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Inclusion is a deed – this opening show does not ask who you are, but shows that every person deserves to be seen, deserves dignity and equal treatment. The 20th anniversary of Tallinn Design Festival opens with a cultural-existential bang, where the possibility of being human takes on a new form on stage.

Led by Reet Aus, a collective consisting of Päär Pärenson aka J.O.C, Viljandi Culture Academy students and a surprise performer takes to the stage to bring the audience a spectacle that is not afraid to ask: Who are we when we are being watched? Who are we when we are not seen?

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Tallinn Design Festival's international conference returns as part of the main program. The theme this year carries the title of "Celebrating Diversity, Creating Equality".

The conference aims to explore the principles and practices of inclusive design, bringing together a diverse range of speakers and experts from around the world. The event will feature keynote addresses, panel discussions, and presentations on various aspects of inclusive design.

Keynote speakers include Patricia Moore from the USA, Rama Gheerawo from the UK, Jannicke Hølen & Knut Bang from Norway, Anders Berggreen from Denmark, and Jakob Rosin & Teet Kallaste from Estonia, who will share their insights and experiences in promoting universal design.

Ilona Gurjanova will provide an introduction, setting the stage for the day's discussions. Following this, representatives from Estonia, Belgium, Norway, Italy, and Poland will share their perspectives on inclusive design and its impact on different communities.

The conference will also include a panel discussion featuring Pete Kercher and other experts, providing a platform for in-depth conversations on the challenges and opportunities in implementing Design For All principles across various domains.

Join us for a day of learning, inspiration, and collaboration as we work towards creating environments that are accessible and beneficial to all individuals, regardless of their abilities or backgrounds.

SCHEDULE

09.45 Arrivals & coffee

10.00 Introduction
Ilona Gurjanova (EST)
Founder and Main Organiser of the Tallinn Design Festival / President of Estonian Association of Designers

10.10 Welcome
Xenia Joost
Estonian Ministry of Culture / Designer

10.15 Quality of Life: The Global Design Agenda
Dr Patricia Moore (USA)

10.45 Design for All: Your Love Letter to the World
Rama Gheerawo (UK)

11.15 Inclusive Design the Nor Way
Jannicke Hølen & Knut Bang (NOR)

11.35 Modern rollator walkers' case
Anders Berggreen (DEN)

11.55 Sensing the Future: Designing with Every Body and Every Sense
Jasmien Herssens (BEL)

12.15 Inclusive Spaces for HoReCa Interiors, a new necessary paradigm
Antonio D. De Antonis (ITA)

12.35 Panel (moderator Pete Kercher)

13.00 Lunch

13.45 “From Accessory to Necessity: AI and the New Era of Assistive Tech” - How AI-powered tools are going beyond convenience to become life-changing essentials.
Jakob Rosin (EST)

14.05 Design for Adaptive Play
Cameron Sinclair (USA/UK)

14.25 Cultivating Inclusion: Empowering NGOs and Public Institutions in Fostering Children's Well-being by Implementing the Concept of the Superhero Sensory Garden
Beata Fabisiak (POL)

14.45 Information space design for people with hearing loss
Teet Kallaste (EST)

15.05 Knotting New Pathways in Beginning Design Education
Jonathan W. Williams (USA)

15.25 Panel (moderator Pete Kercher)

16.00 End of conference

The event will take place in English.

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It's Tallinn Design Festival anniversary, and of course there has to be a party – a DesignNIGHTParty!

Though they have performed only rarely in recent years, I Wear* Experiment remain as energetic and epic as ever. For Autumn Jazz, they take to the Tallinn Design Festival’s stage with an exclusive, ambitious programme, unveiling never-before-heard songs and premiering their new single Forest Fire.

The concert is conceived in two parts, beginning as an acoustic spectacle – where the trio is joined by the inviting sounds of backing vocals, viola da gamba, harp, and double bass – and building into a full-throttle electronic blaze.

