San Diego Design Week
DESIGN FOR EVERYONE
September 15-20, 2026
San Diego Design Week is Design Forward Alliance’s flagship program: an annual celebration that brings our mission to life across the region.
Through exhibitions, talks, workshops, studio tours, performances, and hands-on experiences, Design Week connects the public with the people and ideas shaping the world around us.
In 2026, Design for Everyone invites all of San Diego to experience design across disciplines—from the products we use and spaces we inhabit to fashion, digital experiences, art, media, and culture.
Innovation
Designed Here
Design Forward Alliance brings together designers, businesses, educators, civic leaders, and communities to advance the role of design in our region.
We believe design is more than a profession. It’s a way to understand people, solve complex problems, create better experiences, and imagine what’s possible.
Our mission is to champion the value of design, strengthen San Diego’s design community, and help establish our region as a place where world-class design and innovation thrive.
Photos: Scott Murphy (via Downtown San Diego Partnership)
and San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation
you make design week possible
San Diego Design Week hosts over 100 activations across the San Diego region every September, and almost all of them are free.
That's a deliberate choice to keep design accessible to students, career professionals, and the design-curious.
But free isn’t cheap. Venues, production, food and beverages, workshop materials, insurance, wayfinding, and promotion are needed, and Design Forward Alliance is a completely volunteer driven 501(c)(3) non-profit.
If you think San Diego Design Week should exist, if you think the design community itself should exist, then the only way to make that happen is if you support it.
Thank you so much for your kind donation!