course of the festival, including one on type design with Grilli Type; another art direction led by Putput and a visual merchandising masterclass with clothing retailer Urban Outfitters.

Exhibitions

A total of three exhibitions will run this year: Putput will be featuring a selection of its hybrid installations-cum-sculptures, while the International Poster Exhibition is set to be twice as large as last year, showcasing 200 posters from all over the world, and Design Displacement is an audio-visual presentation of the four grand themes of the opera: love, jealousy, ambition and revenge.

Graphic Design Festival Scotland takes place in Glasgow from October 17 to 23. For more information, head here.