The UK’s longest-running graduate design showcase is set for a new edition
New Designers 2026 returns to London with a new consolidated format, 2,500+ graduates across disciplines from furniture to UX, and a programme built to connect the next generation of designers with the industry professionals who matter most.
New Designers 2026 is the moment the UK’s design industry goes to see what’s coming next. Not trend forecasts, not retrospectives — but actual graduate work, by actual students, presented live to the professionals, brands, and institutions that will define the next chapter of their careers. Running for over four decades, the showcase has given a platform to more than 3,000 graduates annually, making it one of the most sustained and consequential investments the UK design world makes in its own future.
The 2026 edition, taking place July 1–4 at the Business Design Centre in London, marks the most significant structural change in the event’s recent history. For the first time, New Designers moves from its previous two-week format — in which disciplines were divided across separate weeks — to a single, cohesive one-week showcase. All graduates, all disciplines, all under one roof at the same time. It is a shift that reflects something real about how design actually works today.
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New Designers 2026:
One week, every discipline
The consolidation is not just logistical. It is a statement about the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of design practice — the reality that the most interesting work rarely stays within the boundaries of a single field, and that the most productive conversations tend to happen across them.
The 2026 programme spans fashion and costume, contemporary design crafts, textiles, ceramics, glass, jewellery and metalwork, furniture, product and industrial design, architecture, graphic design, illustration and animation, motion and digital arts, and UX and game design. Over 100 BA and MA courses from top universities across the UK will be represented, with institutions including Manchester School of Art bringing seven courses and University of Staffordshire presenting three.
For industry professionals — designers, creative directors, brand managers, talent scouts — the new format makes the proposition considerably more straightforward. One visit, one week, the full breadth of UK graduate design talent in a single space. As Sally Bent, Event Director of New Designers, puts it: “For 2026, New Designers introduces a refreshed approach that sees all courses presented together across a single week, creating a more vibrant, collaborative environment that better mirrors how design operates in the real world.“
The timing is not incidental. “As graduates enter a challenging job market and AI brings a new dimension to the work landscape,” Bent adds, “New Designers remain committed to championing students by giving them a platform to present their work to the industry, while connecting visitors with the full breadth of UK design talent.“
ND Educates, ND Connects, ND School Days
Beyond the exhibition floor, New Designers 2026 runs a programme of structured initiatives that address the full ecosystem around emerging design talent.
ND Educates sits at the heart of the event’s educational dimension, offering talks and workshops designed to equip graduates with the commercial insights and industry knowledge they’ll need to navigate professional practice. A dedicated Wednesday programme brings together design tutors, industry experts, and education leaders — developed in collaboration with Benchpeg and its founder Rebecca van Rooijen — with a particular focus on jewellery and silverware, addressing the challenges facing hand skills training in precious metals. Participants include figures from Birmingham City University, Cartier’s English Art Works division, Bishopsland, and Vipa Designs. It marks the first tutor-focused event of its kind with an industry liaison dimension, with potential to expand into other disciplines in future editions.
ND Connects addresses what is, in the current moment, one of the most practically urgent questions for any emerging designer: how to build real relationships with the industry professionals who can open doors. In an age shaped by digital interaction and AI-mediated communication, the programme insists on the irreplaceable value of in-person exchange — one-to-one advice sessions, drop-in consultations, and portfolio reviews with leading professionals.
The impact of these connections is well documented. Jake Inglis, winner of BDC New Designer of the Year 2025, whose project Morphopaedics™ addresses medical device design, was direct about what the exhibition delivered: “Exhibiting at New Designers significantly increased visibility around both my work and Morphopaedics™. Winning amplified that further. It led to conversations with clinicians, investors, designers and manufacturers that would not have happened otherwise.”
ND School Days, running on Friday 3 July, opens the event to students aged 14–18, offering workshops, university interactions, and guided visits designed to map pathways into creative careers. Places are limited and selling quickly.
ND Awards and beyond
The ND Awards programme returns with 16 confirmed awards for the Wednesday Awards Preview Evening — supported by over 30 industry partners including Allermuir, John Lewis, Hallmark, Joseph Joseph, PriestmanGoode, Romo, Oliver Bonas, Kenwood, and Sanderson. The evening culminates in the highly coveted New Designer of the Year Award, with a keynote speaker to be announced. Previous awards evenings have been headlined by Zandra Rhodes, Morag Myerscough, and Simone Brewster alongside 2LG — a roll call that signals the level of cultural seriousness the event brings to recognising graduate work.
ND Selects extends the platform further into the calendar: arriving at Shoreditch Design Week during London Design Festival 2026 (12–20 September), the curated, shoppable showcase will spotlight design businesses founded within the last five years — bringing the next generation of emerging studios to a different audience at a different moment in the year.
For anyone working in or alongside the design industry, New Designers 2026 remains one of the most concentrated and genuinely useful ways to spend four days in July. The new format makes that case more compellingly than ever.
