San Francisco Design Week

Inside of Nebula - A Multisensory Healing Exhibition by XINYE LIN
2025-06-05 14:00 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Google’s Community Space, 188 The Embarcadero,,, San Francisco, California, 94105, United States
What if fragrance could be a portal? What if design could become a healing language?
Inside of Nebula is a one-day immersive art and design experience created by internationally acclaimed multidisciplinary artist and designer Xinye Lin, founder of XINYE LIN LLC.
Blending fragrance, light, sound, and spatial storytelling, the experience explores solid perfume as a multisensory design medium—one that reconnects emotion, ritual, and spatial perception through sensorial interaction.
At the heart of this journey is Nebula—a design-driven solid perfume object developed through Lin’s research into healing rituals, poetic materiality, and sensory innovation. Visitors are invited to journey through scent rituals, soundscapes, and ambient architectural forms, engaging with a space designed for presence, introspection, and quiet connection.
This exhibition is not just a showcase—it is a sensorial constellation in motion
Event Schedule
2:00 – 6:00 PM Immersive Exhibition
Walk-in experience with scent altars, interactive installations, and sensorial spaces.
6:00 – 6:30 PM Afterlight Social
Ambient music, light refreshments, and conversation to close the constellation.
Visit anytime between the hours of 2pm and 6pm to experience this multisensory exhibition.
Artist & Speaker Bio
Xinye Lin is a multidisciplinary healing artist, architectural designer, musician, and curator of immersive sensory experiences.
She is the founder of XINYE LIN LLC, a future-forward fashion-art brand dedicated to exploring the intersections of scent, space, and sensory transformation.
Formally trained at the Rhode Island School of Design and exchanged in The Royal Danish Academy, and having served as a research fellow at the bio-architecture laboratory Terreform ONE, Lin’s work spans installation art, sound healing, spatial storytelling, and fragrance design.
Her immersive projects have been presented at the United Nations Headquarters, Times Square NYC, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, CICA Museum, and international biennales.
She is also the author of Artful Awakening: Multisensory Art & Meditation, a book weaving together Eastern philosophy, contemporary art, and sensory healing practices, currently held in libraries and published across 17 countries.
Through her work, Lin invites audiences to experience art as a living ritual — a bridge between spirit, body, and imagination.
ADDITIONAL EVENTS HOSTED BY Xinye Lin:
Join Xinye Lin for an opening ceremony and artist talk 1:00PM– 2:00 PM, June 5

Design Reimagined: An AI-Powered Open House by Freepik
2025-06-05 15:00 - 18:00 | Freepik SF Office, 398 5th St, San Francisco, CA, 94107, United States
Join us at the Freepik San Francisco office for an open house experience exploring how AI can reimagine and enhance the creative process.
As part of SF Design Week, we’re inviting the SF creative community into our space to see how Freepik is building tools that amplify human creativity — making content creation faster, more intuitive, and accessible, while keeping artistic vision and direction in the hands of creators.
This casual, drop-in event will feature:

Interactive demos of our latest AI-assisted design tools
Real-world examples of how designers and creatives are using Freepik’s tools in their workflows
Conversations with Freepik’s design and marketing teams
Light snacks and drinks, open dialogue, and a chance to connect with fellow creatives

Whether you’re a designer, artist, technologist, or simply curious about the evolving role of AI in art and design, this event is meant to spark ideas, encourage exploration, and highlight the ways design, creativity and technology can work together.
Come meet the team, test the tools, and explore what’s possible when human imagination meets intelligent design.

Build Less, Solve More: Where Accurate Data Informs Efficient Design
2025-06-05 16:30 - 18:30 | Ocean Plant, 800 Great Highway, San Francisco, CA, 800 Great Hwy, San Francisco, California, 94121, United States
In a world of over-designed solutions, what if the best answer is to do less, and do it smarter?
Hosted by MKThink, a pioneer in innovative spatial design for over 25 years, this talk, and interactive workshop explores the power of accurate as a lever for design impact.
Rooted in the firm’s Build Less, Solve More (BLSM) philosophy, the session examines how data, cultural context, and environmental intelligence can drive decisions that reduce physical footprint while increasing value across social, environmental, and financial dimensions.
Attendees will hear from MKThink’s design and spatial intelligence leaders as they share recent, local case studies:

How Stanford Law School identified the equivalent of 81,000 sq ft of new classroom space, without building, through utilization modeling and environmental benchmarking.
How LBNL’s Efficient & Healthy Schools Campaign achieved up to 30.7% energy reduction and 48.5% air quality improvement with targeted retrofits, not renovations.

Participants will then roll up their sleeves in a collaborative workshop. The challenge? Reframe a spatial problem through the lens of build less, solve more. With guidance from MKThink’s structured spatial analytics model and CARD standards (Clarity, Accuracy, Relevance, Defensibility), teams will shift from “What should we add?” to “What can we solve by building less?”
Event Agenda:

Welcoming and Networking: 4:30 to 4:50
MKThink Team’s Presentation: 4:50 to 5:15
Hands-on Workshop: 5:15 to 6:00
Closing and Networking: 6:00 to 6:30

This session is for designers, architects, planners, strategists, and systems thinkers looking to increase their impact, while reducing their footprint. It offers real tools and real metrics, guided by the idea that just enough is a feast.

Echoes of Future Matter: A Panel on Co-Invention and Material Futures
2025-06-05 17:00 - 18:00 | Diaspora Hub, 221 11th Street, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
Panel Description:
How do we design for a world that doesn’t yet exist? In this interdisciplinary panel, creators and technologists from the Echoes of Future Matter exhibition come together to explore the evolving relationship between materiality, emerging technologies, and speculative design. Rooted in San Francisco’s layered ecological and cultural contexts, this panel invites reflection on how design can move beyond aesthetics to act as a speculative and systems-based tool for transformation.
Moderated by architect and educator Andrei Hakhovich (Gradient Matter), the discussion will feature:

Alexey Dubov, Co-Founder of BuildTech VC and Mighty Buildings, pioneer in 3D-printed sustainable housing;
Daghan Cam, Co-Founder of Aibuild, known for AI-driven robotic fabrication;
Oluseun Taiwo, Co-Founder of Solideon, a startup behind autonomous micro-factories;
Damaso Mayer, Founder of Estudio Material, artistic and design practice is defined by an exploration of often overlooked and raw materials;
Thom Faulders, founder of Faulders Studio, an award-winning, multidisciplinary architecture and design practice based in Oakland, California.
To anchor the dialogue in practice, each panelist will contribute a tangible design piece or artifact from their work.

Together, they will share insights into how design and technology co-evolve in practice—from robotic additive manufacturing and generative tools to embodied craft processes—and how these collaborations generate new modes of making and meaning.
Attendees will leave with a broadened view of how architecture, objects, and spatial experiences can become instruments for ecological intelligence, poetic speculation, and creative provocation.
Panel Format:
Moderated conversation followed by a 15-minute audience Q&A.
Target Audience:
Designers, architects, technologists, artists, researchers, and anyone interested in the future of making.
Learning Outcomes:
• Understand how digital and manual fabrication techniques can be hybridized.
• Gain insight into how emerging technologies are transforming the material landscape.
• Learn how speculative design can drive cross-disciplinary innovation.
• Explore new models for collaboration between designers, technologists, and investors.

Mid-Career Reset: Design an energizing af work/life
2025-06-05 17:00 - 19:00 | The Nook SF, The Nook SF, San Francisco, CA, California, 94103, United States
Is this you?
“Work is fine, but I feel like I’m meant to do more…”
“I wanna do something that’s more meaningful to me…”
“Am I really maximizing my potential? How would I even know?”
“I worked so hard to be here but do I wanna keep going in this direction?”

You’ve checked the boxes, climbed the ladders, and built a career you should be proud of—yet lately, it feels like you’re running on autopilot.
You’re waking up uninspired, drained, or quietly wondering, “Is this really it?” You’re craving deeper self-expression, creativity, and creative entrepreneurship. The call for reform in your work and life is clear, but you’re uncertain and haven’t made the space to explore.
You hear a persistent whisper that something more vibrant, meaningful, and genuinely exciting awaits 🖼️
Join us during SF Design Week for a dynamic, interactive workshop rooted in the 2025 theme of “Reform,” specifically designed for ambitious creative professionals ready to reformulate their careers, reclaim their spark, and intentionally design a work/life that genuinely energizes the f out of them ⚡️
In this workshop, you will:

Discover clues about what truly lights you up, reigniting your passion and energy.
Dream big and craft an expansive vision for your next meaningful chapter.
Address and overcome limiting beliefs, creating empowering new narratives for yourself.
Develop a clear, actionable plan to bring your vision to life.
Connect deeply with a community of supportive, like-minded professionals committed to meaningful reform in their careers and lives.

Expect honest conversations, insightful exercises, and actionable takeaways that empower you to confidently make your next bold move toward reform.
Who should attend:
Mid-career creatives, designers, marketers, entrepreneurs, and multi-hyphenates who:

Desire an intentional, authentic career path centered around continuous growth and meaningful reform.
Seek work/life that fuels their creativity, aligns deeply with their personal values, and inspires ongoing reform.
Crave a community of supportive peers committed to reforming and designing vibrant, fulfilling work/lives.

Outline
5-5.30pm: Doors open, bites & intentional connections
5:30 – 7:00pm: Workshop
Who’s leading the workshop?
This workshop is hosted by Space to Grow’s founder & coach, Tina Yip.
Tina is a coach, community builder, and creator who focuses on the future of work and personal development. She’s been featured in Randi Zuckerberg’s book Pick Three, Campaign US, Adweek, and spoken at Her Conference, Youth Marketing Summit, Pattern Brands and more. She’s also hosted and organized over 200+ events that range from conferences and hackathons to safe rooms and a brunch series, all intentionally designed for folks to feel, connect, and learn.
After spending the last decade as a brand strategist at agencies such as R/GA and Big Spaceship, working on brands like Google, Samsung, and Mastercard, she realized that what she cared most about was people. Bringing people together, maximizing their human potential, rethinking their relationship with work, and challenging societal norms so that they can thrive.
*****
Your mid-career moment is your opportunity for meaningful reform—let’s design your next vibrant chapter together 🖼️
Space is limited. Reserve your spot today and start your mid-career reset!

Opening Night Reception: Show of Hands Art Exhibition
2025-06-05 17:00 - 19:00 | Heath Ceramics Showroom Gallery, 2900 18th Street, San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
Show of Hands Artist Showcase
Presented by Heath Ceramics
Heath Ceramics is excited to announce Show of Hands, a showcase of new works curated by Clay Studio Director Tung Chiang. As part of Heath’s month-long Design Made Good celebration, this event highlights a range of artists whose work explores new possibilities in material, process, and perspective.
Hosted within Heath San Francisco’s intimate gallery space, Show of Hands offers a unique opportunity to embrace unfamiliar experiences and outlooks; to see and feel how a group of groundbreaking artists interpret, navigate, and ultimately shape the world around them by hand.
Engage with artists at different points in their journey—some just starting out, others evolving their practice—each bringing something new through clay, paint, textiles, metal, and more. Despite their varied backgrounds, all share a commitment to making by hand and a respect for the traditions that inform their work.

Meet the Featured Artists

Ayano Shioya
Brendan Monroe
Brian Madden
Max Frommeld
Rafi Ajl
Sarah Wertzberger

Curated by Tung Chiang
Since 2013, Tung Chiang has led the Heath Clay Studio, a small team of artisans who push the field of ceramics forward through experimentation with form, glaze, and technique. With a background in graphic and industrial design—and a lifelong passion for craft—Tung’s practice is rooted in observation, discovery, and a belief in the quiet power of objects that speak for themselves.
Tung took a deeply personal approach to curating Show of Hands, hand-selecting a diverse group of artists who—across a range of backgrounds and disciplines—challenge convention and offer a refreshing perspective on craft. His curation reflects a blend of creative curiosity, thoughtful execution, and a dedication to uplifting new and exciting artistic voices.

Opening Night Reception
Thursday, June 5 · 5–7pm
Join the artists and the Heath team for an evening of art, conversation, and community.
Exhibition Details
June 5–22, 2025
Heath Showroom Gallery, 2900 18th Street, San Francisco

Additional events for Design Made Good Month
The Good Flea: A curated vintage market
June 14 & 15
As part of Heath’s month-long Design Made Good celebration, The Good Flea complements the Show of Hands artist showcase by bridging the gap between design’s past and present—and building excitement for what’s on the horizon.
The Good Flea is Heath’s take on a classic flea market, offering visitors a chance to shop a wide selection of rare and interesting antiques pulled from the private collections of expert curators, vendors, and creative leaders. This group—assembled by Clay Studio Director Tung Chiang—will bring not only hand-chosen vintage finds, but also a deep well of knowledge on design and craft history.
Hosted within Heath’s SF tile factory, The Good Flea showcases objects that span eras and styles—including some special finds from Heath’s archive! Enthusiasts, collectors, and connoisseurs are invited to discover unique, curated vintage pieces in an energetic, community-driven space.
The Good Flea is not just a market—it’s an opportunity to discover and connect with design history. Don’t miss the chance to explore rare finds and meet the experts behind them!

Studio Crawl Night 2 - Thursday, June 5th
2025-06-05 19:00 - 21:30 | California
Deepen Your Connection With the SF Design Community.
Continue your exploration of San Francisco’s vibrant design scene with the second night of our Studio Crawl. This event offers One Pass holders another opportunity to discover new studios, see design in action, and meet the creators behind innovative projects.
What’s Happening?
The selection process is still underway as the San Francisco Design Week team carefully curates a lineup of participating studios. Please check back on this page soon to see the updated list of studios and access the map detailing their locations.
Stay Updated: Keep this page on your radar for the latest updates and prepare for another enriching evening of design exploration.

*Picture created by Vince Cimo at Empowered Streaming

Whipsaw Open Studio
55 Mississippi St, San Francisco, CA 94107
Join the Whipsaw team at our studio in Potrero Hill. See the light-filled industrial-chic space, enjoy our product gallery, and meet members of the team. We’re looking forward to seeing you in person!

Licorice Chocolate Tasting @ Norden Living
2865 18th St, San Francisco, CA 94110
In Scandinavia, chocolate and licorice are two great tastes that taste great together. This intriguing combination, first developed in Iceland, is showcased beautifully by Danish confectioner Lakrids by Bülow. Stop by Norden Living to sample sweet or salty licorice wrapped in luxurious chocolate, some with complementary flavors like passion fruit or raspberry. We’ll also be raffling off one of our showroom favorites: a Flowerpot VP9 portable lamp.

PA: Pay Attention!
517 York St, San Francisco, CA 94110
The PA design and engineering teams formerly known as Astro Studios and Cooper Perkins have joined forces under one roof. We’ve merged our SoMa and Mission locations and are now working together at 517 York Street! Join us for a studio warming to celebrate together and see what we’ve been working on. We’ll be showcasing our recent projects and combined global talent, skills, and capabilities. Have a drink on us and meet the new-ish team.

Small Team, Big Dreams: Designing Consumer Electronics with a 3-Person Studio
Nanu Studio – 1450 Mariposa St, San Francisco, CA 94107

Join us at the Nanu studio for a behind-the-scenes look at the journey of designing consumer electronics with a small but mighty team of three. We’ll delve into how we built Arc, a contemporary take on the classic alarm clock. We’ll walk through our sketches, prototypes, brand formation, and launch plan from initial concept to manufacturing. Whether you are an entrepreneur, seasoned designer, or just curious about the process of building consumer electronics, this event will share lessons learned from a team in the midst of it (we are launching Arc this summer)! We look forward to seeing you there 🙂

Faulkner Architects
2025-06-05 19:00 - 21:30 | Faulkner Architects, 603 Battery Street, San Francisco, California, 94111, United States
The Faulkner Architects design team invites you to an evening at our San Francisco studio to check out both past and present projects while enjoying refreshments.
Faulkner Architects was formed in 1998 by Greg Faulkner. The office remains as it began with Greg as the single principal who guides the design process for each project. A small staff works across three locations – San Francisco, Truckee, and Denver. The work of the practice exists along a varied range of typologies, from hospitality and institutional buildings (including master planning), to private houses and renovations.

Volume Inc.
2025-06-05 19:00 - 21:30 | Volume Inc, 725 Filbert St, San Francisco, CA, 94133, United States
Five-dimensional design for the three-dimensional world to cure one-dimensional thinking? Join Volume at their North Beach studio to learn about their specialty in place-based identities, branded environments, and other spatial activations. Plus: Free stuff!

Studio Hinrichs
2025-06-05 19:00 - 21:30 | Studio Hinrichs, 2064 Powell St, San Francisco, CA, 94133, United States
Kit Hinrichs
Principal and Creative Director of Studio Hinrichs, San Francisco
Kit Hinrichs studied at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California. He served as principal in several design offices in New York and San Francisco before spending 23 years (1986 – 2009) as a partner of Pentagram, the international consultancy. In 2009 Hinrichs opened an independent design firm in San Francisco called Studio Hinrichs. Kit’s design experience incorporates a wide range of projects, including identity design, corporate communications, promotion, packaging, editorial and exhibition design.
Read the interview we did with Kit at Design Bay Area: The Design Whisperer—Celebrating the Legacy of the Legendary Kit Hinrichs

Hinrichs is a recipient of the prestigious AIGA medal in recognition of his exceptional achievements in the field of graphic design and visual communication, and his work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Library of Congress. He is co-author of four books, including Typewise, Long May She Wave, 100 American Flag Icons and The Pentagram Papers.
A Point of View

“There are many passions in my professional life. The predominant one is telling stories. As a consequence, I have become an obsessive narrative designer. I find stories everywhere waiting to be told, and, fortunately, I have been able to do that through design. By story, I mean more than editorial content. I mean communicating a sense of the subject, albeit a client’s business and philosophy or an event, graphically through print, packaging, videos or environmental signage. For me, design, at its best, is a visual story with the same excitement, pacing and emotional power of a great play or musical composition. And like producing a play, design is not a solitary act, but a collaboration that requires inspiring the talent and spirit of writers, illustrators, photographers, typographers and technicians. A successful outcome demands a strong, clear, consistent focus so that all elements ’speak’ in a single voice that engages the audience.

Although I’ve worked on many high-profile projects, I strive to give equal attention to the more commonplace assignment. This is the visual minutiae—the directional signs, informational folders, video sign offs, product packaging, corporate collateral, etc.—that bombards us from all directions and impacts our collective culture. It is the face unaware that we present to the world. I feel it is the responsibility of those of us in the design profession to not treat this lightly. For me, the role of design is to make the complex, simple; the opaque, transparent; the unstructured, concrete; the obtuse, accessible, and the ordinary, beautiful. After 40 years of practice, I am still excited by that challenge and the possibilities it presents.“
—Kit Hinrichs

The New Company
2025-06-05 19:00 - 21:30 | The New Company, 2215 Powell St., San Francisco, CA, 94133, United States
We’re opening our doors for SF Design Week’s North Beach Studio Crawl. The team will be in the building, merch will be on the walls, with llloyd spinning records all night. Refreshments provided by Fort Point and Eteilla Wines, snacks curated by our very own Seth Mroczka, and maybe even a ‘big’ surprise.

Friends, collaborators, and curious strangers — all are welcome. It’s been a jam-packed year (so far), and we’re excited to celebrate, connect, and share our space with you.

The New Company is a Design and Marketing agency working with brands around the world to create forward-thinking creative solutions. Established in 2018 by Matt Luckhurst (ECD) and Seth Mroczka (President), The New Company works with category leaders and challengers to strategically articulate the company’s vision and story. We offer a unique breadth of capabilities that allow us to think through a brand’s unique challenges from concept through to execution. We believe strategic insights drive innovation, that creativity requires experimentation and a dedication to craft, and that delivering effective solutions on time and on budget is our responsibility to our clients.
Instagram: @thenewcompany

Rapt Studio Open House
2025-06-05 19:00 - 21:30 | Rapt Studio, 201 Post Street 7th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94108, CA, 94108, United States
Rapt is an integrated design studio building brands from the inside out.

Headquartered in San Francisco, with studios in Los Angeles and New York, Rapt unites architecture, interiors, and brand strategy to create unforgettable environments and experiences for some of the world’s leading brands.

Founded in 2011, the practice has delivered award-winning work for Google, Tinder, The North Face, Goop, Norwest, and Vans—projects recognized by Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, Interior Design’s Best of Year, the FRAME Awards, Dezeen, and the Top 100 Giants of Design list.

The studio’s portfolio spans hybrid campuses, hospitality-infused workplaces, immersive retail, and brand activations—each tailored to foster belonging and spark creativity.

Learn more about our CEO and Chief Creative Officer, David Galullo’s, recent induction into Interior Design’s Hall of Fame.

We’re excited to open our doors to the community and invite you to tour our space, meet other designers, and partake in some small cocktails, small bites, and small drawings.

The Scent of Nostalgia: A Living Green Wall Within Reach
2025-06-06 08:00 - 15:00 | Aura Tea and Coffee at Rincon Plaza, 101 Spear Street Suite B5, San Francisco, CA, 94105, United States
Presented by Ovata

Description:
What if a wall could carry memory, scent, and greenery—all at once?

Inspired by the traditional Korean 병풍 Byung-poong (folding screen) , Ovata presents a site-flexible installation: a portable living wall composed of hinged, frame-based panels filled with California native plants. Spread throughout the event venue, these sculptural pieces are more than dividers—they are multi-sensory green moments that offer a breath of nature, evoke regional nostalgia, and serve as quiet visual anchors within the event energy.

Each panel transforms the space with natural scents, living textures , and a subtle reference to the cultural practice of honoring people and place. Think of it as a living scroll of memory and nature —brought into the present.

Rather than serving as a static backdrop, this installation gently guides the flow of people , encouraging organic circulation while shaping cozy niches for gathering, pausing, and connecting. Like a breeze through a forest, its layout invites movement and mingling while offering soft, intimate pockets of calm

Schedule:
No fixed schedule. The green wall installation is designed to be explored freely throughout the venue during the event.
This is a self-guided, standalone installation —no formal presentation.

Bonus Features:
– Portable green wall panels placed throughout the venue
– Designed with California native species
– QR codes on each panel to explore featured plants and their ecological stories
– Subtle natural fragrance in the air
– Visual and spatial flexibility to frame or divide areas
– Inspired by 병풍(Byung-poong) , traditional Korean folding screens

SFDW Co-Working Space with Rivian X Design Bay Area
2025-06-06 09:00 - 18:00, 2025-06-07 09:00 - 18:00, 2025-06-08 09:00 - 18:00, 2025-06-09 09:00 - 18:00 | Rivian, 340 Fell St, San Francisco, CA, 94102, United States
Need a workspace during SF Design Week? The Rivian Space in Hayes Valley is opening as a co-working studio with free, strong Wi-Fi and complimentary morning coffee. Plus, when you’re done working, you can get an up-close look at Rivian’s electric adventure vehicles—explore the features and even take one for a spin.

re*form - Panel Discussion with Carolyn Flannery & Susie Novak
2025-06-06 10:00 - 11:00 | Make It Home Warehouse, Northgate Mall in San Rafael, San Rafael, California, 94903, United States
Event Overview:
Make It Home is excited to present re*form, a full-day immersive event celebrating the power of design to transform spaces and lives. Rooted in sustainability and social impact, re•form aligns with SF Design Week’s mission to highlight the unique intersection of ideas, design, business, and entrepreneurism that defines the Bay Area. Through interactive experiences, discussions, and a curated pop-up shop, attendees will explore how repurposed materials and thoughtful design can shape the future of interiors.
10:00 PM – 11:00 AM Panel Discussion with Carolyn Flannery & Susie Novak
A thought-provoking conversation featuring Make It Home’s founder, Carolyn Flannery, alongside a Bay Area Designer Susie Novak. The discussion will delve into the intersection of sustainability, high design, and community impact.
Visit our other events:
10:00 AM – 4PM Curated Pop-Up Shop
A unique shopping experience featuring Make It Home’s beautifully curated furniture and decor, alongside pieces from local artisans. Guests can explore one-of-a-kind finds while enjoying a glass of champagne.
11:00 AM – 1:00PM Upcycling Workshop with Cris
A hands-on session led by Cris, our in house upholstery expert, guiding participants through the art of upcycling and furniture transformation. (Limited to 6 participants)

Interactive Wearables Workshop in CCA’s Hybrid Lab
2025-06-06 10:00 - 12:30 | California College of the Art’s Hybrid Lab (D104), Simpson Family Makers Building, 145 Hooper Street, San Francisco, 94107, California College of the Art’s Hybrid Lab (D104), Simpson Family Makers Building, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Calling all tinkerers, makers, hackers, artists, designers, and creative technologists. Spend time in the California College of the Arts (CCA) Hybrid Lab, an interactive electronic makerspace where students explore their artistic voice by prototyping designs with sensors, motors, creative coding, AI, and much more! No experience is necessary—just bring your curiosity!
In this hands-on session, you’ll learn to program your very own interactive DIY wristwatch. You’ll walk away with the M5StickC PLUS 2, a palm‑sized IoT development kit with a built-in LCD screen, buzzer, button, microphone, gyroscope, and much more—all at your disposal to customize and interact with. This device empowers you to reform your own technology– programming it to do whatever you want it to!
Hosted by the Design Division and led by CCA creative technologist Romy Aboudarham, this workshop features custom materials and prototyping design principles taught in the Hybrid Lab, developed in collaboration with faculty member Dr. Sudhu Tewari.
For guests who want to continue tinkering and playing with the device, we highly encourage you to bring your own laptop (PC or MAC). If you are bringing your own computer, you will need to download the Arduino Software beforehand.
We will have Mac laptops with the software ready to go for those who prefer just to show up and play. For those who get the programming bug, you can always download the software in your own time after the workshop.
Workshop Fee: $50 per person. Attendees will take home a DIY interactive watch programmed with Arduino software!
These workshop sessions are designed for kids and adults who are comfortable navigating and troubleshooting computers.

Hosted by California College of the Art’s Design Division.
California College of the Arts cultivates ideas, industry, and impact in the progressive San Francisco Bay Area, educating our students as global changemakers through purposeful practice and critical discourse. The Design Division at CCA advances contemporary practice by positioning the designer as a dynamic agent of cultural, social, and ecological change.
Romy Aboudarham is a creative technologist and immersive designer. They have a B.S. in Computer Science from Tufts University School of Engineering. They’re passionate about exploring how we can use technology as a tool for empathy-driven storytelling and deepening our connection with ourselves and others. Romy has a wide range of art and tech skills on their toolbelt, creating historical walking tours in Augmented Reality, therapeutic experiences about grief in Virtual Reality, and countless interactive digital and physical prototypes, as the manager of CCA’s Hybrid Lab.
Dr. Sudhu Tewari is an electro-acoustic composer, improvisor, and bricoleur in sound, kinetic, and interactive art. He holds a B.A. in Music from Sonoma State University, an M.F.A. in Electronic Music and Recording Technology from Mills College, and a Ph.D. in Cultural Musicology from UC Santa Cruz. His passion for design, re-design, and recuperation has led to the creation of experimental musical instruments, kinetic sculptures, interactive installations, audio electronics, and wearable sound art.

re*form - Curated Pop-Up Shop
2025-06-06 10:00 - 16:00 | Make It Home Warehouse, Northgate Mall in San Rafael, San Rafael, California, 94903, United States
A unique shopping experience featuring Make It Home’s beautifully curated furniture and decor, alongside pieces from local artisans. Guests can explore one-of-a-kind finds while enjoying a glass of champagne.
Event Overview:
Make It Home is excited to present re*form, a full-day immersive event celebrating the power of design to transform spaces and lives. Rooted in sustainability and social impact, re•form aligns with SF Design Week’s mission to highlight the unique intersection of ideas, design, business, and entrepreneurism that defines the Bay Area. Through interactive experiences, discussions, and a curated pop-up shop, attendees will explore how repurposed materials and thoughtful design can shape the future of interiors.

Visit our Other events:
11:00 AM – 1:00PM Upcycling Workshop with Cris
A hands-on session led by Cris, our in house upholstery expert, guiding participants through the art of upcycling and furniture transformation. (Limited to 6 participants)
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Panel Discussion with Carolyn Flannery & Susie Novak
A thought-provoking conversation featuring Make It Home’s founder, Carolyn Flannery, alongside a Bay Area Designer Susie Novak. The discussion will delve into the intersection of sustainability, high design, and community impact.

Show of Hands Art Exhibition at Heath Ceramics
2025-06-06 10:00 - 17:00 | Heath Ceramics Showroom Gallery, 2900 18th Street, San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
Show of Hands Artist Showcase
Presented by Heath Ceramics
Heath Ceramics is excited to announce Show of Hands, a showcase of new works curated by Clay Studio Director Tung Chiang. As part of Heath’s month-long Design Made Good celebration, this event highlights a range of artists whose work explores new possibilities in material, process, and perspective.
Hosted within Heath San Francisco’s intimate gallery space, Show of Hands offers a unique opportunity to embrace unfamiliar experiences and outlooks; to see and feel how a group of groundbreaking artists interpret, navigate, and ultimately shape the world around them by hand.
Engage with artists at different points in their journey—some just starting out, others evolving their practice—each bringing something new through clay, paint, textiles, metal, and more. Despite their varied backgrounds, all share a commitment to making by hand and a respect for the traditions that inform their work.

Meet the Featured Artists

Ayano Shioya
Brendan Monroe
Brian Madden
Max Frommeld
Rafi Ajl
Sarah Wertzberger

Curated by Tung Chiang

Since 2013, Tung Chiang has led the Heath Clay Studio, a small team of artisans who push the field of ceramics forward through experimentation with form, glaze, and technique. With a background in graphic and industrial design—and a lifelong passion for craft—Tung’s practice is rooted in observation, discovery, and a belief in the quiet power of objects that speak for themselves.
Tung took a deeply personal approach to curating Show of Hands, hand-selecting a diverse group of artists who—across a range of backgrounds and disciplines—challenge convention and offer a refreshing perspective on craft. His curation reflects a blend of creative curiosity, thoughtful execution, and a dedication to uplifting new and exciting artistic voices.

Exhibition Details
June 6–22, 2025
Heath Showroom Gallery, 2900 18th Street, San Francisco
Monday–Friday 10am–6pm
Saturday–Sunday 10am–5pm
Opening Night Reception
Thursday, June 5 · 5–7pm
Join the artists and the Heath team for an evening of art, conversation, and community.

Additional events for Design Made Good Month
The Good Flea: A curated vintage market
June 14 & 15
As part of Heath’s month-long Design Made Good celebration, The Good Flea complements the Show of Hands artist showcase by bridging the gap between design’s past and present—and building excitement for what’s on the horizon.
The Good Flea is Heath’s take on a classic flea market, offering visitors a chance to shop a wide selection of rare and interesting antiques pulled from the private collections of expert curators, vendors, and creative leaders. This group—assembled by Clay Studio Director Tung Chiang—will bring not only hand-chosen vintage finds, but also a deep well of knowledge on design and craft history.
Hosted within Heath’s SF tile factory, The Good Flea showcases objects that span eras and styles—including some special finds from Heath’s archive! Enthusiasts, collectors, and connoisseurs are invited to discover unique, curated vintage pieces in an energetic, community-driven space.
The Good Flea is not just a market—it’s an opportunity to discover and connect with design history. Don’t miss the chance to explore rare finds and meet the experts behind them!

Designing the Future of Aging
2025-06-06 10:15 - 12:30 | IDEO.org, 320 Florida St, San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
We are in the midst of a longevity revolution. This isn’t just about longer lifespans; it’s about living those years more fully. The number of people over 80 globally is projected to triple between 2020 and 2050. As this population expands, so does the diversity of their preferences, interests, passions, and ambitions. They are not a monolithic group defined solely by age, but a vibrant tapestry of individuals.
So, with that, how can we design for a future that celebrates that complexity?
Join us for a hands-on workshop where creativity meets foresight. AGE OF_ and Near Future Laboratory will guide participants through design fiction methodologies—a unique, immersive approach that brings imagined futures to life through artifacts, storytelling, and scenario-building. Together, we’ll explore the cultural, technological, and emotional shifts reshaping the aging experience and prototype future products, services, and narratives that challenge the status quo.
This is more than a conversation—it’s a collaborative act of future-making. Let’s stretch our imaginations, spark unconventional thinking, and design a world where getting older unlocks new possibilities.
Join us to make “better with age” not just a mindset—but a movement.

One-of-a-Kind: Make It, Wear It! Embellishment workshop with fashion faculty at California College of the Arts.
2025-06-06 10:30 - 12:30, 2025-06-06 14:00 - 16:00 | California College of the Arts, Nave, California College of the Arts, Nave, 145 Hooper Street, San Francisco, California, 94107, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Join California College of the Arts (CCA) and CCA’s Design Division’s Fashion Faculty members Greg Climer and Zoe Cobb for a hands-on embellishment workshop at CCA’s new campus, where creativity meets craft to celebrate local design and making. This two-hour session invites you to create a one-of-a-kind embellished t-shirt or to apply the same techniques to a personal garment ( e.g., a basic tote bag or a sturdy button-up shirt).
The workshop includes demonstrations and guided instruction on a range of techniques:

Learn intro techniques for hand embroidery, including visible mending, and continue your embellishment journey at home.
Zoe Cobb will demonstrate the chain stitch embroidery machine and assist guests in placing a name or word into bold, stitched graphics.
Greg Climer will demonstrate the heat press, share materials and methods for applying foil and fabric appliques so you can make your own one-of-a-kind design.

All tools and materials are provided, including a high-quality cotton t-shirt (sizes requested during registration). Guests are also welcome to bring a basic cotton tote-bag or a sturdy shirt of their own to customize.
Workshop Fee: $30 per person. Attendees will leave with a custom-decorated shirt using heat press and chain stitch embroidery!

