Design Manchester launches DM17 Festival programme

Highlights include Guardian Live | The Great Debate at Design Manchester. This year, they'll be discussing The Public’s Realm?, and the panel, chaired by Professor Rachel Cooper OBE, will feature footballer turned developer Gary Neville, Ali Grehan the city architect of Dublin, and Katie Tonkinson, partner at Hawkins\Brown.

The Design City Weekender, held in Upper Campfield Market on 20, 21 and 22 October, once again incorporates Manchester Print Fair, and this year has extended its capacity and moved indoors to host three days of workshops, exhibitions, live art and design, music, food and drink. The workshops featured come from University of Salford’s BA (Hons) Fashion Design, G . F Smith, SWALK Creative, Fred Aldous, Animation Nation and Lazerian.

The DM17 Conference will be held in The Principal Hotel’s ballroom on Friday 13 October; a daylong conference of ideas and inspiration hosted by Patrick Burgoyne (Creative Review) and featuring internationally celebrated and influential speakers including Factory lead architect Ellen Van Loon (OMA), North, Naresh Ramchandani (Pentagram), film production designer Alex McDowell, illustrator Emily Forgot, alongside Tash Willcocks (Hyper Island) and Lawrence Kitson (Co-op Digital).

This year’s Design Manchester film season, DM17 on Screen: Reframing Reality will run throughout the festival with screenings at HOME, the Dancehouse and Texture. Curated by Sir Christopher Frayling, working alongside Malcolm Garrett and Fiona McGarva, the season, which looks at different versions of the reality and the future, takes in Metropolis (1927), Her (2013), Blade Runner (1982) and A Clockwork Orange (1971). In addition, a screening of Duncan Jones’ Moon (2009) will be held as part of the National Science and Media Museum’s Widescreen Weekend in Bradford. Each film will have an introduction or Q&A from an expert or key person from its production team.

During each weekend of the festival, Texture in Manchester’s Northern Quarter will be screening design-led films, B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin (2015) and Graphic Means: A History of Graphic Design Production (2017), again with expert commentary.

This year, DM17 will also include the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair (GNCCF), which over 10 years has built a solid reputation as one of the leading selling events hosting top UK contemporary designer-makers and craft artists.

Exhibition-wise, DM17 will host eleven shows, including the recently announced “four-track EP of events” on the theme of Fizzing at the Terminals, which includes a celebratory Buzzcocks gig and a series of exhibitions to mark 40 years since the release of ‘Orgasm Addict’ by the Manchester punk legends, and the record’s iconic sleeve designed by Malcolm Garrett with montage by Linder Sterling, then both still students at Manchester School of Art.

For the initial programme and early bird tickets visit www.designmcr.com. More events will be announced in the coming weeks.