Applications now open: Melbourne Design Week 2025

Melbourne Design Fair at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre was part of Melbourne Design Week in May, 2023. Photo: Aaron Francis

If the flurry of posts recently shared on social media advocating “DESIGN IS EVERYWHERE, VICTORIA DEPENDS ON IT” were to believed, the 2025 fate of Melbourne Design Week in was in serious doubt.

On 27 November, Dale Hardiman posted, “Dear [Colin Brooks MP] Melbourne Design Week creates innovation and sustainability, economic growth, tourism, global reputation, community and huge cross-industry impact. There are 98,000+ people directly employed in design-related roles, $6 billion + in annual revenue generated, and $400 million + in design-related exports. Over the past 8 years I alongside thousands of others have self-funded, initiated, curated and organised events and programming to help build and grow a sector, to cancel Melbourne Design Week would be to not preserve a decade’s worth of progress and would have detrimental effects on an industry you so recently as last Tuesday spoke of its importance.”

The happy news is that as of yesterday, the National Gallery of Victoria has announced that applications for Melbourne Design Week 2025 are now open.

Melbourne Design Week is an 11-day program of talks, tours, exhibitions, launches, installations and workshops across Melbourne and as such, a highlight for creatives from a range of fields. It is one of the Asia-Pacific’s largest design festivals with over 1,300 designers, 400 events and exhibitions, and 100,000 visitors across Melbourne, its suburbs and the regions. In 2025, MDW returns for its ninth year to celebrate design from 15–25 May.

Applications close 20 January 2025, more information is available here