Picks of the month: design events to look out for in July

A podcast series on designing for impact and a networking event for designers are among this month’s highlights.

Talk: Sonic Impact: The Psychology of Sound, at Design Museum London

The Guardian Podcasts creative director of sound Axel Kacoutié will be hosting a talk focussing on the mechanics, perception and effects of sound. Joining him will be director and screenwriter Peter Strickland, ASMR researcher and psychology lecturer Dr Giulia Poerio, and sound designer Joel Cahen.

Addressing questions around the power of sound and the influence of tech advancement on sound design, the panel aims to explore “the interaction between sound and the psyche”. The panel will also respond to questions raised by the Weird Sensations Feels Good: The World of ASMR exhibition, which is running at the Design Museum until October 2022.

Before the discussion, there will be an exclusive screening of Strickland’s short film Cold Meridian, which aims to respond to “the global phenomenon of ASMR”.

The talk will take place at the Design Museum on 5 July. Tickets are available on the Design Museum website.

Festival: Design Festival North, Manchester

Design Festival North’s three-day showcase will happen this month, with a series of events taking place in showrooms across Manchester. Events will also be held in the festival design hub in the city centre.

This festival is an opportunity for design studios to network and attend talks and presentations. The first day of the event will feature a talk by North Made’s head of business development Helen Gardner. North Made is a professional CGI studio and Gardner will be discussing some of its recent case studies, analysing the up’s and down’s of the fast paced world of CGI and its practical application in the world of design and building.

Representatives from sounding board and networking platform Modern Woman will host a diversity and inclusion panel on the day two. The talk will focus on equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, addressing issues like flexi-working, inclusive workplace cultures, the gender pay gap, and menopause, amongst other topics.

A number of product launches will also take place at the festival, along with interior design displays showcasing the latest trends in wood, lighting, tile and paint.

Design Festival North will take place in Manchester city centre from 12-14 July. Ticket are available here.

Podcast: Design Your Life with Vince Frost and guests

Design Your Life is two episodes into its new series, Designing for Impact. Podcast host Vince Frost has worked in the industry since the 1990’s and now runs creative ideas studio Frost*collective.

So far in the series he has been in conversation with D&AD Chairman Tim Lindsey covering sustainability and gender equality in the industry. He also spoke with Leo Burnett’s Marijke Spain, who conceived the One House to Save Many project for Suncorp Group, which involved designing prototypes of Australia’s most weather-resilient homes.

Throughout the month of July, Vince speaks with some of the winners of this year’s D&AD Impact Awards, which celebrates creative ideas that aims to make a positive difference in the world.

You can tune into the Design Your Life podcast here.

Exhibition: Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer Exhibition, V&A Dundee

This exhibition at V&A Dundee is a culmination of the collaborative work of Scottish dancer and choreographer Michael Clark. Curated by Barbican London, the exhibition seeks to give an insight into Clark’s methods and practice.

Clark is known for bringing together work across multiple disciplines, from costumes and music through to graphic design. Collaborators he has worked with range from artist Sarah Lucas to Scottish painter Peter Doig and performance artist Leigh Bowery.

His musical influences will also be clear from the immersive exhibition. Expect a blend of punk, ballet and pop, with artists like David Bowie and T.Rex alongside French classical composer Erik Satie. The aim of the exhibition is to celebrate Clark’s “rebellious energy and innovative performances”, according to V&A Dundee.

Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer will run from now until early September at V&A Dundee. Admission to the exhibition is free.

Book: Drawing Attention: Custom Illustration Solutions for Brands Today, by Victionary

Drawing Attention aims to inspire designers through a collection of projects which adopt a variety of illustration styles for designers. Publisher Victionary says the book shows how different illustration forms and settings can “add more narrative layers” to a brand.

It attempts to highlight how illustration can enhance visual language and identities. Covering branding for large and small businesses, the book aims to “effectively bridge the creative and commercial”.

Drawing Attention: Custom Illustration Solutions for Brands Today, by Victionary is published by Victionary. It will be available to buy from Amazon on 28 July for around £30.

Other things to catch this month

• D&AD will be announcing the pencil winners of its New Blood Awards on 14 July. The awards aims to give students, recent graduates and emerging creatives world-wide an opportunity to land a job in the creative industry or gain more exposure.
• Graphic designer Tom Muller, who created brand identities for Marvel’s X-Men comics, is running an online course called Graphic Design for Fiction: Visual Identities with Stories. The course costs around £20 and aims to teach designers his “branding stories and designing fiction approach”. The final project involves translating a story into a brand identity for a book package. You can sign up here.