About
Since its launch in October 2022, Perth Design Week (PDW) has quickly established itself as a leading platform for showcasing design excellence and thought-provoking discussions on issues shaping Western Australia and beyond.
PDW's annual programs of exhibitions, conversations and experiences are brought together by founder architect Sandy Anghie. The concept is based on successful Design Weeks across Australia and around the world.
With the creation of PDW, Perth can now take its place among the great cities of the world where interest and value in good design is celebrated with a dedicated public festival.
Our city’s Design Week highlights and acknowledges local design leaders. It’s an opportunity to recognise our design community is incredibly diverse, comprised of people working across many disciplines – architecture, interiors, landscape, planning, fashion, graphic design, service design, product design and more. It’s about design at all scales, all working to a common goal - to improve how we all live and work here in WA.
2023: A 'coalition of the willing'.
The project started as a collaboration, the idea being that there is a broad array of design based organisations with budgets for their own individual annual events. If these organisations rearranged their diaries to hold events in a particular week each year, we have the start of a Perth Design Week. And that’s exactly what happened in 2023.
In its first year, co-founders Sandy Anghie and David Smith brought Perth's design community together to create a unique program of 65 events held across Boorloo (Perth) and beyond. The enthusiastic response from both design professionals and the community was proof of concept. Since then, PDW has become a powerful platform for bold ideas, design thinking, and global collaboration. It champions Western Australian creativity and innovation, connecting local talent and the community.
2024: Putting Perth on the global design map.
PDW has been expanding its reach each year - across the Perth metropolitan area and beyond.
In 2024 PDW went global! It was a privilege to collaborate with renowned global architecture practice OMA and Italian based, international furniture brand, UniFor - presenting PRINCIPLES in a highly innovative, interactive and inclusive installation ‘Principles Square’ at Cathedral Square. Significantly, PDW was chosen as the first location after Milan, to host the installation.
Paul Jones, Australian Director, OMA said, OMA’s presentation at the PDW enabled them to exchange ideas with the design community and the public in Perth. While Carlo Molteni, Global CEO, UniFor said it was an opportunity to gain new perspectives and visions.
2025: A uniquely Western Australian festival celebrating innovation and purpose.
In its third year, PDW continued to grow, with new collaborators and close to 100 events held across Boorloo (Perth) and beyond.
The festival has now firmly established itself as an annual celebration of design’s power to drive positive change. Design is all around us—from the homes and suburbs we live in to the clothes we wear and the objects we use every day. Design shapes our lives in countless ways.
PDW is about bringing this awareness to the forefront and offering Western Australians the opportunity to engage with the design community in meaningful ways. Spanning a wide range of disciplines, PDW is designed to be inclusive and accessible to all. It’s a celebration of the ways in which design touches every part of our lives, and how we can collectively shape the world around us through creative collaboration.
Local focus with global connections.
While the focus is very much on local design, as PDW continues to grow, it strengthens Perth’s place in the global design conversation.
In 2024 PDW signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Consulate of Italy in Perth, and through this relationship is privileged to be working with the Consul of Italy again this year.
“We are proud to partner once again with Perth Design Week to celebrate the value of design and the Italian contribution to the art of shaping human spaces. This year is especially meaningful as we celebrate Perth's designation as the Capital of Italian Creativity in the World for 2025 by the Italian government”, Sergio Federico Nicolaci, Consul of Italy said.
As part of the collaboration, the Consulate of Italy in Perth together with Curtin University brought an exhibition by renowned Italian architect Mario Cucinella to Perth for PDW 2025.
A Celebration of Creative Industries.
PDW aims to show that creativity and design are essential components of WA’s diversified economy. By highlighting our state’s creative sector, PDW underscores that design is not just an aesthetic endeavour but a crucial part of WA’s economic and social fabric.