Honnunarmars_2024_30sek_nytt endaskilti.mp4

DesignMarch, Iceland's annual design festival that transforms the most northerly capital of the world into one big venue for design, will be held April 2nd - 6th, 2025. Save the date and explore the Icelandic design scene!

DesignMarch 

Design Talks_30 sek v3.mp4

DesignTalks takes place April 2nd 2025 under the theme of The Source

“Most commonly The Source marks a moment in time where something begins or springs into being. A source of ideas, inspiration or even life. But it is also a metaphor for revisiting ideas, taking a step back, reconnecting with the roots, a moment to clear our minds, or simply to restore ourselves for new beginnings. An outstanding selection of designers, architects and creative leaders will yet again take the stage and without a doubt, blow our minds!”

Fernando Laposse is a Mexican designer who specializes in transforming humble natural materials into refined design pieces. He has worked extensively with overlooked plant fibers indigenous to Mexico such as sisal, loofah, and corn leaves.

His works are the result of periods of research that are developed into objects where materials and their historical and cultural ties to a particular location and its people take center stage. He often works with local indigenous communities and addresses topics such as the environmental crisis, the loss of biodiversity and migration through the transformative power of design.

Comprised of the siblings Inga, Jónsi, Sigurrós, and Lilja, along with partners Sindri and Kjartan, the Fischersund Art Collective brings together their combined fine art and musical training into one creative force within Icelandic immersive, conceptual contemporary art. 

The historic black house at Fischersund 3 serves as the heart of their perfume brand, where their storytelling unfolds through each scent, complemented by music, visual arts, and poetry. Drawing inspiration from the notion that both scent and music evoke memories, each perfume is crafted from a memory and then an immersive experience is created around each fragrance. 

Having held individual art exhibitions at varying galleries and museums around the world, the world premiere of the collective’s first exhibition Faux Flora, took place at The National Nordic Museum in Seattle November 2024 through January 2025. It is an immersive multi-media, sensorial experience complete with an olfactive journey. 

Faux Flaura current exhibition - Nordic Museum

Emanuele Coccia is a philosopher and associate professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, an estimed author and a frequent collaborator with designers, artists and cultural institutions globally. 

Coccia’s work explores the materiality of our contemporary world, our place in it and our relationship with it, contributing to an important dialogue on contemporary aesthetics. In his book The Life of Plants (2018) he proposes a radical redefinition of the place of humanity within the realm of life, in Philosophy of the Home. Domestic Space and Happiness (2021) he calls for a reevolution of domestic space as a potential incubator for social and economic change and in The Life of forms. Philosophy of Re-enchantment (2024) together with his longtime collaborator Alessandro Michele GUCCI’s former creative director, now Valentino, he explores the relationships between us and “things” whether they’re work of art or everyday objects or, in his own words: “clothes aren’t only artefacts, they’re hallways to another reality”

Other collaborators include FormaFantasma, Dotdotdot, Triennale di Milano, the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paris where he recently co-curated an ambitious exhibition on trees and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa co-curating an exhibition on art and ecology.

Ticket sales are now open - with limited tickets on a special early bird price. Please note that
designers and architects get special prices.
Early bird Designers and Architects: 16.900 ISK
Early bird others: 18.900 ISK

Lonny van Ryswyck is co-owner of design studio Atelier NL, together with creative partner Nadine Sterk. They believe that design has the ability to connect local communities to the valuable resources that surround them. Their work explores the potential of local sourcing and production by focusing on the subtleties of the earth right under our feet. 

“Powerful evocations of our intimate relationships with the primary materials of our planet” - Michael Wellan, British geologist & Sand expert.

James Marry is a visual artist from the UK, now based in Iceland where he has worked with Björk since 2009 as a frequent collaborator and co-creative director on her visual output. 

He is primarily known for his hand embroidery and mask-making, and has collaborated with institutions such as the V&A, Gucci, The Royal School of Needlework, Tim Walker, Tilda Swinton and Iris Van Herpen. 

Rán Flygenring is a graphic designer who works as a visual artist and writer, as well as studying philosophy. Rán has written and illustrated over a dozen books, as well as collaborating with other authors, both in Iceland and Germany. She has also collaborated in the field of close-up drawings at conferences and meetings, as well as using graphic analysis in policy making, gender equality, environmental issues and activism. 

She has also painted both mountain tunnels and murals, carved stamps and beer cans, held workshops and talks, founded puffin hotels and a Kaupaekkertbúð, drew urban solutions and directed videos. Rán has received numerous awards and accolades for her work, both in Iceland and abroad. 

Architect, inventor and executive producer

Architects of taste; feeding minds and stomachs.

London based, operating globally, Bompas & Parr is recognised as the leading expert in

multi-sensory experience design, delivering emotionally captivating experiences across various industries. Originally known for their expertise in jelly-making, founders Sam Bompas and Harry Parr expanded their venture into a full-fledged creative studio, specialising in food and drink design, brand consultancy, and immersive experiences.

Harry Parr is an architect, inventor and executive producer. He co-founded Bompas & Parr, a London based creative studio, in 2007 and the British Museum of Food in 2015. As co-founder of Bompas & Parr, Harry is interested in creating experiences that combine food and drink with immersive worlds. 