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May we please have your attention! The program welcomes once again "the lost son" - a former program favorite Design Auction!

The auction is an entertaining meeting place for design lovers, where you can buy cool things while supporting charity and Estonian design.

The auction's collection is made up of unique products, including fashion, product, jewellery, and furniture design, as well as art. As a tribute to legends, items associated with Yrjö Kukkapuro and Maile Grünberg will also be featured.

Behind every creation is a designer and a unique story, some of which you can hear from the designers themselves at the auction!

Our evening host: Mart Sander!

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Ready... set... go! 

Flash talk format PechaKucha returns to Tallinn Design Festival program for a reason. PechaKucha (Japanese for “chit chat”) with its compact format – 20 slides x 20 seconds for presenting your idea – forces the person on stage to think out of the standard presentation’s framework, thus guaranteeing freshness. 

PechaKucha was developed in 2003 by designers from the Tokyo-based architecture firm Klein&Dytham as a way of sharing ideas and creations with others. PechaKucha is a global fenomenon used by more than four million people.

You will see and hear:

▶︎ Maali Roomet-Allese
▶︎ Aljona Galazan
▶︎ Alagan Mahalingam
▶︎ Bethany Halbreich
▶︎ Charis
▶︎ Maria Rojko Nisu
▶︎ Darren Yeo
▶︎ Maria Clara Valencia Carmna
▶︎ Simone De Vivo Bernardi
and others

The contact of PechaKucha Night Tallinn is Sandra Luks.

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Join design pioneers Patricia Moore and Rama Gheerawo to discover a new leadership model for everyone in this special free masterclass, led by two of the most compassionate and influential voices in design today.

Do you feel excluded from leadership conversations? Too quiet? Too loud? Too "creative"? Too young? Too old? This is the antidote.What if leadership wasn't about fighting for a corner office, but a creative mindset to enable your life? A new way to approach your work, your community, your humanity and your personal growth?

Together, Pattie and Rama will guide you through a personal transformation. This is more than a professional development session; it’s about unlocking your innate ability to influence, create change, and lead with empathy in every aspect of your life.

Ever been told you’re “not leadership material”? This workshop is for you.

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“AFTER FIRE AFTERLIFE” brings together for the first time sculptures from the past twenty-five years of the international Kohila Symposium in one space.

The exhibition is open 29.09 – 19.10.

Since its inception in 2001, the symposium has created a living archive that tells stories of transformation, memory, the past, the future, and how clay as a material connects people. After more than two decades, many of these works are seeing the light of day once again. The sculptures in the exhibition are not treated as isolated objects but are arranged into organic groupings that link narratives from different years into a cohesive whole. 

The exhibition “AFTER FIRE AFTERLIFE” can be seen as an ecosystem where even the smallest sculpture can find new meaning alongside a larger one. The sculptures emerge as distinct characters, each with its own story, character, and spirit, creating a dialogue between fire, time, and the creator.

The aim of “AFTER FIRE AFTERLIFE” is to present, on a large and thorough scale in the Krull Quarter, the history of Estonian wood-fired ceramics, international collaboration, and the profound significance of ceramics. Alongside the main exhibition, several curator-led tours will take place over two weeks, different firing techniques will be introduced, workshops will be held, and there will also be a pop-up sale of small works from the Symposium.

Curator Cristopher Siniväli

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The works of the Haapsalu Graphic Design Festival's international graphics design exhibition are inspired by the political, economic and ecological situation of the world and the human relations between us and around us. Authors from different schools of thought and age spectrums from around the world are represented.  

The topic PARADOX is dissected on a wide scale, from political messages to the presentation of personal opinion. Various design graphics techniques and techniques are used. 

#HGDF

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Join the Krulli Quarter tours on Friday and Saturday!

