Call for Designers: Local Heroes x London Design Festival 2021

If you’re a designer, maker or studio developing new products and collectible works, we’d like to hear from you...

Local Heroes are curating a showroom at the London Design Festival (18 - 26 September 2021), located in the heart of the Brompton Design District in South Kensington – the original destination for design in London. Our exhibition aims to attract buyers, editors and manufacturers.

Register an interest

Local Heroes invites independent designers and makers to register their interest in being considered for our Brompton showroom. We want to present a snapshot of contemporary Scottish design and craft that brings together creativity, sustainability and conceptual innovation.

We are looking for designers and craftspeople from all disciplines – particularly furniture, lighting, and homes and interiors – who:

• Are based in Scotland
• Have new design or craft products in development, or are reimagining an existing body of work, which they would like to launch at the London Design Festival
• Have the capacity to develop and produce high quality work to the project timescale
• Will be able to benefit from and capitalise on the increased visibility the London Design Festival will bring their business
• Can demonstrate a commitment to high quality craftsmanship or production
• Have a strong and distinctive design identity

Responsibilities and costs

• Designers will be required to exhibit between 1–3 pieces
• Sales or orders will go directly through you
• Designers will not be required to pay to exhibit
  

Local Heroes will oversee and pay for:

• Project photography
• Install and demount
• Publicity and social media
• Exhibition Catalogue
• Transportation of works (subject to budget)

Designers will be responsible for their own costs regarding Research and Development; Prototyping; Sampling and Insuring their products. Designers are also responsible for their own travel and accommodation costs and other associated expenses.

Designers will be invited to participate in:

• Peer-to-peer studio sessions with guests from the Local Heroes international design network
• Optional one-to-one product development sessions
• An opening event at the London Design Festival showroom for industry professionals.
  

Project reporting

Local Heroes will ask all participants to agree to help track the project’s comparative impact on their sales, social media analytics and website visits etc. This information will be used in our evaluation of the project.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

We especially encourage notes of interest from people who identify as carers, parents, non-binary and genderqueer folk, people that identify as neurodiverse and disabled, people from BAME backgrounds, people from the queer community, people from working-class backgrounds, and people from different religious backgrounds.

Additional information

— Works must be compliant with British Safety Standards and cannot be made using materials that require licences or are prohibited
— Local Heroes curator Stacey Hunter will select the final exhibitors
— This exhibition is made possible with the support of the National Lottery through Creative Scotland

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To register your interest

Please email ldf@localheroes.design before 31st March 2021 (deadline has been extended to midnight April 8th) with links to your website and Instagram. Whilst not essential at this stage, if you are happy share images or details of yet-to be-launched pieces, or designs that are in development, these will of course be treated confidentially. If sending images please combine within a PDF.