Cheltenham Design Festival

This year's Cheltenham Design Fest will take place at the University of Gloucestershire’s Park Campus. 🏞🏰

Originally laid out as a zoological garden, 🦋 💐 these beautiful grounds offer a creative hub to encourage debate, collaborate and inspire each other. 💭👀

This format removes barriers between expert and audience offering formal and informal engagement opportunities and in depth exploration.

Plus, there's ducks! 🦆 ❤️

We can’t wait! (on instagram)

Patrick (previous Cheltenham Design Festival speaker) and the team at Community Clothing ( on instagram) are looking dapper in a photo shoot for their sustainable clothing range. 🧥🧣

In an era of cheap fashion, many of us are uncomfortable with the poor working conditions and environmental harm caused by the garments we buy.
Patrick ( on instagram) started his clothing brand to prove that a happier future is possible. 🙌✨ Thanks for being such an eco icon Patrick!

Our 2-day festival is a fast-moving, interactive experience with an exciting mix of talks, workshops and fringe events throughout the town.

There is plenty to do and we need volunteers to help make sure it all runs smoothly and everyone has an amazing time.

So, do you want to get involved and rub shoulders with our amazing speakers and help the team to deliver an amazing festival for everyone?

Contact us at [email protected] if you are interested in volunteering at the festival.

It will be a truly unique and collaborative experience for everyone involved.

No experience necessary, we'll give you all the training you need.

Tina Touli spoke at CDF19 about the need to blend the physical world with the digital world to discover areas of previously unexplored design 💻🎨…

… so it’s no surprise that she’s since been making awesome designs with her 3D printer! 🖨 She says “It is such a pleasure to be able to bring any idea to life so easily!”

This little mug character was designed by Tina and Isabel Zoulinaki, ( & on instagram). Great work, we love this little guy! 😍

It's been a while since we've seen these two!

George and Andy, (CDF Trustees,) are calling out to the Cheltenham creative community to be part of this year's design festival.

"We want the festival to be a celebration of the rich creative talent we have right here on our doorstep."

So, if you're a fellow designer or creator then get in touch, we would love to share our plans for the festival with you and how you can be part of it.

To make CDF22 happen and keep ticket prices to a minimum, we need the support of generous sponsors and partners. This will help to make the festival accessible to as many people as possible including students, educators and creative organisations.

Whether you’re a local company or a global brand there’s a way you can be involved and we’d love to hear from you.

You can email us at [email protected] or pop a message in our DMs.

Huge thanks in advance, any support you can offer means the world to us. x

In 2019, Craig Oldham was one of the speakers at the 2019 Cheltenham Design Festival.

Since we last saw our friend Craig Oldham ( on instagram), he's been busy creating The Shining: A Visual and Cultural Haunting, a deep dive into the film The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Ingeniously, the multi-dimensional book is made to look like the manuscript of the writing project Jack is typing throughout the film. This beautifully boxed loose-leaf book explores the film’s cultural legacy through exclusive essays, original recollections, contributions from cultural luminaries, and art and visual ephemera.

The Cheltenham Design Festival is run by a team of volunteers with a shared passion for the power of design and creative thinking.

If you too believe that design can change the world, then join us and be a part of the 2022 Cheltenham Design Festival.

You can send me a DM or contact [email protected]

Has the unexpected helped to inspire change, or has a change created something unexpected 🤔 ❓

We encourage anyone with an interesting story to tell, a unique workshop to experience, or something completely different to say, to be speakers at this years Cheltenham Design Festival.

We’re looking for people with amazing and creative stories around the theme of the unexpected.

Have you built something (virtual or physical) that’s had an unexpected outcome? Has an unexpected collaboration created something amazing? Or has design affected you in an unexpected way?

If you want to share your stories with us email [email protected]

We looking forward to hearing from you.

Our friend Gavin Strange, designer & director (and previous Cheltenham Design Festival speaker,) was the man behind the rebrand of Aardman ( on instagram) - the Academy Award-winning studio behind Shaun the Sheep and Wallace & Gromit. 🐑 🐶

The branding needed to reflect the diverse types of work Aardman do, and needed to be more functional and flexible - and it does just that. Huge congrats Gavin ( on instagram) we can’t wait to see what you do next! 🙌

We have some exciting news!

We're busily planning the 2022 Cheltenham Design Festival! 🎉 This year we want to talk about the unexpected - about how everything is changing and we can't follow the old rule book or keep doing things the same way any more. We will be discussing how design must constantly evolve, adapt and prepare for a changing world, and how it impacts the following areas of our lives:
• Connection
• Spaces
• Health
• Work
• Education
• Environment

We'd love to know how you've been dealing with the unexpected. Tell us about your experiences or projects with a tag, or send us a DM and we'll share your story. 🤩