Design Victoria is the first festival to celebrate Greater Victoria’s growing design community, and one of the first of its kind in BC. Launched May 10-14, 2023 with the hope of bringing together a handful of events, the ambition was met with overwhelming enthusiasm from more than 50 businesses and individuals in the creative sector.

From the outset, the goals of Design Victoria were to: establish Victoria as a destination for good design; create opportunities for collaboration and business across the cultural industries; and increase the public’s understanding of the power and value of good design. 

The festival worked collaboratively with designers and design businesses to generate ideas for special installations, exhibitions, events, open houses, tours and workshops. This resulted in an incredible variety of high-quality programming that reflected the expertise, innovation and unique style of individual designers. 

Visitors had the opportunity to access creative studios that are not normally open to the public, learn more about the stories behind familiar business, and get inspired by the design ideas and creative work being produced in the city. The majority of these events were free to attend and open to anyone. 
It became apparent, very quickly, that there was a large appetite for design-related events both from professionals working in design and the creative industries, and from the design-curious public. The inaugural festival exceeded expectations with 3,000 attendees to 35 individual events. 

The 2023 festival ran in parallel and in partnership with a significant one-off sector visit to the city by GRAY magazine, a leading design press outlet in the Pacific Northwest. The publication launched their annual design destination conference, DesignCon, in Victoria alongside the festival. GRAY magazine hosted a closing party that doubled as a launch party for Design Victoria. 

In its first year, the event achieved a high level of media exposure, with features in Yam (print and digital), Spruce, Capital Daily, the international design publication GRAY Magazine and on CBC Victoria. While the majority of this audience was local, activities that attracted out-of-town visitors included the Design Victoria talks, workshops and preview tours. 

In 2023, Design Victoria was sponsored by Aryze, MGA and HoloLabs. The festival map was designed by Shape Design and the festival’s graphic formatting was designed by Sophia Szeto. 

Design Victoria was conceived by Carla and Will Sorrell and is run by Carla Sorrell, Director of Design Victoria. Both were involved in the UK’s creative sector before moving to Victoria in 2020, working with companies to showcase their creativity globally. Will is Director of the The Interior Design Show, and has run various design events in London, New York and Milan. Carla has orchestrated design-led brand activations and global partnerships between the public and private sector. Design Victoria’s organisation structure, event format, revenue structure, and marketing strategy are informed by these prior experiences. 

Find out more about Carla and Will’s relationship to the creative sector in this short video, part of the South Island Prosperity Partnership’s Victoria Rising campaign.