Geelong Design Week Returns for 2024: UNESCO City of Design Showcases Creative Prowess

Regional Victoria’s largest and leading annual design festival—Geelong Design Week, running from 21-30 November—presents 10 days of 70+ innovative exhibitions, workshops, tours, talks and experiences throughout Geelong, the Bellarine Peninsula and the Surf Coast.

Celebrating Geelong’s status as Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design, the program promises to inspire, educate, and push the boundaries of creative innovation. This year’s focus emphasises local designers, Aboriginal designs, and sustainable practices, reflecting a commitment to advancing design excellence.

Highlights in the 2024 program include Tim Ross’ acclaimed live show MOTEL, a guided walk by Wadawurrung Traditional Owners around central Djilang (Geelong), and a series of exhibitions, talks and creative activities at Geelong Gallery, National Wool Museum and Deakin University Waterfront Campus.

Bringing together businesses, designers, creatives, students and the community, Geelong Design Week will showcase and celebrate design projects, stories and talents from across the region and beyond — offering an unparalleled opportunity to network, collaborate, and exchange ideas. Combining a mix of free and ticketed events, this year’s expanded program features both in-person and online experiences, ensuring accessibility for all community members.

“We’re thrilled to unveil a program that truly reflects Geelong’s design excellence and innovative spirit,” said Tennille Bradley, City of Greater Geelong’s Executive Director of Placemaking.

“This year’s Geelong Design Week offers an immersive experience in home-grown design, blending new perspectives with time-honoured techniques. It’s an invitation to explore how creative, conscious design can shape our future and rediscover forgotten crafts.”

The full program is now available on the official Geelong Design Week website. Early registration is encouraged for ticketed events.

Program highlights

Architecture & Design

MOTEL
Take a spin through Aussie holidays of the past with MOTEL, the acclaimed live show from comedian and self proclaimed design nerd Tim Ross and musician Kit Warhurst. Sentimental, nostalgic and of course hilarious, this is a must for anyone who has checked in and helped themselves to a twin pack of biscuits in a classic motel.

McGlashan Everist Walking Tour
Join us for a guided walking tour through Geelong’s city centre, highlighting iconic projects by McGlashen Everist. Discover architectural landmarks such as the Geelong Carousel, Deakin University, and more. The tour will conclude at Eden Oak, where you can unwind with a drink and engage in a lively discussion about the design legacy of McGlashen Everist. This event offers a unique opportunity to explore the city’s built heritage while celebrating the lasting impact of local design.

National Wool Museum – Exhibition – Ten Years of Dowel Jones
Join Dowel Jones as they transform one of the National Wool Museum’s galleries into a house filled with their collaborative projects, including furniture, lighting, ceramics and textiles. Entirely custom made, this exhibition is designed, developed and manufactured for the space. Discover the Dowel Jones design process in which everyone plays a part to make furniture that is ‘anything but ordinary’.

Co-designing Geelong Sports Museum – a winning team
Hear from members of the design and curation team at Geelong Sports Museum about the power of collaboration. Geelong Sports Museum is a great example of a strong co-design process that harnessed diverse ideas of stakeholders. Learn what collaborative tools helped extract the best storytelling for the museum.

City of Design Tour
Join Cultivated and the Design Institute of Australia for a tour of Australia’s only City of Design, Geelong. Departing Melbourne, the bus will take a party of interested Architects and Designers for a visit to Geelong. Guests will experience the design and innovation taking place in the city, with a focus on Sustainability, New Materials, Design and Architecture.

Urban development and place making

Making Home: McKenzie Street
Presented by Open House Melbourne, Making Home shines a light on the issues that drive homelessness and influence the provision of social and affordable housing in Victoria. This edition of Making Home will provide tours of McKenzie Street, Belmont, a project being developed in partnership with Homes Victoria under the Victorian Government’s $5.3 billion Big Housing Build.

Nyaal Banyul – A Place of Baierr
Join some of the key design leads in the Nyaal Banyul Geelong Convention and Event Centre to learn how Wadawurrung Traditional Owner knowledge, values and culture are shaping this exciting project. As the first convention centre in Australia named in a traditional language, Nyaal Banyul recognises and respects the Wadawurrung heritage of the site as a place of baierr or gathering.

Design for Nature – rewild our gardens and urban spaces
A series of outdoor nature events and presentations that will focus on designing for nature to rewild our gardens and urban spaces.

Arts & Design

Talking art – Louise Saxton and Jason Smith
A dynamic conversation with Geelong Gallery Director & CEO, Jason Smith, and Melbourne-based artist, Louise Saxton, as they discuss her practice and new self- published monograph ‘LOUISE SAXTON cut & pinned’. Louise Saxton creates complex assemblages repurposing discarded materials, transforming antique and vintage needlework into contemporary works of art. Saxton’s recently acquired work ‘REST―the sleeping hermaphrodite’ (2018-21) is displayed in the Geelong Gallery exhibition ‘The Sweet Spot―Between Art & Design’.

LIGHT LETTERS
Back to Back Theatre returned to its roots in Geelong’s Northern Suburbs for NORTHSIDE – a series of writers-labs, workshops, performances and collaborations created with community members with and without disability. As part of Northside, LIGHT LETTERS has been a residential program with Nelson Park School, a special developmental school, where students have created two small publications. Excerpts from these publications will be displayed around Geelong’s northern suburbs on Variable Message Signs, accompanied by a map that guides people to the sites. They will also be displayed on LED billboards on the Bypass and Highway at Beckley Park in Corio.

Arch Hive
This project celebrates Geelong’s rich culture of design, art, architecture, and industry from past to present through an exhibition and workshop of new creative works created using scans and photographs of artefacts from The Geelong Heritage Centre Archives coupled with contemporary design ephemera.

Kip&Co Jenny Kee + Ken Done Collaborations
Kip&Co present their first collection with Jenny Kee — a homewares and apparel collaboration. A celebration of both Jenny and the unique and wondrous Australian environment her art has championed for over fifty years. They will also present their third collection with Ken Done. The godfather of Australian style, it will feature all new prints and products for the whole family — luminous, vibrant colours, with an intangible feeling of bright crisp sunshine and a sense of optimism and irreverence.

Circular design and sustainability

Matter(s) of Time
This exhibition transforms recycled waste into immersive spaces, featuring textiles evolving into living matter and sawdust biomaterials, developed in collaboration with Cultivated, dyed with vibrant hues from bacterial and natural dyes derived from food waste, with pH adjustments creating diverse hues.

Barwon Water + the indirect Object
A big, disgusting creature may be lurking below our city streets. It’s called a fatberg, and unwittingly, Geelong residents are contributing to its creation. This grotesque phenomenon grows enormous on a diet of items that should never be flushed down the loo or washed down the drain. This hands-on activity will see participants of all ages having fun to create a giant reproduction
fatberg.

Circularity and the Future of Geelong
Hear from internationally renowned speaker Ashleigh Morris as she shares her expertise on circularity and its transformative impact in Australia and around the world. Ashleigh will discuss the shift from “silos to systems” thinking, the importance of designing for disassembly, and the benefits of circularity for nature, society, and the economy. Following her talk, a dynamic panel featuring Geelong’s brightest minds in the circular economy will explore innovations in modular housing, battery solutions, and renewable energy. Don’t miss this chance to engage with leaders shaping the future of sustainability!

More information: geelongcityofdesign.com.au