California College of the Arts cultivates ideas, industry, and impact in the progressive San Francisco Bay Area, educating our students as global changemakers through purposeful practice and critical discourse. The Design Division at CCA advances contemporary practice by positioning the designer as a dynamic agent of cultural, social, and ecological change.
Zoe Cobb is a Senior Professor in the Fashion Department at California College of the Arts, where she teaches at the intersection of craft, design, and storytelling. With nearly 20 years of experience, she focuses on hands-on techniques like pattern making, draping, and chain-stitch embroidery, drawing on her background in both fashion and interior design. Inspired by nature and music, Zoe brings a sense of rhythm and sustainability to her creative practice, fostering a playful, process-focused environment that encourages curiosity, experimentation, and the joy of making by hand.
Greg Climer is the chair of the fashion program at California College of the Arts and chair of the board of directors at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. Climer’s textile work has been shown in the Museum of Art and Design (NYC), The Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art (NYC), The DeYoung Museum (San Francisco, CA), The Mint Museum of Art (Charlotte, NC), The Museum of Craft and Design (San Francisco, CA), the International Fibre Art Triennial 2019, and many galleries. In addition to being an artist, he is also a fashion designer. He has worked on the design teams for the Victoria’s Secret Runway Show, Karl Lagerfeld, Imitation of Christ, John Bartlett, and many Broadway shows and movies.

Designing from the Land: Fire Resilience Through Architecture and Landscape
2025-06-06 11:00 - 13:00 | 1 Hotel San Francisco, 8 Mission St, San Francisco 94105, California, 94105, United States
Designing from the Land: Fire Resilience Through Architecture and Landscape
Presented by Backen & Backen in partnership with Design Bay Area and 1 Hotel San Francisco for SF Design Week 2025
Event Series Overview:
This is the first in a series of co-branded events with Backen & Backen and Design Bay Area. This series will consist of multiple events throughout the year, each focusing on a specific aspect of design and its future implications: LAND, BODY, BUILDING.
Event Overview:
As climate and fire risks intensify, the practice of how we build must evolve, and our relationship with where we build must follow. What does it mean to design from the land—not just on it?
In a time of increasing climate volatility and wildfire risk, this conversation explores how fire-adapted design can emerge from a deeper relationship with place. Rather than imposing resilience from the top down, we’ll ask how the land itself can shape design—through its vegetation, water cycles, cultural memory, and regenerative potential. We’ll explore the tension between human intervention and letting nature lead, and how landscape, vegetation, and site planning can create a future where buildings are more deeply attuned to the land they inhabit.
Moderator:

Heather Sandy Hebert – Author and Founder of True North Creative Studio

Panelists

Colby Eierman – Director of Gardens, Stone Edge Farm; Author and garden consultant
Carson Howell Costa – Regenerative Practices Department, Backen & Backen
Lucas Dexter – President, DEXTER estate landscapes
Johnson Bullard – Partner and Studio Director of Ground Studio

re*form - Upcycling workshop with Make It Home
2025-06-06 11:00 - 13:00 | Make It Home Warehouse, Northgate Mall in San Rafael, San Rafael, California, 94903, United States
Morning Workshop with Cris
A hands-on session led by Cris, our in house upholstery expert, guiding participants through the art of upcycling and furniture transformation. (Limited to 6 participants)

Event Overview:
Make It Home is excited to present re*form, a full-day immersive event celebrating the power of design to transform spaces and lives. Rooted in sustainability and social impact, re•form aligns with SF Design Week’s mission to highlight the unique intersection of ideas, design, business, and entrepreneurism that defines the Bay Area. Through interactive experiences, discussions, and a curated pop-up shop, attendees will explore how repurposed materials and thoughtful design can shape the future of interiors.
Visit our Other events:
Curated Pop-Up Shop (Open All Day)
A unique shopping experience featuring Make It Home’s beautifully curated furniture and decor, alongside pieces from local artisans. Guests can explore one-of-a-kind finds while enjoying a glass of champagne.
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Panel Discussion with Carolyn Flannery & Susie Novak
A thought-provoking conversation featuring Make It Home’s founder, Carolyn Flannery, alongside a Bay Area Designer Susie Novak. The discussion will delve into the intersection of sustainability, high design, and community impact.

Participatory Experiential Futures: Co-designing technology for human-centered public services
2025-06-06 13:15 - 15:30 | Mindspace San Francisco, 575 Market St., San Francisco, California, 94105, United States
At CivicMakers, we’ve been using Participatory Experiential Futures (PXF) with government partners across the state. Through a series of workshops, we’ve explored whether AI can elevate lived experience in program and policy design. These immersive simulations have given us tons of insights for how government decision-makers would use AI to inform design decisions, and how people accessing public services would want to be represented by these technologies.
This is where YOU come in…help us design how that technology looks, feels, and behaves by experiencing our “Ridiculously Hopeful Future” of human-centered government in California! A future where the voices of end users have a seat at the table through speculative technology and deeply collaborative co-design processes.
You will step into a future meeting and test out the new proposals, desired features and critical nuances we’ve gathered. Bring your conscious design skills to reshape better outcomes for public services. And don’t forget to wear your comfiest time travel uniform!
Event schedule:

Introductions & Orientation to Time Travel – 15 min
Immersive Experiential Future (AI for better public services) – 30 min
Step Back into the Present and Reflect – 15 min
Co-design Charrette (with insights from civic partners) – 45 min
Debrief & Next Steps – 15 min

Your participation could improve public service delivery experiences for the people who need them most. We look forward to co-designing with you!

Interactive Wearables Workshop in CCA’s Hybrid Lab
2025-06-06 13:30 - 16:00 | California College of the Art’s Hybrid Lab (D104), Simpson Family Makers Building, California College of the Art’s Hybrid Lab (D104), Simpson Family Makers Building, 145 Hooper Street, San Francisco, 94107, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States

Join us! Designing AI-Powered Ads with TikTok
2025-06-06 14:00 - 16:00 | TikTok San Jose Office, 1199 Coleman Ave, San Jose, CA, California, 95110, United States
Agenda:
2:00 PM – 2:15 PM | Check-in & Networking

2:15 PM – 2:30 PM | Opening Speech – Welcome remarks from Jingxi Li, Head of Design.

2:30 PM – 3:15 PM | Presentation:

GenAI for Video Ads: Tackling Creative Fatigue with Scalable Design – Eva Luo, Design Manager, GenAI

How we designed a GenAI product for video ads to help advertisers overcome creative fatigue, using the Double Diamond process to craft scalable, elegant patterns within model constraints.

Designing for Tomorrow: An AI Designer’s Journey – Justin Ma, Lead Product Designer

A presentation about working in the AI landscape, focusing on conversational AI and its implications for the role of designers.

Scaling with Intelligence: How a Design System Prepares Products for the AI Era – Yuhan Wu, Design Manager, Design System

Discover how TikTok’s Keystone design system helps business products scale with clarity and adaptability while evolving to meet AI-driven demands.

3:15 PM – 3:45 PM | Hiring Manager Share-out: Future-Ready Talent – Current openings and key mindsets for success with Chris Tompkins, Jianzhou Song, Landi Yu, and Justin Gabbard

3:45 PM – 4:00 PM | Q&A

Melina Finkelstein Rug Co.Labs Pop Up at Flora Grubb
2025-06-06 15:30 - 18:30 | Flora Grubb Gardens, Flora Grubb Gardens, San Francisco, California, 94124, United States
Melina Finkelstein Rug Co.Labs is popping up at Flora Grubb Gardens. Melina Finkelstein, formerly of Peace Industry, will be showing new felt rug collections in collaboration with Jen Garrido and K’era Morgan, two California painters and textile designers. She will talk about her residency in Nepal and how she taught her new team of women artisans the unusual art of felt rug making keeping it alive for old and new audiences.
3:30pm: refreshments and networking
4:30pm: Melina talks about her rug work in Nepal and new collaborative projects with other local artists.
5pm: informal conversations
6:30pm: event ends

The Right to Create: A Design Week Happy Hour at Creativity Explored
2025-06-06 15:30 - 18:30 | Creativity Explored, 3245 16th Street, SAN FRANCISCO, California, 94103, United States
Celebrate community, creativity, and connection at Creativity Explored—a trailblazing progressive art studio that partners with artists with developmental disabilities. As part of San Francisco Design Week, we’re hosting a vibrant happy hour and mixer in our award-winning studio space—voted Best Gallery and Best Nonprofit in the Bay!
Mix and mingle with fellow creatives, designers, and art lovers while surrounded by powerful, original artwork by CE’s neurodiverse artists. Enjoy drinks, light bites, music, and the inspiring energy of a space that’s been championing inclusion, self-expression, and dignity in the arts since 1983.
On view: Main Characters, an exhibition highlighting a wide selection of ceramic sculptures from Creativity Explored’s archive.Plus: Special behind-the-scenes access to pieces from our archive—a unique chance to view and purchase rare artworks not regularly on display.
Whether you’re curious about our mission, eager to connect with the local design community, or just want to toast to creativity in a dynamic setting—you’re invited to join the celebration.

Creative Happy Hour: Cheers to SF Design Week at CCA’s New Campus
2025-06-06 16:00 - 18:00 | California College of the Arts, Simpson Family Makers Building, Upper Level, California College of the Arts, Simpson Family Makers Building, Upper Level, 145 Hooper Street, San Francisco, 94107, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Join CreativeMornings San Francisco and the Design Division at California College of the Arts (CCA) for an inspiring early evening of connection, conversation, and creativity.

This social happy hour brings together designers, architects, artists, and makers from across disciplines to spark ideas, meet new collaborators, and celebrate the end of SF Design Week in style. Alongside the presentations, there will be a DJ, light bites, and a bar serving wine, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages.
We’ll kick things off with three provocative lightning talks on re-forming design practice from:

GRL GRP – a feminist-inspired design collective
Amy Karle – bio-artist and futurist exploring the intersections of technology and humanity
Jo Marini – (big) systems thinker + doer specializing in systemic transformation of legacy industries.

Come for the inspiration, stay for the people. Drinks, good vibes, and fresh ideas await.
Hosted by California College of the Art’s Design Division.
California College of the Arts cultivates ideas, industry, and impact in the progressive San Francisco Bay Area, educating our students as global changemakers through purposeful practice and critical discourse. The Design Division at CCA advances contemporary practice by positioning the designer as a dynamic agent of cultural, social, and ecological change.
Creative Mornings is the world’s largest creative community; hosting local chapter events in cities around the world every Friday, Virtual FieldTrips every week, and job postings and company profiles via the CreativeGuild.
GRL GRP is the feminist-inspired, collective design practice of Sarah Chieko-Bonnickson, Abigayle Cosinuke, Ashlyn Jackson, Chloe Looker, and Meg Quarton aimed at making space for women to lead, not just produce in the field of design. GRP GRP thinks about reform through a multifaceted lens, including materials, process, and attitude. Operating in a non-hierarchical structure rooted in empathy, they blend craft-based techniques with digital tools, using a highly collaborative and iterative process in which there is no single author.
Amy Karle is an internationally award-winning artist and futurist working at the intersection of digital, physical, and biological systems. She has exhibited in 54 international shows, including at the Centre Pompidou, Mori Art Museum, the Smithsonian, and Ars Electronica and was named one of the BBC’s 100 most inspiring women and “Most Influential Women in 3D Printing,” Her work invites reflection on what it means to be human in a tech-driven future, aiming to inspire, provoke, and pioneer in the fields of bioart, contemporary art, and healthcare innovation.
Jo Marini is a 4x founder, MBA professor, United States Air Force Academy graduate, and IndieBio NY alum who specializes in systemic transformation within legacy industries. She is also a NYC EDC/NewLab Founder Fellow and co-founder of Mothership Materials, a biomanufacturing startup using Targeted Molecular Recovery to sort ag & food wastes into feedstocks that power the foods, fuels, and fabrics of our future. Alongside her entrepreneurial ventures, Jo teaches Venture Studio in the MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts, guiding students through the capstone course focused on turning ideas into viable companies.

Bould Design 30th Anniversary Open Studio
2025-06-06 16:15 - 18:30 | Bould Design Studio, 1135 North Amphlett Blvd, San Mateo, California, 94401, United States
Join us as we celebrate 30 years of innovation at Bould Design! Our open studio event is your chance to meet our team, mix and mingle with other designers while enjoying delicious appetizers and beverages. We look forward to welcoming you!
We’re a San Francisco based design studio offering a range of services to hardware companies including industrial design, branding and identity, packaging design, packaging design, product visualization and engineering support.

Social Justice Design Tour: Meet the innovative architects and partners behind the new Restorative Justice Hub in SOMA
2025-06-06 17:45 - 19:15 | Community Works SF Office at 986 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94103, 986 Mission St., San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
How can we use space for healing? We invite mission-driven designers and allies to join us at Designing Justice + Designing Spaces’ recently completed restorative justice space for Community Works in SF’s SOMA district to learn about the community-engaged process and innovative partnerships that made it happen! In this volatile time when justice is under attack, it is more important than ever that we shine a light on stories of hope, creativity, and collaboration in our industry and beyond.
DJDS is an architecture and real estate firm harnessing the power of the built environment to end mass incarceration. After 25 years of transforming lives in the Bay Area through programs rooted in humanity and healing, Community Works partnered with DJDS to establish its first San Francisco office—a dedicated home for critical services that support people at every stage of involvement in the justice system, from prevention to reentry. The 6,000-square-foot sanctuary represents a radical alternative to the criminal legal system; instead, it provides an empowering space where individuals can thrive and feel safe.
At this event, you’ll have the opportunity to see, touch, and experience trauma-informed design in action, and meet the cross-sector team that made this innovative project possible, including industry leaders such as Turner Construction. We’ll share more about how we were able to collaborate with values-aligned partners at every stage of the project, from acoustical engineering to custom furnishings. The event will kick off with tours and a cocktail reception, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with key partners, including:

Deanna-Van Buren, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Designing Justice + Designing Spaces
Adrienne Hogg, Co-Executive Director, Community Works
Chelsea Wong, Project Manager, Turner Construction
Emily Pilloton-Lam, Founder and Executive Director, Girls Garage
Sasha Plotitsa, Founder and CEO, The Formr
Rashanda Udekwu, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Waymo (Formerly of CRI)

Event Surprise! We will unveil a limited-edition furniture piece designed by DJDS and Formr. Proceeds will benefit A New Way of Life, a nonprofit organization that provides housing and support for formerly incarcerated women.

Photo: Jordan Park

Sound Memories: A Global Dialogue on Preserving Memory Through Sound
2025-06-06 17:45 - 20:45 | Swissnex in San Francisco, Pier 17, Swissnex in SF, Pier 17, Suite 800, San Francisco, California, 94111, United States
Swissnex in San Francisco in collaboration with the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (MfGZ) presents “Sound Memories” – a hybrid event together with Swissnex in China exploring how technology can preserve and revive sound-related objects through audio visualization and design. This artist talk will shed light on new digital approaches to conservation, from reinterpreting historical sounds to creating contemporary ways of experiencing museum collections. By bridging art, design, and technology, the discussion will highlight how digital approaches can enhance accessibility, engagement, and the cultural significance of sound memories worldwide.

In the US, artists Asma Kazmi and Jill Miller are reimagining the “Electronic Memory – Model 80-1″ from the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (MfGZ) design collection.
In China, Yude Li is transforming the sound of Joachim Tielke’s Viola da Gamba from the decorative arts collection into audiovisual patterns inspired by Chinese cultural artifacts.

Join us for this unique opportunity to engage directly with artists and designers envisioning the future of sound preservation. Bring your curiosity, ask questions, and take part in a global dialogue on how technology is breathing new life into historical sound memories.
Schedule:

5:45 PM – Doors Open & Welcome Reception

7:00 PM – Opening Remarks by Swissnex and Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

7:15 PM – Artist & Curator Presentations

7:45 PM – Panel Discussion & Q&A

8:20 PM – Networking Reception

8:45 PM – Event Concludes

About the Organizers
Swissnex in San Francisco is an initiative of the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). Our vision at Swissnex in San Francisco is to connect tomorrow by empowering the next generation of innovators to collaborate and create futures where the planet and society thrive.
As Switzerland’s leading museum for design and visual communication, the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (MfGZ) is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. In collaboration with Swissnex, the museum is launching a global digital exhibition to engage with its renowned collection through the lens of designers and artists worldwide.
By attending our events, you agree to adhere to our event rules.

Atelier Tour and Talk with Diane Dorrans Saeks: ERICA TANOV AND THE ARTISTRY OF CONTEMPORARY TEXTILES
2025-06-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Erica Tanov Showroom | Atelier, Erica Tanov Showroom | Atelier, Berkeley, California, 94710, United States
In an intimate talk moderated by esteemed design writer Diane Dorrans Saeks, guests are invited into the tactile, poetic world of designer Erica Tanov. Celebrating the timeless elegance and personal artistry of Erica’s work, the evening offers a rare opportunity to tour the designer’s studio housed in an 1878 Italianate Victorian, and hear directly from the designer about her creative and collaborative process, her deep love of textiles—from the fine to the raw, hand loomed and printed to embroidered—and the lasting beauty she brings to every piece. Erica will be joined in conversation by Aarika Solanki, her lead workshop collaborator in India, who will be visiting from Jaipur.
Guests will be invited to tour the atelier, featuring curated spaces of her signature textiles, garments, wallpaper installations, and home objects. Through stories, and shared inspiration, this is a night of discovery and delight, revealing the quiet power of Erica’s vision—and the enduring, personal artistry that defines her collections.
About Diane Dorrans Saeks: Diane Dorrans Saeks is the bestselling author of twenty-five design books, including “Jean-Louis Denior Interiors”. She was a founding editor of Metropolitan Home and Garden Design magazines. DORRANS SAEKS is interior design editor for PaperCity and an editor with C MAGAZINE. She has long-standing creative relationships with leading California and international designers. @dianedorranssaeks
About Erica Tanov: For three decades, the name Erica Tanov has resonated with design connoisseurs across New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, embodying the essence of Californian relaxed luxury. From her iconic slip dresses and camisoles to an expansive array of clothing and home décor, the Erica Tanov brand has become a cherished staple among aficionados and industry insiders alike.
Photo credit: Molly Haas

Multimodal Creativity → Flowing Between Mediums
2025-06-06 18:00 - 21:00 | Problem Library, 1288 15th Ave, San Francisco, California, 94122, United States
Designer, 3D artist, and music producer Danny Jones invites you into the layered, unpredictable world of multimodal creativity.
In this talk, he’ll explore how multimodal creatives use AI, cross-disciplinary thinking, and taste to move fluidly between mediums, shaping new ways of working and building worlds that guide how we perceive and feel.
Danny’s work focuses on the fusion of graphic, product, and interactive design with the vast possibilities of 3D, highlighting the unnoticed beauty surrounding us. His expansive body of work incorporates the spontaneity of generative design, the vividness of photography, the depth of 3D, the expansiveness of spatial design, and the dynamism of animation. All of it serves to push the boundaries of what’s visually possible, weaving narratives that captivate and engage, inviting the viewer to see beyond the surface and into the soul of the unseen.
This talk opens a three-session workshop led by Danny, where participants will explore multimodal creativity and train their own personalized generative AI model. The series will culminate in a showcase of participant work—unexpected, experimental, and entirely their own.
See you there.
**
Doors at 6pm
Talk at 7pm
Learn more about the talk, Danny, and the workshop on the Problem Library website.

Formed by Us : A Women in Design SF Showcase
2025-06-06 18:00 - 21:00 | Gantri Studio, 320 10th Street, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
Women in Design SF (WID) is teaming up with Gantri to host our second annual showcase at SF Design Week 2025!
The showcase will exhibit works from women, nonbinary, and gender-expansive designers from around the Bay Area. Each exhibit will respond to the SF Design Week theme of Reform.
Through the acts of designing and making, we are constantly reimagining and changing the world around us. WID is committed to creating space for the women+ design voices who play a vital role but may have been overlooked in the past. Come explore a range of unique design approaches and fresh perspectives that are shaping tomorrow’s design landscape. The evening will also feature a Designer Q&A to offer insight into the process and thinking behind the work.
Light refreshments will be provided.

Agenda

6:00pm Doors Open
7:00pm Designer Q&A
7:30pm Open Exhibit
9:30pm Doors Close

Come join us for an evening of connection, inspiration, and community building!
Image Source: Women in Design Showcase 2024

Design Impact. Reimagined
2025-06-06 18:00 - 21:00 | Box Clever, 285 7th Street, San Francisco, California, 94066, United States
In partnership with Box Clever, Design Burger returns to SFDW to present a specially curated event.
In a time of uncertainty, we need positive perspectives to help shine an optimistic light on a path forward for our profession and for new businesses looking to make positive change in the world. Hear from Joe Slatter (Design Burger, Co-Founder) and Bret Recor (Box Clever, Founder) as they share their thoughts on how their teams are creating positive impact through new approaches to design & business.
This special event will showcase a special Design Dialogues sketch series from the Box Clever team, who will be available to discuss their work and approach with guests. Drinks will be served, plus there will be a Box Clever Portfolio Showcase with several cool product giveaways to some lucky guests.
Thank you to our generous sponsors at Caraway, Aer, Fox Fold, and Irrigreen. Proceeds from this event will go towards supporting the next generation of designers, through the programs at CCA, Advanced Design, and IDSA.
We look forward to meeting everyone at the event!

Play Ethic Studio @ The Drawing Room Communal Table
2025-06-06 18:00 - 22:00 | The Drawing Room Annex, 599 Valencia St., San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
Friday nights, The Drawing Room Annex hosts a communal art table in their large gallery on Valencia St. It’s a space to create, connect, learn, and inspire one another.
Join Shasta Garcia of Play Ethic Studio to wind down your Friday in this Design Week edition of Communal Table. We’ll play with watercolors, handmade palettes, and basic drawing supplies. No painting experience is needed. Bring your big kid energy! This is time and space for play, experimentation, or trying something new. Shasta will be there to give mixing advice if you need it.
While visiting the gallery, you can also enjoy the latest exhibit installation.
This is a drop-in event. Come anytime, 6 pm – 10 pm.
Play Ethic Studio offers creativity coaching, design consulting, art workshops, and creativity tools. The studio supports creatives and the creatively curious. Shasta Garcia is a multidisciplinary designer, artist, and coach with 20+ years working in creative fields, along with a lifetime of deep exploration into art and craft mediums. Learn more at blog.playethic.studio
The Drawing Room Annex gallery space is positioned perfectly on the corner of 17th and Valencia Streets. Bathed in natural light from expansive corner windows, this particular space had been dormant for years. By transforming long-shuttered storefronts into dynamic gallery and community spaces, The Drawing Room not only showcase San Francisco’s diverse and vibrant artists but also revitalize dormant potential — bringing people, community, and engagement to spaces in need.

tools for after Opening Reception: Touring Exhibition from Rome
2025-06-06 18:30 - 20:30 | Italian Cultural Institute @INNOVIT, 710 Sansome St., San Francisco, CA, 94111, United States
The exhibition tools for after focuses on innovation within the Italian design culture through a display of objects, images and videos. What will the design and architecture of tomorrow look like? tools for after offers solutions to prevent―or to confront―the scenarios that the Anthropocene age has in store for us. The designer’s task is to envision the future. Envisioning is planning, and planning is what architects and designers do.

Step Into History: A Studio Visit & Surrealist Film Experience for SF Design Week
2025-06-06 19:15 - 21:30 | CIAO ART COLLECTIVE, 506 BROADWAY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 94133, United States
JOIN US FOR AN EXCLUSIVE SF DESIGN WEEK EVENT WHERE ART, HISTORY, AND CINEMA CONVERGE IN A ONE-OF-A-KIND ART SPACE VISIT.

THIS HISTORIC SPACE, ONCE A LEGENDARY NIGHTCLUB FROM THE 1930S TO 1999, NOW SERVES AS A CREATIVE HUB SHOWCASING LOCAL SAN FRANCISCO ARTISTS AND A CURATED COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL OUTFITS FROM THE CLUB’S FORMER PERFORMERS.
VISITORS WILL HAVE THE RARE OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLORE THIS STORIED VENUE, IMMERSE THEMSELVES IN A PRIVATE COLLECTION OF ART, AND EXPERIENCE THE MAGIC OF SURREALIST CINEMA IN OUR INTIMATE IN-STUDIO SCREENING ROOM.
WE’LL BE SHOWING A SELECTION OF CLASSIC SURREALIST FILMS, INCLUDING:

UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1929) — LUIS BUÑUEL & SALVADOR DALÍ
L’ÉTOILE DE MER (1928) — MAN RAY
BALLET MÉCANIQUE (1924) — FERNAND LÉGER
ENTR’ACTE (1924) — RENÉ CLAIR

THIS EVENT IS BY RSVP ONLY, OFFERING AN INTIMATE CHANCE TO STEP INTO THE PAST, EXPERIENCE LOCAL ARTISTRY, AND WATCH CINEMATIC MASTERPIECES IN A TRULY UNIQUE SETTING.
COMPLIMENTARY DRINKS AND LIGHT SNACKS WILL BE PROVIDED.
DATE: JUNE 6TH, 2025
LOCATION: KEARNY AND BROADWAY – NORTH BEACH
RSVP REQUIRED (LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE)
WHETHER YOU’RE A LOVER OF DESIGN, FILM, HISTORY, OR ART, THIS EVENT IS A RARE CHANCE TO EXPERIENCE A PIECE OF SF’S CREATIVE AND CULTURAL LEGACY.

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE.

The Scent of Nostalgia: A Living Green Wall Within Reach
2025-06-07 09:00 - 17:00, 2025-06-08 09:00 - 17:00, 2025-06-10 08:00 - 15:00 | Aura Tea and Coffee at Rincon Plaza, 101 Spear Street Suite B5, San Francisco, CA, 94105, United States
Presented by Ovata

What if a wall could carry memory, scent, and greenery—all at once?

Inspired by the traditional Korean 병풍 Byung-poong (folding screen) , Ovata presents a site-flexible installation: a portable living wall composed of hinged, frame-based panels filled with California native plants. Spread throughout the event venue, these sculptural pieces are more than dividers—they are multi-sensory green moments that offer a breath of nature, evoke regional nostalgia, and serve as quiet visual anchors within the event energy.

Each panel transforms the space with natural scents, living textures , and a subtle reference to the cultural practice of honoring people and place. Think of it as a living scroll of memory and nature —brought into the present.

Rather than serving as a static backdrop, this installation gently guides the flow of people , encouraging organic circulation while shaping cozy niches for gathering, pausing, and connecting. Like a breeze through a forest, its layout invites movement and mingling while offering soft, intimate pockets of calm

Schedule:
No fixed schedule. The green wall installation is designed to be explored freely throughout the venue during the event.
This is a self-guided, standalone installation —no formal presentation.

Bonus Features:
– Portable green wall panels placed throughout the venue
– Designed with California native species
– QR codes on each panel to explore featured plants and their ecological stories
– Subtle natural fragrance in the air
– Visual and spatial flexibility to frame or divide areas
– Inspired by 병풍(Byung-poong) , traditional Korean folding screens

Surveying the History of Arts Education in San Francisco
2025-06-07 10:00 - 13:00 | Problem Library, 1288 15th Ave, San Francisco, California, 94122, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
Join Daniel Lucas (Education Director at Problem Library) and Nicole Meldahl (San Francisco historian and Executive Director of Western Neighborhoods Project) for a presentation and open conversation. Together, they’ll trace the origins, ethos, and contemporary resonance of San Francisco’s homegrown art schools.
San Francisco has a storied history of community-led arts education, from long-standing juggernauts like the California College of the Arts and the now-defunct San Francisco Art Institute, to influential experiments like the Alvarado School Art Workshop and The Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design. These schools and their associated scenes nurtured generations of artists, thinkers, and builders who shaped the global image of San Francisco as a cultural haven.
By revisiting these examples, we can draw lessons and inspiration about how to build similar spaces today. These histories sharpen our thinking as we consider: What are we offering young creatives today? What conditions are we creating for discovery, risk, and deep engagement? How do we build on the legacies of foundational institutions?
At its best, arts education is not just about individual development—it is a force that radiates out into the community, creating shared language, visions for the future, and a sense of continuity and heritage. More than schools, these spaces functioned as cultural incubators, sites of experimentation, and community anchors.
We’ll reflect on the people, places, and ideas that have shaped San Francisco’s creative foundation—and consider how that legacy might spark new possibilities in the present.
And we hope you’ll be part of this reminisce. If you’ve passed through any of these spaces—or helped shape them—your memories and reflections are part of the living history we’re gathering. After all, arts education in San Francisco has always grown through the spaces we’ve built together, the conversations we’ve kept alive, and the futures we’ve dared to imagine.

Marinship Open Studios
2025-06-07 11:00 - 17:00 | Marinship Studios, 265 Gate 5 Rd, Sausalito, California, 94965, United States
Discover the creative visions of Sausalito’s Marinship Studios artists at a unique Open Studio event. This is a special opportunity to explore the historic space and experience the talent that defines its vibrant community. Step into the studios, engage with the artists, and gain insight into their creative processes and sources of inspiration. See how each artist continues to carry forward the legacy of Marinship through their work.
Meet the artists at their workshops:

Simon Ungless & Jody Niederkohr – Collaborative textile bandits reimagining worn garments through custom printmaking and felting techniques. Simon was part of the original McQueen team and continues to make his mark on the industry, saving the world “one garment at a time.”
Jael LaFemina – Stone sculptor and master stonemason, Jael creates intimate and monumental sculptures for the garden inspired by the hidden stories within stone.
Susan McKinney – Ceramic and glass artist whose work reimagines the language of weaving through experimental processes. Her wall hangings and 3D sculptures explore the tension between the seen and unseen, evoking a sense of wonder rooted in the natural world
Jean Bolte – Former ILM effects artist now focused on her own art practice, consisting of 2D, 3D, and electronic work. She blends her cinematic roots with a beginner’s mindset and a limitless curiosity for materials and form.
Tania Houtzager – Sculpture and installation artist whose work investigates the physical and psychological structures of her environment.

Michael Lynch- After decades in the FX film industry, most of which was at the Model/Creature Shop at ILM Michael transitioned to full time Art making. The theme of his work is usually a blend of art, physics and natural science, represented in 2D and 3D

Barry Svigals – Visual artist, sculptor and architect, Barry’s current work of oil pastels on paper explores a realm between abstract markings and the suggestion of written script. In their communion, he aims to evoke a timeless longing for expression and bring it to life.
Maya Kini & Laura Lienhard – Jewelry artists at Varda Landing, Maya’s sculptural and poetic practice explores material transformation through precision and imperfection, while Laura draws on old-world techniques to craft elegant expressions of nature’s beauty in precious metals.
Mardi Burnham – Conceptual artist drawn to paper, porcelain and cloth. Often what one sees as my art is not actually what I am talking about, but rather a creation that communicates a specific meaning or experience to the viewer.

Pieces will be available for purchase, offering you the chance to bring home a one-of-a-kind creation. Parking is available on Gate 5 Road or in the guest spots at Varda Landing. We look forward to meeting you!

Clothing Swap: Rethinking Style & Sustainability at Dolores Park
2025-06-07 14:00 - 17:00 | Dolores Park, Dolores Park, SAN FRANCISCO, California, 94114, United States
Join us for a feel-good afternoon in the sun at Dolores Park as we host a Clothing Swap—a playful and sustainable way to rethink fashion and give garments a second life. Bring clothes you no longer wear and swap them for fresh finds as you connect with fellow design-minded folks over stories and secondhand style.
This event is inspired by the 2025 San Francisco Design Week theme of “Reform”, celebrating creative approaches to material reuse and personal expression through clothing. It’s part picnic, part swap, and all about community.
Whether you leave with a whole new wardrobe or just a snack in hand, you’ll leave with a new perspective on how we can extend the life of what we already have.

Schedule
•2:00 PM: Clothes Drop-off Begins
•2:30 PM: Clothing Swap Opens
•5:00 PM: Wrap-up + Leftover Donations Boxed
Other Details
•✨ Free and open to all
•🧥 Bring clean, gently used clothes to swap (no purchase necessary)
•🌱 All unclaimed clothes will be donated
•📸 Optional: participate in a mini photo shoot to show off your new look

Meet Your Hosts:
Amy Zhou
CTO, Taiyaki AI
Amy Zhou studied Product Design (B.S.) and Mechanical Engineering (M.S.) at Stanford University, where she honed her skills in material development and sustainable design. As a former Product Design Engineer at Apple, Amy led the transition away from leather accessories, spearheading the development of the FineWoven iPhone case—a project that earned her a patent and contributed to Apple winning PETA’s Company of the Year Award in 2023. With a deep passion for blending software and hardware solutions, she co-founded Taiyaki AI, where she serves as CTO. Beyond her technical achievements, Amy is an accomplished clarinetist and has won multiple national classical music competitions.
Elena Wagenmans
CEO, Taiyaki AI
Elena Wagenmans studied Product Design (B.S.) and Mechanical Engineering (M.S.) at Stanford University, where she was advised by David Kelley, the founder of IDEO and a pioneer in human-centered design. A two-time US Junior Open Winner and former international squash player, Elena led the Stanford team to its best performance ever and remains actively involved in coaching and promoting the sport. With experience as a product design engineer at Apple, she brings a passion for the intersection of software and hardware to her work. She is currently the co-founder and CEO of Taiyaki AI, where she combines her expertise in product design and AI-driven solutions to transform how ideas become reality.

Jessica Hische Open Studio
2025-06-07 14:00 - 18:00 | Jessica Hische Inc, 314 15th St, Oakland, 94612, United States
Join us at Jessica Hische Open House!
Jessica creates custom lettering artwork for established brands, classic books, postage stamps, and so much more. She has travelled the world speaking at creative conferences and colleges, and befriended innumerable internet strangers while navigating the depths of social media.
Jessica Hische & Friends is an art, books, and beautiful useful things shop in Downtown Oakland, California. Pop in to pick up a handmade print created on-site in my workshop and shop the curated collection of stationery, supplies, tools, and apparel that enable or inspire creativity.

