This week, Design Week South Africa opens applications for its 2026 editions in Johannesburg (8-11 October) and Cape Town (22 – 25 October), inviting designers, studios, brands, hospitality venues, retailers and creative businesses to apply to be part of the country’s most significant annual celebration of design and creative culture.
Taking place across two cities and two weeks in October, Design Week South Africa brings together the best of the country’s design talent in one place, creating a concentrated, high-visibility moment for the creative sector that invigorates both cities, draws thousands of registered attendees and connects South Africa’s design community with local and international audiences, press and industry professionals.
Design Week 2026 takes the theme ‘The Shape of Us’, which centres on how cultural identity, historical roots and future-thinking inform South African design. Applicants are encouraged to interpret these thematic ideas in their own presentations.
Why apply
Design Week South Africa is the platform where South Africa’s most compelling creative work gets seen, celebrated and talked about. For designers and studios, it’s an opportunity to present work to an engaged, design-literate audience at the height of the creative calendar. For brands and businesses, it’s a chance to position themselves at the centre of South Africa’s design conversation — alongside the country’s most respected creative voices, in partnership with Design Week’s sponsors and media partners, and in front of the local and international press that covers the weeks each year.
Participation offers meaningful brand exposure by association with South Africa’s leading design platform, access to thousands of registered attendees across both cities, and visibility through Design Week South Africa’s media partnerships and coverage across local and international design, architecture, lifestyle and culture press. Past editions have drawn attention from global design media and established Design Week South Africa as a platform with reach well beyond its host cities.
Applications are open to designers, studios, collectives, architecture and interior practices, creative agencies, hospitality venues, retailers, galleries and brands with a genuine connection to design and creative culture. Participation is available in Johannesburg, Cape Town or both cities. Applications close on 2 August 2026.
Applications for Design Week South Africa 2026 are now open. To apply or find out more, visit designweeksouthafrica.com/
ABOUT DESIGN WEEK SOUTH AFRICA
Design Week South Africa is a platform dedicated to celebrating design as an expression of creative thinking and making, jumpstarting collaboration, encouraging informative dialogue and open-source knowledge share, while cultivating the next generation of creative leaders through inclusivity and support. Our mission is to create South Africa’s leading design platform.
For decades, the incredible economic, educational, creative and cultural benefits of dedicated, city-wide, design weeks have been witnessed the world over, from Milan to Melbourne. A creative space where designers and makers can express themselves, the trade and public can engage with the local design sector, while the next generation of designers, artists and makers can be inspired to continue a legacy – in our case, the legacy of South African design.
Through year-round activations and two city wide design weeks, we aim to boost the local creative economy with an approach that is industry-led, increasing the public’s knowledge; awareness and appreciation of design while generating and collecting open-source data around local design sectors.