A City of Design

Dundee is the UK’s first and only UNESCO City of Design. The global designation as a Creative City acknowledges Dundee’s rich design heritage, its thriving contemporary design sector and a city committed to using design to solve problems and make Dundee a better place to live.

We believe in the power of design and the essential place of designers in the life of its city. The programmes we run celebrate and demonstrate the impact of design, embrace co-design, promote talent, engage designers in decision making and collaborate with other UNESCO Cities of Design.

2025-06-11 15:00:00

Public Art & Design Walking Tour – Blackness

Dundee has an exceptional collection of over 700 sculptures, murals, mosaics and other forms of public art. As part of the Public Art Dundee initiative, university museum curator Matthew Jarron… Continue Reading this article Public Art & Design Walking Tour – Blackness

See Event
2025-06-12 11:00:00

Free materials for Dundee creatives

CAN sharing event at Wasps Meadow Mill – Thursday 12 June We’re heading to Dundee! Circular Arts Network is teaming up with Wasps to bring a sharing event to Meadow… Continue Reading this article Free materials for Dundee creatives

See Event
2025-06-12 17:00:00

3D printing drop-in

Visit Creative Central within Dundee’s Central Library between 5-6pm on 17th April, 15th May or 12th June to ask questions about 3D printing and see a printer in action!

See Event
2025-06-14 10:30:00

Introduction to Screen Printing

The perfect introduction to the screen printing process. Screen printing is one of the most popular printmaking techniques in DCA Print Studio. In this one-day workshop you will learn how… Continue Reading this article Introduction to Screen Printing

See Event

DESIGN LIVES HERE

Welcome to Design Lives Here, UNESCO City of Design Dundee’s supporter scheme celebrating and showcasing individuals, organisations and businesses in Dundee who align with design values.

Find Out More

DUNDEE DESIGN TRAILS

These tours will direct you to some of the city’s key sites and share some intriguing design stories of Dundee, the UK’s first and only UNESCO City of Design. This global designation as a Creative City acknowledges Dundee’s rich design heritage, its thriving contemporary design sector and its commitment to using design to solve problems.

Download Trails

DESIGN A TARTAN FOR HAMISH

We are delighted to be working in partnership with Andie Sewing School on a tartan design competition for Tayside Mountain Rescue launching Monday 26th May. The design competition is available for young people aged 18 and under, and closes on Monday 28th July.

See Project

object of the month

We’re very excited to launch our brand new display Object of the Month at Dundee’s Central Library. Utilising our new window space, we will be displaying a new design object every month from across the UNESCO Design Cities Network.

See Project

Remembering together

Remembering Together is a national programme that brought communities and creative practitioners together in collective acts of reflection, remembrance, hope and healing. Led by designer, Vinishree Verma, Dundee’s community co-designed covid memorial will take the form of a garden and labyrinth launching in 2025.

See Project
Union Street - After

Union Street

This project will deliver a new transformative street infrastructure for Union Street, Dundee through a community co-design process led by professional designers in collaboration with partners and stakeholders.

See Project

What's On

Add your design related event or activity to our year round What’s On Calendar!

If you are planning any kind of design event, exhibition, talk or workshop then list it on our website to help reach more people. The Design What’s On showcases all kinds of design events from any design discipline.

Submit Your Events
See What's On

Latest News

Read about our latest announcements, international visits and press coverage from some of the projects that we have been involved in since becoming a UNESCO City of Design in 2014!

See Latest News
Festival carvinal people crowds

CELEBRATE
Champion Unesco City of design dundee

CHAMPION
PARTICIPATE V&A Dundee

PARTICIPATE

CELEBRATE

Celebrate and demonstrate the impact of design, engaging citizens in design, the work of designers and opportunities for co-design.
We believe in celebrating the impact of design in our city which we demonstrate through delivering a number of projects each year, including:

Dundee Month of Design – This month-long programme brings together all of the design related activity happening in May across Dundee into one handy place. Dundee Month of Design celebrates the diversity of design by showcasing all kinds of events from activities, tours, talks, exhibitions, workshops and more, right across the design disciplines.

Dundee Design Festival – Returning in 2024 for its 5th iteration, Dundee Design Festival celebrates the impact of design in Dundee, its designers, its spaces and its people. Each festival has celebrated the work of both local and national designers, as well as collaborating with and learning from our international UNESCO Creative Cities Network. The festival has been held in and across the city in underused shop units, outdoor parks an old factory site.

Dundee Design Parade – This event first launched in May 2018 as part of Event Scotland’s Year of Young People and returned for a second Parade in 2019. Dundee Design Parade has had over 900 local young people aged 26 and under, taking part so far. Following a number of workshops with local artists and designers, the Parade showcases the creative talent of our city’s communities and celebrates our place in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

CHAMPION

Champion Dundee’s designers by promoting their talent, supporting their creative and commercial success, and involving them in decisions.
We are committed to championing Dundee’s designers and have done this through:

CODE Souvenir Dundee – CODE Souvenir is an original concept, developed by fellow UNESCO City of Design, Montréal who have produced five catalogues profiling the wealth of talent in their city, increasing sales, and supporting the success of local designers. The first CODE Souvenir Dundee volume launched in 2020; in printed format and online, which profiles a range a souvenir sized products designed by Dundee designers.

Scotland Re:Design’s Scottish Fashion Festival 2022 – We were delighted to host the Scottish Fashion Festival’s Pop-Up shop at Our Street Studio Design Hub on Union Street in November 2022 which showcased the work of 5 Scottish fashion designers; 2 of which were based in Dundee and delivered workshops as part of the festival programmes. We also commissioned Dundee designer Nine Angels to create bespoke awards, with thanks to Halley Stevensons for their sponsorship, and we look forward to continuing to supporting the Scottish Fashion Festival in Dundee.

Sustrans Spaces for People Programme – We have been working in partnership with Dundee City Council and Sustrans Scotland as part of their national Spaces for People programme since Spring 2020 to develop and implement the pedestrianisation of central Dundee street; Union Street and pocket parks on Eliza and Craigie Street in Dundee’s Stobswell neighbourhood. Working with local designers and fabricators on these projects has been crucial to co-designing how they will take shape with local businesses, residents and communities.

PARTICIPATE

Actively participate in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network/Collaborate and share in developing projects and learnings from other UNESCO Cities of Design.
Some of our highlights from participating in the network include:

Beirut’s Ahla Fawda in residence at V&A Dundee’s Plastic Lab, 2023 – We were delighted to host Imane Assaf and Don Wright of Ahla Fawda, Beirut, and Lebanese American University design student, Sandra Bou Ghanem, in collaboration with V&A Dundee in January 2023. Imane and Don shared how they use plastic waste to support Beirut’s communities through Lebanon’s crises and thrived on the opportunity to learn from designers from across Dundee and Scotland.

Bilbao Bizkaia Design Week 2019 – Dundee was hosted as Bilbao’s guest city of honour at their 2019 Design Week where we were thrilled to produce an exhibition featuring Print City by Print Festival Scotland and Shpeel by Biome Collective. Representatives from both Print Festival Scotland and Biome Collective attended this exhibition launch.

Include Conference, Detroit 2019 – Dundee Design Festival producers; Lyall Bruce and Ryan McLeod of Agency of None, attended Detroit City of Design’s Include conference in 2019 and exhibited Poster Playground. This interactive project which launched at Dundee Design Festival 2019, encouraged participants of the conference to get involved and answer a series of questions using bespoke design tools.