2013 Design Block by Trevor Dykstra on Flickr.

Starting on Friday, Seattle will embark on a two-week festival to explore design. This year’s theme is Design in Motion, and it promises to have plenty of interesting venues around the city ranging from walking tours to forums, films, and more. Most of the events are free, though some do require tickets. For the uninitiated, here’s a brief background on the Seattle Design Festival from the organizers:

The Seattle Design Festival, now in its fourth year, celebrates the ways design makes life better. Every September, Seattle’s citizens, city leaders and design experts come together at workshops, tours, talks, films and gatherings to exchange ideas. We believe that the more we work together, learn from one another, share information, discover new processes and remix solutions, the more Seattle will benefit as a whole. Our city is stocked with talented designers who bring their skills, knowledge, passion and design-thinking to help (re)solve chronically stuck problems in our community.

The Seattle Design Festival is the unique brainchild of Design in Public, a local non-profit sponsored by Seattle-area art, media, and architecture organizations.

While there is a kick-off party Friday where you can rub shoulders with local designers, the real fun begins Saturday. Occidental Park will host the SDF2014 BLOCK PARTY, a two-day, interactive event in the park. It’s a fun event for all ages that showcases the innovative products of local organizations.

For a full list of venues, check out the online program list for topics, dates, times, and locations. Design in Motion will run from September 5 through September 19.

Article Author

Stephen is a professional urban planner in Puget Sound with a passion for sustainable, livable, and diverse cities. He is especially interested in how policies, regulations, and programs can promote positive outcomes for communities. With stints in great cities like Bellingham and Cork, Stephen currently lives in Seattle. He primarily covers land use and transportation issues and has been with The Urbanist since 2014.