The 2023 program for Melbourne Design Week is now live online, and it’s taking over the city, as well as the state. Here’s a taste of what’s to come.

The Silo Project presented by Josee Vesely-Manning, with designers pictured left to right: Pascale Gomes McNabb, Marta Figueiredo, Danielle Brustman and Bolaji Teniola, photography by Annika Kafcaloudis.
April 17th, 2023
Melbourne Design Week (MDW), Australia’s largest annual international design event, is returning 18-28 May with a lineup of innovative and engaging projects. Presented by Creative Victoria in partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), you’ll be able to engage with the program through exhibitions, talks, films, tours, and workshops across the city and regional Victoria, too.
Led by NGV’s Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture, 2023 edition will continue to explore the theme of “Design The World You Want” and introduce three thought-provoking pillars of Transparency, Currency, and Legacy.
Leading brands and showrooms putting on a MDW show include APATO, Articolo Lighting, BACHLI Furniture, Castorina & Co, Coco Flip, Cult Design x Mater Earth Gallery, Domestic Fantasies, Flack Studio, Fred International, GLAAS Inc, Modern Times, Mud Australia, Open Room, and pépite.
The NGV’s own program highlights will see the Melbourne Design Fair return, at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre 18-21 May. There’s also the crowd-pleasing Melbourne Art Book Fair which will have publications galore at the Stallholder Fair in the Great Hall at NGV International.
NGV director, Tony Ellwood AM, says MDW is integral to Australia’s design sector, platforming and celebrating innovation across the industry “spanning furniture and collectible design to food technology, sustainable material exploration, and the medical field”.
Also on show at MDW is Melbourne Now showcasing more than 200 Victorian-based designers and artists. As part of this exhibition are panel discussions about how Melbourne-based designers, brands, and manufacturers are contributing to the dynamic landscape of applied creativity in Melbourne.
MDW has grown in scope and scale from 100 programs in 2017 to more than 350 in 2022. Over 55,000 people attended the 2022 festival, making it Australia’s leading and largest design event. Will 2023 beat previous records? We shall soon find out!
Melbourne Design Week runs 18-28 May 2023.
Melbourne Design Week
designweek.melbourne
We think you might like this story about The Project at Saturday Indesign 2023.
INDESIGN is on instagram
Follow @indesignlive
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
In the second instalment of our performance seating three-parter, we turn to DKO’s Michael Drescher and Jacob Olsen to peek behind Sayl’s confident architectural form and explore the ideas of inclusivity, adaptability and freedom to move as hallmarks of what sitting your best actually means.
In the first instalment of our three-part series exploring what it means to sit your best, we pose the question to Gray Puksand’s Dale O’Brien, who discusses the importance of ease and majority rule when it comes to sitting and reveals why specifying a task chair is not unlike choosing a Volvo.
As Woven Image celebrates 40 years, it introduces a new collection developed in collaboration with Australian artist Ben Goss, inspired by his original artwork Where the Kookaburra Sits into a vibrant collection of digitally printed EchoPanel® murals and patterns.
In the last instalment of our three-part performance seating series, Alex Bain from Architectus explains why sitting well shouldn’t feel like sitting at all and explores an unexpected success metric of the hybrid workplace: the grounding power of emotional support.
Fast becoming the coolest global design event, Copenhagen’s 3daysofdesign saw a number of standout product releases.
As Saturday Indesign prepares to return to Sydney this September, architects, designers and exhibitors reflect on what has kept the event relevant for more than two decades.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
Sydney’s Klaro Industrial Design treats manufacturing as the place where design intent is protected – offering commercial designers a responsive, original and considered way to specify.
The Melbourne-based, not-for-profit practice has designed a new fit-out and outdoor gathering space for the Victorian Aboriginal Healthcare Service.