Dezeen Magazine

"We invited a variety of speakers to provoke debate"

In this movie filmed by Dezeen, London Design Festival deputy director Max Fraser summarises the aims and key themes of last month's Global Design Forum series of talks and discussions.

Movie: Global Design Forum 2013
London Design Festival deputy director Max Fraser

Global Design Forum is held annually over two days as one of the key events during London Design Festival. "What we're trying to get to is the core of how design can help make the world a better place," says Fraser in the movie. "We're trying to eke out some of the issues that are affecting design right now."

Movie: Global Design Forum 2013
Peter Saville (right) in conversation with Peter Morley

This year the opening evening took place at London's V&A museum and a full day of talks was hosted at the Royal Festival Hall. Speakers included designers Peter SavilleRoss Lovegrove, Michael Young and Jaime Hayón, as well as leading figures from the automotive and advertising industries.

Movie: Global Design Forum 2013
From left to right: Alexei Orlov, Carmel Allen, Jaime Hayon and Ross Lovegrove

"We've tried to encourage a mixed variety of speakers," says Fraser. "We wanted to invite people from different parts of industry to come together to debate issues and hopefully disagree and provoke each other, then see if there are any ideas that can be implemented or if there are any new processes or techniques that can change the way that the business of design is done today."

Movie: Global Design Forum 2013
From left to right: Michael Young, Francis Stevens, Justine Simons, Guta More Guedes and Ben Page

During this year's event Peter Saville spoke about designing a visual identity for rapper Kanye West and a water-filtration system that uses plants to extract arsenic to be sold on for profit was voted the "Idea that will change the world".

The music featured in the movie is a track called Caverns by London band Dead Red Sun.

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