Charlottesville Design Week 2025

Since 2017, thousands of the commonwealth's designers have convened in Cville for a week of connecting, learning, sharing, and showcasing local talent. The Charlottesville Design Week is 100% volunteer-led and has two simple goals:

Help designers develop a strong sense of community in central VirginiaConvince the general public that good design is worthwhile

Whether you push pixels, press ink, set type, build environments, or do anything else design-related, you will feel right at home during our growing festival.

Schedule

Tuesday the 8th

Opening Event with Paula Scher

Kick off the festivities with a special verison of Tuesday Design Society's weekly meetup. Paula Scher, one of the world's best designers, is calling in to share her process and answer your questions. A mixer will follow.

Wednesday the 9th

Design Marathon

Donate a day of your creative juices to a local non-profit. Participants form several "agencies-for-a-day," working with a variety of designers, copywriters, and developers to satisfy the beneficiary's brief.

Marathon Showcase

See the Design Marathon agencies present their work to the non-profit. It's like the best scenes from Mad Men, but live and in person. Not to mention, the selected design will be put to use by the non-profit for years to come.

Thursday the 10th

Workshops

Learn a thing or two! We have workshops covering identity design, industrial design, procedural graphics, letterpress printing, motion, and more!

Open Houses

Visit Charlottesville's downtown design firms. See the agencies' offices, hear about their work, and learn about creative opportunities.

B.Y.O.D.

Bring a design (or your portfolio), meet other designers, and mingle in this cross between a mixer and a portfolio review.

Friday the 11th

The Forum

A day-long conference featuring national and international design leaders, examining a cross section of design practices, from industrial design to UX and from motion to branding. Forum tickets include one free workshop ticket.

Speakers include:

Sophie Tahran

(Figma, Conde Nast, The Ne Yorker, inVision, Lyft)

Marcos Silva

(Masd LAB)

Seo Hyojung

(SADI)

Loic Marleix

(Design Brouhaha)

Drew Seskunas

(SAW.EARTH)

And others!

Closing Party

Mix and mingle with speakers from the Forum and fellow attendees.