Umber Talk Show
2025-06-07 15:00 - 18:00 | Mama Dog Studios, 700 26th St, OAKLAND, California, 94612, United States
Where culture’s creatives are the celebrities.
Umber is relaunching as a cultural media studio—expanding beyond print into live programming, editorial video, and digital storytelling. The Umber Talk Show serves as our first major step into this new phase, inviting audiences to experience Umber in motion, in real time.
The Umber Talk Show is a new cultural talk series spotlighting the brilliance of creatives across art, design, and music. Think late-night talk show vibes — through the lens of the diaspora. Hosted by Umber’s Founder & CEO, the night features intimate interviews with featured guests, a live musical performance, and our signature Group Chat—an unscripted conversation exploring creativity, culture, and design. This event also marks the beginning of a new chapter for Umber, with more to come in 2025.

Presented in collaboration with SF Design Week, Mama Dog Studios and Hemlock Printers
Guests:

April Banks – creator of Outlandish, worldbends her dream life into public art, activations, and print.
Damon Packwood – Game-based educator building tech pathways for diverse youth; creator of Gameheads
Vadia – Vocalist and songwriter inspiring empowerment through spiritual sound; #NoGraves

Each guest will also be featured in The Collage Issue of Umber magazine (Winter 2026).
The Show:

Doors + DJ Set by On.Mommas
Opening Monologue – Hosted by Mike Nicholls, Founder of Umber

Conversation with April Banks and Damon Packwood

Live Performance by Vadia
Artist Talk with Vadia – A short interview following the performance
Group Chat – All guests join for a collective conversation
Closing + DJ Set – Post-show vibes + community hangout

New Umber merch will be available. Light beverages provided

Reshaping Climate Through Design
2025-06-07 15:30 - 18:00 | Pact Studio, 1300 S VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, California, 94110, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
The climate problem must be addressed on all fronts. And while billions of public and private dollars are being poured into groundbreaking projects with the right intentions, there’s a massive space to fill between the ideas and technology that exist and the awareness, desirability, and adoption needed for swift, transformative change.
Join us for a series of lightning talks and a guided networking event where we’ll explore design’s role in filling the gap between idea and adoption in the climate space. Every design discipline has the potential to contribute to this imperative. From brand and communication to product and service to industrial and fashion, each one of us has tools and skills that are needed to accelerate the timeline to a transformed and thriving world.
This event is for designers and studio leaders who are interested in learning and sharing ideas about how to break into climate-focused opportunities, or how to bring more climate thinking into your current position.
Hosts
Pact Studio
Marc O’Brien
Speakers
Brand Design: Natalia Kowaleczko and Tony Mingo, Pact Studio
Industrial Design: Nichole Rouillac, level
UX Design: Grace Joseph, Google
Fashion Design: TBD
Agenda
3:30–3:45p Welcome
3:45–4:15p Lightning talks
4:15–5:00p Guided Networking
5:00–5:30p Recap
5:30–6:00p Wrap-up
Light snacks and refreshments will be provided.

Coleccion Estudio's North America Launch
2025-06-07 16:00 - 20:00 | Private Showroom, 273 Church St, San Francisco, California, 94114, United States
The acclaimed Mexican brand makes its North American debut this June during San Francisco Design Week. Join us for an evening of design and conversation with the creators themselves—mezcal cocktails in hand and inspiring furniture all around.
Colección Estudio is a Mexico-based brand that creates high-end furniture, lighting, and accessories. They focus on pushing the boundaries of working with wood, creating unique and sophisticated pieces. The studio embraces a non-hierarchical relationship between craftsmanship, design, and art—believing these elements constantly inform and enrich one another. Inspired by local culture and traditions, each piece tells a story meant to come alive in the spaces we inhabit. Coleccion Estudio’s work has been showcased at renowned events such as Zona Maco (Mexico City), Salone del Mobile (Milan), and the London Design Fair.

Closer Than They Appear
2025-06-07 17:00 - 19:00 | re.riddle (Minnesota Street Project), 1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Join us for Opening Night of “Closer Than They Appear” a group exhibition co-presented by re.riddle and Anand Sheth.
Reflections, both literal and metaphorical, have long served as sites of inquiry within the history of representation. In Closer Than They Appear, Bay Area artists and designers work with mirrored and reflective materials not only as optical devices but also philosophical provocations — tools for examining how we come to recognize ourselves in images, or fail to.
The exhibition’s title, Closer Than They Appear, underscores both the laws of physics and metaphorically how reflections might inform us about proximity — of intimacy made strange, enacting a kind of call-and-response with the viewer’s self-imaging. This exhibition draws upon the spatial and psychological dimensions of the mirror, what Lacan famously termed the méconnaissance of the mirror stage, to explore how reflection can mislead, multiply, or undo perception altogether. In this context, reflection becomes sculptural, spatial, and social — shaped by the histories embedded in our physicality and the politics of perception.
Through multimedia works, sculpture, paintings and installations, the artists engage with the reflective surface as an active site, where the gaze can loop, inform, reframe and deflect. The mirror becomes less a surface and more a contingent space where vision and narratives merge, reflecting and rebounding at times in curious rhythms. From polished geometries to fragmented surfaces, the works on view refract, redirect, and propose alternate ways of seeing. They recalibrate light and space as material entities, engineering a circuit that can only be completed by the viewer’s gaze. The mirrored encounters suggest that perception is never stable, that recognition is often partial, and that the self is assembled through acts of misalignment as much as coherence. Is this not, after all, the condition of modern subjectivity — fractured, recursive, and mediated through experiences that both produce and obscure recognition?

IDC x Layer Logic: Kickoff Event @ Makelab
2025-06-07 18:30 - 21:00 | Makelab, 2940 16th St, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
The IDC x Layer Logic: Kickoff Event @Makelab sets the stage for this year’s International Design Conference (IDC) and officially launches the 2025 Layer Logic Design Competition. Hosted at Makelab’s San Francisco location in collaboration with IDSA, the evening will bring together designers, engineers, and past competition participants for a night of connection, insight, and inspiration.
We’ll unveil the Layer Logic 2025 design brief, provide details on submission criteria and judging, and share how this year’s theme ties into the broader IDC mission. Hear from past participants, connect with IDSA members, and tour Makelab’s SF location.
Whether you’re planning to submit or simply want to plug into San Francisco’s design community, this is the moment to get involved and kick things off strong.
Highlights include:

Reveal of the 2025 Layer Logic competition
Network with past participants and judges
Networking with IDSA members, designers, and engineers
Drinks, light bites, and community building

Pact Studio Happy Hour
2025-06-07 19:00 - 21:00 | Pact Studio, 1300 S VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, California, 94110, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
Pact is a creative practice hellbent on building brands that push sustainability, knowledge, and culture forward. And, we’re the proud design partner for San Francisco Design Week 2025!
Join us at our Mission studio for a happy hour to say hello, learn more about us, learn more about each other, and share stories and ideas about reform.
Refreshments and light snacks will be provided.

Thinking through Materials: Family Artmaking Workshop & Parent Conversation on Nurturing Children’s Creative Development
2025-06-08 10:00 - 12:00 | San Francisco Children’s Art Center @ Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, 2 Marina Blvd., San Francisco, California, 94123, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
San Francisco Children’s Art Center (SFCAC) is opening our art studio to SF Design Week participants with children ages 5-10 years old for a morning of creative fun and insightful conversation.
This family workshop will combine hands-on artmaking with conversations for the grown-ups on strategies to nurture your children’s creative development. Families will create together with a 3-D building activity that exemplifies SFCAC’s “Thinking through Materials” process-oriented methodology. As our teaching artists facilitate the engagement, we’ll share the ways our unique approach sparks ideation, fosters critical thinking, and enhances communication skills.
San Francisco Children’s Art Center is a non-profit organization founded in 1978 with the mission to empower children and nurture their sense of self through creative exploration. In our art studio and in schools across San Francisco, SFCAC serves more than 1200 students annually, supporting children as they develop language to share their ideas, learn to solve challenges, and connect with others through visual storytelling.
Schedule:
10 am: Coffee, juice, and light refreshments
10:15 am – 11:15 am: Facilitation of 3-D building engagement & conversations
11:15 am – 12 pm: SFCAC’s Painting Wall opens for children with continued parent Q&A
*Space is limited, please RSVP with the total number of family participants who will be attending by selecting the appropriate amount of ‘tickets’.

The WILD Book Exchange
2025-06-08 12:00 - 14:00 | Sommer, 436 Cortland Avenue, San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
Join WILD (Women in Leadership and Design) for an intimate gathering in celebration of creativity, leadership, and community. Bring a book that has shaped your path – in life, career, or creativity – and leave with one that inspired someone else.
Drop in at Sommer, the independent store for considered objects, to connect with creative women from across San Francisco, discover new inspiration, and learn more about WILD.

Complimentary refreshments will be served.
Hosted by WILD (Women in Leadership and Design), an AIGA SF initiative, in partnership with Sommer.

Photo by Madeline Shields

A Roadmap to Stardust: Design, Mythology, and the Future
2025-06-08 13:00 - 14:00 | Museum of Craft and Design, 2569 3rd Street, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
Join artist John Roloff and the Museum of Craft and Design’s Curatorial Director Ariel Zaccheo to explore the power of speculative dreaming. This participatory discussion draws inspiration from MCD’s current exhibition A Roadmap to Stardust, an immersive exhibition featuring the work of John Roloff and Neil Forrest that explores the history of humankind as told through ceramics, mythology, and fictional archaeologies. It invites participants to question how our present moment will be remembered thousands of years from now. Will the stories and technologies of our time become the stuff of legend? What role does mythology play in our modern understanding of the past? And perhaps most pressingly, how can history inform our ideas of the future?
Event tickets include museum admission to two exhibitions concurrently on view: A Roadmap to Stardust and Beau McCall: Buttons On!.

This is an SFDW exclusive! There will not be an additional admission charge for One Pass holders.

Case Study House #26 Open House / House Tour
2025-06-08 15:00 - 18:00 | Case Study House #26, 177 San Marino Drive, San Rafael, San Rafael, California, 94901, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
Join us during SF Design Week for an exclusive tour of Northern California’s only Case Study House, a 1962 mid-century modern masterpiece nestled in San Rafael.
This iconic architectural gem, recently featured on PBS, represents a pivotal moment in American design history. The home’s innovative approach to space, materials, and indoor-outdoor living continues to influence contemporary architecture more than half a century later.
Rarely open to the public, this is your opportunity to experience firsthand the revolutionary design principles that made the Case Study House program legendary. Walk through perfectly preserved spaces that have graced the pages of numerous architecture books and design publications.
Don’t miss this unique chance to step inside a living piece of architectural history during SF Design Week.

tools for after - Traveling Exhibition from Rome
2025-06-09 10:00 - 2025-06-10 16:00 | Italian Cultural Institute @INNOVIT, 710 Sansome St., San Francisco, CA, 94111, United States
*** APPOINTMENT REQUIRED***
The exhibition tools for after focuses on innovation within the Italian design culture through a display of objects, images and videos. What will the design and architecture of tomorrow look like? tools for after offers solutions to prevent―or to confront―the scenarios that the Anthropocene age has in store for us. The designer’s task is to envision the future. Envisioning is planning, and planning is what architects and designers do.

This traveling exhibition from Rome is making a stop in San Francisco. See it before it moves on to it’s next destination.
Open M-F 10 AM-4 PM
The exhibition continues May 6 – Aug 31, 2025, open M-F 10 AM-4 PM by appointment (contact.sanfrancisco@esteri.it).

Blurring Boundaries: The Future of California Indoor-Outdoor Living
2025-06-09 14:00 - 15:30 | Dunkirk, 101 Henry Adams St, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
California’s architecture has long been defined by its seamless integration of indoor and outdoor spaces. From mid-century modern homes to contemporary sustainable designs, California’s architects and designers continue to push the boundaries of how we live with nature. This panel will explore how to reimage outdoor spaces—not just as extensions of the home but as essential living environments where people want to spend as much time as their interiors. Topics will include sustainable materials, climate-responsive design, multifunctional outdoor living areas, and the psychological and lifestyle benefits of connecting with nature.
Moderator: Heidi Gerpheide (California Homes)
Panelists: Alicia Cheung (Alicia Cheung Design), Jason Davis (Marmol Radziner), Federico Engel (Butler Armsden Architects), Jarrod Baumann (Zeterre Landscape Design), James Hunter (The Wiseman Group)

From Algae to Artifact: A Hands-On Biomaterial Workshop
2025-06-09 14:30 - 16:30 | Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, 2530 Ridge Rd, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 94709, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
If you’ve ever been curious about biomaterials or how to make your own sustainable objects, this workshop is for you.
Together, we’ll dive into the exciting world of algae-based bioplastics — materials made simply from agar, glycerin, and water — and explore how they can be transformed into beautiful, functional pieces that go far beyond packaging and compost bags.
We’ll kick off with an info and demo session introducing you to the making process, key characteristics, and surprising design possibilities of these materials. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at our own experiments and creative process, plus a brief introduction to the materials science behind algae-based bioplastics and foams. While we won’t be making the material from scratch (due to long drying times), you’ll receive the recipe to try at home.
Then, during a hands-on DIY session, you’ll craft your own unique home decor — a hanging or standing organizer — using our library of algae-based materials. Along the way, you’ll learn essential techniques like joinery, creating custom patterning on biofoams, and incorporating other biomaterials (feel free to bring wood, fabrics, threads, or anything else you’d like to experiment with!)
No prior experience needed — just curiosity and a love for design! You’ll leave with a unique piece that reflects both creativity and environmental responsibility.
SCHEDULE [2 hrs]
10 mins: Welcome + Introductions
25 mins: Deep dive into algae-bioplastics development
15 mins: Demo + Intro to our biomaterial library
60 mins: DIY your home decor + Open experimentation
10 mins: Show and tell
For this workshop the cost per person is $30 which covers the cost of materials. The bioplastics and materials are hand poured, specially for this workshop!
We will have signs out at the entrances of Jacobs Institute, in order to guide attendees to the correct location within the building.
Parking is located at the Lower Hearst and Upper Hearst garages. There is also paid and free 2 hour street parking available nearby.
ORGANIZER BIOS:
Chia-Jung:
Industrial Designer | HCI Researcher  Focused on CMF (Color, Material, Finish) design, accessible DIY making, and advanced material research — thriving to create designs with minimum interference to both the user and the environment.
Divya:
Divya is a Materials Scientist and Designer with a focus on sustainable products. She has previous experience in polymer science and additive manufacturing industries, and her work spans biodesign, e-textiles, and participatory design, integrating technology with traditional making and environmental resilience.

Design for wellbeing: Building the positive corner of the internet at Pinterest
2025-06-09 16:00 - 17:30 | Pinterest HQ, 651 Brannan St, San Francisco, California, 94611, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
As Pinterest celebrates 15 years, teens and Gen Z are our fastest growing demographics. Young people tell us it feels like a “safe corner of the internet” or that it’s like “being in my own little world.”
But why? What’s going into that feeling of calm and sense of open exploration that happens while browsing and saving to Pinterest? Believe it or not, a lot.
At Pinterest, we prioritize “designing the good in” rather than simply “keeping the bad out.” And in an ongoing mental health crisis marked with fragmented attention spans, doomscrolling, and comparison, Pinterest has been scaffolding guardrails to build a future friendly platform that actually improves wellbeing rather than depletes it.
Join us for an interactive session to learn about the science of inspiration and its impact on wellbeing and moreover, what you can do to “design the good in” to your own practice.
SPEAKERS:
MINNIE BREDOUW is a Principal & Creative Director at Pinterest leads many of the wellbeing initiatives across Pinterest ranging from teen experience, user education, the future of social, and beyond. She also founded Big Wonder, an edtech product focused on helping teens find purpose amidst the mental health crisis. Her work has been featured in TIME Magazine, Wall Street Journal, SXSW, and Bloomberg, to name a few. In her spare time, she teaches Design for Social Impact and Design for Inclusion at the graduate level.
LARKIN BROWN is the Senior Director of Product Research at Pinterest, where she helps shape the vision for creating a more inclusive and positive experience for millions of Pinners worldwide. As a founding member of Pinterest’s inclusive product team, Larkin helped spearhead the development of industry-first features like skin tone ranges, hair pattern and body type search, and digital wellbeing measurement—helping users see themselves represented and supporting their mental health as they discover ideas online. Her work and perspective have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Wired, Forbes, Glamour, Vogue, and on the TODAY Show. Outside of Pinterest, Larkin channels her love for personal style as a freelance stylist—and chases around her young children.

Play Ethic Studio: Intro to analog dot journaling and life logs
2025-06-09 16:00 - 18:30 | The Drawing Room: ANNEX, 599 Valencia St., San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
Join Shasta Garcia of Play Ethic Studio for an all analog workshop that can help with your digital days. Over 2.5 hours you’ll build a custom planner and thought keeper that adapts to your needs with popular dot journaling techniques. Find the fun and creativity in planning. You’ll learn tools to organize and reflect on your days, months, and year.
Analog journaling can flex for your seasons of life. It’s a check-in tool for calendaring, productivity, time management, note-taking, keeping organized, mindfulness, gratitude, life reflection, tasks, goals, or habit tracking. Keep what fits and skip the rest.
For 10 years Shasta has been remixing journal methods and collecting analog tools. She shares it all with you, breaking down the core elements while teaching visual concepts that aid in planning, organization, and reflection.
A variety of tools and materials will be provided for use in the class. Students will take home a dotted grid notebook, pen, and reference zine.
Workshop takeaways

Kick off second half of year with a practical planner set up for your needs
Learn over 10 concepts, frameworks, and functional layouts
Approaches to fit analog journal planning into your routines
Ideas for pairing analog and digital organization tools
Fun and creativity in planning

Benefits of analog journaling methods

Improved memory and recall
Stress reduction
Overcome decision fatigue and mental clutter
Improved time management
Habit building
Visualizing your life
And more…

Shasta Garcia is a multidisciplinary designer, artist, and coach with 20+ years working in creative fields, along with a lifetime of deep exploration into art and craft mediums. Play Ethic Studio offers creativity and design coaching, consulting, art workshops, and creativity tools. The studio supports creatives and the creatively curious.

Inside Intuit Brand Design Studio
2025-06-09 17:00 - 19:15 | Intuit SF Office, 505 Howard St, San Francisco, California, 94105, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
Ever wonder how a big a logo on the roof of a sports arena actually is? How about the number of individual assets needed for a global conference of 10,000 attendees? What about if AI can create a visual identity system from scratch? Learn the answers to all of these questions and more, as Intuit’s Brand Design Studio gives a rare peek behind the scenes into what it takes to bring a global brand to life.
Hear insights from creative directors, visual designers, and experiential leads as they share process and anecdotes across projects ranging from events, activations, visual identities, sports arenas, corporate responsibility programs, and more.
Location: Intuit Downtown SF Office
5:00-5:45p Happy Hour with the team (snacks and beverages provided)
5:45p Presentation
6:30p Q+A
7:15p End

Evolutionary Design: A Conversation with Eugene Tssui
2025-06-09 17:30 - 20:00 | UC Berkeley Master of Design, Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, 2530 Ridge Rd, Berkeley, California, 94709, United States
Join UC Berkeley Master of Design (MDes) faculty member Pierluigi Dalla Rosa and visionary architect Dr. Eugene Tssui for a conversation on how designers (and humanity at large) can chart new paths forward through evolutionary thinking.
Dr. Tssui harnesses the ingenuity of the natural world in his multidisciplinary practice that spans architecture, fashion design, hand-painted renderings, and music. His work offers bold alternatives to technological sameness, creative specialization, and cultural homogenization.
Pierluigi Dalla Rosa brings a complementary perspective shaped by his work designing novel interfaces and his teaching at Berkeley MDes, where he encourages students to treat technology not as a given, but as a material to question, shape, and reimagine.
Together, Dalla Rosa and Tssui will examine how the rapid proliferation of emerging technologies is influencing creative practice and planetary well-being, and what it might look like to resist that tide.
The evening will feature an exclusive premiere of footage from Tssui’s forthcoming documentary, followed by a reception with refreshments and an interactive exhibition of student work from the Berkeley MDes program.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Pierluigi Dalla Rosa is an artist, designer, leader, inventor, and educator with a passion for the medium of computation. With extensive experience in both in-house and consulting roles, he has helped to build and ship forward-looking products for large companies and startups, such as Apple, NIO, Panasonic, and Humane. His commitment to crafting experiences and artifacts that elevate human intellect and unleash creative potential is the cornerstone of his professional ethos. He actively explores the space at the intersection of sustainability and computing and other areas of interest include collective and spatial computing outside of traditional devices. Pierluigi is faculty at the Berkeley Master of Design (MDes) program, where he inspires students to envision new narratives about a future with sustainable practices in technology. He holds a master’s degree in Cinema and Media Engineering from Politecnico di Torino and he is an alumnus of the interaction design program at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design.

Dr. Eugene Tssui is an architect, educator, athlete, and visionary with a commitment to ecological design principles since 1990. With experience working alongside revolutionary architects Bruce Goff and Dr. Frei Otto in the 1980s, he has designed sustainable buildings and planned cities for indigenous communities in Shenzhen, China from 1999-2015. His dedication to creating structures that harmonize with nature earned him the title “Guardian Angel of the Planet” in 2013, alongside Jane Goodall and Jean Michel Cousteau. He actively explores the intersection of architecture and environmentalism, with his work to be featured at the New York Museum of Modern Art in 2023-2024. Eugene has taught at UC Berkeley, Ohio University, and universities throughout China, inspiring students to embrace ecological approaches to architecture. He holds an Interdisciplinary Doctorate from UC Berkeley (1990) and is an alumnus of Columbia University, having been part of E. Paul Torrance’s creativity development program in the 1960s.
ABOUT BERKELEY MDES
The UC Berkeley Master of Design (MDes) is a professional graduate program in design for emerging technologies. Jointly offered by UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering and College of Environmental Design, the MDes emphasizes a critical approach to design and social practice to address the new realities of emerging technologies in the 21st century.
SCHEDULE
5:30 – 6:30PM: Evolutionary Design: A Conversation with Eugene Tssui
6:30 – 8:00PM: Refreshments, mingling and MDes student work exhibits. Optional inside look at the Berkeley MDes facilities, including the Jacobs Institute of Design Innovation Makerspaces.

Balancing Act: Stability Meets Innovation in Design
2025-06-09 17:30 - 20:00 | SoFi SF Office, 1st Floor, 234 1st St, San Francisco, California, 94105, United States
This event explores how SoFi balances stability and security with bold innovation across our digital products and services. The centerpiece of the event is a keynote panel focused on the tension between stability and transformation in design: when to push boundaries, when to make incremental change, and how to do both without compromising member trust. We will feature designers sharing first-hand stories of lessons learned from three recent product launches: our app Home screen redesign, our loan payments platform, and our internal customer support tool.
Before the keynote, attendees can meet the SoFi Design and Research team and participate in activities designed to help them transform their personal careers and financial wellbeing: portfolio reviews, live user research, and free financial planning sessions**.

About SoFi
Our number one goal is helping our members get their money right. SoFi’s mission is to help people reach financial independence to realize their ambitions.
Financial independence doesn’t just mean being rich—it means getting to a point where your money works for the life you want to live. Everything we do is geared toward helping our members get their money right. We’re constantly innovating and building ways to give our members what they need to make that happen.
Schedule

Doors: 5:30pm
Networking & Activity Stations: 5:30 – 6:30pm
Keynote: 6:30 – 7:30pm
Event ends: 8pm

Keynote Case Studies

SoFi App Homepage: After years of incremental additions, the home page of our app was no longer serving its core job to be done: providing personalized financial insights that help members get their money right. Learn how the team approached incrementally redesigning the most visited page of the SoFi app.
Reimagining the Borrower Experience: Trust is built when we listen and adapt. Learn how the team transformed member feedback into a reimagined servicing experience for SoFi’s student loan borrowers. Together, we’ll explore the ways that small foundational steps can pave the way to product innovation in the lending space.
SoFi Internal Tools: When members call our customer service department, our support agents need to know everything about the member to answer questions quickly and accurately. Learn how the team tackled a complete redesign of our internal support tools to transform a fundamental area of our business.

Activity Stations

Portfolio Review: Get feedback from a SoFi recruiter or designer on your work.*
Live User Research: Participate in live research with the SoFi research team.
Financial Planning: Talk finances with a SoFi financial planner and sign up for a free, personalized consultation.**

* Please bring a computer to share your work if you would like a portfolio review
**Financial consultations will take place after the event

SF Design: Then / Now / Next
2025-06-09 18:00 - 20:45 | PA Consulting San Francisco Studio, 517 York Street, San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
San Francisco has arguably been the epicenter of design in the U.S. for nearly five decades, attracting the world’s top talent. In that time, the roles of the designer and the practice of design have changed and continue to evolve. Independent studios have been an integral part of the SF design landscape. Many have come and gone, some have remained, and new ones have risen to continue the legacy of design in SF. Come join us for a candid discussion panel of design leaders that have firsthand experience with the ebbs and flows of SF design.

Introducing the MMclay Homeware Collection
2025-06-09 19:00 - 21:00 | MMclay Studio. + Showroom, 69 Gough Street, San Francisco, California, 94102, United States
Join us in the MMclay showroom for an evening celebrating the launch of our newest work: a homeware collection that explores form and material. On view for the first time, the collection includes hand-cut ceramic tiles, sculptural table lamps with custom shades, and large-scale hand-built vessels. Each piece is designed with sustainability in mind—crafted slowly, glazed by hand, and made to order using recycled clay whenever possible.
MMclay founder MaryMar Keenan will share the story behind the collection. She’ll be joined by interior designer Kristen Peña of K Interiors, in a conversation about intentionality, creative collaboration, and the long-term impact of design choices in the home.
Kristen’s award-winning studio is known for its warm, refined interiors and has been featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, House Beautiful, Real Simple, Rue, WSJ, California Home + Design, San Francisco
_________________________________
Small Bites provided by Chef Kim Alter of Nightbird
Drinks available for purchase from York Street Cafe
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Schedule of Events:
7:00–7:30 PM – First look at the collection
Enjoy drinks, small bites, and an open viewing of the new homeware line
7:30–8:30 PM – Presentations
Short talks from MMclay founder MaryMar Keenan and interior designer Kristen Peña of K Interiors on the creative process and the lasting impact of design choices.
8:30-9:00 PM
Stick around for more time with the collection, conversation, and refreshments.

AI Design at Google
2025-06-10 14:30 - 17:15 | Google, 345 Spear Street, San Francisco, California, 94105, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***

Join the Design team at Google for a series of lightning talks across four AI related design topics touching on our various products! Meet our teams, learn about the work and have the opportunity to engage and ask questions. Light reception to follow to hang out with our team and speakers!
Limited registrations available. Please only register if you can attend. If you can no longer attend, please log into your OnePass account and remove your registration so that someone else can have your seat!
SCHEDULE:
2:30 PM – Check in
3:00 PM – Event begins with a welcome, followed by a few presentations
3:45 PM – Q&A
4:15 PM – Reception with speakers
5:15 PM – Event ends

Adobe Creative Cafe x SF Design Week Portfolio Review
2025-06-10 16:00 - 17:15 | Adobe, 601 Townsend St, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
Head to Adobe’s San Francisco office for an event focused on the new generation of designers. Open to all students, recent grads and young creators interested in pursuing a career in graphic design or professional art.
Join us for 1:1 portfolio reviews with the Adobe Design Team. This event is designed for students or those who are just starting out in their creative careers to receive feedback from seasoned design professionals. We will also have general group career advice tables open.
Please only sign up if you are a student, recent grad, or young creator and are able to attend as spots are limited. Make sure to login to your San Francisco Design Week OnePass account to register!

Schedule: Doors at 4pm for Creative Cafe (you must register via the OnePass portal)
Portfolio Reviews & Career Advice from 4:15-5:15 PM
5:30pm Create Now San Francisco Design Week to follow (requires separate registration)

Directly following the portfolio review event, we will be launching into Create Now San Francisco Design Week at the same location. The Create Now event has a separate registration, so make sure to register in addition to the portfolio reviews, for the Create Now event as well.

Art-Inspired Design
2025-06-10 17:00 - 19:00 | TINT Gallery, 149 Gough Street, San Francisco, CA, California, 94102, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
Art is an essential element in beautiful interior design that reflects the core values of the designer and client, as well as the story of a space. So often, art is the final element designers use to finish a space with their clients. But what if we begin with the art? How could art that speaks to the homeowner drive the design of a room or even the entire home?
This event will include a short discussion regarding collaborative case studies TINT Gallery and The Modern Vic have created in starting the foundation of a design with art. The event is hosted by TINT Gallery, a contemporary art gallery focusing on women artists, located in Hayes Valley. The event will include craft cocktails, mocktails and light snacks.
Schedule:
5 – 5:30pm arrival and networking
5:30 – 6:00pm presentation with interactive Q&A
6:00-7:00pm exclusive tour of current exhibition + mingling with drinks
Speaker bio: The Modern Vic – Sarah Stern-Benoit.
Sarah Stern-Benoit is the Founder and Principal Designer of The Modern Vic, an Interior Design Studio in San Francisco. The Modern Vic is the manifestation of Sarah’s lifetime love of history, Bay Area architecture, and stunning, liveable spaces.
The Modern Vic took root in Sarah’s own childhood homes. Growing up with parents who actively lived in and restored Bay Area fixer-uppers, she saw for herself the power of transformation.
The Modern Vic, holds firm to the belief in the potential for remarkable transformation, appreciation for architectural heritage, and the passion for giving clients the support they need to realize their own beautiful spaces. The Modern Vic gives clients the ability to gracefully incorporate their own design voice into their spaces while honoring the design elements of the house.

Designing Fairness: The Future of Justice Reform
2025-06-10 17:30 - 19:15 | Checkr Inc. HQ, 120 Kearny St, Suite 2400, San Francisco, CA, 94104, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
Join us for a dynamic panel exploring how design thinking is revolutionizing criminal justice reform across the entire system—from prevention to reentry. We will have visionaries from Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, Recidiviz, ideas42’s (Un)Warranted initiative, CROP Organization, Dignifi, and Checkr who are using human-centered approaches to dismantle barriers and create pathways to opportunity.
Enjoy a snack, drink, and connect with mission-driven designers. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to witness how design methodologies are being applied to one of society’s most pressing challenges.
Schedule
5:30-6:00pm: Welcome drinks and snacks
6:00-6:45pm: Panel
6:45-7:00pm Q&A
Moderated by Checkr’s Director of Product Design, Rebecca Rabison, our panel will bring together criminal justice reform design leaders across the system:
Prevention & Early Intervention
Designing Justice + Designing Spaces – Garrett Jacobs, Director of Project Evaluation & Research, will speak to how architecture can help prevent incarceration through community-centered design
Ideas42 – Anne Stotler, Principal Behavioral Designer, will discuss how behavioral science can improve court date communications and prevent missed court dates, a leading cause of warrants and jail.
During Incarceration
Recidiviz – Thomas Graham, Product Manager at Recidiviz, will share how data and technology can improve information access and system outcomes for justice-impacted people.
Reentry & Employment
CROP Organization – Alexis Bustos, Director of Learning and Partnerships, will speak to training formerly incarcerated individuals in UI/UX to help them secure meaningful employment.
Dignifi – Danny Yoon, Founder of Dignifi and CROP Product Design graduate, will share how they’re bringing reentrants, service providers, and policy makers into one ecosystem to fix a fractured reentry system
Checkr – Melanie Cernak, Staff Product Designer will share Checkr’s approach to fair chance hiring and how they’re reducing background checks as a barrier to employment

Why attend?
This event aims to show how design thinking can dismantle systems of inequality. You’ll leave with concrete examples of how design methodologies are being applied to one of society’s most pressing challenges.
Space is limited—secure your spot today!

The Connectivity of Craft
2025-06-10 18:00 - 20:00 | Space Theory, 360 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, California, 94941-2847, United States
*** EVENT SOLD OUT***
The place we call home has a vast influence on what we make. But how do the things we make actually shape the fabric of our home? How does the production of craft — whether in the form of a sculpture, garment, or a gathering — influence our environment and sense of community? What does it take to build creative ecosystems, and what conditions allow those ecosystems to blossom?
Through the lens of four individuals working across art, design, education and community-building, we’ll explore how their creative practices contribute to our experience of connection and culture.

Katherine Lam is an independent designer/builder and Program Lead for the Furniture Program at California College of the Arts. Kathy’s practice spans nearly 3 decades of engagement with furniture and the handmade object and has recently expanded into the intersections of craft + community practice.
Evan Kinori is a garment designer and patternmaker with a shop and studio space in San Francisco’s Mission District, showcasing clothing, furniture and objects. His simple collection of garments is made of the highest quality artisan fabrics from around the world, constructed with meticulous attention to detail.
Yvonne Mouser is an Oakland based artist, designer, and maker whose work exists between the practical and conceptual, spanning furniture, objects, experiences, and sculpture. Her practice investigates ideas through experimentation with concepts, materials, and methods to create small run production and one-of-a-kind pieces.
David Wilson is an artist who creates observational drawings based in direct experiences with landscape, and orchestrates site-based gatherings that draw together a wide net of artists, performers, filmmakers, chefs, and artisans into collaborative relationships.
The conversation will be moderated by Kelley Perumbeti, cofounder of Works In Progress and Office of Tangible Space.

Hosted at Space Theory, this panel discussion is part of Works In Progress, an exhibition series with a mission to amplify, archive and create dialogue around the Bay Area craft & design community.
Schedule:

6:00PM-6:30PM Check in
6:30PM – 7:30PM Panel discussion
7:30PM-8:00PM Wrap up

Ritual Momentos: An Intuitive Sculpture Workshop
2025-06-10 18:00 - 20:00 | re.riddle (Minnesota Street Project), 1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
This hands-on workshop will guide participants to create personal sculptural mementos using found natural elements—dried plants, stones, twigs—and intuitive assembly. Through slow-making and reflection, participants will explore creative reuse as a grounding ritual. No experience is necessary; come with a natural found object with personal meaning.

