For one week at the end of April, Vancouver will host some of the world’s foremost communication design professionals for Design Week 2010. The theme for the week, which will be explored in lectures, workshops, panel discussions, and student exhibitions, is "Design Currency: Defining the Value of Design."

Rethink created a design currency for the event as a way of assigning fixed values to designs— a concept developed in the Design Week identity and campaign. The campaign includes print pieces, a flipbook-style video, and a mobile web application that allows users to establish their personal design currency according to values such as beauty, functionality and sustainability, and then appraise individual pieces using their currency. The aim is to create a dialogue about the functions and characteristics that strengthen a design, and how we value each of those elements.

Vancouver’s Design Week is presented by the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) in partnership with ICOGRADA (the International Council of Graphic Design Associations), the global voice of design. ICOGRADA’s design weeks are held at least once annually and gather together internationally recognized leaders from the various fields of communication design. Recent design weeks have been held in Doha (2009), Torino (2008), Daegu (2008), Mumbai (2007), Seattle (2006), Hong Kong (2006), Copenhagen (2005), and Sao Paulo (2004).

For more information and to register for Vancouver’s Design Week 2010, visit www.designweekvancouver.ca.

Return to news.