Want to meet the next generation of design talent? Get tickets for New Designers

For nearly four decades, New Designers has put on a yearly event to celebrate the work of design graduates across the country. It’s a chance for new talent and graduates in the design world to come together at the Business Design Centre in London to show off their skills, meet others in the industry, explore potential employment opportunities, and receive some well-earned celebration for their work.

The event brings together a whopping 3,000 design graduates every year from over 100 university courses. Divided across two weeks, New Designers focuses its first week (26–29 June) on spotlighting fashion and costume, contemporary design crafts, textiles, ceramics, glass and jewellery, and precious metalwork. The second (3–6 July 2024) showcases furniture, product design, industrial and spatial design, graphic design, illustration and animation, motion art, digital art, and game design – which is a new addition to the roster for 2024.

So what sort of work can you expect to encounter at New Designers? Graphic design graduate Fabiana Oliveira is displaying packaging for an imagined collectable chocolate brand, Saudade, that plays on the nostalgia of childhood with colourful boxes that stack like Russian dolls. “The word Saudade is a Portuguese word that could be translated to nostalgia,” says Fabiana. “This project was inspired by a personal childhood memory of visiting a coffee shop which had a vending machine that allocated you a number that corresponded to a random chocolate.” The clever design, complete with cut out windows, is intended to reflect different parts of the coffee shop building from Fabiana’s memories.

Elsewhere, illustration graduate Jess Day will showcase a children’s book that aims to help young people navigate feelings and behaviours associated with anxiety. Through short stories and calming illustrations Jess hopes to provide a useful tool for parent and child. “Childhood anxiety is very real, and my aim is to provide parents and children with a platform to initiate dialogues about coping mechanisms and mental well-being – something I and many others did not have as children,” says Jess.

Meanwhile, graphic communication graduate Ilinca Anastasiu has created a tactile visual universe to accompany Chase Atlantic’s album Beauty in Death. The project intends to bring attention to the fact that “tangible music is becoming increasingly rare in today’s technologically advanced world,” says Ilinca.

But New Designers isn’t just aimed at emerging talent, far from it; it’s a great event for anyone in the design sector. For trade visitors, the melting pot of talent on show makes it a brilliant event for recruitment – you’ll have the chance to personally discover and maybe even hire the next best design talent! Another of the event’s highlights is ND Selects, which puts design businesses founded in the last three years in the spotlight, focusing on those that are producing particularly creative and innovative work. In this year’s curation you’ll find Iara Talledo Violani’s colourful collage pots, inspired by São Paulo architecture and hyper-pop; the silver jewellery of Jo Boateng, influenced by the Ghanaian arts and crafts of her childhood and 1980s Italian art; and Swyn Anwyl, a furniture designer from rural North Wales whose passion lies in sustainable and regenerative design.

Another core feature of New Designers is the ND Awards. Here, across 30 categories, leading brands and businesses select rising stars, who are judged on how their work contributes and responds to some of today’s most pressing issues, including sustainability, mental wellbeing, and diversity and inclusion in the design world. The ND Awards offer prizes and industry opportunities that aim to help graduates find their feet in the professional world.

Like every year, there will also be a brilliant selection of talks and workshops through ND Educates. Led by designers, industry experts and leading brands, you can find tips on what to expect when entering the industry and lessons about future employment, as well as gaining insight into the latest trends and prominent sector themes. The 2024 programme is curated by Hannah Payne, an alum of New Designers, and will be announced soon. Be sure to stay tuned! You can buy tickets here.