Northern Design Festival 2026

I had a trip up to lovely Lancaster for my first Northern Design Festival.

The Northern Design Festival was founded in 2023, I'm led to believe by two very proactive students, Niamh Cartwright and Antonia Arbova. As students, they experienced first-hand the increasing lack of creative opportunities in the North so they wanted to do something about it and make a change.

Hosted in a kooky venue called Kanteena in Lancaster, I attended the first of the three day festival based around the theme of heritage. A mix of workshops and talks, I didn't really know what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised. As a former lecturer, I absolutely love when students who are passionate about design, get up off their backsides and make stuff happen. And by the looks of it Niamh, Antonia and a growing band of likeminded supporters, they have not only just put on an event, which is challenging in its own right, but an event which was so well considered, organised and delivered.

I really enjoyed listening to Bryan Edmonson, frounder and creative director at SEA, who I've grown up admiring from afar. The work they did for GF Smith in the late 1990's with the ink diluting in water is still up there with my favourite design work. It was great to see Bryan supporting northern design.

I missed a few talks due to catching up with a few old design mates and chewing the fat but I'm glad I was around to hear Emma Barratt, global executive creative director from Wolff Olins about her journey in design, to the lofty position she holds now. Her story was inspiring enough but the fact that she's from Lower Broughton in Salford, just down the road from where I live, blew my mind! Well done Emma for flying the flag for Salford. One of the many nuggets I took from Emma's talk was a fascinating insight into how Wolff Olins operate. She likened them to a high performance sports team and she rejected the idea that a company should operate like a family, something that I wholeheartedly agree with.

It was great to catch up with the likes of Billy Harkcom, my old mate from The Chase. Billy, is heading up the design course at The University of Cumbria. Andy Bainbridge, again a former colleague of mine at The Chase was also there, Andy continues to head up the design course at The University of Lancashire. And it was lovely to catch up with the talented Julia Carefoot, now at Hotfoot Design to talk all things design and more importantly, music related. Also great to speak to motion designer Jack Gill, who seemed to be munching on a never ending bowl of noodles!

Great event and I hope to attend more in the years to come.