An Evening with Chef Tu David Phu, a San Francisco Chronicle Rising Star Chef: SF Design Week Fundraiser
2025-06-11 18:30 - 20:30 | Gigi’s, 299 Divisadero St, San Francisco, CA, 94117, United States
We believe some of the most meaningful connections happen around food. Join us in supporting San Francisco Design Week by reserving your spot for an intimate reception with acclaimed Chef Tu David Phu. All proceeds benefit San Francisco Design Week.
Enjoy a thoughtfully curated evening with a small circle of local design leaders—taste Chef Tu’s evocative menu, hear the personal journey behind his celebrated work, and take home a signed copy of his cookbook, The Memory of Taste.
Chef Tu and our CEO, Dawn Zidonis, first connected during a San Francisco Design Week event years ago—a friendship that blossomed through a shared passion for culture, creativity, and community. Their continued collaboration is proof that San Francisco Design Week sparks lasting relationships that enrich our design ecosystem.
This special evening marks the close of our 19th Edition and helps fuel our vision for the future as we begin planning our 20th Anniversary in 2026.
Due to the intimate nature of this event, only a small amount of tickets are available.
Included in the ticket price: The Memory of Taste Recipe Book, Meet-n-greet with Chef Tu, Catered by Gigi’s, Wine.
ABOUT CHEF TU DAVID PHU:
Chef Tu David Phu, a San Francisco Chronicle Rising Star Chef and chef-partner at GiGi’s, a Vietnamese-influenced wine bar in San Francisco, draws on his Oakland upbringing and the resilience of his refugee parents. His roots trace back to Phu Quoc, Vietnam, where his family has crafted artisanal fish sauce since 1895.
Chef Phu’s culinary expertise is a testament to his diverse experiences. He honed his skills in the hallowed kitchens of renowned establishments, ranging from New York’s internationally acclaimed Daniel to San Francisco’s prestigious 2-star Michelin restaurant, Acquerello. Throughout his career, he absorbed the essence of various culinary traditions, from American culinary excellence to classical European techniques. Yet, a profound connection to what he calls “the memory of taste” led him back to his Vietnamese roots.
Embarking on a culinary exploration of his mother’s treasured recipes, Chef Tu revisited cherished childhood dishes and embarked on pilgrimages to Vietnam for inspiration. His innovative Vietnamese-California cuisine began to garner recognition in 2016 with his weekly pop-up dining experience, “Ăn.” In 2017, the San Francisco Chronicle crowned him as a Rising Star Chef, marking the beginning of a series of accolades.
Chef Tu’s culinary journey expanded its horizons when he joined Bravo’s Top Chef Season 15 in 2019 and hosted ABC’s Taste Buds: Chefsgiving, a program that received a James Beard Award nomination. Currently, he is co-authoring his first cookbook, titled “THE MEMORY OF TASTE,” alongside James Beard Journalism Award winner Soleil Ho, a prominent figure in the culinary world.
“The Memory of Taste” is not just a cookbook; it’s a celebration of inheritance. It delves into Chef Tu David Phu’s journey as a chef, emphasizing the invaluable culinary lessons passed down by his parents, refugees from Phu Quoc. These lessons encompass frugality, zero-waste cooking, and practical gill-to-fin eating. The cookbook features a playful collection of California-Vietnamese dishes like tuna summer rolls and 7-Up nuoc cham, seamlessly integrating Chef Tu’s ambitious and modern culinary style with the food wisdom that nurtured him.
Registration:
Register through the San Francisco Design Week platform to attend this event. If you’d like to attend but are not attending San Francisco Design Week, or want to donate an additional amount for more benefits, or invite a friend, visit our other fundraiser page for this event.
Can’t attend but still want to contribute?
Make a donation here! We appreciate your support for Design Bay Area: San Francisco Design Week, Design Healdsburg, Silicon Valley Design Week

Make a donation! Show your support

Open Box: An Open Studio Experience with Zenpack
2026-06-01 16:00 - 20:00 | Zenpack San Jose Design Studio, 1050 North 5th Street, Suite #30, San Jose, California, 95112, United States
Join Zenpack during San Francisco Design Week for Open Box, a casual open studio experience where we invite you to step inside our world of packaging design and brand storytelling.
We’re opening our doors to designers, founders, and the broader creative community to explore our studio, meet the team, and connect in a relaxed, informal setting. Whether you’re curious about packaging, interested in what we do, or simply looking to meet others in the design community, we’d love to have you stop by.
At Zenpack, we see packaging as more than just a container—it’s an extension of a brand and a key part of the overall experience. Come by to chat with us, exchange ideas, and get a feel for how we think about design.
Drinks and light refreshments will be provided throughout the evening.

Creatives in Conversation: Processes & Tools Shaping Today's Design
2026-06-02 08:30 - 10:00 | Adobe, 601 Townsend St, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
Creatives in Conversation: Processes & Tools Shaping Today’s Design brings together local creative professionals for a candid discussion about how they work. From the spark of inspiration to final delivery, panelists will explore how AI-powered tools like Adobe Firefly are integrating into real design workflows, and where human creativity, instinct, and craft remain irreplaceable.

Panelists:

Evgenia Piskun, Senior AI Artist and Creative Technologist. Adobe Ambassador. Creative Partner with 13+ AI platforms. 80K+ community. Helping creatives work with AI, and helping companies understand what their customers really need.

Ted Chin, a digital surrealist from Taiwan now based in San Francisco, is known for his dreamy Photoshop composites, featuring a blend of surrealism and ethereal nature spirits. With a career spanning over eight years, he has worked with clients like Grammy, Apple, and Adobe, even earning the spot as the cover artist for Adobe Photoshop 2021. Motivated by a desire to reveal the world’s wonder, Ted’s art inspires with its creativity and imagination.

Yiying Lu is an award-winning creative leader at the intersection of art, technology, and human experience — creator of the Twitter Fail Whale, six Unicode emojis including the Dumpling and Bubble Tea, and large-scale visual identity work for the United Nations and Disney Shanghai. Her work explores how symbols, letterforms, and visual language can make people feel seen, included, and at home — across cultures and billions of screens. A former San Francisco Arts Commissioner and Global Creative Director at 500 Global, she is an Adobe Global Creative Ambassador and Fast Company Most Creative Person in Business, and speaks at SXSW, TEDx, and Web Summit.

Born in Shanghai, educated in Sydney and London, and now based in San Francisco, she brings a lived multilingual perspective to the question of how design creates belonging.

Caroline Lizarraga: The Art of Surface
2026-06-02 11:00 - 14:00 | Cooritalia & Elementi Showroom, 151 Vermont Street Suite 3, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
Join Cooritalia & Elementi for an immersive exploration of materiality and artistry featuring renowned decorative artist Caroline Lizarraga. Known for her richly layered finishes and detailed approach to architectural surfaces, Lizarraga will demonstrate how texture, tone, and movement can transform the built environment.
Set within a curated installation of architectural elements, this event invites architects and designers to experience the dialogue between raw material and applied artistry. Through live demonstration and conversation, guests will gain insight into Lizarraga’s process—where pigment meets stone, and surfaces become expressive, tactile works of art.
About the Artist: With hands permanently covered in plaster and paint, I’m happiest working in Old World ways. I trained for my craft in the cobblestoned streets of Florence, Italy, and continue to bring that antiquated sensibility to all of my projects today. You’ll find me on every job site, working each layer of color and detailing solely by hand.I’m passionate not only about creating amazing interior environments but also in helping my clients find and express their own distinctive style. No two jobs are ever alike. Whether it’s a boutique hotel in Napa Valley, an expansive winery estate, or a private residence, my approach is always the same: create a space that is utterly authentic and magically artful. – Caroline Lizarraga

The Case for Convention: What History and Clarity Can Teach Us About Good Architecture
2026-06-02 17:00 - 17:45 | De Sousa Hughes, 101 Henry Adams Street, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
What makes a project genuinely memorable isn’t just how it looks—it’s how clearly its ideas hold together from concept to construction. In an industry often obsessed with novelty, Butler Armsden Architects Director of Design Sunwoo Kim argues for the enduring value of convention, clarity, and restraint. Drawing from architectural theory (from Vitruvius to Venturi), grounded in BAA’s residential work across Northern California, and connected to insights from Kim’s book Common Architecture, this talk explores why the most lasting homes are not necessarily the most inventive, but those rooted in a deep understanding of place, type, and design logic.
Kim’s perspective is shaped by his upbringing in Seoul, where the Han River divides contrasting urban identities, his studies at Yale under Peter Eisenman, and eight years at BAA, where theory meets the specific demands of residential clients and sites. Through selected BAA case studies, Kim walks through the firm’s design process from first principles: how abstract ideas become diagrams, how diagrams become buildings, how a courtyard plan communicates across centuries, and how regulating lines and thoughtful detail can make a house feel inevitable rather than arbitrary.
This session is a conversation about houses—and about something broader: how we can make architecture more intelligible, more communicable, and more meaningful today. It’s for designers, architects, and anyone who has ever wondered why some spaces feel genuinely right, not just impressive.
***A copy of Common Architecture will be included with each ticket purchase, and will be distributed at the event.***

Strange new bodies: Design beyond robots with IDEO
2026-06-02 17:00 - 20:00 | IDEO, 350 Florida St, San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
​As robots enter homes, hospitals, and public spaces, their design language—how they look, move, and behave—will shape how we trust and relate to them. This session, hosted by design leaders at IDEO, explores emerging visual, interactional, and behavioral grammars of human-robot interaction. Must robots mimic humans or machines, or can new forms evolve? Alongside special guests from the emerging world of robotics design, we’ll examine how design can expand the roles robots play and the relationships we build with them across cultures and contexts.

Shaping Spaces with Beautiful Sound
2026-06-02 17:00 - 20:00 | Bang & Olufsen San Francisco Flagship, 146 Geary Street, San Francisco, California, 94108, United States
What does a room sound like? Join us for an evening with architect Craig O’Connell and special guests from EMPIRE Records and Bang & Olufsen, delving into the meeting of California Organic and Scandinavian aesthetic in a conversation about how sound and multimedia transform our indoor and outdoor spaces for beautiful living.
Sound Sampling Hour Chef Eríc Martínez, a California native who trained at Michelin-starred restaurants in Mexico City and Copenhagen, presents gourmet tasting exhibits of Nordic and West Coast-inspired bites and wine, alongside vinyl DJ sets.
Sample artisanal bites, mingle, and enjoy hands-on exploration of Atelier Composer, an innovative design tool from Bang & Olufsen. As you play on large screens, you’ll discover over 500,000 combinations of natural materials, colors, and shapes to create audacious sound systems.
Entertainment · Refreshments · Inspiration
Schedule
5:00 PM — Check-in & Welcome
5:30 PM — Panel Discussion
6:30 PM — Sound Sampling Hour
8:00 PM — End of Event
About Craig O’Connell
Craig O’Connell is a licensed California architect with a Master’s degree from Montana State University and over 20 years of experience designing and managing all phases of residential and commercial architecture. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Craig specializes in custom home design, Victorian remodels, modern remodels, and new construction projects throughout Marin County, San Francisco, wine country and surrounding Northern California communities.
He is highly proficient in Building Information Modeling (BIM) and integrates energy-efficient, sustainable design principles and materials into every project — from whole-home remodels to luxury new builds and commercial spaces.
His firm has been consistently recognized for excellence, earning Best of Houzz ten times. Craig’s work has been featured in Sunset, California Home + Design, Marin Magazine, SPACES, and Luxe — reflecting a strong reputation for thoughtful, collaborative design that reflects each client’s unique vision and lifestyle.

An Evening at Thuma, Hosted by the Design Team
2026-06-02 18:00 - 20:00 | Thuma, 2197 Chestnut Street, San Francisco, California, 94123, United States
Join us at Thuma’s San Francisco flagship store for a happy hour hosted by Thuma’s Design Team.
From 6:00–8:00 PM, guests are invited to experience the space through a behind the scenes lens, with a selection of informal design process materials gathered from our studio offering insight into how our products come to life.
Enjoy light refreshments, drinks, and casual conversation with the team, along with a brief toast at 7:00 PM reflecting on Thuma as a brand and our approach to design. Rooted in the belief that simplicity is the ultimate luxury, Thuma embraces elevated design by stripping away the nonessential to create pieces that enrich daily life at home. Through thoughtful craftsmanship, careful attention to detail, and mindful material selection, we create enduring products designed to be lived with and appreciated over time.
This evening offers a unique opportunity to connect, explore, and experience design as both process and hospitality.

Career as a Brand System™ — Design Your Narrative, Positioning, and Visibility
2026-06-02 18:00 - 21:00 | Rtrospct Studio, 2950 Geneva Ave, Daly City, United States
Most careers don’t stall because of lack of skill.They stall because the story isn’t clear.
This hands-on workshop introduces Career as a Brand System™, a framework for turning your work into something visible, legible, and opportunity-generating.
Originally developed through work across mobility, hardware, and consumer technology—and recently taught at Fremont Tech Week—this session focuses on how to design your career with the same intentionality as a product or brand.
Participants will work through four core components:

Narrative — defining what you stand for and how your work connects
Language — articulating your value in a way others can understand and repeat
Asset — creating a tangible representation of your thinking
Visibility — distributing your work so it reaches the right people

This is not a lecture.Each attendee will leave with a working draft of their own positioning and a clear next step for applying it. Workbook, pens, and workshop materials will be included for participants.
Schedule:
6:00–6:30 PM — Arrival + guided networking6:30–8:30 PM — Workshop (interactive)8:30–9:00 PM — Open conversation + wrap

What makes this session different:
Most events during the week focus on ideas.This session focuses on application.
Participants will also take part in a simple reflective exercise—writing a note to their future self—to reinforce what they’re building beyond the room.

What past participants said
“I can tell you put a lot of thought into this workbook. As a systems person, this is really good.”
“This workbook is very thought-provoking. The before/after framing got me thinking.”
Who this is for:
Designers, builders, and operators who:

Are doing meaningful work but struggle to explain it
Want to be more intentional about how their work is seen and understood
Are navigating transitions, growth, or new directions

*Please note that this is a limited-capacity workshop with 20 spots.
We exceeded capacity at the first session during Fremont Tech Week, with 32 RSVPs for 20 seats.

Take Stone Drenching to the Next Level with Studio Belmont + IRG Stone (Request an invite CLOSED)
2026-06-03 09:30 - 11:00 | California
**Request an invite is now closed. All invites have been sent via Eventbrite Ticket and email.***
A new design language is emerging, one where natural stone is no longer confined to surfaces.
An Exclusive “Invite-Only” Mimosas & Brunch Experience during SF Design Week
June 3 | 9:30 to 11 am
You are invited to an intimate gathering of design industry professionals when IRG Stone and Studio Belmont unveil a bold evolution in interior design.
This By-Invitation-Only session introduces Studio Belmont’s Watermark Collection, a customizable line of hardware designed to be fabricated from any stone in IRG Stone’s unique curated selection.
Discover how the same surface choice used for walls and vanities can be crafted into bespoke fittings and architectural details, creating a seamless, sculptural, and fully immersive material experience.
Attendees are invited to engage directly with the materials, mixing and matching stone samples with hardware components to explore composition, contrast, and cohesion…in real time.
What to Expect:
Over coffee and conversation, guests will explore:

The transformation of natural stone into custom hardware and architectural details
A tactile, up-close look at how stone transitions from slab to object
Conversations with design professionals pushing the boundaries of kitchen and bath innovation

This gathering is designed for architects, interior designers, developers, and tastemakers who understand that true luxury not only lies in the details, but in the courage to rethink them.
Space is limited. Invitation only.
Didn’t receive an invite?
If you an interior designer or architect in the SF Bay Area, request an invite here.
If you request an invite, if accepted, you will receive a link to register no later than May 27th from event@designbayarea.org. Unfortunately, due to the intimate nature of this event, we cannot accommodate anyone without an official invite.

Formerly known as Belmont Hardware, we are now Studio Belmont, under the new ownership of Jerry and Kristen Williams. Our rebrand reflects not just a new name—but a renewed vision for the future of our six northern California plumbing & hardware showrooms, one that better represents who we are and where we’re headed.

Established in 1938, this family-owned Belmont institution has been a trusted destination for fine decorative plumbing, hardware, lighting, and home décor for generations. With six northern California showrooms, our knowledgeable team is dedicated to helping you bring your dream kitchen, bath, or living space to life with thoughtfully curated, luxury products and expert guidance.

IRG Stone is a true partner in design working with interior professionals and architects to select the best materials for their projects. A family-owned natural stone importer and distributor serving the Bay Area and Sacramento for over 30 years. We specialize in sourcing and curating a vast and unique selection of natural stone — including marble, quartzite, onyx, semi-precious slabs, and rare materials you won’t find everywhere. Our product line also includes engineered stone, porcelain slab, and tile. With showrooms in Brisbane, Dublin, and Sacramento, IRG Stone partners closely with interior designers, architects, builders, fabricators, and homeowners to guide material selection and create unique spaces.

The Future of Home Robotics.
2026-06-03 11:00 - 12:00 | Four One Nine, 419 10th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
Introduced by Box Clever x Weave Robotics
Meet leaders from Weave Robotics and Box Clever, and learn about their shared vision for home robotics.
With its new general-purpose robot launching in 2026, Weave has partnered with SF-based studio Box Clever to design a robot that truly fits in the home. Together, Weave and Box Clever saw an opportunity to take an uncompromised approach that is decor-driven, iconic, and offers homeowners choice.

Box Clever are experts in design and business, building category leading brands and products, through uncompromised and planet positive design. Their unique decor, lifestyle, and contextual perspective leads to market success, with products rooted in clear stories that resonate with people. Their team consists of experts in Industrial Design, Design Strategy, Brand Identity, Packaging, and Entrepreneurship.

Plural by Nature: Curiosity as a Creative Practice
2026-06-03 13:00 - 14:00 | Four One Nine, 419 10th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
This 40-minute presentation will reframe creativity through cultural movement and lived multiplicity, inspired by Sonya Yu’s upbringing between Beijing and the Bay Area. The duality of cultures taught her to move between languages, expectations, and ways of seeing — not as a strategy, but as survival. Over time, that in-between space became her creative practice: a way of approaching the world through curiosity rather than expertise.
This presentation is less about mastery and more about staying porous, about harnessing everyone’s innate contradictions as a form of design thinking rooted in observation, translation, and presence. Through personal storytelling and reflections on cross-cultural identity, interdisciplinary practice, and the quiet power of wonderment, Sonya invites audiences to reconsider what it means to create without needing to be the authority in the room. Plurality becomes not just a theme, but a way of moving — allowing curiosity, conversation, and cultural fluency to guide process.
Audiences will walk away with an invitation to embrace creativity as a living, plural practice — where not knowing becomes generative, curiosity becomes methodology, and moving between worlds becomes a source of creative momentum rather than fragmentation.

Gazetteer: Designing a Newspaper in the Digital Age
2026-06-03 13:00 - 14:00 | Four One Nine, 419 10th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
Gazetteer: A new approach to local news, starting in San Francisco.
No SEO games, no social media, just the news you need today.
An Intimate fireside chat about printing, design, and news media in the age of digital channels. Join Gazetteer SF‘s Jack Browning and SF Design Week CEO Dawn Zidonis as Jack shares his journey in creating visual designs from editorial to book design.

ABOUT JACK BROWNING:

Hello, I’m Jack Browning, the owner and creative director of DJB Design LLC, a visual design company that specializes in brand marketing and storytelling, editorial, book design, and UX/UI design. I have offices in the Bay Area and New Orleans, Louisiana, but my work truly extends coast to coast!

The Enduring Spirit of Innovation and Optimism in the Bay Area w/ Designwise, Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, Love Good Color + Project Color Corps
2026-06-03 14:30 - 15:30 | Four One Nine, 419 10th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
As part of Design Bay Area’s Year of Design celebration, join us for an afternoon exploring the enduring spirit of innovation, creativity, and optimism that has shaped the San Francisco Bay Area for generations with Designwise, Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, Love Good Color + Project Color Corps.
Bringing together voices from across design, color, sustainability, strategy, and cultural storytelling, this conversation will reflect on the Bay Area not only as a global center of innovation, but as a deeply human place shaped by imagination, experimentation, and the belief that design can improve everyday life.
Together, we’ll explore questions about how design influences the way we live, gather, build, and belong:

Where is design currently at its best within San Francisco?
What elements of our environment or systems have been overdesigned/underdesigned?

We are using select BART stations as a case study example.

In what areas can we better utilize design to improve our community?

This conversation invites attendees to reflect on the role of design not simply as aesthetics or industry, but as a tool for connection, civic imagination, and cultural change.
Panelists:
○ Laura Guido-Clark – Love Good Color & Project Color Corps – Color Advocate
○ Llisa Demetrios – Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity – Cultivating Curiosity
○ Mary Lee Duff – Former Principal Interior Architects – Strategy, Neurodiversity
○ Jean Hansen – Former Principal HDR – LEED Fellow, FIIDA, CID, WELL AP –
Sustainability
Moderated by Dawn Zidonis, CEO, Design Bay Area
Co-hosted in partnership with Designwise
About Designwise
The mission of Designwise is to democratize the transformative power of design by capturing
and sharing collective wisdom. We aim to empower the next generation of emerging designers
and underserved communities, encouraging them to use design as a potent vehicle for
systemic change and the greater good.
Photo Credit: Ron Poznansky

The Art of Making Surfboards
2026-06-03 14:30 - 15:30 | Four One Nine, 419 10th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
Michael Quesenbury is a native of the Pacific Northwest who transplanted to California at the end of the millennium looking for all things that come with Californification; beautiful weather, fabled cities, outdoor lifestyles and a melting pot of design and art.
His simple mission statement is “I get out of bed to create beautiful things.” Educated with a degree in architecture and a 30-year career in luxury construction, Michael’s work focuses on functional creations that strive for a classic and timeless quality complimented with a story. An object without a story is an object. An object with a story is an experience.
Romanticized by the surf culture of California’s 50-60’s and enamored by legendary coach builders like Ferrari and Buggati, Michael has set off to create one off, bespoke, vintage style surfboards and paddleboards that encapsulated high design and fine craftsmanship into each board.
Every detail is executed with a purpose or thought initiating with its function and stylized through use of reclaimed material, sacred geometry, celebration of the defect and integration into the greater work as a whole. The work is purposely focused on the element of hand-crafted techniques, always striving for perfection but never perfect.
Lastly, the work is functional. It is not meant to be a precious jewel. Scratches and dings are part of the aging process, only adding to the story of the creation and the experience. Enjoy.
Michael’s work has been featured on NBC’s California Live & Fox Sports, has received the 2024 Award of Excellence and 2025 Best of Art awards at the annual Artistry in Wood Exhibition, the 2026 Bay Area Woodworker’s Association Exhibition Best of Creative Art, a finalist for Johnny Depp’s “The People’s Artist”, and has been selected for the juried Nimbus Arts “Nimbash” Auction multiple times. Michael is the current chairperson for the Sonoma County Woodworker’s Association and sits on the Santa Rosa Community College’s Construction Management Advisory Board.

Food as Infrastructure with Landscape Architects Christian Douglas Design
2026-06-03 16:00 - 17:00 | Four One Nine, 419 10th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
In this talk, principals and landscape architects Christian Douglas and Christian Macke of Christian Douglas Design, explore food-centered design at every scale – from master plan communities and rooftop farms to hospitality experiences and the humble home garden. Drawing on Douglas’s book The Food Forward Garden and the firm’s broader design philosophy, the talk reframes food as essential infrastructure: a framework for ecological resilience, human health, and lasting environmental impact.
Directly following this event, join us for a Happy Hour on the beautiful Rooftop Garden
ABOUT:
Christian Douglas Design (CDD) is an award-winning San Francisco Bay Area-based landscape architecture firm specializing in food-focused outdoor spaces that blend ecological resiliency with exceptional beauty. From residential homes and wineries to rooftop farms and large-scale master planning. CDD’s designs are fully immersive, curated spaces for recreation and relaxation, foraging and feasting.

Christian Douglas

FOUNDING PRINCIPAL
Christian Douglas is a multi-award-winning landscape designer, creating beautiful and productive outdoor spaces for over 25 years. Combining his formal training in classical design and his passion for regenerative agriculture, he has created innovative landscapes in his native England, the Middle East and the United States, with food at the heart. Before settling in the US, Christian owned a design studio in the UK for many years, followed by extensive global travel learning strategies for farming and survival in desert environments while working and teaching for both for-profit and non-profit farms and education centers. Constantly inspired by the common connection traditional cultures have to their environment and growing food, Christian believes modern landscape design has a significant role and responsibility to play in restoring our relationship to the natural world – starting with food. Christian has been featured in Architectural Digest, WSJ, California Home & Design and Sunset Magazine, and published his first book on food-forward design philosophy in 2024.

Christian Macke

PRINCIPAL + LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Christian is a licensed Landscape Architect with a focus on agrihood design and development. His shared desire to integrate food and regenerative strategies into every project is matched by his ability to create highly detailed masterplans. From landscape analysis and design to community programming, his leadership and skills have supported large teams developing innovative lifestyle communities and fully-integrated sustainable developments. His experience includes working with large-scale estate owners, developers and operators with a focus on land and farm-based hospitality, master-planned communities, multi-family and mixed-use developments. He collaborates with a wide variety of disciplines to find solutions to today’s issues – economic, social and environmental – creating the foundation for design that is at its core; resilient, and truly authentic.

Global Contemporary Design, Crafted in Mexico
2026-06-03 16:00 - 17:00 | Four One Nine, 419 10th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
Colección Estudio is a design studio founded by three designers: Andrés Cacho, Manuel López, and Daniel Martínez, who explore the intersection of art, craft, and contemporary furniture. Since their founding, they have built a practice rooted in Mexican cultural legacy, material experimentation, and collaboration with artisans, producing limited-edition objects that travel between local workshops and international markets.
This talk traces their journey: from establishing a design studio that bridges Mexico and the United States, to evolving into mentors through Punto 3, a new platform that supports emerging designers through knowledge exchange, collaborative production, and a shared belief that craft must be projected into the future, not just preserved.
In a city shaped by innovation and cross-cultural exchange, Colección Estudio invites the San Francisco design community to explore what it means to build a global design practice with deep local roots, and how mentorship, multiplicity, and making become tools for collective growth.
Bio:
Coleccion Estudio is made up of three Mexican designers: Andrés Cacho, Manuel López and Daniel Martínez.
Based in Mexico City, San Francisco and Queretaro, Coleccion Estudio creates objects at a slower pace and with a more humane process that fosters long-lasting emotional connections with the spaces you inhabit. Inspired by stories and techniques rooted in our culture, we translate them into limited-edition furniture, accessories and collectible design for your home.

Designed in Seoul: Culture, Objects, Everyday Life
2026-06-03 17:00 - 19:15 | Samsung Hall, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 200 Larkin St, San Francisco, California, 94102, United States
This immersive event celebrates the vibrancy and plurality of contemporary Korean design, bringing together a curated group of design agencies whose practices span product design, branding, mobility, consumer technology, and cultural experience. Blending tradition with modern innovation, the event highlights how Korean design continues to evolve across disciplines while maintaining a strong cultural identity.
Attendees will explore a diverse range of design expressions—from physical products and industrial objects to digital interfaces, brand systems, and experiential storytelling. The exhibition will feature visually striking installations, material explorations, and interactive media, offering a layered and engaging view into Korea’s dynamic design landscape.
This program is presented through a collaboration between the Asian Art Museum, the Stanford Center for Innovation and Design Research (SCIDR), and the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP), bringing together institutional, academic, and global design perspectives.
Through dialogue, presentation, and exhibition, the program reveals how multiple design perspectives converge to form a vibrant ecosystem, aligned with this year’s theme, Multitudes: The Power of Plurality.
The event opens with a panel discussion featuring:

Soh Kim, Executive Director, Stanford Center for Innovation and Design Research, Stanford University
Yoon-Jee Choi, Curator, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
Sung Bai, Director of Industrial Design for Home Devices, Google
Ippei Matsumoto, Industrial Designer, Devices and Services, Google

The panel will explore the evolving role of Korean design within global creative industries, addressing themes of cultural identity, technological innovation, and cross-cultural collaboration.
Following the panel, participating design agencies will be introduced through short presentations, offering insight into their design philosophy, process, and key works.
The event then transitions into an open exhibition and networking session, where attendees can directly engage with the showcased works and interact with designers.
Participating Korean Design Agencies
The participating agencies collectively represent the multitudes of Korean design—spanning material exploration, brand strategy, technological innovation, engineering integration, cross-industry application, and emotional storytelling.

BEBOP
ohSeven
BKID
UNICHEST
intenxiv
HEAZ

Program Schedule

Opening Panel Discussion (30 minutes): A curated dialogue on Korean design, global influence, and plurality

Korean Agency Presentations (30 minutes): Short introductions by participating agencies

Curated Exhibition & Showcase: Physical and digital works presented through spatial storytelling
Open Networking Session: Informal engagement between attendees and designers, accompanied by Korean-inspired food and beverages

Cambria Style: Mix & Mingle
2026-06-03 17:00 - 20:00 | Scott & Cooner San Francisco Showroom, 543 8th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
Join us for this exclusive event to celebrate the launch of Cambria Style issue 30! Mingle with industry professionals, enjoy light bites and beverages, and learn about unique applications from Cambria Quartz. The event will be hosted in collaboration with Scott & Cooner, at the San Francisco showroom. We look forward to seeing you there!

Where Design Begins: An Open Exhibition by Vizcom (Opening Party)
2026-06-03 17:00 - 20:00 | Vizcom, 488 Bryant St, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Vizcom is opening the doors to its Makerspace. See how designers across automotive, fashion, industrial design, and architecture are integrating AI into their creative process. Real objects and renders will be on display, alongside the work that made them.
Explore at your own pace: get hands-on at demo stations, watch live fabrication, take on a prompted design challenge, and spend time with a curated installation drawn from designers around the world.
June 3rd is opening night. The gallery runs through June 11th.
Come curious. Leave with something to think about.

Imagination in the Making with level
2026-06-03 17:00 - 20:00 | level, 530 Hampshire Street Suite 301, San Francisco, CA, 94110, United States
Simply Fun.
Join us for an evening exploring how we design for kids. From play to sleep and everything in between, step behind the scenes of our latest work, including Nex Playground, and get an early look at what’s coming next.
We design products that shape a better everyday for kids and families. A world where kids are more active, routines feel natural and engaging, and better sleep is built in. Experience interactive demos and explore the products in action.
At level, this work is personal. As designers and parents, we create products that feel as good as they function. Designs with character and clarity that elevate the kids’ space, bringing moments of joy and delight to everyday life.

Ecological Futures in Design
2026-06-03 17:30 - 18:30 | Four One Nine, 419 10th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
This conversation explores the future of ecological design beyond “sustainable materials” —shifting the dialog from replacing one material with another, and instead rethinking our relationship to matter itself. New ecologies of design are emerging as a practice of building interdependency: with ecosystems, with communities, and with non-human life. This panel conversation brings together practitioners across the design world in architecture, materials design, human-computer interfaces, fashion, and industrial design for a dialog on the frontiers of new design ecologies with biomaterials.

From extraction and consumption toward participation, reciprocity, and new forms of exchange – biomaterials are becoming a medium for new relationships between the built and living world:

Ocean Ecosystem Regeneration with Sea Urchin Architectural Surfaces | Virj Kan – Marblis by Primitives
Biobased & Natural materials adoption in the Built Environment | Teresa Jan – Perkins&Will
Dialog on the paradox of making in a climate crisis through fashion | Stella Harry Lee – WithRawMaterials
Narrative Futures that create awareness and mindfulness around ecology through Fungi | Jerome Tavé – 10th Floor Studio
Biomaterials and Biosensors: From Growable Interfaces to Biosensing Cosmetics | Katia Vega – Interactive Organisms Lab, UC Davis

Virj Kan – Marblis by Primitives
Virj Kan is a designer, materials engineer, and the Founder of Primitives. Primitives is a biodesign lab that develops advanced materials to restore nature’s balance. Through cutting-edge materials science, innovative design, and environmental science, Primitives is working to reshape the modern materials landscape into a platform that drives nature and biodiversity regeneration. Its architectural surfaces brand, MARBLIS™ brings this vision to the built environment and introduces a new class of stone surfaces called biocalcite, engineered to support ecosystem repair and design performance. Its debut innovation, Urchinite™ is a biocalcite surface made from ecologically destructive purple sea urchins, designed to restore kelp forests and regenerate ocean biodiversity.

Teresa Jan – Perkins&Will
Teresa Jan is an architect and urbanist who leads design with curiosity and a deep commitment to community, nature, and their evolving interconnections. She brings a regenerative design ethos to diverse project types, striving to advance climate justice through inclusive, place-based solutions. Teresa listens with intention, embracing complexity and the nuanced needs of each project to foster meaningful connections between people and the broader climate culture. A passionate advocate for healthy and resilient communities, she promotes equitable building decarbonization and views all-electric cooking as a vital step toward a climate-aligned future. Teresa recently served as a content leader for The Building Decarbonization Practice Guide: A Zero Carbon Future for the Built Environment. She was a juror for the 2023 AIA Architecture Awards and remains active with AIASF COTE. Teresa also serves on the Northern California Regional Leadership Advisory Board for USGBC-CA. Currently, she is the Director of Regenerative Design at Perkins & Will architects.