Graphic designer, stylist, art director and photographer

Lisa Lapauw is a Belgian graphic designer turned stylist and art director. She focuses on the art direction and styling of different brands. From jewellery campaigns to set design of exhibitions. Without any technical education, she tries to develop a unique aesthetic for each client and always focuses on the message behind or within the visual outcome. Art and commerce is a possible combination, but Lisa believes that in every project, whether artistic or commercial, there should be a message behind the images that are positive and uplifting.  

Mous Lamrabat is a photographer widely known for his unconventional take on photography and creative direction. Mous explores different notions on belonging. If there was a trifecta on Mous´ personal passions and the pillars to his art, it would be the power of women, the senseless of racism, and the beauty of Africa. 

Together Lisa and Mous want to fuse fashion and design with cultural influences and nostalgic memories.

author, speaker, film maker and sustainability leader 

Hrund brings together ideas and people across sectors and disciplines to inspire creative mindsets and constructive solutions.
A firm believer that change starts from within, Hrund draws on her broad-based and global experience ranging from sustainable businesses, post-conflict reconstruction and development, film making, the arts to various roles in the private and public sectors where she has led innovative projects.

Hrund is an Advisory Council member at Yale’s International Leadership Centre, a board member of Eyrir Invest and Nordic Ignite Angel Ambassador. She has been recognised for her work as a Yale World Fellow, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and Cultural Leader, and Icelandic Ocean Cluster’s Sustainability Leader.

Interior architect, former editor of FRAME magazine and founder of Betterness

Thiemann has a passion for the built environment. How could it be improved to make individuals and communities thrive while decreasing its impact on the planet? Leveraging 25 years of expertise at spatial design intelligence platform FRAME, Robert Thiemann established BETTERNESS to empower companies and institutions to envision, design and build meaningful spaces in a world in constant flux. 

BETTERNESS acts as a consultancy and agency for spatial design. Based on an understanding of client demands and (local) contexts, Thiemann co-develops visions, concepts and design briefs. At the core of a global network, he connects companies and institutions with architects, artists, designers, manufacturers, scientists and technologists to achieve communal goals.“People spend 90 percent of their time indoors. It’s time to make every space truly matter.“

Betterness

Founding Principal and Co-Executive Director of MASS Design Group

Alan Ricks is a Founding Principal and Co-Executive Director of MASS Design Group, whose mission is to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. He leads strategy and design of the 140-person firm, which has worked in twenty countries, on projects that range from design to research to policy—a portfolio that continues to expand the role of design in advancing a more just world. 

MASS Design Group has received the National Design Award for Architecture from the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and was named Firm of the Year by the American Institute of Architects in 2022. In 2020, The organization was also recognized as Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal.

Flétta was founded in 2008 by designers Birta Rós Brynjólfsdóttir and Hrefna Sigurðardóttir, who have worked together on a wide range of projects where recycling of raw materials and local production play a key role. 

On the surface, their work is characterised by playfulness but underneath critical questions are asked. They set limits on the use of material and on working methods in the hope of developing new and more sustainable ways of designing and creating. Flétta recently received two awards at the Icelandic Design Awards in the categories of project and products. 

Flétta, Hrefna Sigurðardóttir and Birta Rós Brynjólfsdóttir

Ervin Latimer is an award-winning fashion and print designer and the founder of ready-to-wear brand Latimmier. In addition to his design work, Latimer lectures and consults on the intersections of anti-racist practices, fashion, queer culture, and masculinity. His cultural initiatives in Finland also include board memberships at the foundation for the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, Ruskeat Tytöt ry (Brown Girls), and an advisory group membership for the new Museum of Architecture and Design in Helsinki.

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Sigga Soffia graduated with a BA-Degree in dance from Iceland Academy of the Arts in 2009 doing her exchange in acrobatics in Brussels, Ecole Superior des Arts de Cirque. Later graduated with an Ececutive MBA degree from RU 2021.

She best known for her fireworks performances- choreographing the fireworks show of Reykjavík cultural night and La Mercé festival Barcelona ion 2017.   She has received much acclaim for her work most recently the Optimism award  2023, awarded by the President of Iceland and the Artist of the Year  2024 at Seltjarnarnes.

From singing one of the lead roles in the Opéra de Rouen in France, dancing at Paris fashion week,to choreographing a dance performance for 3 tons of fireworks in the center of Iceland's Capital, Sigga Soffia explores movement in all its forms and mediums. Now a published author she moved from poetry to the big stage of the national theater where she wrote and direected her first large scale play. At Design march her work with fireworks and flowers hold the stage with the project  Eldblóm- how dance became product design, that will open at Hönnunarsafn Íslands on the 23.april.

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DesignTalks signature event of DesignMarch, the Icelandic Design Festival since 2009

It addresses the entire spectrum of design and architecture, highlighting its relevance, power and potential in society and celebrating creativity. Wether these are projects, processes, philosophies or people, they are prone to inspire and nurture our innate intuition and creativity.

Through the years we’ve had the honour of welcoming some of the most amazing designers, architects and creative minds of the world, joined by the best from our local scene. We’re also extremely happy about our wonderful audience of creatives that keeps coming back.