AS Franz Krull was a metalworking and engineering company founded in 1865 in Narva by Franz Krull, a coppersmith, during the Russian Empire and the first Estonian Republic. In 1875, AS Franz Krull moved to Tallinn, where it developed over time into one of Estonia's largest and most modern machine-building companies.

Specifically in Kopli, one of Tallinn's oldest large factories, the Krull factory, opened its doors 110 years ago. This and much more will be spoken about on the tour! 

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K!dzone is a free creative area for both children and the young at heart, where you can furnish, build and craft. Located next to the café, the area is open daily during exhibition opening hours.

From Tuesday to Sunday, three-hour walk-in workshops are led by young designers, offering the chance to create various objects from recycled materials. Everyone can design, and anything can be used – from leather scraps to old bike tires. No registration is needed.

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Making its entry to Tallinn Design Festival: project “Transferring UPMADE to Kenya”.

The EKA carried out the project in cooperation with the SEI Tallinn Centre and Moi University.

Funded by the Estonian Ministry of Climate through international climate cooperation funds, Erasmus+ supported student mobilities.

EKA Circular Design: Eva Liis Lidenburg, Kaisa Ilves, Lisandra Türkson, Maria Rojiko Nisu, Mariann Hendrikson, Marit Saare, Mart Maide, Marta Konovalov, Merily Mikiver.

Supervisors: Reet Aus, Maria Pukk, Lisandra Türkson.

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Tallinn Design House presents a panel discussion at Disainiöö titled “Design that Cares for the Wearer and the Environment.” The conversation focuses on knitwear design, sustainability, and mindful garment care and storage – topics that resonate with those who value quality, responsible consumption, and timeless style.

Sharing their experiences are Anni Ilves, Head Designer at Alpaka; Johanna Paiste, Founder and Designer of Ärni Blum; and Margot Vaaderpass, Founder and Designer of WOH Studio.

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“Krulli Chapel” is an installation space, a memorial to the industrial revolution. A resting place for the past, where large machines whose time is coming to an end are "buried," commemorating heavy iron. The Krulli Quarter is awakening to new life: innovation is taking over, while industry iron is being returned to the ground. The new existence of the ground can only come hand in hand with newness, and, considering the future, it is better to arrange a marriage of convenience between resources and their use.

The creators of “Krulli Chapel” are Indrek Leht and Andri Luup, known from the “Future Cemetery" project, who this time are interpreting the cemetery “of the past” in a figurative sense. Raoul Kurvitz' new monumental work “Metamasin” will also be exhibited in the chapel garden.

Authors’ comment:
When we talk about the 15-minute city, where everything you need is within reach, then we should also be able to be born, baptized, educated, married, and even buried within 15 minutes. A temple, an urn wall, why not a tower or a hall church or a modern place of worship also belongs to the 15-minute city. Because without a vertical outlook, human life is just a horizontal small talk.

This sort of place is perhaps even more important than all the other spaces in this quarter. If the main purpose of the 15-minute city is convenience, an escape to a bakery or to a daily errand or into self-improvement in the form of exercise or work, then the environment must also include a truly "uncomfortable" space that does not rush, but forces us to ask fundamental questions and acts as a mirror. A person sitting face to face with the Entirety and themselves – this is essential, and it is our desire to draw attention to the necessity of this space.

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To mark the anniversary of Tallinn Design Festival, a mirage-like art project Klub Silencio will be opened, featuring artists, designers, and students from EKA, TalTech, and Tartu Art School. The project is produced with the Stalker Museum and pays tribute to David Lynch and his Lynchian world. Appropriate music and moving images are not missing either.

Raoul Kurvitz, Lauri Lest, Raul Keller, Tarmo Luisk, Leonardo Meigas, Aleksandr Zedeljov, Kincső Keglevich and others will participate. The Naive Genius pop-up bar will open during the evening hours. Special guests are expected at Friday's avant-garde cabaret. Who knows, perhaps the next Silencio “secret club” will pop up, for example, in Ida-Virumaa.