Stella Harry Lee – WithRawMaterials
Stella is a material and product designer exploring the future of materials and our evolving relationship with them. With a background in fiber arts, she began by working closely with the raw ingredients of clothing—spinning, dyeing, and understanding their origins. Later, her time at corporate fashion companies challenged her to think more critically about the lifecycle of products and the systems behind them. In response to the endless consumerism in the context of the climate crisis, her latest work shifts focus toward biodegradable and bio-based materials like seaweed, algae yarn, mycelium, and fish skin. Her work now aims to bridge the worlds of science and consumers through product and textile design.

Jerome Tavé – 10th Floor Studio
Jerome Tavé (he/him) is an artist with a background in design and has worked as an interaction designer for a variety of companies and design groups, in addition to teaching in the Web & New Media program at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Over the last 6 years, Jerome has incorporated fungi as a central part of his work. By experimenting with materials, and presenting them in new ways, Jerome hopes to explore narratives for new futures, while creating awareness and mindfulness around ecology. 10th Floor Studio is a conceptual art studio operated by Jerome Tavé and Kyle Lawson focusing on works that envision futures they want to see and build together.

Katia Vega – Interactive Organisms Lab, UC Davis
Katia Vega is an Associate Professor in the Department of Design at the University of California, Davis, where she founded and directs the Interactive Organisms Lab. Her research integrates human–computer interaction, biotechnology, and wearable technologies to explore how the body and living systems can serve as platforms for computing. She introduced Beauty Technology (electronics embedded into cosmetics) and has since expanded her work to Biocosmetic Interfaces for discreet, non-invasive health monitoring with cosmetics, Animal Biosensing Computing for biosensing on animals biofluids, and Growable Interfaces that employ bio-based materials for sustainable devices.

Happy Hour with Christian Douglas Design
2026-06-03 17:30 - 18:30 | FourOneNine, 419 10th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
Share a drink and a chat with the team at Christian Douglas Design
This event is directly following the Panel Discussion at 4pm: Food as Infrastructure with Landscape Architects Christian Douglas Design

Service Design Network Mixer
2026-06-03 17:30 - 19:30 | DesignMap Studio, 917 Bryant St, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
Come along to learn about service design and connect with service designers. We’ll have info and activities to learn about it, plus a space to connect with others practicing or interested in service design.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
​Anyone interested in service design! Whether you’re a seasoned service designer, someone looking to pivot into service design, or just curious about how service design principles can apply to your field of work, everyone is welcome.
​Great discussions come out of varied work experiences and perspectives. Feeling shy about your limited service design experience? Don’t be, the goal is to bring people together and learn from each other!
WHAT SHOULD I EXPECT?
We’ll have info about service design and activities set up to give you a feel for what it is. Activities will be running in parallel and guided by someone from the Service Design Network so you can do them at your own pace. Feel free to come for the whole event, or to just drop in to see what’s happening. Already know the basics? Come along to connect with others in the field. We’ll have snacks and drinks set up and you can choose your own adventure.
WHAT DOES MY TICKET INCLUDE?
The ticket price supports the SF Service Design Network to pay for snacks and drinks that we’ll cater for the event, as well as our printing and stationary costs for the activities we’re running. Half of the ticket price goes to SF Design Week to cover their operating costs.
WHAT IS SERVICE DESIGN?
​​Service design is an interdisciplinary practice that leverages research to solve problems in a system or service, leveraging design thinking to solve the problem. Service designers look holistically at an entire service ecosystem, leveraging the perspectives of employees, customers, and stakeholders to deliver a cohesive service solution.
​No matter your title, anyone can do service design work or benefit from learning about these design concepts. Join us to learn more!
ABOUT THE SF SERVICE DESIGN NETWORK
We’re a local chapter of the global Service Design Network (SDN). We run events throughout the year focused around the discipline and connecting the service design community. Check out our Luma to see our other events including talks, a book club, and the occasional potluck. https://luma.com/sdnsf

Create Now San Francisco Design Week
2026-06-03 17:30 - 20:00 | Terra Gallery & Event Venue, 511 Harrison St, San Francisco, CA, 94105, United States
Join the Bay Area’s creative community for creative inspiration, practical learning with Adobe experts, and real connection.
Create Now is an evening designed for you to gain new skills, fresh ideas, and confidence using the latest updates across Photoshop, Illustrator, Express, Firefly, and more. Adobe pros will walk through real-world workflows, smart shortcuts, and practical ways to integrate AI as a creative assist—so you can move faster without sacrificing your personal style or creative control. You’ll also hear from talented local creatives as they share their inspirations, process, and standout projects!
Connect with fellow creators to exchange ideas, build your network and be inspired by your local creative community. This event is open to creators of all levels and aims to support your creative growth!
Enjoy complimentary bites and drinks, meaningful conversations, and a chance to win a free Creative Cloud membership. This free event has limited capacity, so only RSVP if you plan to attend.
By attending this event, you consent to the use of your likeness in photographs and videos for promotional and documentation purposes.
Share with friends. Tag us #AdobeCreateNowSF
Register here for Create Now with Adobe!

Paul Trani: Principal Worldwide Creative Cloud Evangelist

Paul Trani is a Principal Worldwide Creative Cloud Evangelist at Adobe. As a 25 year veteran of the design community is passionate about empowering designers to create compelling content using their creativity and new technology.
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We’ll also be hosting a breakfast panel with SF Design Week on June 2nd. Register here.

From designer to founder: The leap we don’t talk about
2026-06-03 17:30 - 20:00 | Workato, 600 Illinois St, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Designers admire founders, but they don’t see THEMSELVES as founders. We are taught to focus on craft, to wait for an engineer, to avoid business.
But the landscape has changed.
AI lets us prototype and build faster than ever. Business skills can be learned. Vision and taste are already our strengths.
This talk invites designers to see founding as an act of design: shaping product, narrative, culture, and company.
If even one designer walks out believing they are allowed to build the future, this talk will have done its job.

Cutting the Cord: Inside Gantri Wireless with Ammunition
2026-06-03 18:00 - 20:00 | Gantri The Shop, 320 10th St, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
Be among the first to see our new wireless collection, designed by Ammunition.
Join us for an intimate conversation moderated by Tyler Trykowski with Gantri and Ammunition, the San Francisco–based studio behind the work, going behind the scenes of the collection and the technology that makes it possible. From design decisions to production, we’ll share how we approached rethinking lighting without cords.
Tyler Trykowski is a San Francisco–based journalist and communications professional who has held editorial roles at Condé Nast’s Them, VICE, and Playboy, and has contributed to publications including Inc.
Seating is limited, with standing room available.
Doors are at 6 PM, with the conversation beginning at 6:30 PM.
Elixirs provided by Drink2F.

Design Your Future - Proactively Shaping What's Next
2026-06-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Fingersnips Media Arts & Record Store, 3527 20th Street, San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
What if your next chapter was not something to wait for – but something you could design?
Join Prof. Dr. Sebastian Kernbach from Stanford, Stellenbosch and St. Gallen University, for an intimate and interactive Life Design workshop around Design Your Future, curating the plurality of career and life. This evening invites participants to explore practical, science-based tools for navigating multitudes in transitions with more clarity, confidence, and creative agency. It is based on his book “Design Your Future” published with Cambridge University Press.
Blending design thinking, behavioral science, positive psychology, and visual methods, the session will move beyond a traditional talk. Participants will be guided through a short, hands-on exercise and leave with a tangible mini-zine: a small personal artifact capturing ideas, questions, and first steps for their own future.
Schedule:
7:00–7:15pm – Arrival and welcome
7:15–7:35pm – Short keynote: Why life and career transitions need design
7:35–8:15pm – Interactive mini-zine workshop: Design Your Future in 8 pages
8:15–8:35pm – Conversation, audience questions, and reflections
8:35–9:00pm – DJ music, informal exchange, and closing
Speaker:
Prof. Dr. Sebastian Kernbach is Professor for Creativity associated with the University of St. Gallen, Stellenbosch University and Stanford University. He founded the Life Design Lab helping people at all ages and stages to navigate what’s next despite uncertainty. His work explores how design thinking, visualization, behavioral science, and positive psychology can help people navigate transitions and move from insight to action. His latest book is available at: https://www.amazon.com/Design-Your-Future-Innovative-Transition/dp/1009737317.
Perks:
Participants will receive a hands-on Life Design mini-zine template and create their own small future-design artifact during the event. The evening includes an intimate conversation, practical tools, and the opportunity to mingle with others in meaningful ways.
Location:
This interactive workshop format will take place at Fingersnips Media Art & Record Store (https://www.fingersnaps.net/) by DJ Lamont in the Heart & Soul of the Mission District in San Francisco close to Valencia Street. If the weather allows, we can mingle before and after the workshop outside in front of the store with some drinks and music.

Designing for Museums
2026-06-04 10:00 - 12:00 | de Young museum, Koret Auditorium, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, California, 94118, United States
Join the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) Design Studio for a morning at the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park.
Discover how our graphic and exhibition design teams work in tandem, from initial concept through the transformation of the galleries. We’ll share our design process for special exhibitions — from graphic identities and marketing campaigns through exhibition design and environmental graphics.
The event will begin with a talk in Koret Auditorium — an in-depth look at recent exhibitions at both the de Young and Legion of Honor museums, followed by a Q&A. After the talk, participants will be free to explore the museum on their own.
Ticket includes General Admission to the de Young museum, and same-day General Admission to the Legion of Honor.

Cambria Style - Open Studio
2026-06-04 11:00 - 16:15 | Cambria Sales & Distribution Center, 1747 Atlantic St, Union City, California, 94587, United States
Join us for this exclusive event to celebrate the launch of Cambria Style issue 30! Mingle with industry professionals, enjoy refreshments and swag bags, and get a firsthand look at what’s new from Cambria. While onsite, participate in Cambria showroom and distribution center tours.
We will also welcome Benjamin Moore in attendance, who will collaborate with us for the day to present their Color of the Year.
We look forward to seeing you there!

Common Threads: Cross Discipline Conversations
2026-06-04 13:30 - 15:30 | Studio O+A, 452 Tehama St., San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
Consequential creatives across disciplines—from culture (food, music) to architecture and design—share their stories, discuss their professional path and ponder their legacy, and the future.

Conversation #1, 1:30-2:30 PM
Join us at Studio O+A for an intimate conversation with three San Francisco originals who have each spent decades shaping the culture of this city through sound, space, and community. Talking shop with Primo Orpilla, Studio O+A; Kirk Michael Harper aka The Selecter; and John Quintos of Cento Coffee. Hosted by Annabelle Udo-O’Malley.

Conversation #2, 3:00-3:30 PM
Creative forerunners in design, technology and architecture discuss their origin stories, making an impact with intention, by invention and through innovation, and their latest projects. Featuring Primo Orpilla (interior designer and co-founder, Studio O+A), Gene Sandoval, AIA (design partner, ZGF Architects) and Everett Katigbak (multi-hyphenate, analog intelligence advocate) with host Lisa Boquiren.
Sound+Set: Thomas Heinser
About the Presenters
Kirk Michael Harper — known as The Selecter — has spent over three decades defining San Francisco’s music and nightlife as a DJ, writer, event producer, and venue owner. Founding partner of Mr. Fives and 330 Ritch Street, he remains a driving force behind Sweater Funk, the city’s beloved boogie and funk party since 2008.
Primo Orpilla is one of San Francisco’s most influential interior designers, known for translating the technology mindset into physical space for Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung, Uber, Yelp, and beyond. His design philosophy — organizing space to share the light and flatten the organization — is rooted in fostering collaboration and human connection.
John Quintos is a Bay Area native and owner of Cento Coffee, a SOMA cornerstone since 2008. From Cento Coffee Bar to Vega Coffee to a full roasting brand, John brings a DJ’s intentionality to his craft — knowing your audience, trusting your taste, and building loyalty. He currently owns Système D Cafe at the Center for Architecture + Design.
Annabelle Udo-O’Malley (host) is a San Francisco-based event producer and storyteller whose work spans culture, community, and live experience. A Bay Area media and culture veteran, she has co-hosted special AAPI broadcasts on KPFA 94.1 FM and served as editor and writer for various publications including AsianWeek, Filipinas, Hyphen, Kaleo, Rewind, and Wushu Kung Fu.
Everett Katigbak is a documentary filmmaker, storyteller, and creative who spent 20 years telling stories across different mediums at Stripe Press, and at Facebook, Pinterest, and Anthropic. His latest film, “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez,” won major awards at Sundance, and from the Library of Congress, and premieres on PBS in fall 2026.
Gene Sandoval, AIA is an unconventional thinker with an active imagination, and resourcefulness, which he leverages for designs that creatively balance human and environmental performance. Gene leads design teams for some of ZGF Architects most complex and ambitious projects, including an expansion at the Nike World Headquarters Campus, and doubling the capacity of the Portland International Airport.
Lisa Boquiren (host) is a design & architecture aficionada who works with creative businesses on brand, marketing and communications strategy. She also produces and moderates convergent conversations, in-person and online, including Pacita Abad: The Making of an Exhibition (San Francisco Design Week 2024). Her editorial work appears in SHLTR, SPACES and Small Firms, Great Projects.

Soft Threshold: An immersive cultural encounter between East and West (an immersive multi-sensory experience )
2026-06-04 14:00 - 17:00 | Google Huddle, 2000 N Shoreline Blvd, Ground Floor, Mountain View, 94043, United States
In an age of acceleration, we gather to remember slower ways of being human.
Soft Threshold is an immersive multi-sensory experience exploring the meeting of cultures through space, sound, scent, objects, and storytelling. Rather than offering a guided path, the event invites attendees to move through a layered environment where different traditions of beauty, ritual, and healing come into dialogue.
In response to this year’s theme of Multiplicity, the experience considers how people today live across cultural influences, layered identities, and changing worlds. By bringing Eastern, Western, and Mediterranean sensibilities into a shared sensory space, the gathering asks how art and culture can help create new forms of belonging in an age increasingly shaped by speed, fragmentation, and AI.
Soft Threshold is the public preface to World Culture Salon — a new international cultural series presented by One Culture Foundation, designed to bring the deepest aesthetics of different civilizations into contemporary life through art, music, scent, and shared experience. The series itself begins in July with Chapter I: Greece.

Event Schedule
2:00 – 2:30 PM · Opening Remarks & Conversation Welcome, opening reflections, and a three-voice exchange between East, West, and the Mediterranean.
2:30 – 2:50 PM · Piano Performance & Pause A musical threshold bridging Eastern and Western traditions.
2:50 – 4:45 PM · Immersive Exhibition Open exploration of scent, sound, and ritual objects — a layered sensory environment to move through at your own pace.
4:45 – 5:00 PM · Send-Off A soft closing, with details on Chapter I: Greece in July.

Speakers & Performers
Kayci Bi · Honorary Chair, World Culture Salon.
Through a rich diplomatic life and extensive cultural engagement across Asia, North America, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, Kayci Bi has become a long-time advocate for Greek culture on the global stage. A Founding Board Member and Cultural Advisor of One Culture Foundation, she serves as Honorary Chair of World Culture Salon. In July, she will host Chapter I: Greece, an intimate gathering at the Consulate General of Greece in San Francisco.
Evelisa Genova · Artist; Executive Director, DrawBridge
A Sicilian-Canadian painter, cultural strategist, and Harvard-trained leader, Evelisa Genova is the Executive Director of DrawBridge, a Bay Area nonprofit that has provided trauma-informed expressive arts programs to children in shelters and underserved communities for 35 years. Her own painting practice, known as the Painting Oracle, draws from Jungian dream symbolism, surrealist allegory, and the Mediterranean tradition, exploring intuition, feminine power, and the inner landscapes that words cannot reach. Her recent curatorial work includes The Art of San Francisco at Embarcadero Center, in partnership with BXP.
Dr. Tong Zhang · Pianist; Founder & Artistic Director, Aetna Music & Arts Foundation
Dr. Tong Zhang is a pianist, arts and cultural leader, and the Founder and Artistic Director of the Aetna Music & Arts Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing well-being and community connection through music and the arts. Trained in China and the United States, Dr. Zhang holds degrees in piano performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. Her work bridges Eastern and Western musical traditions, fostering dialogue, healing, and cultural connection.
Xinye Lin · Artist; Founding Curator, World Culture Salon; President, One Culture Foundation.
Multidisciplinary artist and curator working at the intersection of culture, healing, and sensory art. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (M.Arch), her multi-sensory installations have been presented at the United Nations Headquarters, Times Square, CHSA Museum, CICA Museum, and other international institutions. She is the author of Artful Awakening: Multisensory Art and Meditation, a book exploring Eastern philosophy, contemporary art, and sensory healing practices, now distributed in 28 countries and held in the collections of the Clyfford Still Museum, the RISD library, and San Mateo County Libraries. Following her 2025 SF Design Week immersive exhibition Inside of Nebula, Xinye founded World Culture Salon to extend her multi-sensory healing curatorial practice into the field of cross-cultural dialogue.

About the Series

World Culture Salon is the flagship cultural program of One Culture Foundation — an international dialogue series that uses sensory experience as its medium. Each gathering focuses on one civilization, bringing its most enduring aesthetics into the present moment. This evening is the public preface to the series in San Francisco. From here, in partnership with consulates and cultural institutions across multiple countries, World Culture Salon will unfold The Divine Feminine Travels throughout 2026 — a journey across civilizations exploring beauty and creative force, beginning with Chapter I: Greece in July.

Designing Worlds: How Products and Experiences Hold Complexity (Samsung/Amazon, Field Paoli Architecture, Collab Fertility, Belmondo Studios)
2026-06-04 15:30 - 18:30 | GSC Agency, 201 Jackson St, San Francisco, California, 94111, United States
Join Belmondo Studios for a panel with leaders from Samsung, Field Paoli Architecture, and Collab Fertility, plus a hands-on workshop. Explore how design navigates complexity followed by a 5:15 PM social mixer featuring a live DJ set and curated local refreshments.
Brands today are asked to be many things at once — premium and accessible, rigorous and playful, consistent and constantly evolving. Most aren’t designed for that kind of pressure.
What if brands weren’t identities to be protected, but worlds to be inhabited? Systems of meaning, behavior, and experience that can hold multiple audiences and identities without fracturing. A fertility clinic has to be clinically authoritative and emotionally warm, medically rigorous and deeply human, all at once. A mixed-use development has to be a neighborhood, a retail destination, a public gathering place, and an economic engine — simultaneously, for entirely different people. A consumer electronics innovator has to ask not just “what does this product do?” but “what world does it belong to, and how does it need to feel inside someone’s life?”
These questions don’t have simple answers. But the most compelling brands, spaces, and experiences we know have all found a way to hold the tension rather than resolve it — to design with contradiction rather than eliminating it.
This session brings together an architect, a physician-founder, and a product innovation leader — each working in a different medium, all wrestling with the same fundamental challenge: building brands, spaces, and experiences that contain multitudes without losing coherence.
We’ll begin with a conversation across disciplines, then move into a guided working session where participants map the productive tensions within their own organizations — and leave with a practical framework for designing with contradiction rather than eliminating it.
Format
3:30pm – Part 1 — Conversation (1 hr) A moderated discussion exploring where brands fracture under competing audiences, how different disciplines design for complexity, and what it looks like when a brand genuinely holds multitudes rather than just claiming to.
4:30pm – Part 2 — Working Session (30 min) Map Your Multitudes. Participants identify their key audiences, the different modes their brand operates in, and the tensions between them — then learn a simple framework for designing with those tensions rather than resolving them.
5:00- Part 3 — Synthesis (15 min) Key takeaways and open discussion.

5:15 – 6:30pm — Part 4 — Social Mixer with food/drink and DJ
Panelists
Jay Baik, Former Head of Product Innovation Team, Samsung
Yann Taylor, Principal, Field Paoli Architecture
Thalia Segal MD, Founder and Medical Director, Collab Fertility
Moderated by Peter Brambl and Joanna Ellis, Founders, Belmondo Studios

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Event CANCELLED : Find Your Signal: A Hands-On Creative Workshop for Designers
2026-06-04 15:30 - 18:30 | IDEO, IDEO, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
A lot of designers are quietly figuring out where they fit in the new story. This workshop helps you write yours.
Elysa Fenenbock and Lynn Casey bring futures thinking, play science, tarot archetypes, and other ways of knowing into a room designed for real making. Over 2.5 hours, you’ll use your hands to get honest about where you are and what you love to build. The kind of session where you get a little glue on your fingers. Making surfaces what analysis skips: the story you’ve been carrying but haven’t found the words for yet.
You leave with things in your hands and a sharper signal to send to the world.
Schedule
3:30 pm: Snacks and schmoozing
3:45 pm: Welcome, settling in, tuning inside
4:00 pm: Sensing your story
4:15 pm: Make to think
5:45 pm: Inspiration and sharing
6:15 pm: Clarifying your vision
6:30 pm: Close
Speakers
Lynn Casey is a futurist and cultural decoder who helps world-leading brands find the human truth beneath data. As founder of Shine Scout, she has keynoted from Prague to San Francisco and guided teams at Meta, Mattel, YouTube, and Estée Lauder.
Elysa Fenenbock has been at Stanford’s d.school since 2009. She built Design for Play there, and the school’s first course on Psychedelic Medicine x Design. Her work is hands-on: she co-created IDEO’s Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators (used by 80,000+ educators), was Google’s Designer-in-Residence, and is an Edmund Hillary Fellow.
Perks All making materials provided. Light refreshments. Every participant leaves with handmade artifacts and an optional 90-day creative challenge.

RSVPs Open Soon!

Event CANCELLED: CAD, Design + AI
2026-06-04 17:00 - 19:15 | Groundfloor SF, 455 Valencia, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
***THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES***
****Attendees will all be notified via email from events@sfdesignweek.org and will be refunded the ticketing fee****
Al is rapidly changing design. In the process it’s raising deep questions about what it means to be a designer, what it means to design, and what roles people take in their relationship to, and with, Al. 3D parametric CAD is the latest area Al is transforming. As it does so, it’s going to transform the physical world. Are we going to drown in slopjects or get the world of personalized original products we’ve been promised? It’s SF Design Week–let’s discuss! If you have made AI + CAD tools, projects, agents, workflows: bring them. We’ll have show and tell.

Hosted by Mike Kuniavsky and Slate Werner

ADRIFT. AFLOAT. DRY-DOCKED. | A curatorial tour that combines maritime heritage & boat-themed work by 3 local artists
2026-06-04 17:00 - 20:00 | Bldg 12, Pier 70, 1070 Maryland @ 22nd St, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Set within the soaring public atrium of Building 12 at Pier 70 in San Francisco’s Dogpatch, this exhibition pays homage to the site’s shipbuilding past while exploring the human condition through a nautical lens. Join Sarah Stangle, the show’s curator and founder of 3RD ST CREATIVE ARTERY, for a walkthrough of the exhibit that explores the “plurality” of the Bay Area’s artistic spirit from the vantage point of 3 local artists who have long-found inspiration in their shipyard studios. We will also be joined by DRY-DOCKED Artist Stacey Carter and Archivist of Ferlinghetti’s personal library, Chris Buck.
Multitudes of Vision:
Experience a rare pairing of works—nautical-themed art by the legendary Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who maintained a light-filled studio at Hunters Point Shipyard for almost 40 years, with the ship-themed work of two other local artists, Suzy Barnard from the Noonan Building and Stacey Carter from Hunters Point Shipyard.
The exhibit also includes two display cases of curated titles, items, and images from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s personal library—culled from a collection that is vast and varied—expressly selected to reflect the boat- and ship-themed narrative of the exhibition, as well as objects and artifacts on loan from The Port of San Francisco and The Bethlehem Shipyard Museum.
The Artery of Creativity:
There’s been a seismic shift in the location of the creative center of San Francisco. The 5.25-mile length of 3RD ST, from head to toe, from Market to Bayshore, from SOMA to Dogpatch to Bayview Hunters Point, is becoming a main channel in a branching system of art, culture, and creativity. Learn how the 3RD ST CREATIVE ARTERY project is highlighting and amplifying the efforts and output of artists, makers, movers, and shakers who have a connection to San Francisco’s 3RD ST.
Event schedule:
1 hour: Social hour. Experience the industrial grandeur of Bldg 12, network with design enthusiasts, enjoy a complimentary beer (or beverage) from Bldg 12 tenant Standard Deviant, “The Coldest Tasting Beer in SF.” Voucher for complimentary drink obtained at check-in.
1 hour: Tour of the exhibit with Curator Sarah Stangle, DRY-DOCKED Artist Stacey Carter, and Archivist of Ferlinghetti’s personal library, Chris Buck.

Armadillo x Figwaspe: A Meridian Tasting Experience (Sold Out)
2026-06-04 17:30 - 20:00 | Armadillo, 3695 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, CA, 94118, United States
Join us for an exclusive first preview of Meridian, Armadillo‘s forthcoming collection, through an intimate tasting experience by culinary artist FIGWASPE. Created in partnership for SF Design Week, the evening translates the inspiration behind the collection into flavor, texture, and form.
Each bite is shaped to evoke the texture and tone of stone, then arranged into a sculptural composition guided by the same principles of repetition and pattern that define Armadillo’s craft.
“Design is at its most memorable when it creates an emotional response. Partnering with FIGWASPE to translate the Meridian collection into flavor and form offered an opportunity to explore craftsmanship through an entirely different lens.”
— Amanda Mantville, President of Armadillo

“I found myself inspired by the textural and topographical references underpinning Armadillo’s Meridian collection — sand dunes, natural stone and organic surfaces. This food installation is an homage to the craft and consistency of natural terrain and Armadillo’s fidelity to that spirit, with a landscape of food forms uniting to create a cohesive, textural whole, while remaining interactive, tactile, and seamlessly incorporated into the patterns of everyday life.”
— Hanna Hurr, Figwaspe

This will be an experience you won’t soon forget – tickets are extremely limited and will sell out. There will be no waitlist – once all spots are reserved, the opportunity is missed.
Ticket proceeds will be donated to the Armadillo Foundation, extending our commitment to craft, community and meaningful social impact beyond the objects we create. Through long-term partnerships and grassroots initiatives, the Foundation supports education and wellbeing within our artisan communities and beyond, including Girls Inc. San Francisco.

About FIGWASPE:
Hanna Hurr is a Brooklyn-based chef and artist creating conceptual food, garden experiences and installations. Her work explores the relationship between cuisine and the natural world, drawing on culinary technique, horticulture and design to create multi-sensory environments. Named after the fig wasp, her practice reflects a deep interest in ecological systems, transformation and the rituals of making and gathering.

Designing the Space Around Your Ears (SAYE)
2026-06-04 17:30 - 20:30 | The Jay, Autograph Collection Hotel, 433 Clay St., San Francisco, California, 94111, United States
Designing the Space Around Your Ears (SAYE): Your pitstop for your SF Design Week itinerary. Come one, come all! Enjoy a live musical performance and conversation about how the most powerful cultural commodity is designed from creation to consumption.
This panel brings together voices from across the music industry to explore how music is designed—not just sonically, but across space, storytelling, visual identity, and go-to-market strategy. The conversation will highlight how artists and teams collaborate across disciplines to shape cohesive creative worlds and build sustainable careers.
The panel will include Heather Wolters, Sr. Director of Streaming and Sales for MNRK Music Group; Eboné Marie of the Eboné Marie Agency—an entertainment agent and producer working across artist management, PR, and creative direction; and Avi Vinocur, a Bay Area singer, songwriter, and producer known for his storytelling-driven work as a co-frontman of Goodnight, Texas and collaborations with Metallica.
The panel will be moderated by Raed Asi, (Raed.) an Ohio-born musician who brings an artist’s perspective to the conversation.
Schedule
5:30 pm Doors Open at Level B
6:00 pm Panel Begins
7:00 pm Panel Ends
7:15pm Performance and Mingling at Level 3
Panel is on Level B with light beverages
Performance on Level 3 with drinks and food available for purchase

Hosted By: Raed. , She is the music, and The Jay Autograph Collection Hotel.

Bay Locality | The Future Matter: Technological innovation in architectural design and fabrication
2026-06-04 17:45 - 20:00 | Diaspora Hub, 221 11th, San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
A conversation on how technological innovation in architectural design and fabrication creates new possibilities for architecture deeply rooted in place — examining the poetics of Bay Area locality through design, material intelligence, and advanced manufacturing.
Themes to be covered:
Poetics of Bay Locality The Bay Area’s wooden grain, eroded coastlines, fog, and bay currents offer a sensory vocabulary rooted in climate, culture, and memory. Like tectonic strata, these phenomena record forces, light, and time—creating opportunities for designs and architecture that resonate with regional character and environmental experience.
Technological Innovation as a Design Medium Digital fabrication using adaptive 3D-printed formwork to achieve real-time color gradients and multi-material fusions gives designers the ability to respond to place. These technologies allow form and fabrication to evolve together, embedding local narratives and environmental sensitivities directly into the making process itself.
Encoding Place Through Situated Making How materials carry the memory and character of a place—bay mud, coastal fog, wooden grain—and how advanced fabrication technologies encode these sensory phenomena directly into built form. New construction methods honor cultural heritage while transforming regional materials and environmental conditions into design intelligence. Computational design and robotic fabrication become tools for amplifying place-based identity rather than imposing universal standardization.
Speakers:
Moderated by Alexey Dubov — serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist at the intersection of construction technology, robotics, and the built environment. Co-founder of BuildTech VC and pioneering the 3D-printed housing startup Mighty Buildings.

Andrei Hakhovich is principal designer and founder of Gradient Matter, as well as co-founder of Echoes of Future Matter. Gradient Matter is a San Francisco-based multidisciplinary studio working across architecture, public art, interiors, and bespoke objects. His practice brings together computational design, fabrication, and material research to explore new narratives, spatial experiences, and novel forms, creating work that is poetic, ecological, and deeply sensorial.

Antoine van Erp is the founder of Matter Makers, a practice bridging avant-garde design with hands-on fabrication. Over 15 years, he has led complex international projects at premier European firms including Heatherwick Studio, UNStudio, and Powerhouse Company. Today, his work focuses on material intelligence and localized craftsmanship, alongside teaching as a graduate faculty member at the Academy of Art University.

Elena Dendiberia is principal designer of Studio AHEAD, a San Francisco-based art and design collective co-founded with Homan Rajai. The studio’s approach is “borderless,” with roots that are far-flung yet deeply embedded in regionality. Drawing from diasporic experience, the studio holds that there is no universal idea of functionality that fits all cultures and people. What remains constant is an appreciation of tradition and craftsmanship.

Jason Kelly Johnson is lead artist and co-founding partner of FUTUREFORMS, bringing expertise in computational design and advanced digital fabrication, produced through the lens of critical art practice and public space advocacy.

Nick Polansky is principal of NWP Art and Architecture, a dual studio practice in San Francisco’s Mission District. With over 20 years of experience, Nick cross-pollinates architecture, art, and urban design as one dialogue. His recent project Fjord, a floating sauna experience in Sausalito, ties together a fascination with repurposing and upcycling materials to transform waterfront access.

Rho is the all-in-one banking platform for startups and the accountants supporting them. With banking setup in minutes, up to 2% cashback cards, and powerful tools for managing spend, paying bills, and closing the books, Rho helps high-growth startups move fast and stay focused, backed by support that goes to the end of the earth to help you win.

Gantri Wireless Launch Party, Celebrating Pride Month
2026-06-04 18:00 - 22:00 | Gantri The Shop, 320 10th St, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
Be the first to see our new wireless collection, designed by Ammunition.
Join us in San Francisco for our local moment between ICFF and NeoCon—an evening of drinks, music, and a first look at the collection, alongside an immersive installation by Sheki Cicelsky in celebration of Pride Month.
DJ set and drinks. Come by and celebrate with us.

Dynamic Minds, Brilliant Inspiration: Sausalito Design and Architecture Studio Study Tour
2026-06-05 13:00 - 17:00 | The Office of Charles de Lisle, 60 Gate 5 Road, Sausalito, CA, 94965
Join us for an afternoon immersed in the studios of two interior design firms and one architectural firm. Three of the most distinctive creative studios in the Bay Area — The Office of Charles de Lisle, Studio Collins Weir, and Luca Pignata Studio — open their doors in Sausalito for a directed studio study tour. Each visit is a private, structured, in-depth presentation by the firm’s principals, with access to working studios and ongoing projects that reveal how exceptional design is made.
Bestselling author and design journalist Diane Dorrans Saeks leads the afternoon, guiding conversation and drawing out the ideas, processes, and inspirations that define each practice. Attendees walk and carpool between studios along Sausalito’s celebrated waterfront — at the intersection of architecture, craft, and the luminous landscape that shapes it all.
The day concludes with a private reception hosted by Luca Pignata, where participants meet the architects and designers, enjoy refreshments, and extend the afternoon’s inspirations into the early evening.
The Office of Charles de Lisle
The Office of Charles de Lisle is a highly admired multidisciplinary design firm based in Sausalito, California. The international work encompasses interior design, handcrafted custom furnishings, product design, and the decorative arts. Founded in 2008, the studio operates on the conviction that great design, paired with quality manufacturing, produces environments that are lasting and truly singular. The firm brings a rare maker’s sensibility to every project: partners grounded in studio art, art history, architecture, and industrial design collaborate closely with clients to craft spaces alive with beauty, originality, inspired color, textiles, art, and bespoke custom work. Projects span California, New York, Hawaii, Mexico City, Montana, Nova Scotia, and beyond.
“I’m inspired by my clients, and the extraordinary artists and craftspeople we work with. When clients are involved and interested in the design and design process, the interiors become more about story than about image.” — Charles de Lisle

Studio Collins Weir
Studio Collins Weir is the collaborative practice of designers Susan Collins Weir and Chris Weir, recognized for interiors that fuse a strong foundation in art history and architecture with an exacting attention to craft, textiles, and bespoke detail. The studio’s work reflects the belief that a home should come together as a holistic, warmly individual environment — one that honors the specificity of each site, client, and collection. Studio Collins Weir creates masterful design with refinement and elegance. Custom furnishings, professional craft, and considered material choices are the hallmarks of every project.
“The layering of epochs is quintessential San Francisco — a city racing towards the future while looking over its shoulder to the past.” — Susan Collins Weir
“We design spaces to be minimal in form and materially rich. Our decor is quite modern and every detail is considered. We work to contrast the classical detailing of the space, reinforcing the qualities of both. We further heighten this juxtaposition of classical and modern by lining the room with contemporary art and the clients’ collections.” — Chris Weir

Luca Pignata Studio
Originally from Northern Italy, architect Luca Pignata came to Northern California three decades ago. Working at the studio of legendary Napa Valley architect Howard Backen, Pignata developed a practice rooted in the conviction that architecture must carry meaning and purpose. His studio, opened in Sausalito, is guided by the principle that the buildings we admire are those that celebrate values we hold important. The architect’s essential tools are honesty, curiosity, passion, and deep respect for culture, nature, and the environment.
“I have always been inspired by the thinking of Vitruvius, the great Roman architect, who believed that architecture should be composed of the triple essence: strength, utility, and aesthetic effect. And there is a phrase from Stendhal that I love: ‘Beauty as promise to happiness.’ How else do you create happiness but through beauty and kindness?” — Luca Pignata

About the Seminar Leader
Diane Dorrans Saeks is a San Francisco-based design journalist, editor, and the author of twenty-six books on architecture, design, travel, and style, published by Rizzoli, Chronicle Books, and others. Her most recent Rizzoli titles include Jean-Louis Deniot Interiors and Parisian by Design. She is Design Editor of PaperCity magazine and a co-founding editor of Metropolitan Home and C Magazine California Style. Diane has traveled to more than 110 countries as a working journalist and has presented her Dynamic Minds, Brilliant Inspiration design seminars — intimate, behind-the-scenes studio visits with leading architects and designers — for more than fifteen years, in affiliation with Design Bay Area and San Francisco Design Week.

