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The international conference “Future of Product Design” brings together international thinkers and practitioners in Tallinn to discuss how rapid technological change, the growing role of artificial intelligence, material innovation and sustainability requirements are shaping the next stages of product design.

As the world becomes increasingly complex, designers are challenged to navigate this complexity, use new tools intelligently and create solutions that are responsible, meaningful and genuinely needed.

Keynote speakers include Tom Lloyd from the United Kingdom, Richard Hall from the United Kingdom, Raffaella Mangiarotti from Italy, Jean Louis Frechin from France, Jonas Pettersson from Sweden and Jaume Domenech from Germany.

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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. In addition to Estonia, several international designers and artists will also participate, including those from Finland, Norway, Denmark, England, the USA, and Mexico. 

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

As a tribute to legends, items associated with Yrjö Kukkapuro and Maile Grünberg will also be featured.

Musical entertainment will be provided by Inga & Leslie da Bass! 

The evening will be hosted by Mart Sander! 

Wine will be provided by bestwine!

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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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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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“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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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 Carmona
▶︎ Simone De Vivo Bernardi
▶︎ Mario Ferrarini
▶︎ Amber Bruzzi
▶︎ Nicolas Belayew
▶︎ Viktória Pere

The contact of PechaKucha Night Tallinn is Sandra Luks.

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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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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.