About

The Design Culture Salon provides occasional discussion events to:

• develop advanced debate and discussion on the complex, dynamic and pervasive role of design in contemporary society;
• consolidate discussion as to how design culture, criticism, representation and practice can be further developed.

Each event features an invited panel and guest chair. Panelists provide brief, personal overviews of the respective event’s theme. This is followed by open discussion.

The Design Culture Salon were established in 2012 by Guy Julier as University of Brighton Professor of Design Culture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The Salons were supported by the University of Brighton until 2017.

Initial salons were hosted at the V&A and were also supported by the museum’s Learning Department. Salons also took place in Vienna and Shenzhen as well as at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and the University of the Arts, London. Its first 25 Salons featured over 120 panellists in total.

In 2018, the Design Culture Salon moved to Helsinki and is supported by Aalto University.