Birmingham Design Festival returns with a focus on process

The design festival is back this June with a line up of over 80 speakers across three days, including Annie Atkins, Sesame Workshop and Christopher Doyle

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Now in its sixth year, the 2024 edition of Birmingham Design Festival returns to a full festival format featuring over 80 speakers and 100 events across three days and multiple venues.

The festival programme is split into four Design Districts focused on different strands: Graphic, Digital, Product
and Illustration. Each district will feature free talks from creatives with a range of backgrounds and experiences, alongside workshops and drop-in sessions.

The end of each day will culminate in an event featuring three headline speakers at the former Imax cinema Giant Screen. The eclectic mix of headliners this year includes lettering artist Jessica Hische, graphic designer Annie Atkins and Sesame Workshop’s head of character design, Louis Henry Mitchell.

There will also be presentations from Oscar-nominated animator Pes, artist Aurelia Durand, Sony Pictures Imageworks FX supervisor Pav Grochola, and Sue Murphy, senior global director of design at Coca-Cola.

To mark the launch of the festival, an accompanying exhibition will celebrate 30 artists’ work and the process behind it, with behind-the-scenes photography, sketches and ideation documenting the journey to the finished article on display.

See the full line up and book tickets at birminghamdesignfestival.org.uk

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