With a vision to reflect and promote the creativity and innovation of Melbourne’s design community, since 2017 Melbourne Design Week has celebrated and interrogated design of all disciplines and the importance of design in our lives. 

At its heart, Melbourne Design Week is a festival of ideas and encourages audiences to look beyond the function and aesthetic, and to reflect on the environmental, social and personal impacts of design. As Australia’s leading international design event, Melbourne Design Week invites participants and audiences from all over the country to come together to share products, optimistic ideas and innovative solutions for our shared future. 

In 2022, the program responds to the theme ‘Design the World You Want’ with a thought-provoking program of events that will challenge and inspire us all to consider the impact of design in our daily lives.  

Over 11 days Melbourne will come alive with a series of exhibitions, films, talks, tours and workshops, including, for the first time, the Melbourne Design Fair, a new and exciting showcase of collectable design by leading Australian/Victorian practitioners, studios and galleries.  The Melbourne Art Book Fair will again offer a unique platform to celebrate publishing and design, and extending beyond Melbourne, Castlemaine and Ballarat will join East Gippsland as regional design destinations offering even wider access to the festival than ever before.  

The NGV is dedicated to fostering the growth of Australia’s world-leading design sector. An initiative of the Victorian Government and presented in partnership with the NGV, Melbourne Design Week has become a major cultural event and a major platform for showcasing the ingenuity and potential of Australian design to enrich the environment, the economy and our society. 

Melbourne Design Week provides an opportunity for us all to consider the way design impacts our lives and share the optimism of the sector to consider a world where we can come together for a common good and brighter future.  

Tony Ellwood AM 
Director NGV