Attendees walk and carpool between the three studios along the waterfront, starting at The Office of Charles de Lisle.

ADDITIONAL SEMINARS:
Learn more about other events in the series –
June 6, 1pm-5pm: SoMa San Francisco
Studio visits to Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects and BAMO .Participants will converse, meet, discuss ideas, and meet the designers and architects.
June 20, 1pm too 5pm: San Francisco
A studio visit is led by best-selling author Diane Dorrans Saeks at Kuth/Ranieri Architects with guest architect Anne Fougeron, FAIA · Fougeron Architecture. The day closes with a convivial reception: bites, sips.

SF Design Week Innovation Awards Recipient Social (Recipient Invite Only)
2026-06-05 15:00 - 17:00 | Lumens, 724 Battery St First Floor, San Francisco, CA, 94111, United States
Congratulations to the recipients of the 2026 San Francisco Design Week Innovation Awards!
We invite the 2026 Recipients and Jury to join us for a celebratory afternoon honoring the studios, teams, and designers whose work received top recognition from our esteemed jury for this year’s awards.
Co-presented by Lumens and Flowers Vineyards & Winery, guests will enjoy local wines, artistic chocolate creations by Figwaspe, and an opportunity to connect with fellow members of the Bay Area design community inside the beautiful Lumens showroom on Battery Street.
This is a private event for 2026 SF Design Week Innovation Award recipients, invited guests, and members of our distinguished jury. Award recipients have already been notified. This event is closed to the general public.
If you received an award this year and did not receive your invitation to the Recipient Social,
Please contact awards@sfdesignweek.org
Following the event, recipients are invited to continue the celebration at the Official 20th Anniversary San Francisco Design Week Party at Pier 24, just a few blocks away.

Special thanks to:

Pact Studio, 2026 SF Design Week Brand Sponsor
Mucho SF Awards Branding
Mia He / Experience Designer + Yunwen (Tutu) Tu / Product + Experience Designer
Mariya Shpungina + Carlos Lopez / Support Staff

Climbing for Everyone: An Introduction to Route Setting with Touchstone Climbing
2026-06-05 15:30 - 18:00 | Dogpatch Boulders, 2573 3rd st., San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
This event introduces designers to the world of route setting — part craft, part performance design, part puzzle-making — and opens a conversation about what our disciplines can learn from each other

As an emergent design discipline, route setting is focused on creating artificial climbing experiences. Route setters utilize plastic, fiberglass and wooden elements to create novel 3d puzzles that require mental and physical problem solving techniques to solve.
Through hands-on exploration, event participants will discover how route setters design for a multitude of bodies and abilities — creating experiences that teach climbing skills to beginners and veterans alike.
Walk away with a deeper understanding of what it means to design for the full range of human experience. Route setting’s hands-on approach to user diversity, iterative making, and embodied problem solving offers every designer a new way of thinking about how people move through, interact with, and are changed by the things we make.

Registrants must complete a waiver before participating in this event and are encouraged to do so in advance here.

Official Party: San Francisco Design Week Celebrating 20 Years!
2026-06-05 17:30 - 20:30 | Pier 24, Pier 24, San Francisco, CA, 94105, United States
This event is the largest gathering during San Francisco Design Week: we’ll come together, under one roof and celebrate all things design week! Conversations about what you’ve learned, seen, experienced. What you’re looking forward to.
It’s a big year for San Francisco Design Week and our creative community! Join us for the Official San Francisco Design Week Party celebrating 20 Years!
🚀 Visit our various rooms, activities and installations, enjoy our favorite wine from local Bay Area Flowers Winery and Vineyards, and come together as a community to celebrate the launch of San Francisco Design Week 2026!
🥃 Themed cocktails by The Occasion a purpose driven event service (2 complimentary drinks for VIP!).
🍷 Complimentary Flowers Vineyard and Winery wine in the VIP Lounge (limited Swag for VIP attendees – first come first serve)
🍵 Complimentary Matcha by Cuzen Matcha / World Matcha Inc.
🎵 Beats by Bisi Obateru: DJ, Founder, Builder
🎨 A feature by Allison Hueman, a multi-disciplinary artist creating paintings, sculpture, installation and new media work.
🥳 We’ll gather, see old friends and make new connections!
🙌 SF Design Week speakers, award recipients, and VIPs will be in attendance as we gather to engage and connect with the community.
Special thanks to:

Pact Studio, 2026 Brand Sponsor
Mia He / Experience Designer + Yunwen (Tutu) Tu / Product + Experience Designer
Roland at The Occasion
SF Port Authority
World Matcha Inc.
Mariya Shpungina + Carlos Lopez / Support Staff
Cecilia Caparas Apelin for producing this event.

Sponsored by:
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Hosted by Design Bay Area + SF Design Week , Sponsored by Rivian + Flowers Vineyards & Winery, and produced by Ciel Creative Space.

The Art of Mending: Manifold Selves in Fabric
2026-06-06 10:30 - 13:30 | Cafe Alma, 888 Innes Avenue, San Francisco, California, 94124, United States
Reconnect with your creativity, reflect on the many parts of who you are through your own patch pattern, and learn the basics of sewing machines, while being intentional with the material and design – all in a relaxed, collaborative space. No experience needed, just come ready to create and connect.
We’ll begin with a quick demo on pattern design, then move into guided, hands-on time to design and make your patch. You’ll also have a chance to learn how to use a sewing machine, so you can get fancy with your patterns. A curated selection of sustainably sourced fabrics and materials will be available so you can focus on bringing your idea to life.
Bring a piece of clothing or fabric that has a special meaning to you – or one that’s ready for a new story. If you’d rather start fresh, plain tote bags will also be available.
Set in a cozy café-creative space, this workshop is designed to help you slow down, make something with your hands, and connect with others. Come solo or with friends, grab a drink or treat, settle in, and leave with a creation that’s fully you.
SCHEDULE [3 hrs]
10:30 – 10:40am : Welcome + introductions
10:40 – 11:00am: Patch pattern intro
11:00 – 11:30am: Sewing machine basics + open sewing
11:30 – 01:10am: Patch pattern design
01:10 – 01:30pm: Show and tell + mingle
**This will be split into groups for everyone to have enough time to learn and use the sewing machines provided by the local creative nonprofit network.
The workshop will be led by Nicole Shen, a maker at heart who believes creativity and sustainability go hand in hand. Through sewing, knitting, crocheting, and the occasional painting or drawing, she finds joy in giving new life to old materials, whether that’s repurposing a forgotten shirt into a tote bag she uses every week or turning fabric scraps into something entirely new. For her, making things isn’t just a hobby; it’s a way of being intentional about what she creates and consumes.

From Inspiration to Pattern: a hands-on blockprint workshop
2026-06-06 11:00 - 13:15 | Seema Krish Studio, 185 Arkansas street, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Please join textile designer Seema Krish and her team for an immersive, creative event exploring the art of traditional handblock printing.
Hear the story behind the craft and learn about this traditional technique.
Create your own hand-printed tote bag using Seema’s array of wood blocks.

Marinship Open Studios
2026-06-06 11:00 - 17:00 | Marinship Studios, 265 Gate 5 Rd, Sausalito, California, 94965, United States
Discover the creative visions of Sausalito’s Marinship Studios artists at a unique Open Studio event. This is a special opportunity to explore the historic space and experience the talent that defines its vibrant community. Step into the studios, engage with the artists, and gain insight into their creative processes and sources of inspiration. See how each artist continues to carry forward the legacy of Marinship through their work.
Meet the artists at their workshops:

Simon Ungless & Jody Niederkohr – Collaborative textile bandits reimagining worn garments through custom printmaking and felting techniques. Simon was part of the original McQueen team and continues to make his mark on the industry, saving the world “one garment at a time.”
Jael LaFemina – Stone sculptor and master stonemason, Jael creates intimate and monumental sculptures for the garden inspired by the hidden stories within stone.
Susan McKinney –Ceramic and glass artist whose work reimagines the language of weaving through experimental processes. Her wall hangings and 3D sculptures explore the tension between the seen and unseen, evoking a sense of wonder rooted in the natural world
Jean Bolte – A technician who employs electronics, oils, watercolors, charcoal and other media, her work is rooted in mythological elements. Jean spent over 40 years in filmmaking and is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This cinematic background occasionally still resonates.
Michael Lynch– After decades in the FX film industry, most of which was at the Model/Creature Shop at ILM Michael transitioned to full time Art making. The theme of his work is usually a blend of art, physics and natural science, represented in 2D and 3D
Ghada Aboukhater, Anna Bruce, Brett Crawford, Shannon Janney, Mindy Spar, Darlene Volas – Marin Ceramic Cooperative will be sharing the work of 6 of our member ceramic artists, each bringing a distinct voice to clay—from finely crafted functional ware to striking sculptural forms.
Tracey Kessler – Visual Artist, ceramist, and current artist-in-residence at Cavallo Point Lodge and Spa. After 25+ years in architecture and interior design, Tracey has built out an art compound next to Marinship Studios, Beyond the Wave Gate. Formally home to Ant Farm in the 1970s, 18 artists now call it home for their studio practice.
Barbara Lavelle– Visual artist, working primarily in acrylics, Barbara embraces the medium’s immediacy to create bold, spontaneous compositions. Her large-scale canvases are defined by vibrant palettes, rhythmic forms and confident sense of motion.
Maya Kini, Laura Lienhard & Kathryn Kelly – Jewelry artists at Varda Landing, Maya’s sculptural and poetic practice explores material transformation through precision and imperfection, while Laura draws on old-world techniques to craft elegant expressions of nature’s beauty in precious metals. Kathryn’s experience as an architect and woodworker inform her genderless architectural jewels, designed for discerning collectors who are drawn to unexpected details.

Pieces will be available for purchase, offering you the chance to bring home a one-of-a-kind creation. Parking is available on Gate 5 Road or in the guest spots at Varda Landing. We look forward to meeting you!

NICOLEHOLLIS Collection at Minnesota Street Project
2026-06-06 11:00 - 18:00 | Minnesota Street Project, Gallery 209, 1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
MINNESOTA STREET PROJECT WELCOMES NICOLEHOLLIS COLLECTION

New introductions include limited edition decor, tabletop, and textiles, and exclusive collaboration with Ogata
May 12 – June 10, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (May 7, 2026) — Minnesota Street Project will host a four-week pop-up by San Francisco interior design studio NICOLEHOLLIS from May 12 through June 10, 2026. The activation is the first public presentation of the NICOLEHOLLIS Collection — a line of limited-edition, artist- and artisan-made objects for the home that embody timeless beauty, soulful craft, and quiet sophistication— and joins a slate of new programming that has expanded what Minnesota Street Project hosts in its tenth-anniversary year.
The NICOLEHOLLIS Collection features works by Alexandra Kohl, Alexandra Llewellyn, Arno Declercq, Baba Tree Basket Co., Caroline Blackburn, David/Nicolas, Dougall Paulson, Kaikado, Lisa Sacco, Madda Studio, MAD et LEN, Maxime Perrolle, Michael Anastassiades, Pacha Design, Peter Speliopoulos, Robert Lee Morris, Rogan Gregory, Samuel Sparrow, Sasinun Kladpetch, and Toyine Sellers.
Founded in 2016 to provide economically sustainable space for galleries, artists, and arts nonprofits in San Francisco, Minnesota Street Project has used its tenth year to broaden the kinds of work it presents. The NICOLEHOLLIS pop-up extends that arc into design and craft.
“As we mark our tenth year, we’ve been thinking about how Minnesota Street Project should evolve while staying anchored in the mission we started with: supporting working artists and strengthening the creative community in San Francisco,” says Aimee Le Duc, Executive Director of Minnesota Street Project. “Hosting NICOLEHOLLIS lets us experiment with new formats and welcome audiences who may not have come through our doors before.”
Rooted in Nicole Hollis’s personal relationships with celebrated and emerging artists around the world, the Collection spans more than 200 designs across décor, textile, tabletop, and scent, drawn from 26 artists and artisans whose studios stretch from a sixth-generation Kyoto craft house to weavers in Ghana and Oaxaca to ateliers in Beirut, Paris, London, and the Bay Area. Every piece is offered in limited quantities and for a limited time, brought together in the studio’s signature neutral palette, rich textures, and crafted materials.
The pop-up will also debut the studio’s latest suite of pieces — an expansion of original designs from the NICOLEHOLLIS studio that translates its interiors practice into a refined offering of bronze, alabaster, marble, and oak objects. Introductions include new work from Alan Meredith Studio, Underwater Weaving, Baba Tree Basket Company, Peter Speliopoulos, Kaikado, and the NICOLEHOLLIS studio itself, alongside an exclusive collaboration with the Paris- and Tokyo-based Japanese atelier OGATA, including a custom incense blend and a series of incense and tea accessories. Known for its reverence for material, ritual, and the passage of time, OGATA reflects a natural alignment between the two brands, where tradition is reinterpreted with restraint and intention.
“The Collection is rooted in mindfulness,” says Nicole Hollis. “Each piece has been built slowly, the culmination of over twenty-five years of working with some of the most gifted designers, artists, and craftspeople that I’ve been fortunate enough to know, or that I always wished to. Many of these pieces have been previously procured for private clients, and others have been designed specifically for our collection. I am honored to make them available to a wider audience. We are excited to partner with Minnesota Street Project to showcase these pieces to our San Francisco neighbors, on view and shoppable for the first time.”

Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco
Open hours from 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM Tuesday – Saturday, and by appointment; Closed May 22-23.
Please contact concierge@nicoleholliscollection.com for scheduling private appointments

Case Study House #26 Open House / House Tour
2026-06-06 13:00 - 14:30 | Case Study House #26, 177 San Marino Drive, San Rafael, San Rafael, California, 94901, United States
Join us during SF Design Week for an exclusive tour of Northern California’s only Case Study House, a 1962 mid-century modern masterpiece nestled in San Rafael.
This iconic architectural gem, recently featured on PBS, represents a pivotal moment in American design history. The home’s innovative approach to space, materials, and indoor-outdoor living continues to influence contemporary architecture more than half a century later.
Rarely open to the public, this is your opportunity to experience firsthand the revolutionary design principles that made the Case Study House program legendary. Walk through perfectly preserved spaces that have graced the pages of numerous architecture books and design publications.
Don’t miss this unique chance to step inside a living piece of architectural history during SF Design Week.
Ticket revenue is graciously donated to San Francisco Design Week.

Dynamic Minds, Brilliant Inspiration: Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects | BAMO (SoMa Architecture and Design Studio Study Tour)
2026-06-06 13:00 - 17:00 | 1022 Natoma Street San Francisco., 1022 Natoma Street, San Francisco., 94103, United States
Join us for a rare afternoon inside two of San Francisco’s most accomplished and internationally admired studios — Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects and BAMO — in the city’s SoMa district. This studio visit is a private, structured presentation by the firm’s principals and staff, with full access to studios, works in progress, and the ideas and processes that define work of the highest caliber.
Led by design author and journalist Diane Dorrans Saeks, this seminar is designed for designers, architects, students, and all those who are passionate about architecture and design at the top level.
Dynamic Minds, Brilliant Inspiration is Diane Dorrans Saeks’s acclaimed series of structured design seminars, presented in association with Design Bay Area and San Francisco Design Week. Each event offers an intimate, directed afternoon of studio visits led personally by Diane — with structured presentations by principals and staff, access to studios, workshops, and materials libraries, and a private reception to close the day.
We’ll begin at:

STANLEY SAITOWITZ, 1022 NATOMA OFF 11TH STREET, at end of street. PLease note that only street parking is available at this location

Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects
Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects is one of San Francisco’s most original and internationally recognized architectural practices. Founded by noted architect Stanley Saitowitz, the firm is known for work of conceptual clarity, structural precision, and enduring formal intelligence. Projects range from significant cultural and civic buildings to inventive residential design, each distinguished by a commitment to light, materiality, and the relationship between built form and human experience. The studio’s influence extends well beyond San Francisco: it is a practice that has shaped the conversation of contemporary architecture.
. .

BAMO
BAMO is one of the world’s preeminent interior architecture and design studios, with a distinguished body of work spanning luxury hotels, private residences, and bespoke hospitality spaces across five continents. Founded in San Francisco in 1991, the firm has built an international reputation for environments of exceptional refinement — spaces that respond with complete fidelity to their location, their client, and their purpose, while achieving a level of craftsmanship and beauty that is unmistakably BAMO’s own. In residential work, BAMO brings the same exacting attention to material, light, and detail that defines its hospitality interiors — creating private homes of enduring character and singular elegance. The firm’s principals command an unusually wide range of historical reference, artisanal tradition, and material culture, qualities that have made BAMO the choice of the world’s most discerning private clients as well as its finest hotel brands. Among BAMO’s most celebrated projects is the Villa Feltrinelli on Lake Garda, widely regarded as one of the great hotel interiors in Europe, alongside Passalacqua, most recently named the World’s Best Hotel, and Capella Bangkok, ranked among the top three hotels globally. Other major projects include the Peninsula Chicago and Four Seasons Hotels in Bora Bora, Carmelo, Houston, and Milan, as well as distinguished works in Florida, South America, and Thailand.
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About the Seminar Leader
Diane Dorrans Saeks is a San Francisco-based design journalist, editor, and the author of twenty-six books on architecture, design, travel, and style, published by Rizzoli, Chronicle Books, and others. Her most recent Rizzoli titles include Jean-Louis Deniot Interiors and Parisian by Design. She is Design Editor of PaperCity magazine and a co-founding editor of Metropolitan Home and C Magazine California Style. Diane has traveled to more than 110 countries as a working journalist and has presented her Dynamic Minds, Brilliant Inspiration design seminars — intimate, behind-the-scenes studio visits with leading architects and designers — for more than fifteen years, in affiliation with Design Bay Area and San Francisco Design Week.

ADDITIONAL SEMINARS:
Learn more about other events in the series –
June 5, 1pm-5pm: Sausalito
Studio visits to The Office of Charles de Lisle, Studio Collins Weir, and Luca Pignata Studio. Participants will converse, meet, discuss ideas, and meet the designers and architects.
June 20, 1pm too 5pm: San Francisco
A studio visit is led by best-selling author Diane Dorrans Saeks at Kuth/Ranieri Architects with guest architect Anne Fougeron, FAIA · Fougeron Architecture. The day closes with a convivial reception: bites, sips.

We Are Stories
2026-06-06 14:00 - 20:00 | 6th Avenue Skate Park in Golden Gate Park, Golden Gate Park,, San Francisco, CA, 94118, United States
We Are Stories is a public storytelling event based on the idea that we, people, are more than everything we think we are; we are stories. Complex, layered, unmatched, rich in content, ever-continuous, and interconnected.
The event is a public process of filling in a human-scale large accordion book that opens in various directions and has layers of interconnected smaller-scale accordion books. Participants write, cut shapes, attach images, walk through the pages through cut-out gaps, write notes on musical pages, make marks, and alter the work in any way.
After the event, all pages and covers are scanned and photographed in detail. Textures, cut-outs, and other alterations will be documented and studied in detailed. The material will be compiled and produced as an archival, hand bound limited publication.
We will host part of We Are Stories on Saturday June 6th, from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 6th Avenue Skate Park in Golden Gate Park

Case Study House #26 Open House / House Tour
2026-06-06 15:00 - 16:30 | Case Study House #26, 177 San Marino Drive, San Rafael, San Rafael, California, 94901, United States
Join us during SF Design Week for an exclusive tour of Northern California’s only Case Study House, a 1962 mid-century modern masterpiece nestled in San Rafael.
This iconic architectural gem, recently featured on PBS, represents a pivotal moment in American design history. The home’s innovative approach to space, materials, and indoor-outdoor living continues to influence contemporary architecture more than half a century later.
Rarely open to the public, this is your opportunity to experience firsthand the revolutionary design principles that made the Case Study House program legendary. Walk through perfectly preserved spaces that have graced the pages of numerous architecture books and design publications.
Don’t miss this unique chance to step inside a living piece of architectural history during SF Design Week.

Animation Challenge: Exquisite Corpse
2026-06-06 15:30 - 18:30 | The Nook, 1242 Market St Floor 2, San Francisco, California, 94102, United States
Global online community and local meetup group celebrating the motion graphics industry are teaming up to host a special event — a live collaboration where local artists are challenged to animate on the fly in front of a live audience.
The Challenge*: 5 participants are given a random prompt with 5 minutes to animate supplied graphics before switching to another computer to continue. They pick up from the previous animator’s progress and take the work in a new direction. After 3 rounds, the resulting animations are stitched together into a single collaborative piece with a supplied music track and screened on the main projector for the event.
Participants each win a special prize. Swag, snacks and drinks will be provided.
*Previously hosted at Boshi’s Place in NYC.
Timeline:
3:30pm – Arrivals & Intros
4:30pm – Animation Challenge Starts!
5:30pm – Screening of the results and giveaway
6:00pm – Community Announcements
6:30pm – End
Hosts:
Motion Collabs Host: Laura Porat
About Motion Collabs:
Motion Collabs is an international community of creatives who gather every few months to collaborate on themed video projects, bringing together a diverse range of styles and skill levels. Established in 2018, it has hosted over 20 collaborative projects to date. Beyond its online presence, the community has also hosted IRL events including a film screening and an exquisite corpse challenge. It’s equal parts creative challenge, skills-building platform, and connector for designers who want to grow alongside their peers. It has over 1,000 members on its Discord server and over 2,000 followers on Instagram. The collaborations have been published on School of Motion and Motionographer.
Mograph Club Hosts: Patrick Whitehorn-Schmidt, Stephanie Murphy
About Mograph Club:
Mograph Club is a local community that meets in-person every month at different locations around the San Francisco Bay Area. Started in 2024 with motion design at its heart, Mograph Club was formed to get creatives out of the studio and away from the screen to build meaningful connections with others in the SF Bay Area. Bringing together Bay-Area locals from a wide range of specialities, backgrounds, and skill-levels, Mograph Club also hosts periodic weekend special showcase events and field trips to local attractions. The community also exists online for meetup attendees, with nearly 70 members on Discord and over 220 subscribers to their event page.

Layered Perspectives: A Women in Design SF Showcase
2026-06-06 18:00 - 22:00 | Gantri The Shop, 320 10th Street, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
Women in Design SF (WID) is teaming up with Gantri to host our third annual showcase at SF Design Week. The showcase will exhibit works from women, nonbinary, and gender-expansive designers from around the Bay Area.
The show will include a range of creative approaches and reflections from each designer on her multitudes—the many identities that shape her unique perspective. WID is committed to creating space for women+ design voices and the multi-faceted lives they lead. Come learn from these designers, explore their perspectives, and forge new community connections.
The evening will feature a Designer Q&A to offer insight into the process and thinking behind the work. Light refreshments will also be provided.

Agenda
6:00pm Doors Open
7:00pm Designer Q&A
7:30pm Open Exhibit
10:00pm Doors Close

Come join us for an evening of inspiration, reflection, and community building!
Image Source: Sammy Creeger / Women in Design SF

The Thought Experiment
2026-06-07 14:00 - 17:00 | California College of the Arts, Novack Hub for Creative Citizens, 2nd Floor, Simpson Family Makers Building , 145 Hooper Street, San Francisco, 94107, United States
The technology that reads electrical signals from the brain has quietly moved out of hospitals and into everyday life. What to do with that data (who holds it, who benefits from it, what it reveals about us) remains genuinely unsettled. The Thought Experiment lives inside the gap between what the technology can do and what we have yet to decide it should.
Who owns what happens inside your mind? The question is no longer hypothetical.
The Thought Experiment puts you inside a few possible futures, each shaped by a different answer to that question. Not as a warning, but as an experience of what it feels like to live inside each answer, and to choose which version of that future you want to inhabit.
Those who observe from outside see something reacting to something invisible. That is its own kind of encounter.
The installation uses EEG to translate the neural activity of participants into the environment around them in real time. What you encounter depends on who is inside with you, and which future you find yourselves inside together.
Come step inside the question.
Drop in anytime between 2:00 and 5:00pm. Plan for about 30 minutes, but stay as long as you like.
Presented by The Noetic Commons, artist-researchers working at the intersection of neurotechnology, experiential futures, and community. Chrissy Charlton (MS, Creative Technology and Design, CU Boulder) and Tyler Grimes (PhD candidate, Critical Media Practices, CU Boulder).
Exhibited in the Novack Hub for Creative Citizens, 2nd Floor
Simpson Family Makers Building
145 Hooper Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
Open from 2:00pm to 5:00pm. Limited parking with a four-hour time limit is available along streets adjacent to the CCA campus. Enter CCA’s campus through the main gates. Turn left to access the Simpson Family Makers Building. Once inside, take the elevator or stairs to the second floor. When you exit the elevator, turn left.

JB Blunk: A look inside his work and legacy with Mariah Nielson
2026-06-08 17:00 - 20:00 | Minnesota Street Flyover, 878 20th St, San Francisco, CA, 94107, United States
Join us for a glimpse inside the JB Blunk Estate and Blunk Space in this lecture by Mariah Nielson, Blunk’s daughter, curator, and design historian.
We’ll learn about Mariah’s research on artist JB Blunk, whose work with raw, salvaged materials represents an innate expression of, and conversation with, nature, often inspired by his surroundings in Inverness, CA. Mariah will also discuss her own artistic practice and work to create Blunk Space, a gallery hosting contemporary exhibiting artists who collaborate across time and disciplines, drawing from and honoring Blunk’s legacy.
After the lecture, enjoy light bites, beverages, and casual conversation.
This evening offers a unique opportunity to connect over the expression of nature through design.
This event is outdoors, with a partial covering above (the 20th St. overpass). While the Dogpatch neighborhood is generally warmer than other areas of the city, attendees should bring layers as temperatures will drop into the evening.
Agenda
5:00pm Mingle
5:30pm Lecture
6:30pm Q+A, Happy Hour, & Networking
8:00pm Event Ends

Speaker: Mariah Nielson
Mariah Nielson (b. 1978) is a curator and design historian. As the daughter of the pioneering American artist JB Blunk, her holistic approach was influenced by growing up in the Blunk House, the home he built by hand with salvaged materials in Inverness, CA. She was a curator at the Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, from 2009–2011 and director of the JB Blunk Residency from 2007–2011. In 2013, she completed an MA in Design History at the Royal College of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, under the direction of Glenn Adamson.
Mariah is currently the Director of the JB Blunk Estate, preserving and researching his practice, and Director of Blunk Space, an art and design gallery dedicated to expanding Blunk’s legacy by connecting his practice to that of contemporary artists all over the world. She is the editor of the first monograph about the artist, JB Blunk, which is now in its third edition.
Recent curatorial projects include Design is a State of Mind, with Martino Gamper, Serpentine, London, 2015; Blue Jeans & Brown Clay: Artists and Designers at the Blunk House, Kate MacGarry, London, 2020; JB Blunk: Muse, Kasmin, New York, 2022; Three Landscapes: JB Blunk, Anna and Lawrence Halprin, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, 2022; and Same Blue as the Sky, with Studio AHEAD, 2023. Recent talks include “Alma Allen and JB Blunk: In Conversation”, Palm Springs Art Museum; “Natural Instincts” at Design Miami/, presented by Birkenstock; “Managing an artist estate” at Kunst Meran, in Merano, Italy; and an interview with Dr. Bridget Harvey for the podcast Getting Making.
Host: Fletcher Studio
Fletcher Studio is an innovative and award-winning collaborative landscape architecture and urban design practice based in San Francisco. The firm specializes in designing public space across all scales, toggling between big-picture, open space planning across entire urban districts and zooming into site-specific solutions for distinct neighborhood gathering spaces. The practice is rooted in the belief that people deserve to find value, meaning, and possibility in the outdoor places they encounter and occupy.

⌘ + AI + Design: How to prompt like a designer
2026-06-08 17:30 - 20:00 | Digital Garage, 717 Market St, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
Every startup’s product looks like it was designed by the same depressed robot 🙄
Minimalist. Purple gradient buttons. A hero section that says “The future of [blank] is here.” You know what I’m talking about.
In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn from an ex-Dropbox, award-winning product designer (Kathy Wang) how to prompt like a designer.
You’ll walk away with:
👉 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝘆𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁 (neo-brutalism, vaporwave, glassmorphism…heard of them?)
👉 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀 (design psychology, Nikita-Bier-style)
👉 𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗼𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀 (the playbook Kathy used to win 2nd place at a Manus hackathon with 5 minutes of work)
After all, your product should look like a human made it…not a depressed robot.

Designing the Future Designer: A Speculative Workshop on Identity, Agency, and Craft in an AI-First World
2026-06-08 18:30 - 20:00 | California College of the Arts, Novack Hub for Creative Citizens, 2nd Floor, Simpson Family Makers Building , 145 Hooper Street, San Francisco, 94107, United States
The job description for “designer” is being rewritten in real time by AI. So who’s writing yours?
In this hands-on workshop, Elizabeth Glenewinkel and Justin Rheinfrank pose provocations on the future of design for you to challenge, debunk or embrace. They draw on two workshops they’ve led for the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation and Salesforce on design and research capabilities needed in the emerging field of designing with and for agents. We know our role is changing, and reactions range from anxiety to agency. This session is part sparring match, part design sprint, and all about the question our industry is grappling with: what happens when the bottleneck shifts from making to choosing?
The workshop:
We start with speculations about where design is heading. They are uncomfortable and intentionally arguable. We’ll push back, debate, and surface the orthodoxies baked into our own practices.
We’ll then design an archetype for the future designer: What will they study? What skills will actually matter? What agents will they build, manage and possibly answer to? What will they make, read, and who will they follow? These aren’t hypotheticals. They’re the decisions shaping design hiring, education, and practice right now.
We’ll wrap up by sharing and reflecting on the most intriguing designer archetypes and what they reveal about the current state of our practice.
Led by:
Justin Rheinfrank is a design leader and educator whose work spans product design, AI interaction, and design strategy. He is Principal Architect of UI/UX at Slack, where he leads design for Slackbot, Slack’s agentic AI interface. He has taught at UC Berkeley’s Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, California College of the Arts, Stanford’s d.school, and has worked with clients including Apple, Samsung, Google, Disney, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Elizabeth Glenewinkel is a design educator and research leader whose work spans studio pedagogy, human-centered design, and design strategy. She is Senior Adjunct Faculty at UC Berkeley’s Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation and the Design MBA Program at the California College of the Arts. She spent nearly a decade at Salesforce leading global research and innovation teams. She has spoken at Stanford’s d.school, SXSW, and Dreamforce, among others.
Who should attend: Designers, design leaders, educators, and anyone who suspects the next five years will change this profession more than the last twenty and wants to have a say in how.
FYI: Arrivals can show up at 6 pm. We’ll start the workshop at 6:30 pm and end at 8 pm. Lite snacks and drinks provided.

Event CANCELLED: Design in a post-product world
2026-06-09 08:30 - 10:30 | Whipsaw, 55 Mississippi, SAN FRANCISCO, California, 94107, United States
***This event has been cancelled due to unforseen circumstances***
***Current ticket holders will be refunded***

When capable design tools are in more hands and every product looks the part, visual quality stops being a differentiator — so how do customers tell real design from its imitation? This talk explores what separates the products people return to from the ones they forget, and what teams can do to design for the difference from the first decision.

San Francisco Carry Collective at Peak Designs HQ
2026-06-09 16:30 - 19:00 | Peak Design HQ, 2415 3rd St. STE 270, San Francisco, CA, 94107, United States
Join us at Peak Design’s HQ in the historic American Industrial Center for a night celebrating San Francisco’s rich bag design legacy. Hear directly from local designers in a panel discussion, connect with fellow carry obsessives, and check out a community show-and-tell of favorite bags. A rare chance to gather the Bay Area’s bag design community under one roof.

