International Design Day 2026 Recap: The Spaces In Between

04.06.2026 ICoD news

On 27 April 2026, International Design Day once again brought the global design community together around a shared theme, a shared date, and many different local interpretations. Marked each year on 27 April, the day is coordinated by the International Council of Design (ICoD), with a different ICoD Member taking on the role of global host each year – shaping the annual theme, developing the visual identity, and creating a central experience that can be engaged by the international community.

This evolving format is part of what makes International Design Day so meaningful. As the host rotates from one ICoD Member to another, the day becomes an opportunity not only to celebrate design, but to understand how design is being felt, discussed, and activated in different regions of the world through a shared global framework.

In 2026, that global role was taken on by SEGD, who developed the theme The Spaces In Between and invited designers to look beyond objects and outcomes toward the relationships, transitions, and shared experiences that shape how people connect and belong. Alongside SEGD’s international programme, local and national celebrations unfolded in Lithuania, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom – each interpreting the theme through its own community, institutions, and concerns.

SEGD as global host

As global host for International Design Day 2026, SEGD built the programme around a simple but resonant proposition: what happens between us matters. Their central programme premiered eleven conversations featuring fourteen design leaders working across architecture, branding, cultural institutions, experiential design, education, and strategy, with voices from the United States, South Africa, Lithuania, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

The talks explored empathy, curiosity, responsibility, belonging, and the human dimensions of design – asking not only what design produces, but how it shapes trust, welcome, memory, and connection. Across SEGD’s wider chapter network, celebrations extended from 23 April to 7 May and took many forms: workshops, fabrication tours, public conversations, student sessions, charrettes, poster-making, transit explorations, and community gatherings.

SEGD CEO Cybelle Jones In Conversation with Eames Institute Chief Curator Llisa Demetrios

Together, these events showed how broadly the theme could travel. From Riga’s reflective workshop on empathy and participation to Seattle’s live wayfinding journey on the city’s new light rail, and from Vancouver’s discussion on immersive technologies to Cincinnati’s hands-on design lab, SEGD Chapters translated The Spaces In Between into real encounters between people, disciplines, and places.

A concise reflection from SEGD captures the spirit of the day especially well:

This year, SEGD had the profound honor of serving as the global host for International Design Day 2026 – and we took that responsibility seriously. Built around the theme The Spaces In Between, we set out to spark a global conversation not just about what design makes, but about why it matters. Over the course of the day, we premiered eleven conversations on YouTube featuring fourteen extraordinary design leaders from across architecture, brand strategy, experiential design, curation, education, and institutional leadership – spanning the United States, South Africa, Lithuania, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The response has been remarkable: a large number of views, fifteen SEGD chapter events activated across the country, and a community that showed up with real energy and real heart for the work.

What we didn’t fully anticipate was how deeply every single guest would resonate with the theme – and with each other. From Llisa Demetrios, granddaughter of Charles and Ray Eames, speaking about curiosity as a design methodology passed across generations, to Sue Walsh sharing a text from a dying friend that read simply hope is what keeps the train moving – these conversations became something more than we expected. They became a document of what design leadership believes right now, in this moment, with all of its uncertainty and all of its possibility. Every guest was asked the same closing question: what gives you hope? Their answers were different. And they were the same. Design’s purpose is human. The spaces in between are not gaps – they are where the real work happens. And this community proved that, beautifully, on April 27th.

The full set of conversations can be viewed on SEGD’s International Design Day 2026 page: International Design Day 2026 – SEGD.

Around the world

International Design Day has never been only about the main stage. Every year, alongside the global host’s programme, the day comes alive through dozens of local initiatives – in cities, schools, studios, universities, cultural institutions, and community spaces around the world. Some of these take the shape of multi-day festivals reaching broad public audiences; others are a single workshop in a school classroom, a book presentation in a bookshop, or a quiet gathering of designers in a studio. Together, they create a wave of activity that, for one day each year, circles the entire globe – a collective demonstration that design is not a single profession or a single place, but a shared way of thinking and making that belongs to everyone.

Vilnius, Lithuania

In Vilnius, International Design Day unfolded as a rich, city-wide programme that interpreted the theme through talks, exhibitions, book presentations, walks, workshops, residency presentations, performances, and encounters with designers. The programme included lectures by Timothy Goodman and Marco Rodrigues, the exhibition The Spaces In Between, a design residency presentation, design excursions, discussions, food-making workshops, book launches, and presentations linked to both professional practice and design education – creating a festival-like atmosphere across the city.

Rather than centring on a single format, the Vilnius celebrations embraced multiplicity. Public lectures sat alongside exhibition visits and informal conversations; educational events were placed next to performative and culinary experiences; and local audiences were invited to move through design not as a fixed discipline, but as a broad cultural field shaped by dialogue, making, reading, meeting, and observing.

This breadth reflected the spirit of the day especially well. In Vilnius, The Spaces In Between became visible not only as a theme, but as a method: between theory and practice, between international and local voices, between institutions and audiences, and between design as profession and design as lived culture. The festival was organised by the Lithuanian Design Association.

Kyiv, Ukraine

In Kyiv, Design for Ukraine together with KyivUX organised a city-wide series of events that brought International Design Day 2026 into direct conversation with questions of accessibility, inclusion, education, professional responsibility, and care. Under the shared theme The Spaces In Between, the programme gathered designers, UX researchers, illustrators, students, educators, museums, businesses, and cultural institutions across several locations in the city.

The programme included educational lectures for students and emerging designers hosted with Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture and the Kyiv Industrial Professional College; an inclusive UX workshop for aviation developed with Metadesign, the Faculty of Architecture, Construction and Design at Kyiv Aviation Institute National University, and SkyUp Airlines; and a public discussion on accessible design at the Khanenko Museum in collaboration with Digital Access Ukraine. The day concluded with an open networking meetup at Squat 17b with live music and a community-led charity cocktail bar, creating an informal space for exchange across the design community.

What gave the Kyiv programme particular weight was its context. For the organisers, participating in International Design Day was not only a way to join a global professional initiative, but also a way to sustain spaces for dialogue, learning, and community during a continuing period of uncertainty and war in Ukraine. In this setting, the theme resonated with particular force: accessibility, shared experience, communication, and inclusion are not abstract values, but urgent design questions that shape how people move, participate, and belong in both digital and physical environments.

Northamptonshire, United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, The Bliss Charity School in Nether Heyford, Northamptonshire, marked International Design Day by introducing pupils to design and architecture as exciting future career paths. Inspired by Year 3 teacher and Design & Technology Lead Kate Stewart, the school’s celebration included a special visit from architect Kate White, who shared stories from her professional journey, introduced children to computer-aided design, and presented examples of her architectural projects.

Following the visit, pupils across the school took part in class-based creative design activities, applying what they had learned and imagining themselves as future designers. The day showed how International Design Day can be meaningfully interpreted at school level: by opening up design as a field of possibility, making professional practice tangible, and helping children connect imagination with the built world around them.

Looking ahead

International Design Day 2026 showed once again that a shared global theme can generate many different forms of participation. From SEGD’s international conversations and chapter activations to local celebrations in Vilnius, Kyiv, and Northamptonshire, the day highlighted design’s power to create dialogue, deepen understanding, and connect communities across contexts.

And as every year, the date remains the same: on 27 April 2027, International Design Day will return – with a new theme, a new host from another region, and another opportunity not only to mark the day, but to celebrate it, experience it, and immerse ourselves in it together. Follow ICoD news channels for the next announcement and to discover what the next host will bring.