City projects get bigger and better

Take a look ahead to Dundee’s 2018 design events with the team leading from the front

W e’ve had a busy year here at Team UNESCO, designing projects, making new connections and being part of the amazing network across the globe. We are looking forward to an even busier year ahead, but first our team members share the design events in 2018 they’re especially excited about:

ANDY TRUSCOTT, DESK OFFICER FOR UNESCO CITY OF DESIGN

As part of the Dundee Design Month in May, Pecha Kucha will return once again. The quarterly event is based on a simple quick-fire format – presenters show 20 images, each for 20 seconds with the presenters choosing their own topic. What will be special about this one though is that to celebrate Eventscotland’s Year of Young People, the event will be taken over and run by young people from Dundee.

It will be a unique opportunity to gain an insight into a young person’s perception of the world we live in.

JURAJ CIERNIK WORK EXPERIENCE GRADUATE

I am designing a database that can be used across Dundee. It’s an innovative database which will list all the global contacts in the city and will allow people to search and find networks easily. So, for example, if a dance group in Dundee wanted to visit Helsinki, they would search the database and find contacts for dancers in Helsinki. When finished, the database is going to be a powerful networking tool enabling greater cohesion and cooperation between (but not limited to) industrial, academic and business partners within Dundee and also internationally.

ANNIE MARRS, PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR FOR UNESCO

The Design Parade will be unlike anything we’ve seen in the city before. The project is being delivered as part of Scotland’s Year of Young People, and will feature all 31 international UNESCO Cities of Design. Each participating city has been asked to send an object to Dundee – something which represents design in their city. It could be a heritage object, or something contemporary. It might be physical or we might even get digital objects. Youth groups and organisations across Dundee will then work with artists and designers to create their display for the parade using that city and their special object as inspiration. The parade will weave its way throughthe city centre at the end of May and celebrate Dundee’s global position in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, raising the profile of our sister cities of design.

ANNA DAY, MANAGER FOR UNESCO CITY OF DESIGN

It might be a bit obvious, but I’m really excited about the V&A Dundee opening. I can’t wait to see inside the finished building and tea room and to hear what the first major exhibition will be. I remember some of the first conversations about trying to bring the V&A to Dundee so it’s been a long wait to see it to fruition. I’m also really excited to see the opportunities it brings to the city, how designers and practitioners can use the space and how schools will be involved. It’s going to bring big changes to Dundee and we need, as a city, to accept those and make the most of them.

SION PARKINSON, CURATOR, UNESCO CITY OF DESIGN

I’m excited about the Designer X Factory exhibition that will be taking place in May as part of Dundee Design Month. This is the result of a residency project we started as part of Dundee Design Festival. We partnered up three designers with three Scotland-based manufacturers. The exhibition will take place in an empty high street shop. Dundee Design Festival hopes to do what we achieved with West Ward Works, by helping revitalise empty spaces across the city. In the shop we’ll also be hosting a symposium on the Future of Making which will bring some of the biggest names in design from around the world to Dundee to share practical help and insight into what it means to be a designer in the 21st Century. It is an exciting time for design in Scotland and Dundee is leading the way in facilitating conversations between designers and manufacturers. Some of the designers and manufacturers that have contributed to Dundee’s design events throughout 2017.