Our Top Picks For Irish Design Week 2025
Text: Izzy Copestake
It’s that time of year again when DCCI Irish Design Week returns, bringing a week-long celebration of design, creativity, and innovation across Ireland from 17-21 November 2025. There’s a lot on, so here are our top picks.
Kilkenny Design Workshops: A 60th Anniversary Celebration
When: 15 November 2025 – 11 January 2026, from 10:00 am
Where: Butler Gallery, Evans’ Home, John’s Quay, Kilkenny, R95 YX3F
Forget the narrative that all the big events happen in Dublin, this Irish Design Week Kilkenny is stealing the show. A special exhibition is happening at Butler Gallery, marking the 60th anniversary of the Kilkenny Design Workshops. The display celebrates artists who are closely linked to KDW, featuring early metal, wood, and ceramic pieces by Oisín Kelly, bronze sculpture by Sonja Landweer, paintings by Louis le Brocquy, and canvas works by Patrick Scott
Good Taste: Fashion and Food in Conversation
When: 17 November 2025, 6:00 pm
Where: Irish Museum of Modern Art, Military Road, Dublin 8, D08 FW31
Fashion and food are coming together with Good Taste: Fashion and Food in Conversation, which promises to transform the runway into a multi-sensory experience where fashion and cuisine collide. Models, designers, and chefs collaborate on duets that echo each other in colour, form, and texture, letting the audience see, hear, touch, and even taste design. In their own words: “Expect the Unexpected.”
Get your tickets here.
Interview With Sinéad O’Dwyer
When: 18 November 2025, 5:30 pm
Where: Whyte Recital Hall, Royal Irish Academy of Music, 36-38 Westland Row, Dublin D02 WY89
Fashion lovers, this one’s for you. One of Ireland’s most exciting and inclusive designers will be in the Royal Irish Academy of Music talking about body politics, inclusive design, and the ways fashion can drive social change. O’Dwyer will be in conversation with London-based writer Anastasiia Fedorova, and Eibhlín Doran adds her perspective on visual storytelling and how design can shape heritage, memory, and culture.
Get your tickets here.
Distinctive Repetition in collaboration with Design & Crafts Council Ireland
When: 20 November 2025, 5:30 pm
Where: Whyte Recital Hall, Royal Irish Academy of Music, 36-38 Westland Row, Dublin D02 WY89
This one’s for the music lovers. Distinctive Repetition presents ‘To Be a Part of Something’, an immersive event which blends music, visual design, and collaboration. Performances from Seán MacErlaine, Tomoko Sauvage, Dan Trueman, and Benjamin Dwyer, alongside contributions from artists like Garth Knox, explore how design can translate sound into visual expression.
Get your tickets here.
Interview With Vasilis Marmatakis
When: 21 November 2025, 7:00 pm
Where: IAF House, Charlemont Square, Dublin, D02 K7R6
If you’re as much of a fan of Yorgos Lanthimos as we are, then you’re not going to want to miss this. Vasilis Marmatakis is a celebrated Greek graphic designer who is best known for his work with the director of Bugonia, Dogtooth, The Favourite and Poor Things. This interview, presented by Neighbrhd, offers a rare chance to see behind-the-scenes insights into Marmatakis’ creative process such as proposals, rejected ideas as well as typography and title design.
Get your tickets here.
Three Letters, Three Wells – A Pilgrimage in Glass
When: 15 November 2025 – 11 January 2026, 10:00 – 18.00
Where: Rothe House, 16 Parliament Street,
Kilkenny, R95 P89C
EGS, one of Finland’s pioneering graffiti artists, has forged his own path into sculpture and glassblowing, transforming his graffiti alias E-G-S into abstract forms. His recent visit to Kilkenny, inspired by Nordic Modernist Kaj Franck and the folklore of three local holy wells, has culminated in a new body of glass works. This exhibition, part of Irish Design Week, also includes a documentary and zine offering a glimpse into his creative journey and detours along the way.
