About Us
Left-right: Krypton Neon studio tour hosted by NYCxDESIGN, Xin Min at the NYCxDESIGN and ARTS THREAD 2021 Emerging Designer Residency at Hudson Yards, DLV Designs studio tour hosted by NYCxDESIGN, 2021 NYCxDESIGN Festival out-of-home campaign, Jean Bertrand Uwilingiyimana at the Chassie design studio as part of NYCxDESIGN’s Self-Guided Journeys
At NYCxDESIGN, our mission is to support, empower, and grow New York City’s incredible design sector.
Design is core to New York City’s identity and creative DNA. At NYCxDESIGN, our mission is to support, empower, and grow the city’s incredible design sector. Our internationally renowned Annual Design Festival, established in 2013, showcases the immense talent and diversity of the city’s designers, makers, and manufacturers, along with cutting-edge design businesses and districts, and world-class cultural and academic design institutions. The Festival attracts 300,000+ national and international visitors to the city, generating significant economic activity across the boroughs with hundreds of events about design and innovation, creativity, culture, inclusivity, sustainability, and resiliency. As a non-profit organization, NYCxDESIGN also runs an impactful year-round program increasing diversity, equitable opportunity, and inclusion within the city’s design professions. We educate the city’s young adults about design and inspire them to become the city’s designers of tomorrow.
Donate to NYCxDESIGN
Your donation enables NYCxDESIGN to create more equitable opportunities in design, provide platforms to promote important work, foster a diverse next generation of designers, and define the future of design locally and internationally.
Why New York?
In New York City, design is palpable. With an abundance of makers, manufacturers, urban planners, interior designers, graphic artists, architects, and so much more, New York City is making its mark as one of the most influential design capitals of the world. Housing the largest concentration of designers, creative talent, and design studios than any other metropolitan area in the US, the city’s world-renowned arts and design scene continues to set the tone for the global creative community.
New York City’s design landscape encompasses over 60,000 designers, nearly 8,000 design firms and over 1,000 museums, galleries, and world-renowned institutions. The city also boasts ten of the nation’s best design and architecture schools, graduating twice as many design and architecture students as anywhere else in the country.
Board of Directors
Chair
Erica Holborn
CEO, SANDOW Design Group
Director
Amaechi Uzoigwe
Manager, Run The Jewels
Director
Elan Cole
Executive Vice President, NYC & Company
Director
Sonia Park
Vice President, New York City Economic Development Corporation
Director
Benjamin Prosky
President, Classical American Homes Preservation Trust
Staff
Interim Executive Director
Ilene Shaw
Curatorial and Programming Manager
Cecilia Vidal
Producer
Bethany McHugh
Digital Strategist
Mirella Pontoriero
Frequently Asked Questions
NYCxDESIGN organizes moments throughout the year for designers to showcase and highlight their work through concentrated celebrations that activate the five boroughs with design. Year-round, NYCxDESIGN amplifies the voices of New York City designers through The Magazine, the first edition of which features dozens of contributions from NYC designers, as well as NYCxDESIGN’s podcast hosted by Debbie Millman entitled The Mic. These platforms highlight NYC’s most creative minds and provide ongoing opportunities for the creative community through Open Calls. In 2021, NYCxDESIGN launched The Breakout Grant, focusing on entrepreneurship in independent design. The grant seeks to fund independent designers or design businesses that embody the entrepreneurial, creative, and innovative spirit of New York City, with a foundational commitment to diversity, inclusivity, and sustainability. NYCxDESIGN hosts Emerging Designer Residencies to support the work of designers in early stages of their careers. NYCxDESIGN’s first Emerging Designer Residency took place in summer 2021 in collaboration with ARTS THREAD at Hudson Yards.
NYCxDESIGN was first established in 2012 as a City Council initiative to convene and promote the design industry in New York. City organizations including NYC & Company and NYCEDC managed the “design week” for six years, growing it into one of the leading design festivals in the world alongside Milan, Paris, and London. The annual Festival originated in the month of May to leverage the success of long-standing design events in New York City including ICFF and WantedDesign. Over the past ten years, new anchor events have been established to celebrate design week including Design Pavilion, the NYCxDESIGN Student Showcase, and NYCxDESIGN Awards. In 2020, NYCxDESIGN transitioned to a not-for-profit entity to best serve New York City’s design community. The transition positions the organization for long-term success supporting New York City’s design community.
NYCxDESIGN’s internationally renowned Annual Design Festival, established in 2013, showcases the immense talent and diversity of the city’s designers, makers, and manufacturers, along with cutting-edge design businesses and districts, and world-class cultural and academic design institutions. The Festival attracts thousands of national and international visitors to the city, generating significant economic activity across the boroughs with hundreds of events about design and innovation, creativity, culture, inclusivity, sustainability, and resiliency.
The Festival encompasses renowned trade shows including WantedDesign and ICFF, as well as immersive public design experiences like Design Pavilion, and hundreds of additional design events across the five boroughs of New York City. These once-a-year events make for the perfect opportunity for the creative industry to unite.
The 2022 10th Anniversary edition of NYCxDESIGN Week solidified New York City as a leading global capital of design. With over 1,000 participating local designers and well over 200 events, the program showcased a diverse range of design on display across the boroughs, and all design disciplines. Wallpaper* described the 2022 edition of the Festival as “a more diverse and designer-led programme than ever before”, and Architectural Digest saying that with the “collection releases, pop-up exhibitions, and topical designer talks, the citywide event had one of its strongest showings yet.”
Learn more about the Festival here.
We invite all members of the design community to organize design events as part of the NYCxDESIGN Festival. Group exhibitions, open studios, public installations, panels, virtual events, and more are welcome to be part of New York City’s official celebration of design. Event registration for the 2023 Festival will be open in the coming weeks.
The NYCxDESIGN Festival is also referred to as New York City Design Week, NYCxDESIGN week, etc. We embrace all names! The heart of the matter is that the NYCxDESIGN Festival is New York City’s official celebration of design.
Click here to download NYCxDESIGN’s Form 990.
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