Talks and Events
TALKS + EVENTS
Welcome to our programme of talks + events. Visit the Design Overtime page for details of our themed late night events.
Design Museum Members are entitled to priority booking and discounts on talks. Find out more about Design Museum Membership.
Design Icons Lecture Series
In association with Harrods
The Design Museum and Harrods have formed a unique partnership to produce a series of six design-focused lectures celebrating iconic design and offering an insight into designer’s motivation and inspiration.
Booking for events at both venues on 020 7940 8783. Harrods are kindly donating the ticket sales for the events they are hosting to supporting the museum's Kids' Activity programme.
Visit harrods.com/designicons to see the lectures, download a video podcast or email questions to ask the speakers
Ross Lovegrove
9 May £15
Venue: Harrods Loading Bay, Trevor Square, off Lancelot Place, Knightsbridge, SW7
Doors open 6.30pm, talk 7.15pm - 8.30pm
Internationally recognised industrial designer Ross Lovegrove combines manufacturing innovations with a visionary flair to make environmentally friendly products that have a sleek and organic aesthetic. Lovegrove is a pragmatic designer, known for the design of the Louvre’s sanitary facilities, but also a maverick idealist, envisioning solar powered cars that park in the air and double as street lamps.
Buy your ticket online from Ticketweb
Richard Sapper
16 May £15
Venue: Harrods Loading Bay, Trevor Square, off Lancelot Place, Knightsbridge, SW7
Doors open 7.00pm, talk 7.15pm - 8.15pm
Richard Sapper has worked for several decades producing highly influential and iconic designs, helping to establish the genre of ‘techno-functionalism’. In the 60s Sapper’s working relationship with Marco Zanuso led to notable designs included the rounded portable Doney 14 television (1962), and the ground breaking compact folding Grillo telephone for Siemens (1965). Other examples of Sapper’s design achievements include the enormously successful ‘Tizio’ high-tech work lamp (1972), The ‘Bollitore’ Whistling Kettle for Alessi (1983) and the revolutionary Thinkpad laptops for IBM.
Buy your ticket online from Ticketweb
Concorde
23 May £15
Venue: Design Museum
Doors open 6.30pm, talk 7.15pm - 8.30pm
Former British Concorde pilot and leading authority on this supersonic aircraft, Christopher Orlebar will tell the story of Concorde. Starting with its design and development process, the presentation will follow the evolution and history of this icon and luxurious transatlantic aircraft, ending with its final flight and decommissioning.
Buy your ticket online from Ticketweb
PREVIOUS TALKS
What Makes a Design Icon?
Tuesday 15 April £15
Venue: Harrods Loading Bay, Trevor Square, off Lancelot Place, Knightsbridge, SW7
Doors open 6.15pm, talk 6.30pm - 7.30pm
A panel including Design Museum Director Deyan Sudjic, fashion designer Roland Mouret, and Managing Director of Alessi UK Matteo Alessi, will be asking What makes a design icon? What gives certain products the longevity generated by high opinion and public recognition? What journey must a product go through before it attains this status? What role, if any, does a design icon have?
Watch this talk now on the Design Icons website
Alastair Lansley and St Pancras International
Friday 25 April £15
Venue: Design Museum
Doors open 6.30pm, talk 7.15pm - 8.30pm
On its opening in 1868, St Pancras Station was heralded as a wonder of its age. Alastair Lansley, chief architect of St Pancras International will talk about the design and development process that has magnificently transformed this long-neglected iconic station into a highly acclaimed re-development, which has become Europe’s leading destination station.
Watch this talk now on the Design Icons website
Vivienne Westwood
Visit harrods.com/designicons to see the lecture live, download a video podcast or email questions to ask Vivienne.
Friday 2 May £15
Venue: Design Museum
Doors open 6.30pm, performance 7.15pm - 8.30pm
Design legend Vivienne Westwood will present her revolutionary manifesto ‘Active Resistance to Propaganda’. This is an opportunity to hear Vivenne Westwood express her ideas and thoughts about the need to return to universal human values and the positioning of great art at the core of our very being. The manifesto will be followed by a discussion and Q and A session where Vivienne Westwood will answer questions about her manifesto and her idea’s behind it.
