For generations Dundee was recognised as the home of jam, jute and journalism, where the messy business of whaling eventually gave way to watchmaking, cash registers and tyres.
Now the City of Discovery is to showcase the latest chapter in its reinvention, as host of a major national festival devoted to contemporary design.
Details of this year’s Dundee Design Festival reveal it will be biggest yet, featuring the work of more than 180 designers from across the country exhibiting together under one roof.
The scale of the new free festival builds on the city’s decade of status as a UNESCO City of Design, work on its £1bn Dundee Waterfront regeneration, the V&A Dundee and the forthcoming transformation of a former gasworks into Eden Project Dundee.
Having grown from a local festival with 35 participants, the new-look national festival will bring together new and existing designs in furniture, interiors, jewellery, homewares, craft, graphic design and fashion, to position itself as Scotland’s first national festival of contemporary design.
Running from 23-29 September, it will include a wide programme of activities, exhibitions and talks at the 10,000 sqm Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc (MSIP).
The MSIP venue has been created on the site of the city’s former Michelin factory which closed in 2020 with the loss of 850 jobs bringing to an end five decades of tyre production in the city.
Since then, around £25 million has been spent developing the MSIP site to create an innovation hub, on-site skills academy and spaces for new businesses in a joint project backed by Michelin, Scottish Enterprise and Dundee City Council.
One of its largest spaces will be transformed to host the festival’s series of activities and exhibits, with organisers saying their commitment to clean energy, reusable materials and restricting the use of virgin materials in its staging will make it one of the world’s most sustainable design festivals.
Under the theme ‘Multiplicity’ the new festival will bring over 50 local designers from the city and 14 design graduates from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design together with well-known names such as Glasgow-based design studio Timorous Beasties for a exhibitions, hands-on events and immersive experiences.
The Festival will also introduce 20 new commissioned bookends created by leading Scottish designers and inspired by the travels and reporting of pioneering female foreign correspondents Bessie Maxwell and Marie Imandt.
Known as the ‘Two Intrepid Ladies’, the pair embarked on an epic tour of the globe from Dundee in 1894 for The Courier and The Weekly News.
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Their reports of the women they met during a year of globetrotting that spanned 26,000 miles of travel saw them become a sensation on their return to Scotland.
Twenty designers have taken inspiration from their collected writings to create their versions of bookends which will be exhibited during the festival.
Other highlights include opportunities for visitors to unlock their inner designer with hands-on activities led by established designers ranging from trying sustainable interior design with Alicia Storie of ADesignStorie and screen printing their own bags and clothing at the Timorous Beasties installation.
Part of the festival brings four of Scotland’s leading design studios together under the banner ‘Materialise’, which will offer a series of large scale installations that invite festival visitors to see Scottish design up close, with performances and opportunities to play with colour and fabric.
It includes an immersive maze-like space created by Timorous Beasties using their vibrant wallpaper designs, and an enchanted knitted forest made by Dundee knitwear specialist Donna Wilson.
While ‘Framework’ will feature 70 designs selected from an open call for designers across Scotland. It will include exhibits as diverse as neurodivergent aircraft seating design to insect inspired jewellery.
There are also exhibition areas devoted to marking Dundee’s decade as a UNESCO City of Design which celebrates its international connections with other cities, and one which will spotlight local designers.
Alongside will be talks and performances: Gabriella Marcella's 'Challenging Uniformity' merges play and performance with a colourful exploration of uniform design.
Dundee Design Festival’s Creative Director Dr Stacey Hunter said: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a snapshot of the ingenuity, talent and creative expression that underpins Scotland’s design community.
“Hosting the entire festival under one roof allows us to create a series of immersive experiences of design.”
The festival’s Executive Director Annie Marrs added: “Hosting Scotland’s biggest design event is a fitting way to celebrate Dundee’s 10th anniversary as the UK’s only UNESCO City of Design.
“The scale and ambition has built on the work of previous festivals and I’m excited to see Dundee’s design talent showcased alongside international design and work from across Scotland.”
Details of the programme for the festival, which runs from 23 to 29 September are available at dundeedesignfestival.com
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