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Picture This: DDW23, the best of all weeks

17 May 2023

Dutch Design Week (DDW) launched the theme of DDW23: Picture This. An innocent call at first glance, but just imagine that we continue living as we do now… what kind of world would we then see in 20, 50, 100 years? Picture This is an urgent call to face that future scenario and to turn the tide. An indispensable aspect of this is the commitment of designers, with their new schools of thought and exceptional powers of visualisation.

The new theme was announced this afternoon during live Q&A sessions on Instagram by Miriam van der Lubbe, Creative Head of Dutch Design Week.

Picture This
The theme Picture This appeals to everyone’s imagination and celebrates the imaginative power of designers. We can all imagine where we are now heading as a society and as a planet, but how can or should things change? There is so much coming at us that it can be overwhelming. But we owe it to ourselves and to future generations to focus on what is needed, and to take action. The theme also appeals to designers themselves: aesthetics and beauty are incredibly powerful tools for opening the doors to meaning and to get people moving. Designers are experts in formulating and visualising different perspectives, which enables them to lead people through a process of change and break through paralysis.

The best of all weeks
That is what Dutch Design Week wants to achieve in 2023: the best possible presentation of the power of design that will get things moving. During DDW23, designers will present the latest developments from the full breadth of the design field. Picture This leaves plenty of room for awe and shows just what change could look like. DDW23 will take place from 21 to 29 October 2023 in Eindhoven (NL).

Live theme launch
The theme was announced this year in collaboration with our media partners DesignWanted and ArchDaily. In two live Q&A’s, Miriam van der Lubbe talked to media partners Patrick Abbattista (DesignWanted) and Diego Hernández (ArchDaily).