National Gallery of Victoria Link to the National Gallery's website
Creative Victoria Logo Link to the Creative Victoria website
National Gallery of Victoria Link to the National Gallery's website
Creative Victoria Logo Link to the Creative Victoria website
Melbourne
Design Week
Ace Salama, “Porcelain Gloop Croissant”, 2023
 
Melbourne Design Week (MDW) is an annual 11-day program of talks, tours, exhibitions and workshops that celebrate and interrogate design through its varied disciplines, including: communication design, industrial design, service design, gaming, architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, fashion, craft and functional art. MDW is an opportunity for people within these disciplines — including designers, educators, thinkers and businesses — to come together to share ideas, show and sell new work and consider how design can be used as a force for good in an increasingly complex and precarious world.​​​​​​​

About

MDW is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and delivered by the NGV. The program is built on the enthusiastic engagement and participation of the design sector and the public. Since 2017 the program has grown in scope and scale from just under 100 programs in 2017 to over 350 in 2023. Over 70,000 people attended the 2023 festival making it Australia’s leading and largest design event. The curation of the program is led by the NGV Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture team.

Melbourne Design Week returns in 2024 from May 23 – June 2. The Melbourne Design Fair will be held from May 23 – 26 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The program is curated into two streams. There is a stream of local and international exhibitions and presentations organised by the National Gallery of Victoria, which includes the Melbourne Art Book Fair and the Melbourne Design Fair. There is also the satellite program of events and exhibitions organised by the design community. The satellite program makes up approximately 90 per cent of the program with events held at ateliers, studios, retail spaces, universities, galleries, gardens and public spaces throughout Melbourne and regional Victoria. Participation in the satellite program is via an expression-of-interest.