4:30 PM – Doors Open Happy Hour (beverages provided)
5:30 PM – Panel discussion w/Q&A
6:00 PM – HQ open-house (appetizers + beverages)
7:00 PM – Wrap-up

Meet the Panel

The panel will be moderated by Tae Kim – Founder FLMNT LAB Design Studio
Speakers will include lead designers from the following brands – Peak Design / Waterfield Designs / Mission Workshop

The Career Prototype with Nova and level: An Iterative Guide to Career Adaptability
2026-06-09 17:00 - 18:30 | level, 530 Hampshire St, San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
The Career Prototype allows participants to take a deeper look into who we are and validates or challenges our career paths.
Start by hearing from two design founders, Jeanette Numbers of Nova and Nichole Rouillac of level, and their take on the importance of career adaptability. The crowd will participate in a round of A/B questions on career strategy, with commentary from firsthand founder experience.
Afterwards, Jackie Cunningham, NEXT Innovation Scholar, will lead us through building a Career Prototype. These four activities explore:

Our Technical BOM – what are we really good at (and some of our hidden talents)?
Value Mapping – what is our why, and where does it come from?
The ROI (Return on Identity) – what can make us money?
The Career Prototype – what is one immediate “field test” we can launch right now?

By the end of this session, participants will leave with a “Career Prototype” that they can iterate for the rest of SF Design Week and cultivate otherwise kept-to-self ambitions and connections.
Schedule:
5:00 – 5:10 pm – Arrival and Welcoming
5:10 – 5:30 pm – Career Adaptability A/B Panel with founders Jeanette Numbers and Nichole Rouillac
5:30 – 6:00 pm – The Career Prototype with Jackie Cunningham, NEXT Innovation Scholar
6:00 – 6:30 pm – Field Testing our Career Prototypes with drinks and light snacks

Speakers & Moderators:
Jeanette Numbers: Jeanette is the President of the Board of Directors for IDSA and Founding Partner of Nova, a woman-led design studio in Providence, RI. She leads an award-winning team dedicated to delivering innovation and inspiration to every user on the planet. Under Jeanette’s visionary leadership, the firm has garnered numerous prestigious awards and inspired a new generation of female industrial designers to push boundaries, innovate, and make their mark in a traditionally male-dominated field. Jeanette is also a founding member of Nova Ignite, a six-month, multi-track accelerator for and by female founders, CEOs, and executives in Health and MedTech. Beyond design, Jeanette is a founding member of GirlsRock! RI and a drummer in Cave of Colors.
Nichole Rouillac: Nichole is the Founder and Creative Director of level, a women-led industrial design studio in San Francisco. She leads with a mission to create intelligent, thoughtful designs that shape industries and enhance lives. Her work has propelled breakthrough products into the global spotlight, with an award-winning portfolio that includes Microsoft, Google, Logitech, Fitbit, HTC, AliveCor, and Tempo. level’s impact has been recognized with top accolades, including IDEA Gold, Red Dot, iF, and Spark Platinum awards, as well as Fast Company’s #3 Most Innovative Design Company. Beyond design, Nichole is a dedicated advocate for diversity in the industry. As the former chair of IDSA’s Women in Design, she mentors and champions the next generation of female designers, helping to reshape an industry where women remain underrepresented.
Jackie Cunningham: Jackie is a senior Industrial Design student at the University of Cincinnati (DAAP) and UC’s IDSA Student Chapter President. As a NEXT Innovation Scholar, she has developed and led design thinking workshops for a program that has equipped over 1,000 participants with design thinking mindsets. Her professional experience bridges in-house innovation at Procter & Gamble and FINIS, with multidisciplinary design at consultancies like Nova. When asked about the future of design careers, she says, “I’m not concerned about AI taking my job because of how incredibly adaptable we are. A Career Prototype is just a test; all I can do is learn something new about myself through it.” Jackie is currently based in Cincinnati, heading to San Francisco post-graduation.

The Work Between Us: Creative Growth, Erica Tanov, and the Evolution of Design Partnerships
2026-06-09 17:00 - 19:00 | Erica Tanov Atelier, 1808 Fifth Street, Berkeley, California, 94710, United States
Join us at the Erica Tanov Atelier in Berkeley for an evening of conversation, collaboration, and art. This gathering brings together two East Bay design studios with over a decade of creative partnership between them, and with more ahead.
Creative Growth, an Oakland-based arts organization serving artists with developmental disabilities, has built thoughtful relationships with designers and brands such as Erica Tanov, 6397, Clare V. and Levi’s, partnering with Creative Growth artists to put their artwork – paintings, ceramics and textiles – into collections and homes beyond the traditional gallery setting. Their artists have shown at SFMOMA, the Brooklyn Museum, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Venice Biennale, and Outsider Art Fair Paris and New York. The beloved Creative Growth ‘Beyond Trend’ runway show has grown into a full fashion program within the studio. This evening at the Atelier offers a chance to hear directly from the people who make these exhibitions, performances, and artist-led partnerships happen.
In addition to Erica Tanov, the panel conversation will include Creative Growth Executive Director Sunny A. Smith and Creative Growth Lead Facilitator and ‘Beyond Trend’ Coordinator Amy Keefer. This open panel will move through where these partnerships started, what they produced, and what is next.
Schedule:
5 PM — Doors Open. The Erica Tanov Atelier is activated with Creative Growth artwork on view and available for purchase. Light bites and refreshments will be served.
5:45 PM — Panel conversation, approximately 40 minutes, followed by audience Q&A.
6:25 PM — The Erica Tanov Atelier stays open for continued shopping and mingling
7 PM — Event ends
Panelists:
ERICA TANOV is the founder and director of her eponymous Berkeley-based lifestyle brand, which recently celebrated 35 years in business. Working with luxurious natural fabrics and strong commitment to craftsmanship, Tanov’s collections—clothing, bedding, architectural tiles, wallpaper, furniture, and vintage finds—are available at her Berkeley Atelier. @ericatanov

SUNNY A. SMITH is an artist, educator, and administrator whose work spans studio practice, academic leadership, and community-building across the arts. As former Dean of Fine Arts at California College of the Arts, they led 16 programs across contemporary art, craft, and digital media. Smith has taught sculpture, social practice, and contemporary art history across institutions including Columbia University, Parsons, NYU, and Carnegie Melon, and has 30 solo exhibitions with works held in museums collections worldwide. Their art practice explores queer transmasculine perspectives on identity, nationalism, and use of crafted objects to address intergenerational trauma. Smith holds a BFA from Parsons, a BA from Eugene Lang College, and an MFA from Yale University. @creativegrowth

AMY KEEFER, the ‘Beyond Trend’ Coordinator and Textiles Studio Lead of Creative Growth, explores the intersection of art and apparel, viewing clothing as an extension of oneself and a medium through which personal histories and allegiances are revealed. She holds an MFA from California College of the Arts. An advocate for wearable art in all forms, Keefer joined Creative Growth, a pioneering non-profit organization dedicated to supporting artists with developmental disabilities, in 2016. Since then, Creative Growth’s annual runway show has expanded into a generative fashion department within the studio, partnering with important artists, brands and designers across the country. Founded in 1974 in Oakland, California by Elias Katz and Florence Ludins-Katz, the organization was established with a mission to utilize art as a primary means for individuals with disabilities to express themselves within a safe and nurturing community and gain professional gallery exposure. Creative Growth operates as both studio and gallery that not only showcases the works of its 140+ artists but actively promotes their inclusion into major collections and institutions globally, such as MoMA, the Smithsonian and the recent historic acquisition by SFMoMA. Sales from the gallery directly fund artist support and studio operations, helping to sustain and expand this vibrant creative community. @creativegrowth
About Creative Growth
Founded in 1974 in Oakland by Elias Katz and Florence Ludins-Katz, Creative Growth is a pioneering nonprofits dedicated to supporting artists with developmental disabilities. Operating as both a studio and gallery, the organization represents 140+ artists whose work has entered the collections of MoMa, the Smithsonian, SFMOMA, and has been shown at the Venice Biennale, Outsider Art Fair Paris and New York, and VOLTA Basel. Sales from the gallery directly fund artist support and studio operations. @creativegrowth

Build Your Superpowers: Wearable Robotics for All Ages
2026-06-09 17:00 - 19:15 | Skip, 1400 Tennessee St #1, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Join Skip for a hands-on exploration of wearable robotics for all ages. This interactive event turns complex concepts like motors, circuits, sensors, and AI —into something tangible, intuitive, and fun.
Kids will step into the role of designer and engineer, building their own wearable inventions and experimenting with how machines can enhance human movement. Meanwhile, adults will get to try MO/GO for themselves – a powered wearable built by Skip in partnership with Arc’teryx to make movement more effortless and joyful.
Come build, play, and experience the future of movement with us!

Schedule:

5:00 – 5:30pm – Arrivals & Light Snacks
5:30pm – 5:45pm – Quick remarks (Skip, what we’re building, overview of activities for the evening)
5:45 – 6:45 – Hands-On Stations + MO/GO Experience (rotating)

Learn About Robotics Tech (motors, sensors, circuits, …)
Design a Wearable
MO/GO Experience (for the parents)

6:45 – 7:00 – Show & Tell
7:00 – 7:30 – Mingling & Drinks

Moving Multitudes: The SFO Way
2026-06-09 17:00 - 19:30 | City ID, 49 Geary Street, San Francisco, California, 94108, United States
Place experience consultancy, City ID, welcomes you to their San Francisco studio to learn about their work in shaping the experience of places around the world.
Jason Smith and Halle Van De Hey, will tell the story of the development of the wayfinding system for San Francisco International Airport, (SFO).
As a global gateway to the Bay Area, SFO welcomes over 54 million arriving and departing passengers every year. The wayfinding system is one of the most looked-at parts of the airport – showing, guiding, and directing people throughout their journey.
A successful wayfinding system for millions of people requires multitudes of actors to work closely together with the client on a multitude of design decisions – all focused on enhancing the guest experience and supporting day-to-day operations.
Drinks and light snacks will be provided.
Schedule

5:30: Studio doors open
5:30-6:00: Mingle
6:00-7:00: Presentation and Q&A
7:00-7:30: Networking

The Human Needs Beneath AI at Frog Design
2026-06-09 17:00 - 19:30 | frog San Francisco, frog, San Francisco, CA, San Francisco, United States
A design-led exploration of what our use of AI reveals about us.
AI is often framed as a story of intelligence, capability, and acceleration. But beneath every prompt is something quieter, and more human.
People turn to AI not only to work faster, but to think things through. To ask questions they can’t ask elsewhere. To rehearse difficult conversations. To process emotions. To feel reassured. To feel less alone.
As AI becomes more embedded in daily life, it is also becoming a new surface for human need.
This evening invites you to look beneath the technology—to examine the emotional, social, and creative needs emerging through our interactions with intelligent systems. What does it reveal about us when machines become places we turn for confidence, companionship, reflection, and support?
If we took those needs seriously as design inputs, what would we build differently?
What to expect:

5:00 – 5:45 PM | Interact
Explore different perspectives on how and why people are turning to AI.
5:45 – 6:45 PM | Reflect
Pause to interpret what’s emerging, as we surface patterns, tensions, and questions around human need and technology.
6:45 – 7:30 PM | Connect
Continue the conversation over drinks with others thinking deeply about these questions.

Reimagining Creative Work in the Age of AI
2026-06-09 17:00 - 19:30 | The Nook, 1242 Market St, San Francisco, CA, CA, 94102, United States
New tools don’t just speed up old work. In the right hands, they push boundaries and open a door to what didn’t exist before. Stranger, sharper, more specific. More human, not less.
What can you make now that you couldn’t a year ago? What happens when AI is thoughtfully integrated in the design process, not just used as a research tool? And since everyone is talking about taste, yes we’ll talk about that too.
Emmett Shine has been sitting with these questions (and experimented the crap out of it.)
On this SF Design Week, Emmett will walk us through how he has pushed his creative work with AI, reshaped his studio’s process, share some recent case studies and talk about his point of view on brand & creativity in the age of AI.
🖼️THE EXPERIENCE
Pre-event comms: Attendees who want to meet new folks will self-select in the RSVP and receive a “who’s gonna be there” write up
Fuel up & connect: Through curated prompts, attendees will connect and chat over light snacks
Learn:Presentation by Emmett
Q&A: Open floor questions for Emmett
Connect deeper: More time for attendees to discuss learnings and keep in touch
Who is Emmett?Emmett Shine is the founder of Little Plains, a digital design, UX, and brand strategy studio in New York City. The studio is AI-native and practitioner-led, working primarily with early-stage startups.Prior to that, Emmett co-founded Gin Lane (design agency that created some of the most well known DTC brands) and Pattern Brands (a portfolio of category-leading home brands), helped launch 50 brands, and has been a part of 7 successful exits. His work in brand is featured as a Harvard Business School case study.
Brought to market: Harrys, Hims, Hers, Stadium Goods, Neuralink, AYR, Sunday Goods, Cedar, Hello Alfred, Recess, 365 by Whole Foods, Made Nice, Cadre, Company, Taika, Haus, Alma, Smile Direct Club, Dia & Co., Open Spaces
Supported in early stage growth: Sweetgreen, Warby Parker, Everlane, Quip, Shinola, Bonobos, Reformation, Shake Shack, Tartine, Coffee Manufactory, Honest Buildings, Go Get ‘Em Tiger
Advisor of: Care/Of (acq. Bayer), Geneva, Recess, minisocial, Sunday Goods, Arbor Energy, Golden Ratio Coffee, Shhhowercap, Nova
This event is hosted by Space to Grow

CANCELLED Explore Your Multitudes: A Workshop on Your Next Iteration of Ambition
2026-06-09 17:30 - 19:30 | The Nook, 1242 Market St, San Francisco, CA, CA, 94102, United States
You have a life that, on paper, is working. Work is going pretty good. You have something that looks, from the outside, like the version of success people aim at.
But something feels off…
You want more, but you’re not quite sure what “more” looks like. Other than continuing to work in tech, people around you are either tech founders or content creators…so are those the only paths forward?? Should you start a side project? What would that even look like? Meanwhile, some people are telling you just to be content, but that also doesn’t feel quite right… That feeling of more keeps stirring in the back of your head, but it doesn’t have a shape yet.
This workshop is about giving that feeling a shape ️ (…and doing something about it!!)
For 90 minutes, we’ll explore the multitudes you contain: the versions of your ambition you’ve been growing, the ones you’ve been ignoring, the ones you’ve forgotten, and the ones that might be asking for attention next.
We’ll also make space to connect, cheer each other on, find collaborators, and be in community so you don’t feel so alone in figuring all this out
You’ll leave with a new way of seeing your own ambition and a clearer sense of which version of you wants to be developed next. Because you know what? Ambition is PERSONAL, so let’s make space to really explore your multitudes

Workshop host
Helloo!! I’m your host Tina Yip. I’m the founder of Space to Grow & a coach for creative and strategic people. I also host 5to9, a podcast where I have conversations with people who have made pivots to work on their own terms.
After spending over a decade as a brand strategist at agencies such as R/GA and Big Spaceship, working on brands like Google, Samsung and Mastercard, she realized what I cared most about is people. Bringing people together, maximizing their potential, rethinking their relationship with work, and challenging what’s expected so that they can live their most vibrant lives.
I’ve been featured in Randi Zuckerberg’s book “Pick Three” as an expert on side hustles. I’ve also spoken at General Assembly, SF Design Week, California College of the Arts, Her Conference, Asians in Advertising, Social Media Strategies Summit, and Youth Marketing Summit, and hosted 200+ events that ranges from conferences at SXSW, Cannes Lions, and Advertising Week to hackathons, safe rooms and brunch series, all intentionally designed for folks to feel, connect and learn.
I help people create healthier, more aligned relationships with work. I believe our work is an extension of our souls. There is beauty in it. Let’s start designing work around our lives instead of the other way round. Creating more space for creativity and honoring ourselves with the meaningful lives that we are meant to live

The (un)Conscious Creative: An intimate salon of creative inquiry
2026-06-09 18:00 - 21:00 | Timbri Hotel, 33 Turk Street Hammett East Room, 2nd Fl., San Francisco, CA
The (un)Conscious Creative
A blend of plenary and small-group conversations invites participants into deeply engaged, unguarded, and intentional provocations—designed to explore the creator behind the creator. The experience begins at the edge of one’s creative comfort zone and unfolds through a series of inquiries that reveal the undercurrents shaping each person’s creative practice. The ethos of the evening encourages a shift in perspective, helping participants identify meaningful actions that both ground and elevate their creative work.
The (un)Conscious Creative is an evening of unexpected encounters and genuine insight. It asks us to look beyond what a creative endeavor produces and instead consider where it originates—and through whom.

Schedule
Networking 6 – 7 p.m.
Salon 7 – 8:45 p.m.
End Time 9 p.m.
Light snacks will be served
The salon is limited to 20 participants
Facilitator
Jalen Salazar—
As a native West Coast creative, Jalen spent the first 20 years of his career helping build a world class creative culture at LUNAR Design. He has received numerous industry awards and accolades, including the coveted Cooper-Hewet National Product Design Award in 2014.
In 2015, Jalen played a pivotal role in shepherding the acquisition and integration of LUNAR into McKinsey & Company – the preeminent management consulting behemoth. As a Partner at McKinsey from 2015-2024, he helped build, scale, and lead McKinsey’s design capability to 300+ designers globally, and worked with Fortune 100 C-level executives to envision and accelerate innovation transformations across a range of industries.
His passion these days lies at the intersection of altered-states, creativity, and personal growth. He believes that every individual is being created just as much as they are creating, and that our greatest creative tension might just lie in getting to know the creator behind the creator.

Art Swap: Celebrating Multitudes
2026-06-09 18:30 - 20:45 | FLAX Art & Design, Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Blvd Center, San Francisco, California, 94123, United States
Art Swap: Celebrating Multitudes is a co-created gallery and art-trading happy hour from Coqtail Hour, the Bay Area’s new pop-up creative community built around bringing artists and creatives together through after-hours events, workshops, and social hours.
Every guest arrives with a hand-sized piece of art they’ve made. A sketch, a poem, a tiny ceramic, a photograph, a collage, whatever they’ve been making in their creative practice. As the room fills, those pieces go up in the center of the space and a living gallery takes shape, built entirely from the people who showed up. It’s a celebration of the multitudes creative people carry. The designer who writes poetry. The engineer who paints. The product manager with a ceramics practice.
After a short window of facilitated creative collisions, where guests move through small group conversations designed to surface the story behind each piece and its artist, the gallery becomes a trading floor. Guests pick a piece, find the maker, talk, and swap. Everyone leaves with someone else’s work and new connections. The evening closes with a social hour all in the historic venue: FLAX Art & Design.
Schedule
6:30 PM. Doors, check-in, and gallery installs as guests arrive.
6:50 PM. Welcome and opening words from Coqtail Hour founders and partners.
7:00 PM. Creative collisions: small group conversations with facilitated prompts.
7:30 PM. The gallery becomes a trading floor. 8:00 PM. Social hour, new connections, and refreshments.
Hosts Sama Srinivas and Jacqueline Vu, co-founders of Coqtail Hour. East Bay raised, five years in NYC, back home to build the creative community the Bay Area deserves.
Partners FLAX Art & Design, the Bay Area’s beloved legacy art supply store since 1938, joining as our venue partner.
Find your people in our Bay Area creative crowd. A living gallery built by the people in the room. Facilitated conversation prompts designed to move past “so what do you do.” A chance to explore new mediums with FLAX Art & Design materials. Refreshments on site. A memorable take-home piece of original art from someone new.

Agentic AI Design Workshop: From Play to Prototype
2026-06-10 14:00 - 15:30 | California College of the Arts, 145 Hooper Street, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Calling all design-curious, AI-curious, and anyone who has wanted to see what designing an intelligent system actually looks like, end to end.
Spend 90 minutes at California College of the Arts workshopping the full arc of designing an AI agent. In three activities — Enact, Author, Deploy — small groups of 3–6 bodystorm a scenario, write the behavioral rules in role cards, and see their agent run live on Agent Studio. By the end, you’ll have designed, specified, and tested a working AI together. No coding required, just curiosity and a willingness to play.
You’ll walk away with a QR code linking to the AI your group built, and a real sense of how this kind of design happens.
AI’s design draws on many hands. This session shows what’s possible when more of those hands are yours.

Workshop Fee: $15.00
Refreshment will be provided.
Date, Time: June 10, 2026 / 2 pm – 3:30 p.m.
Location: Simpson Family Makers Building, N203 (Upper Level)

Hosted by California College of the Arts’ Design Division.
California College of the Arts cultivates ideas, industry, and impact in the progressive San Francisco Bay Area, educating our students as global changemakers through purposeful practice and critical discourse. The Design Division at CCA advances contemporary practice by positioning the designer as a dynamic agent of cultural, social, and ecological change.
Hosted by TJ McLeish, faculty in the MDes Interaction Design program, and graduate students in his Prototyping with AI studio.

Human-Centered Design in an AI World
2026-06-10 15:00 - 17:00 | Google Office, 345 Spear St, San Francisco, California, 94105, United States
As AI evolves, human skills like judgment, creativity, and clarity of intent are more critical than ever. This discussion explores how designers are becoming “AI fluent,” treating models as strategic partners to shape tone and character with the same precision once reserved for grid systems. While AI can generate a thousand variations, human taste remains the essential filter to ensure the final product never misses the mark.
Note: We will not be accepting any walk-ins for this event.

Designing a Creative Life: A Design and Architecture Gathering at CCA
2026-06-10 16:00 - 18:00 | California College of the Arts, 145 Hooper Street, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Join us during San Francisco Design Week for cocktails, conversation, reflection, and reconnection at California College of the Arts.
Alumni, faculty, staff, and friends are invited to reconnect, share stories, and consider what it means to carry a CCA creative education into the world. Throughout the evening, guests are invited to “Call the Archive,” an interactive experience where you can record a short audio story about your CCA experience, and contribute to “One Object, Many Stories,” where attendees can share reflections sparked by an exhibition of studio tools and CCA artifacts. Through these interactive experiences, we can celebrate the many ways CCA has shaped creative lives: from studio to practice to impact. Collected stories will contribute to the first edition of Continuum, a legacy broadsheet celebrating the CCA Architecture and Design community.

Hosted by the Design Division and the Architecture Division.
Hors d’oeuvres as well as alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks will be provided.

Location: Deborath + Kenneth Novak Gallery + Plaza, 145 Hooper Street, Simpson Family Maker Building, Upper Level
Date, Time: June 10, 2026 / 4:00 pm – 6:00 p.m.
(Directly afterward, all are invited to attend the opening reception of the Wattis Institute’s latest exhibition, Caguiat Delacruz: The Tramp. Opening Reception 6–8 pm)

Celebrate San Francisco Ingenuity and Design at Stagecoach Greens Mini-Golf with One Hat one Hand
2026-06-10 17:00 - 20:00 | Stage Coach Greens and Spark Gardens, 1379 4TH STREET, San Francisco, California, 94158, United States
Have you mastered the windmill shot (or at least the confident strut to the first tee)? Come hang for the ultimate fresh-air SFDW meetup at Stagecoach Greens Mini-Golf, a playful, story-driven course custom-designed and fabricated by One Hat One Hand. We’ll be posted up in the Spark Gardens cabanas at SPARK Social SF for a VIP-style hang with drinks, bites, and easy networking—then if you feel like it, jump into a round of mini golf or a cornhole game. Truly no pressure: play a hole, toss a few bags, do both, or do exactly neither and just enjoy excellent new work in the most casual of patio-meets-safari-tent-meets-cabana vibes. Meet designers and builders from One Hat One Hand and our partner teams, including DEKA Fabrication and LMNL Studio, plus fellow architects, designers, creatives, and makers for an evening that’s equal parts craft, community, and fun.

Chair Exploded: Installation Debut and Talk
2026-06-10 17:00 - 20:00 | Humanscale Showroom SF, 10 Jackson Street, San Francisco, California, 94111, United States
Enter the world of the great mid-century modern designer Niels Diffrient. Longtime collaborator of Henry Dreyfuss, Eero Saarinen and Marco Zanuso, Diffrient was a lead figure in the field of ergonomics.
Artist and designer Elijah Ezralow’s “Chair Exploded” explores a new perspective on the internal design of Humanscale seating.
Suspended chair parts are deconstructed to reveal the function, geometry, and material of each component. Discover the striking relationship to human anatomy; its neck, exoskeleton, and fulcrums suggest a design derived directly from the body itself.
At 6pm, join Elijah for a deep dive behind the seats of Diffrient’s iconic works, exploring from prototype to product how the design philosophy can provide new inspiration.
Agenda
5:00pm Doors Open
6:00pm Speaker
6:30pm Open Viewing and Informal Q+A
Enjoy local bites and cold beverages throughout
About the Speaker
Elijah Ezralow graduated Stanford with a BS in Engineering, Product Design. He has studied design at Art Center, Pasadena and in Oslo, Norway. Currently, he is focused on the design of seating, with an interest in the engineering and cultural impact behind chairs. Elijah has worked as a product designer with Snap Inc., startups including ohyay and Clean Sea Solutions. He is a recipient of the Chappell Lougee Scholarship for his independent documentary film, “The Model Island”. Installation pieces include works at The Sam Francis Gallery, The Anderson Collection and XR Studios.
About the Showroom
In January, Humanscale opened the doors to their new San Francisco showroom. Designed in collaboration with renowned architect Such Reddy of Reddy Made Design and featuring textiles by like-minded Kvadrat, the space brings our human-centered philosophy to life through simplicity, sustainability, and movement. Conceived as both a working showroom and a place for the design community to gather, the space invites you to experience comfort and performance in motion.

Alicia Escott at Teknion: Artist Talk and Conversation
2026-06-10 17:00 - 20:00 | Teknion, 2 Bryant Street, San Francisco, California, 94105, United States
Teknion is pleased to host artist Alicia Escott during SF Design Week. Alicia, in conversation with Marthine Satris, will speak about their interdisciplinary art practice and her ongoing collaboration with wildflower seeds, Metabolic Rifts and Domestic Interiors.
Event schedule:
– 5p Showroom is open for drinks and small bites
– 6p Artist talk by Alicia Escott followed by a conversation with Marthine Satris
– 8p Event ends
Alicia Escott is an interdisciplinary artist based in the land we currently call San Francisco, she/they practices in solidarity with thinkers across fields undoing the construct of “nature” as a thing separated from us and our world. Her work seeks to make space for the unspoken individual and collective experiences of loss, heartbreak and grief. She/they approach these issues with an interstitial practice that encompasses writing, drawing, painting, photography, video, sculpture, social-practice, and activism. Alicia’s work has been shown in over 100 Art Institutions and been written about in numerous platforms. She is currently the SF Arts Commission Artist in Residence, collaborating with City Environment Department.
Marthine Satris is the Associate Publisher at Heyday, the nonprofit book publisher in Berkeley dedicated to place-rooted nonfiction, where she particularly works on books about California’s natural world and our relationship to it. Books she’s edited at Heyday have won the PEN/ EO Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing and the Foreword INDIES Editor’s Choice Prize. Her own writing has been published in The San Francisco Chronicle, Flyway Journal, The Georgia Review, and elsewhere. She’s a frequent contributor to Oakland Review of Books and lives in Oakland with her family.

A Week Inside an AI-Native Design Team
2026-06-10 17:45 - 18:30 | Gamma – 350 Rhode Island, 350 Rhode Island, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
A candid evening with our Head of Design and an AI-native designer on how every designer at Gamma now ships prototypes from Claude Code. We’ll walk through the skills we’ve written, the connectors we rely on, how we gather context before touching a pixel, what a real prompting loop looks like, and how design, engineering, and product actually collaborate when the prototype is the spec. Not really theory, more practical “here’s what’s open on our screens Monday morning.”
(BYO questions — this will be half talk, half Q&A.)

NOTE: Attendees will be required to sign an NDA when checking in. If you do not want to sign an NDA, please let us know ahead of time and we’ll refund your ticket.

Wellness x Design
2026-06-10 18:00 - 20:00 | Mokume Design Studio, 2169 Folsom St., San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
Join Mokume Design Studio founder and principal interior designer, Jennifer Downing, in conversation with Dr. Hemalee Patel, DO (Lifestyle & Internal Medicine), for a science-backed panel on how our design decisions, behaviors and built environments shape physical and mental health. The panel will cover wellness-driven design strategies around circadian rhythm-responsive environments, dedicated wellness zones, and the implementation of biophilic strategies. Additional considerations include thermotherapy and the design of spaces that facilitate community engagement. Walk away with actionable, research-informed design approaches that support wellness for individuals and organizations.
Wednesday June 10th @ 6:00pm—8:00pm
6:00—6:30pm: Welcome Beverages + Bites
6:30—8:00pm: Panel Discussion (60 min.) + Q+A

Jennifer Downing
Founder and principal designer of Mokume Design Studio, Jennifer Downing creates interior spaces with a deep focus on wellness + sustainability. Jennifer’s design theory is reflected in clean + airy interiors that provide visual breathing room. She comfortably pairs this sensibility with a broad array of aesthetics to suit each client’s style and needs.
A devoted environmentalist, Jennifer’s passion for responsible design touches every project that comes through the Mokume Design Studio. Jennifer served on The Sustainability Project board in Santa Barbara and has taught courses on Sustainable Interiors, through UC Berkeley Extension. The studio is a proud member of 1% for the Planet.
Jennifer comes from a long lineage of artists and architects, so her path to design was a natural one reinforced during her academic training at Syracuse University, where she received a BFA in interior design and metalsmithing. Jennifer’s love for working with her hands and the finite details that accompany the metalsmithing craft continue to inform her creative approach.

Dr. Hemalee Patel
Dr. Hemalee Patel is a triple board-certified physician in Internal Medicine, Lifestyle Medicine, and Obesity Medicine, with over a decade of clinical experience spanning both inpatient and outpatient settings.
Having spent her career designing and leading cardiometabolic health programs, Dr. Patel integrates evidence-based lifestyle medicine, behavior change science, patient education, and digital health technology including one of the first outpatient applications of continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) in primary care.
Her work sits at the intersection of clinical rigor and innovation, bridging the gap between medical practice and operational excellence to make healthcare more personalized, effective, and accessible. She is a thought leader in wellness, longevity, and holistic health and a passionate advocate for the idea that healthcare can be both brilliant and beautiful.
Dr. Patel’s areas of expertise include cardiovascular health, obesity medicine, wellness trends, and the science of behavior change at the intersection of medicine, design, and how our surroundings shape our health.

Noz Nozawa x Flexform: "Craft as Culture: A Personal Dialogue with Identity and Design"
2026-06-10 18:00 - 20:00 | Flexform San Francisco, Flexform, 145 Rhode Island St, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
This conversation between acclaimed interior designer Noz Nozawa, and Pete Rodway, Snr. Partner of Compass, explores how design can become a lens for understanding personal identity. Reflecting on growing up within an American context while holding a connection to Japanese ancestry, Nozawa considers how ideas such as restraint, craft, material sensitivity, and discipline can be encountered, interpreted, and thoughtfully integrated. In dialogue with traditions such as Italian craftsmanship, the discussion looks at how cultural influence can inform a practice through observation, distance, and personal meaning.

Ciel Turns 7: A Living Open House
2026-06-10 18:00 - 22:00 | Ciel Creative Space, 2611 Eighth Street, Berkeley, California, 94710, United States
Ciel Creative Space turned 7 this year and we’re celebrating the only way we know how: by opening our doors and letting creativity take over.
This isn’t your typical open house. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure through a series of immersive studio activations, each one offering a different perspective on what’s possible within our walls. From thought-provoking conversation and experimental art to personal branding moments and a full-on celebration, every room tells a different story.
Catch a fashion show that brings “multitudes” to life on the runway where identity, culture, and creativity collide. Step into an art + tech exhibition that blurs the line between digital and physical. Capture your next-era headshot. Stay for the music, the energy, and the kind of connections that actually stick.
Whether you’re a designer, artist, technologist, or just creatively curious, this is an open invitation to explore, engage, and imagine a little bigger.
Come see what happens inside Ciel. Then go make something of your own

Me, You, and a Robot
2026-06-10 18:30 - 20:45 | PA Consulting, 517 York Street, San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
What is a robot? Visions of robots span a wide spectrum: from helpful partners that take on tedious or undesirable tasks, to unsettling replacements that threaten human roles altogether. Headlines in the media and conversations at tech conferences make it clear that robotic technologies are advancing at an unprecedented pace and that robots are here to stay.
As designers and engineers, we can anchor those advancements within the context of human engagement, interaction, and emotions. Surgical systems, assembly lines, warehouse machines, personal companions, appliances, autonomous vehicles, and AI-driven software all blur the lines between tool and agent. Stopping short of a dystopian or unrealistic utopian future, the role of robots in society is open for discussion, acceptance, and debate. Join us at PA Consulting during SF Design Week to define the terms — and question them.

Connection, Cocktails and Collage with Sköna
2026-06-11 15:00 - 18:00 | Skona HQ, 147 Natoma St, San Francisco, California, 94105, United States
Please join us at Sköna HQ for a happy hour open to all. In honor of this year’s theme, Multitudes, we’re exploring how the diversity and plurality of our Bay Area home informs creativity and expression through a collaborative collage wall.
We’re inviting designers, creatives, and the just plain curious to add to the collage with a drawing, quote, thought, signature… whatever you feel reflects or expresses your life in the Bay Area. The choice is yours.
We’ll provide magazines, books, and craft supplies for collaging, plus snacks and beverages for imbibing. Just bring yourself, your creativity, and your curiosity.

More Than One Thing: Celebrating Creative Multitudes
2026-06-11 15:00 - 18:00 | Creativity Explored, 3245 16TH ST, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
Celebrate the multitudes we all contain at Creativity Explored, a pioneering progressive art studio that partners with artists with developmental disabilities.
As part of San Francisco Design Week, join us for a lively happy hour and open studio mixer in our award-winning studio space, located in the heart of the Mission District.
This year’s theme, Multitudes, reflects the expansive creative worlds contained within every Creativity Explored artist and within the studio community itself. CE artists are painters, ceramicists, storytellers, designers, performers, collaborators, and visionaries—each bringing distinct perspectives, lived experiences, and modes of expression into the space. Their practices challenge conventional ideas of authorship, artistry, and communication, revealing the rich authenticity that emerges in welcoming environments.
Connect with fellow creatives, designers, and art lovers while surrounded by bold, original artwork created by Creativity Explored’s artists. Enjoy natural wine provided by our neighbors at Millay, light bites from our dear friends at the Bi-Rite Family of Businesses, and the inspiring energy of a studio that has celebrated the multitudes of artistic expression since 1983.

