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#342: Upcoming Design Conferences and Festivals

Your weekly guide to design events. Week 21, Monday 19 May 2025

Author

Thomas Dahm
May 19, 2025

Table of Contents

📅 Events This Week

20 May, Helsinki Finland
Huiput Creative Festival - is a major one-day event for creative professionals and students that will take place on 20 May 2025 at the Clarion Hotel Helsinki. Organised by Grafia - the Association of Visual Communication Designers in Finland, the festival is now in its ninth year and attracts around 400 participants each year.

20-21 May, San Fransisco, USA
Upscale Conf 2025 is a two-day event dedicated to exploring the intersection of AI, design, and creativity. Organised by Freepik and born in Malaga, Spain, the conference is now heading to San Francisco to gather creatives from around the world.

More Upcoming AI Design Events

www.neonmoire.com/announcement/ai-design-events-and-workshops?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=feature&utm_campaign=AIxDesign

21-22 May, Berlin
Leadership Ateliers Berlin is a 2-Day Training with Elite Design Mentors in inspiring venues and Smoothly Navigate Your Journey from IC to Design Leader with others like you.

21 May to 19 October, Chaumont, France
23-25 May Opening Weekend of Biennale internationale de design graphique of Chaumont. The biennale celebrates graphic design for six months and allows all its actors to get together, share around the practice and its news, and consider its issues through the many events throughout the city of Chaumont.

22 May Rotterdam, Netherlands
Design Without Compromise: Creating Books in a Digital World. How to condense the rich and varied life’s work of one of the Netherlands’ most famous graphic designers into a book? For the launch of Gert Dumbar, Gentleman Maverick of Dutch Design, the book’s publisher and creators will talk about the editorial and design process.

Gert Dumbar: Maverick Gentleman of Dutch Design

amzn.to/4kpiDtF

24-25 May, Berlin, Germany
For the fifth edition of The Art Department you dive into the process of creating as Playgrounds puts a spotlight on the artists that are responsible of designing worlds, characters and stories of some of the biggest productions. The Art Department Berlin: artist talks, demos, screenings, live sketching sessions, portfolio reviews, recruitment and so much more! A playground for the creative industry.

🎤 Open Calls and Speaking Opportunities for 2025

  1. LAST DAYS!! Are you bases in Scandinavia? Submit your character-driven animated short films, music videos of experimental work to Pictoplasma x CPH! All animated short films (experimental, narrative, non-narrative, commissioned, or student films) will be considered for the 1st Pictoplasma x CPH festival selection. There is no submission fee. Deadline 21st of May 2025

  2. World Design Congress is now accepting submissions for extended abstracts and posters in line with the Design for Planet theme. Under the over-arching theme of ‘Design for Planet’, abstracts on the following three sub-themes will be called: Shifting Paradigms — From Extractive to Regenerative Design; Economy and Design — Innovating for Circular Economies and Policy and Design — Shaping a Global Response. Deadline: 31 May 2025 at 23:59EDT.

  3. Submit your talk to UX Y’all on Chaos to Clarity: Designing for an Unpredictable. Deadline: 2 June

  4. NEW! Open Call for Screen Exhibition at Digital Design Days Palermo, Italy – June 27–28. They’re looking for digital visions, AI-generated narratives, motion artworks, and experimental formats that explore the edge of creativity and technology. Selected artists will:
be exhibited on screen at DDD 2025 and be featured on Prompt Magazine’s platforms. Deadline: June 9

  5. Submit your idea for a talk or breakout session and become part of the PUSH UX program. Deadline: The sooner you send yours, the sooner the board of curators can consider your proposal. Deadline: June 11, 2025

  6. Do you have a bold creative idea that deserves the spotlight? Then this is your moment. Apply to become a speaker at Forward Festival Berlin (28–29 August) and Vienna (2–3 October) and share your vision with an international community of forward-thinkers. Deadline: June 11, 2025

  7. Exhibit your work at Forward Festival in Berlin or Vienna, or both. The Call is open until June 25th, 2025.

  8. Do you have an idea for a talk, workshop, exhibition, for Design Matters Tokyo 25? Submit your proposal before June 30, 2025

  9. Frontmania Conference 2025 is looking for frontend technology experts preferably with experience giving live talks. Deadline August 22 2025. Speaker fee is free entrance.

Strategic Storytelling for Product & Design workshop

Join the Strategic Storytelling for Product & Design workshop in Berlin or Munich and learn practical tools to create irresistible stories for your design proposals, research share-outs, and product pitches.

neonmoire.beehiiv.com/p/strategic-storytelling-for-product-design-workshop

🎛️ Filter Upcoming Conferences & Festivals

Submit your upcoming design event.
Submit a call for speakers

📚 Resources

How to become a speaker at a design conference

www.neonmoire.com/announcement/how-to-become-a-speaker-at-a-design-conference

Design Summer Schools

www.neonmoire.com/announcement/design-summer-schools

Typography Conferences and Meetups to attend all year round.

www.neonmoire.com/announcement/typography-conferences-and-meetups-to-attend-all-year-round

Animation and Motion Design Conferences to attend

www.neonmoire.com/announcement/animation-and-motion-design-conferences-to-attend

AI Design Events & Workshops

www.neonmoire.com/announcement/ai-design-events-and-workshops

💜 Support

Your support fuels late-night scrolls, endless coffee refills, and the magic that brings this newsletter and website to life.

👋 See you next week

Waving from Delft,
Thomas ✌️

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