Melbourne Design Week will return for its second iteration in March 2018 with a ten-day program discussing the value of good design.

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) are currently seeking expressions of interest from architects, designers, artisans and design-led businesses to pitch ideas and events for the 2018 program.

“For Melbourne Design Week 2018 we will be looking for exhibitions, talks, events and presentations that help to communicate to a broad audience the many ways that design effects our world, and the ways in which we might deploy design to make a better future,” says Ewan McEoin, senior curator of contemporary design and architecture at the NGV.

Submissions should respond to the 2018 theme, ‘Design Effects’, and explore ideas such as design innovation, design for social impact, urbanism, object culture, and design business.

“Fuelled by the emergence of open-source systems, digitisation and globalisation, design is rapidly democratising and distributing. Silos are becoming networks,” says McEoin.

“It is within this context that we ask, ‘What effect does design have on the environment around us? How is design a catalyst for change?’"

The 2018 program – running between 15 and 25 March – will coincide with the NGV Triennial, a free exhibition featuring the work of over 100 artists and designers from 32 countries. The winner of the inaugural Victorian Design Challenge will also be announced during Melbourne Design Week.  

Expressions of interest for Melbourne Design Week 2018 close on 8 December 2017. More information here