The Northern Design Festival has announced the complete line-up of its 2025 Edition, which will return to Lancaster on 15-17th May. This edition features a program that places transparency, personal experience and practice at the forefront.
The three-day design festival, now in its second edition, is quickly becoming one of the highlights in northern calendar. This year, the event will focus on dialog over dogma and explore the less-polished corners of the design industry and conversations that are often left unspoken within studios, agencies and portfolios.
The festival’s co-founder, Antonia Arbova, explains why this theme was chosen: “This is a celebration of the untold stories – the stories which may never have been told without our team’s dedication and support.”
“Each speaker invited to take part has been thoughtfully selected for their alignment with our core values: fostering an inclusive and equitable creative community, not just in the North, but across the wider industry.”
The line-up is designed to strike a perfect balance between the practical and reflective. The programme also includes talks, panels and workshops. It will include portfolio reviews and live podcasts as well as informal conversations.
Work in Process With Hondo Studio is a keynote that takes you behind the scenes to reveal the sometimes chaotic, but always collaborative reality of managing a creative agency. Louise Sloper’s Typographic Truthiness explores the way type can either clarify or confuse, depending on its use. This is a useful reminder to anyone who works with words and images.
The Transparent Brand Panel brings together Studio Up North and M1 Studios as well as BAGGI to talk about how brands can gain trust by focusing on their values and pricing.
Ya’Qub Mir is a lead designer for Studio Up North, one of the speakers at this year’s event. She says, “Transparency resonates deeply with me – it’s a celebration identity, resilience and of how design can shape culture and communities. Transparency is a must for me. It’s also an obligation that designers need to take on. I look forward to this year’s panel.
The festival provides a great opportunity for northern creatives to meet, connect and be inspired. It also allows them to showcase their talent. “It’s an honor to be a part of it.”
The event will also feature a live recording for the My Life in Design Podcast with Claire Blyth, Claire Parker and Claire Blyth. They’ll share their personal reflections about careers that have been built by branding. Honest Storytelling : Being Authentic is a panel discussion hosted by BBC Creative and The Chase, which explores what it means to be a “creative who shows their work”.
It’s not all serious. Over a Pint, a Friday night session, will see Dave Sedgwick, Creative Boom’s Abbey Bamford, share stories about the grind of being an independent musician. Expect war stories, advice, and maybe even a pint related mishap.
The festival will offer practical sessions for those who are just starting out in the business, as well as portfolio reviews by Craft, Studio North, and Ultralight. The festival offers a variety of hands-on activities, including a ceramics workshop. This is a great way to complement the theoretical talks.
Aaliyah, from BBC Creative who is on the panel for honest storytelling, highlights the value of the Northern Design Festival for new creatives. “Northern Design Festival offers a wonderful opportunity for designers at the beginning stages to learn about their field, and with themes like transparency, they are able to engage in open conversations to understand what career paths they may be taking.
Design can have an air of glamour to it and I am looking forward to these discussions. “I can’t believe I will be able to answer and hear all of their thoughtful questions at the event.”
The festival includes a variety of social events, such as the Opening Night in The Storey Gallery or the Closing Celebration at Mint Cafe Bar. Demystifying the agency: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a small group storytelling session that offers a more intimate experience. No question will be off limits.
Niamh Cartwright is the co-founder of NDF and its director. She says that the festival’s spirit of inclusion permeates every part of it: “The NDF Team is thrilled to have such a stellar lineup of speakers at the Northern Design Festival. This year, it has been a great honor to get to know these incredible creatives and agencies. The ‘transparent approach’ to creativity and innovation is exactly what we want to promote.
We hope our workshops and talks inspire you, and you can leave Lancaster feeling confident to be honest and open as a creator. You will have the support of a community that is there to help you!