Seattle Design Festival
The Seattle Design Festival was founded in 2011 as a strategic initiative of AIA Seattle in order to promote a public dialogue about the role and impact of design on urban life.
The Seattle Design Festival (SDF) celebrates all the ways that design makes life better for Seattle, and to nurture relationships among designers, citizens, city leaders, and future-thinking business innovators. Now in its 16th year, SDF is the largest design-related event in the Pacific Northwest, and largest community-driven design Festival. SDF typically gathers 65-120 participating partners each year and has ranged from 7,000 – 30,000 attendees depending on the scope of events each year.
Key Dates & Deadlines
- Call for Festival Planning Team — December
- Annual Theme Vote — Early February
- Call for Proposals Launch — April 1
- Deadline for Festival Proposals — May 27
- Annual Seattle Design Festival — August 15 – 20!
More info about the organization, the Festival and ways to participate on: seadesignfest.org. Stay up to date on SDF announcements by signing up for the SDF enews, and following SDF on Instagram.
SDF 2026: IN[FLUX]
The 16th Annual Festival was August 15-20 and explored tension, movement, and change during this critical moment in time. A modular theme, IN[FLUX] alternated between IN[TENSION], IN[HABIT] and IN[FORM], creating meaning through the pairing of language and context.
SDF 2026 at a Glance
- 8,500+ Attendees*
- 5 days of Festival programming + 4 mixers throughout the year!
- 32 Festival Sponsors
- 84 Design Teams
- 260 Local and International Designers
- 65 Festival Programs
- 31 Built Installations
- 21 Pop-Up Experiences
- 13 Mainstage Programs
- 7 Mixers/Social Events
- 17 Press Mentions in 15 Media Outlets
*Attendance so far – you can still attend by watching the Festival Rewind on YouTube.
Full details at seadesignfest.org
Past Festival themes include: Beneath the Surface (SDF 2011), Design in Motion (SDF 2014), Design for Equity (SDF 2015), POWER (SDF 2017), CURIOSITY (SDF 2023) and FEEDBACK (2025). To learn more about past Festivals, visit our Festival Archive.