Brainy Bold: Design as a Model for Cognition
2026-06-11 15:00 - 18:00 | Space DanzArte, 1067 Market St. Suite 1006, San Francisco, 94103, United States
Brainy Bold is a multidisciplinary design studio and publishing project that treats design as a model for cognition-howpeople form meaning, values, identity through systems.
This event presents a curated installation of printed matter, visual grids, garments, and conceptual frameworks developed through Brainy Bold’s ongoing curriculum-based practice, including Chemical Equilibrium, Symbolic Intelligence, and Axiotic Theory. Together, these works explore how structure, repetition, and visual language shape perception and behavior.
Rather than positioning design as surface or trend, Brainy Bold approaches design as an applied cognitive system-one that can be studied, practiced, and internalized. Attendees are invited to move through the installation as a tool for reflection, alignment, and self-directed learning.
The event is part exhibition, part study space, and part quiet provocation, offering an alternative to aesthetic saturation by emphasizing clarity, restraint, and intentional structure.
A modular installation exploring systems, identity, interpretation, and learner-centered design.
Program Overview
Visitors are invited to move through a compact research environment featuring printed studies, visual artifacts, a modular investigation wall, and an interactive access point. The installation emphasizes process, reflection, and symbolic interpretation.
Spatial Components

Lectern with visitor syllabus
Research / artifact table
Access table with digital interaction
Modular investigation wall
Printed takeaway materials

Visitor Flow
Enter
Orient
Investigate
Engage
Reflect

Context
This is Samuel Guillory’s inaugural public Design Week presentation as an emerging independent designer under Brainy Bold.

* Please enter the venue from the Visitor Entrance at 586 Stevenson St. Then follow posted signs to Suite 1006.

Hand-printed vs Digital - Textile Craftsmanship at Cloth Edition Printshop
2026-06-11 15:30 - 17:00 | Cloth Edition Printshop, 705 Cesar Chavez Street, San Francisco, California, 94124, United States
From pigments and patterns to bespoke textiles, expierence the craft of hand printing at Cloth Edition Printshop. Join textile designer Anne Kirk and printer Ryan Harrison for a discussion exploring traditional hand printed textiles, how designers work with master craftspeople and the value of handprinted versus digital textile designs. Explore our hand printing facility, see traditional screen printing in action and participate in printing with our team.

Studio Crawl Night 1 - Thursday, June 11th
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | California

Connecting the Dots
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Unbox Product Design, 364 11th Street, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
At Unbox, we operate at the intersection of creativity and commercialization, partnering with startups and disruptors to bring market-ready solutions to life.
Join us at the Unbox studio for our second Studio Crawl during San Francisco Design Week. Located in SoMa, we’re surrounded by some of the city’s top creative agencies.
Connect with the community, exchange ideas, and get a behind-the-scenes look at how a boutique firm delivers big impact across complex projects.
Whether you’re looking to collaborate, expand your network, or simply drop by, we’ll have refreshments, snacks, music, and a few giveaways to enjoy.
Doors open at 6 PM, followed by a 6:30 PM introduction and team meet-and-greet, with open networking starting at 7 PM.
We look forward to welcoming you.

Whipsaw Open Studio
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Whipsaw, 55 Mississippi, SAN FRANCISCO, California, 94107, United States
Step inside Whipsaw’s Potrero Hill studio for SF Design Week — come see where the ideas happen. Explore a light-filled, industrial-chic space, browse our ever-growing product gallery and meet the team. It’s going to be a good one. See you there!

ORCA SF Open Studio
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | ORCA Showroom, 2422 3rd Street, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Get the first look at ORCA’s new showroom in the Dogpatch. Meet with ORCA’s founder and principal, Molly Sedlacek and see our materials in person.
ORCA is a female-founded landscape design studio based in Los Angeles and San Francisco. We use plants and materials in their rawest form to re/connect humans to the earth.

Where Design Begins: An Open Exhibition By Vizcom
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Vizcom, 488 Bryant St, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Vizcom is opening the doors to its Makerspace. See how designers across automotive, fashion, lighting, and architecture are integrating AI into their creative process. Real objects and renders will be on display, alongside the work that made them.
Explore at your own pace: get hands-on at demo stations, watch live fabrication, take on a prompted design challenge, and spend time with a curated installation drawn from designers around the world.
June 3rd is opening night. June 11th is our closing night.
Come curious. Leave with something to think about.

Design + Build - Open Studio
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Mokume Design Studio, 2169 Folsom St., San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
Join us at our shared studio — home to Mokume Design Studio, Katherine Tincher Design, and Phase2 Builders, with special guest Home+Space — for a behind-the-scenes look at how we work!
We’re pulling out mockups, material boards, and recent projects (with a couple of our favorite local vendors in the mix), and keeping things easy with cocktails, bites, and good conversation.
Swing by, say hi, stay awhile.

How We Prompt
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Gamma, 350 Rhode Island, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
An open studio night at Gamma. Our entire brand system runs on a set of carefully-tuned Midjourney srefs and profiles — come see the library, meet the people who built it, and sit down with the image models we’ve partnered with to prompt something of your own. Bring a project, or start one here.

Now Studio Open House
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Now Studio, 2309 Bryant Street, San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
Now Studio is opening its doors for our second SF Design Week Studio Crawl. Explore our latest work, meet the team and experience what makes our approach distinct. Refreshments and light snacks will be provided. Come by and see what’s happening Now.

now studio is a nimble, hands-on Industrial Design agency based in San Francisco.

Punto 3 Launch, by Coleccion Estudio
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Coleccion Estudio’s Private Showroom, 273 Church St, San Francisco, California, 94114, United States
Punto 3, created by Colección Estudio, launches in San Francisco during Design Week, marking its first presentation in North America. Join us for an evening of design, conversation, and exchange with the founders and participating designers, mezcal cocktails in hand and contemporary pieces all around.
Taking place on June 11th from 6 PM to 9 PM, the event celebrates a new platform for international emergent design, bringing together craft, experimentation, and forward-thinking practice. Guests are invited to experience Rehearsals for the Future, the inaugural exhibition developed through the Punto 3 mentorship program. The exhibition presents a cohort of international designers working across furniture, lighting, and textiles
Punto 3 is a space for ideas, production, and exhibition. Rooted in Mexican cultural legacy, it seeks not to preserve tradition as a fixed language, but to expand it through dialogue and collaboration. Developed by Colección Estudio, the platform connects designers, artisans, and creatives through a mentorship model led by Andrés Cacho, Manuel López, and Daniel Martínez.
Come join us for an intimate evening to celebrate, connect, and discover a new approach to contemporary design.

Our Robots Don’t Party. We Do.
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | NewDealDesign, 333 Bryant St Suite 190, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
We’re throwing open our studio doors once again, but this time with more humans (and maybe a few robots and monsters) in tow. Step inside the place where humans design for AI, not the other way around, and experience the creative energy behind the work firsthand!
Expect drinks, snacks, a DJ, games, and interactive moments designed to spark your own creativity. Get up close and personal with our designers and engineers, hear their stories, and see the space where the magic gets made. This is your invitation to meet the team, ask the hard questions, and remind yourself that the best parties are still very much a human thing.

Studio O+A Studio Crawl
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Studio O+A, 452 Tehama Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, California, 94103, United States
Join Studio O+A for a happy hour in the studio during the crawl. Take a peak behind the curtain, meet other designers, and engage in an evolving dialogue about design.
At Studio O+A, we thrive at the intersection of disciplines, where diverse perspectives and crafts come together to shape meaningful experiences. We believe the most impactful ideas emerge through collaboration—when different voices, practices, and ways of thinking intersect.
Come be a part of that exchange and help explore what’s next as we collectively shape the future of design.

Living Forms: A Biomorphic Studio Crawl at Creative C.O.M.A.
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Creative C.O.M.A., 40 Rondel Place, San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
Living Forms is a collaborative exhibition and open house at Creative C.O.M.A., presented as part of the SF Design Week Studio Crawl. Three artists explore materiality, form, and transformation through a contemporary biomorphic lens — reinterpreting organic modernism from a Bay Area perspective where fine art, ceramics, and spatial design converge.
Painting, sculptural ceramics, and immersive installation share the room with furniture and design objects selected in conversation with the work — each echoing the show’s biomorphic language of cellular, botanical, and anatomical forms. Select pieces are available for acquisition.
In dialogue with SF Design Week’s 2026 theme, Multitudes, the exhibition celebrates plurality of medium, perspective, and process — an ecosystem of works that oscillate between organism, architecture, and abstraction.
Schedule:
• 6:00 PM — Doors open. Self-guided exploration of the exhibition and space.
• 7:00 PM — Brief welcome (5 min) from founder Anthony Brown: an introduction to Creative C.O.M.A., the artists, and the work on view.
• 7:05 PM — Artists in residence at their work throughout the evening for one-on-one conversation.
• 9:00 PM — Close.

Delve - Open Studio
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Delve, 2225 3rd St, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Join us for an open house that brings our multidisciplinary product design and development practice to life. Meet the team behind our work, explore the studio, and get an inside look at how we define, envision, and develop innovations that make an impact. Whether you’re curious about our process or looking to connect with fellow builders and creatives, we invite you to stop by, stay awhile, and experience Delve firsthand. Food and drinks will be served throughout the evening, with a few surprises along the way.

Huge Design Studio Crawl - SFDW 2026
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Huge Design, 1082 Howard Street, San Francisco, California, 94103, United States
Huge Design Studio Crawl — SFDW 2026
We’ve spent 15 years designing products for companies like GoPro, Google, Therabody, and Bowers & Wilkins — and for one night during SF Design Week, we’re opening our SoMa studio to the public.
Come wander the space, poke at prototypes, and talk shop with the team. No presentations, no agenda — just an honest look at how a product idea goes from napkin sketch to something you’d actually buy. Drinks are on us.
📍 1082 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
🕕 6:00 – 9:00 PM
🎟 SFDW Studio Crawl Ticket Required

Nanu Studio Crawl
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Nanu, 1450 Mariposa Street, San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Visit behind the scenes at Nanu, our small SF studio where two of us design objects that make time feel more tangible. See what’s on the workbench, how things come together, and the people behind it all. → nanuelectrics.com

PACT Open Studio
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Pact Studio, 1300 S VAN NESS AVE, SAN FRANCISCO, California, 94110, United States
Come hang out at PACT, the boutique brand identity and strategy studio behind this year’s SF Design Week theme. We work across climate, knowledge, and culture — but this isn’t a portfolio walkthrough. Swing by, grab a drink, and talk shop with the team. Branding, strategy, the state of design, whatever you’re into. Good people, good conversation, no agenda.

STEEP: An Immersive Tea Lounge
2026-06-11 20:30 - 23:00 | AIDA, 388 Beale Street Penthouse, San Francisco, CA, 94105, United States
As the last light fades over the bay you step into another world.
The first room breathes with immersive visuals and warm atmospheric sounds. You don’t watch it so much as inhabit it. Here you get your first effervescent pairing. The tea and cocktails waiting inside were born directly from what you just experienced: the projections, the compositions, the scent. Every drink is a translation. Time slows and you breath in the art and sound.
Then something shifts in the air.
An ephemeral scent installation threads through the space, pulling you forward — notes of smoke, osmanthus, salt air, dried citrus, something green and ancient. The fragrance is not decoration. It is the bridge to lead you forward.
The second room opens like an exhale.
Here, a bar of hand-blown glass art catches the light. The shimmer of glass art reveals itself within a floating garden of lush bites paired with new sips. Every taste is a translation. An echo of the room you came from.
Outside the windows, the Bay Bridge traces itself in light against the darkening sky.
You didn’t plan this evening. You discovered it.
What to Expect:
This event sits at the intersection of visual art, sound, scent, and craft. It highlights the multitudes of working across creative disciplines, introducing audiences to art forms they may not typically experiences as a blended narrative, while demonstrating the innovative intersection that challenges perception and expectations.
There will be immersive art designed to make scent visually tangible, effervescent, rhythmic and delicious. Something you steep into throughout the night, imbibing scents and bubbly in alcoholic and non alcoholic elixirs from glassware shaped to entice the sense and accentuate flavor profiles. Lush light bites will be served from a floating garden overlooking incredible views of the bay. Be prepared to steep into a lush and evocative evening of art, beverages and light bites.
Art & Collaborations by: Alexandra Ierace, Eli Joteva, Tiffany Liu, Kazuki Takizawa and more to come
Doors open at dusk. Location & entry instructions shared with ticket holders 24 hours before event. Capacity is strictly limited.

AI as Your Design Partner (Not Your Replacement)
2026-06-12 13:00 - 15:30 | Shipt, 535 Mission Street, 12th Floor, San Francisco, CA, 94105, United States
AI is rapidly changing how we design, but it’s not here to replace creativity, it’s here to expand it. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore how generative AI can augment, accelerate, and amplify the design thinking process while keeping human insight at the center. Participants will work in small groups to apply AI across key phases of design thinking including ideation, synthesis, and concept development. Through guided exercises, we’ll show how AI can help generate ideas, surface patterns, and push thinking further, while also highlighting its limitations and the importance of human judgment. This session is designed to be interactive, accessible, and practical. No deep technical experience required. Whether you’re a designer, product manager, or just AI-curious, you’ll leave with new ways to integrate AI into your creative process and a clearer understanding of how to work with it, not against it.

Pop-Up Art Show at IA's San Francisco Studio
2026-06-12 14:00 - 16:00 | IA (Interior Architechts), 500 Sansome Street, San Francisco, 94111, United States
Experience how architecture and design firm IA’s newly completed double-height, ground level studio embodies “design in action”, both as an ethos and through their design practice, cementing the space as a canvas for creative expression. IA’s enduring celebration of San Francisco and the city’s art and design community will take center stage in an art pop-up show by local artists.
Join us at IA’s San Francisco studio as we gather to celebrate community and creativity.

Women Designing San Francisco
2026-06-12 15:00 - 17:00 | Marigold SF, 2681 21st Street, San Francisco, California, 94110, United States
Past, Present, Future — a salon-style gathering bringing together leading female voices across design, education, fashion, tech, and craft alongside the broader WILD community to celebrate women building our city’s creative community, and reckon with the loss of institutions like CCA.

PANEL:

Jennifer Sonderby (Chair of Communication Design, CCA)
Megan Wernetti (President, Heath Ceramics)
Nicole Krasinski (Co-owner, State Bird Provision, The Progress, & Anchovy Bar)
Arianna Orland (Creative Director, Meta)
Trina Michelle Robinson (Artist & CCA Faculty)

SCHEDULE: 2 hrs
3pm door open, mingling
4pm moderated panel & open dialogue
5pm end

ABOUT WILD: Women in Leadership and Design (WILD) is an AIGA initiative that champions women and non-binary people in creative leadership. Through thoughtfully curated gatherings, we create space for meaningful connection, professional growth and community building among design leaders and creative professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area.

ABOUT MARIGOLD: Marigold is a part flower shop, a part café nestled on a bright and sunny corner of the Mission District. Bringing together the rituals of flowers and coffee in a warm inviting atmosphere, it is a space that would continually evolve, always pique curiosity, and challenge our creativity.

Event CANCELLED: Keeping Up with Gen Z: How EdTech Designs for an Ever-Evolving Generation
2026-06-12 16:00 - 18:00 | Quizlet HQ, 123 Townsend St., San Francisco, California, 94107, United States
Gen Z students are one of the hardest demographics to design for. Their culture, tools, and expectations shift faster than most research cycles can keep up with. And no two students learn the same way. This fireside chat brings together researchers and designers from the EdTech space to discuss how they stay embedded in their users’ lives— not just at project kickoff, but continuously.
Quizlet’s Design and User Research Team will share how they’ve built structural practices— from daily student Discord communities to community-led design and co-design sessions— to keep their finger on the pulse of 18–24 year olds. They’ll be joined by two design and user research leaders from across the EdTech industry for a conversation on how to thoughtfully design for a generation in constant motion.

4:00pm — Doors open, networking
4:15pm — Fireside chat begins
5:00pm — Audience Q&A
5:30pm — Open mingling
6:00pm — End

The Future of Home Robotics
2026-06-12 16:30 - 18:30 | Box Clever, 285 7TH ST, SAN FRANCISCO, California, 94103, United States
Introduced by Box Clever x Weave Robotics
Experience the public reveal of the future of home robotics!

Meet leaders at Weave and Box Clever, and learn about their unique approach to designing for the home.

Food, Product Raffle, and Laundry provided : )

* Box Clever designed products worth over $3000 will be raffled off, with a portion of the proceeds supporting the next generation of designers*

Erica Tanov: Celebrating a Life in Design
2026-06-12 17:00 - 18:00 | Erica Tanov Atelier, 1808 Fifth Street, Berkeley, California, 94710, United States
Interiors, Nature, and the Art of Collaboration: Join designer Erica Tanov for a lively conversation and illustrated presentation, moderated by acclaimed design writer DIANE DORRANS SAEKS. Together, they will explore the art of creative collaboration for home design — the sources of inspiration, the working relationships, the materials, and the process of building a fully original aesthetic world. Inspired by nature.
For thirty-five years, Erica Tanov has been one of the most quietly inspiring presences in American design — a designer of rare grace, originality, and style whose work across fashion, textiles, and interiors is guided by an unerring instinct for natural beauty. Her clothing and home collections are defined by luxurious fabrics, meticulous craft, and a sensibility entirely her own: restrained, considered, and deeply expressive. Her historic, light-filled Berkeley studio — itself a masterclass in the art of living beautifully — showcases wallpaper, architectural tiles, furniture, bedding, and fabric collections alongside carefully chosen vintage finds. Tanov is now expanding her practice to include interior design consultation and projects.
The evening will unfold in Erica’s beautiful studio, surrounded by her designs, collections, and the objects she loves. Guests will enjoy an illustrated presentation of Erica Tanov interiors — bedrooms, wallpapers in situ, textiles, and artist collaborations — followed by an intimate moderated conversation with Erica Tanov.
Topics will include what natural interior style truly means; fabric and textile collaborations with artists; wallpaper and architectural tile design; bedding collections; antique collecting; and the role of art and artists in shaping an interior point of view.
The evening is moderated by Diane Dorrans Saeks, bestselling author of twenty-six design books including the celebrated Parisian by Design (a bestseller in Paris) and the classic Jean-Louis Deniot Interiors (both Rizzoli). Diane is the longtime Design Editor at PaperCity and a founding editor of C California Style magazine. She is currently at work on new books.
About Erica Tanov: A California native, Erica established her design trajectory at Parsons School of Design before launching her eponymous label in New York in 1990, where her early seamed slips and camisoles helped redefine modern loungewear and quickly gained placement at Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman, and Henri Bendel. Her brand evolved organically into a broader lifestyle offering spanning clothing and home, grounded in a philosophy of relaxed luxury shaped by a deep reverence for nature. Returning to the Bay Area in 1994, she opened her first Berkeley store and went on to cultivate a loyal, design-forward community across New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, becoming a defining voice in California’s understated luxury movement. Alongside her commercial work, she has remained deeply engaged with the arts, serving on the board of Creative Growth Art Center, speaking at major design events, and authoring Design By Nature, with her work widely featured in leading publications and worn by figures including Tilda Swinton, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga, and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Wine and refreshments will be served.

Studio Crawl Night 2 - Friday, June 12th
2026-06-12 18:00 - 21:00 | California

Evening Reception - PLUME by Kristin Victoria Barron
2026-06-12 18:00 - 21:00 | The Future Perfect San Francisco, 3085 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, California, 94115, United States
Plume, a recent body of work from Kristin Victoria Barron, will be showcased during San Francisco Design Week this June, offering a compelling exploration of the artist’s ongoing engagement with the archetypal language of the subconscious. Through the practice of keeping a dream journal and tirelessly working to materialize the elusive subjects of sleep, Barron locates her work in the tension of articulating the inexpressible, as though sculpting smoke. “I am asleep and living in a house on the indeterminate but ubiquitous waterline of dreams. I cannot tell you the name of the body of water or if it’s a body at all…” she writes, capturing both her process and the ambiguity it demands.
This body of work extends her Jungian research beyond representation. Each piece is carefully patinated, offering a textural imprint that feels like a fragment of another reality. The sculptures move beyond zoological iconography, suggesting forms that have traversed dreamscapes, as though released from a distant and unknowable terrain and marked by their passage through shifting worlds.
Incorporating functional lighting, the works in Plume evoke illumination untethered from waking life. The light appears not as a mechanical source, but as something more ethereal, as if each piece operates as a threshold through which luminosity travels between dimensions, carrying the atmosphere of the artist’s inner world into physical space.

IA's San Francisco Studio: Studio Crawl
2026-06-12 18:00 - 21:00 | IA (Interior Architechts), 500 Sansome Street, San Francisco, 94111, United States
Explore how architecture and design firm IA brings design to life at their newly completed double-height, ground-level San Francisco studio. Located at street level to engage directly with the community, the 22,000-square-foot space celebrates the people, places, and identities that make bold innovation possible within San Francisco’s art and design community.
Discover how the city’s vibrant history and character are playfully woven into the studio’s design, and experience a work environment built around creativity – featuring a dynamic collection of amenities including stadium seating, a speakeasy- inspired lounge, and even an in-house dog park.
Join IA in celebrating the new studio and connecting with San Francisco’s creative community!

San Francisco Design Week Studio Crawl: IA San Francisco Studio
6-9 pm on Friday, June 12, 2026
IA San Francisco Studio
500 Sansome Street, Floor 1
San Francisco, CA 94111

Know Your Roots
2026-06-12 18:00 - 21:00 | Neiman Marcus, 150 Stockton Street, San Francisco, California, 94108, United States
Oakland Roots and Soul Sports Club presents an upcycled fashion installation at Neiman Marcus, created in collaboration with ThredUp and emerging designers from California College of the Arts
On view for the first three weeks of June, this installation is a living expression of Oakland Roots and Soul’s mission—harnessing the power of sport as a force for social good.
The window displays feature original fashion pieces created with upcycled clothing from ThredUp and Oakland Roots and Soul jerseys. Rooted in Oakland’s spirit of resistance, creativity, and deep community pride, the work brings together fashion, art and sport as equal platforms for storytelling and change, with each piece reflecting the club’s commitment to expressions of culture.
Through the work of CCA’s next generation of designers, and powered by ThredUp’s circular fashion model, the display becomes a platform for new voices shaping the future of design.
Know your roots.
This is not an actual studio but a window display — Stop by to view the window installation during the crawl or anytime.

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson: Studio Crawl
2026-06-12 18:00 - 21:00 | Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, 49 Geary Street, San Francisco, California, 94108, United States
Join Bohlin Cywinski Jackson for an evening at our San Francisco studio to explore new and upcoming work and enjoy snacks and refreshments. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about a site-specific installation by the artist Andy Goldsworthy, a permanent artwork from the former Haines Gallery that was preserved and celebrated during the renovation of the studio.
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson is an architecture practice of five studios across the country focused on designing places that inspire connection and wonder. Our San Francisco studio works across a range of typologies, from single-family residences to schools and workplaces. The sketches, models, and raw materials found throughout our studio are evidence of an immersive design process rooted in a strong sense of craft.

Studio Image Credit: Matthew Millman

Art of Sport. FIFA World Cup 2026
2026-06-12 18:00 - 21:00 | Grumpy’s Restaurant & Pub, 125 Vallejo St., San Francisco California, CA, 94111, United States
The beautiful game. 48 beautiful posters.
You’re invited to the launch of a new collection of 48 posters, created by Mucho, JP and a few global guest designers. Hosted by Mucho partner Rob Duncan and Art of Sport partner JP Stallard, for what can only be described as a proper old-fashioned “booze up.” Beers, posters, and every nation from this year’s World Cup on display.
Art of Sport began over a decade ago, dreamt up by friends (and football rivals) Rob and JP, to create football posters your partner would actually let you hang at home. Simple, bold, culturally tuned, occasionally mischievous, and always designed to raise a smile. Posters will be available to order online.
Have a drink on us while the bar tab holds out and enjoy talking football. The one you kick, not throw 😉

Hybrid: Curiosity in All Things — Studio Crawl Happy Hour at Stout Books
2026-06-12 18:00 - 21:00 | William Stout Architectural Books, 804 Montgomery St, San Francisco, California, 94133, United States
Join Hybrid at Stout Books as part of the SF Design Week Studio Crawl for a celebratory evening around Hybrid: Curiosity in All Things.
The book explores how curiosity drives creative work across disciplines—bringing together studio projects, essays, and insights that reflect on process, inspiration, and the unexpected connections that shape design.
This happy hour-style gathering is an open invitation to meet the Hybrid team, connect with the design community, and spend time with the book. Copies will be available for purchase, with signing throughout the evening.
In addition to the book, we’ll be sharing a curated exhibition of work from across the studio—offering a broader look at our approach to branding, environments, and storytelling.
Stop by for a drink, stay for the conversation, and explore the work.

For What It’s Worth
2026-06-12 18:00 - 21:00 | Goodfellas Pizzeria & Grill, 2237 Powell St, San Francisco, California, 94133, United States
Come explore an intimate evening of photography and original artwork celebrating the people, places, and spirit of Bay Area culture; at Goodfellas Pizzeria, one of North Beach’s most beloved neighborhood spots.
Schedule:
6:00pm — Doors open, exhibition begins
6:00–9:00pm — Browse work by three Bay Area photographers plus original painted artwork by artist Rus
9:00pm — Exhibition closes
Three photographers will showcase imagery celebrating the culture, communities, and everyday life of the Bay Area — a reflection of this year’s SFDW theme, Multitudes. Alongside the photography, artist Rus presents a selection of original painted works.
Perks: Goodfellas pizza and drinks available for purchase. All are welcome — no design background required.

CODAME: The New Human
2026-06-12 18:00 - 21:00 | Homebrew Club, 111 Maiden Lane, Suite 540, San Francisco, California, 94108, United States
CODAME: The New Human is an invitation to join a global collective of artists, technologists, and designers who are quietly building a future shaped by White Mirror Innovation: a conscious, interdisciplinary creation focused on care, agency, and connection.
This experiential design event celebrates the shift toward high-value, real-life connection and is hosted at Homebrew Club, a hub for builders at the bleeding edge of tech. We actively invite artists to submit work for our new ARTEX and Print Club initiatives, with featured creators receiving profit-share for their contributions:
ARTEX: A new medium for “living art”; an interactive installation platform that evolves and responds to human presence. It is the perfect, dynamic digital centerpiece for culture builders to activate lobbies, offices, and events, bridging the digital and physical worlds.
Print Club: The “45 RPM single of the art world,” this monthly art delivery service features a unique model where subscribers are the curators who vote on limited-edition 7″x7″ giclée art drops and receive turnkey Print Swap Kits to host IRL events, fostering community through tangible collecting and exchange. Limited edition prints will be available for sale.
Schedule ⌛
6:00 PM: Refreshments & Networking 👾 Doors open for mingling. Enjoy curated snacks and a selection of non-alcoholic alternatives, embracing a sober-friendly future for connection.
7:00 PM: Fireside Chat: The Future of ART+TECH 🧠 Join CODAME CoFounder Jordan Gray in conversation with Homebrew Manager Erick Davidson for a dynamic discussion or debate on how artists and technologists are prototyping the future.
8:00 PM: Print Club Raffle 🔮 Attendees who sign in receive a ticket to win a limited-edition print from the Print Club editions… a corporeal gateway to community and collecting.
A must-attend happening for collectors, curators, and culture builders seeking to join the movement and grow prosperity with the next generation of ART+TECH experiences.

Applied Information Group - Open Studio
2026-06-12 18:00 - 21:00 | Applied Information Group Studio, 720 Market Street, San Francisco, California, CA 94102, United States
Come meet the Applied team in their San Francisco studio to learn about wayfinding & experience design as the sun sets over Market Street. Light bites and beverages will be served. The event will be hybrid indoors/outdoors on balconies as weather permits.

An Exceptional Studio Afternoon: Architecture, Ideas, and Inspiration with Kuth/Ranieri and Anne Fougeron, FAIA
2026-06-20 13:00 - 17:00 | Kuth/Ranieri Architects, 725 Greenwich Street, San Francisco, 94113, United States
The Afternoon
This is a rare afternoon — an immersive encounter with three of San Francisco’s most distinguished architects, in an exceptional studio. From 1:00 pm, participants gather at the North Beach studio of Kuth/Ranieri Architects for an exclusive illustrated presentation of the firm’s international body of work, followed by an in-depth guided tour of the studio: models, drawings, materials, current projects, and the full arc of a remarkable thirty-five-year practice.
Mid-afternoon, award-winning architect Anne Fougeron, FAIA, will deliver a vivid illustrated presentation of her career — her built work, her award-winning residences, her theoretical projects, and the dramatically original unbuilt works that have shaped her thinking.
The day closes with a convivial reception: bites, sips. There’s time to discuss ideas and inspirations from the afternoon, explore career paths, and speak directly with Anne Fougeron, who has taught architectural design to graduate and undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, where she served as a lecturer and visiting professor.

The Host Studios
Kuth/Ranieri Architects
Kuth/Ranieri Architects was co-founded by Elizabeth Ranieri, FAIA, and Byron Kuth, FAIA, in San Francisco in 1990. With studios in San Francisco and the Boston area, the firm has earned a national reputation for works of architecture that integrate environmental stewardship, craft, and contemporary design thinking across a remarkable breadth of scale and program — from meticulously considered private residences to major civic and public infrastructure.
The firm’s portfolio spans single-family homes, community buildings, public park pavilions, and international airport terminals. Kuth/Ranieri’s landmark projects include Harvey Milk Terminal 1 at San Francisco International Airport — developed in distinguished collaboration with Gensler and a consortium of leading firms, and recipient of the 2023 Summit Award from the IIDA Northern California Chapter — as well as significant contributions to Chase Center, the Golden State Warriors’ arena in Mission Bay. The firm co-founded the Deep Green Design Alliance, a cross-disciplinary collaborative focused on design solutions that address the environmental challenges shaping our global future.
Kuth/Ranieri Architects is a San Francisco certified woman-owned business enterprise. Their sustained commitment to sustainability, community, and architectural intelligence has made them one of the Bay Area’s most admired and enduring practices — one whose work speaks with equal authority across the intimate scale of a private home and the civic scale of a great public building.

“In a world obsessed with an international cast of ego-driven starchitects, San Francisco architects Elizabeth Ranieri, FAIA, and Byron Kuth, FAIA, are the thoughtful, versatile, low-key, detail-obsessed exceptions.”
— Diane Dorrans Saeks · Opening epigraph, Kuth/Ranieri Architects monograph, Princeton Architectural Press
“We seek to enrich the human experience by crafting engaging spaces that are timeless and of our time.”
— Kuth/Ranieri Architects

Guest Architect
Anne Fougeron, FAIA · Fougeron Architecture
Anne Fougeron, FAIA, is the founder and principal of Fougeron Architecture, one of San Francisco’s most consistently celebrated and intellectually rigorous design practices. Raised in France and the United States, she attended Wellesley College and completed her graduate studies in architecture at the University of California, Berkeley — where she has since returned to teach, serving as a lecturer and visiting professor. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, a distinction awarded to fewer than three percent of registered architects in the United States.
Since founding her practice in 1986, Fougeron has built a body of work that is at once formally rigorous and deeply humane. Her projects span private residences of exceptional distinction — among them the Fall House in Big Sur, the Suspension House, and the Wavelet House, both recipients of the American Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum and multiple international prizes — alongside civic, cultural, multi-family, and healthcare buildings. The firm has received more than fifty design awards and been published in more than two hundred international publications. Princeton Architectural Press describes her approach as one that “embraces architectural opportunities found in opposition, creating buildings that redefine program, reinvent historical building types, and reinvigorate civic centers.”
Central to Fougeron’s practice is the conviction that architecture is a social art — that beautiful, rigorous design should be accessible to all, and that buildings can carry genuine ethical and civic weight. Her published monographs include Fougeron Architecture: Opposition/Composition (Princeton Architectural Press) and Framing Light (2024).

“While I am a tried-and-true Northern Californian, my work often brings me to Los Angeles and the neighboring areas. And as an architect, I can’t help but notice what’s around me. Modern architecture is often painted as elitist — as if efficient design can’t also be good design. Buildings can be useful while still being beautiful.”
— Anne Fougeron, FAIA · Fougeron Architecture, San Francisco

About the Seminar Leader
Diane Dorrans Saeks is a San Francisco-based design journalist, editor, and the author of twenty-six books on architecture, design, travel, and style, published by Rizzoli, Chronicle Books, and others. Her most recent Rizzoli titles include Jean-Louis Deniot Interiors and Parisian by Design. She is Design Editor of PaperCity magazine and a co-founding editor of Metropolitan Home and C Magazine California Style. Diane has traveled to more than 110 countries as a working journalist and has presented her Dynamic Minds, Brilliant Inspiration design seminars — intimate, behind-the-scenes studio visits with leading architects and designers — for more than fifteen years, in affiliation with Design Bay Area and San Francisco Design Week.

*Note: This is a Professional presentation. Not suitable for guests under 16.

ADDITIONAL SEMINARS:
Learn more about other events in the series –
June 5, 1pm-5pm: Sausalito
Studio visits to The Office of Charles de Lisle, Studio Collins Weir, and Luca Pignata Studio. Participants will converse, meet, discuss ideas, and meet the designers and architects.
June 6, 1pm-5pm: SoMa San Francisco
Studio visits to Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects and BAMO .Participants will converse, meet, discuss ideas, and meet the designers and architects.
