Weekend OPEN was a two-day festival at the Design Museum to celebrate its opening at the former Commonwealth Institute in Kensington.

The programme for the event needed to be relevant, engaging and exciting for a very varied audience. We created workshops, talks and events for adults and young people alike and ensured that new and old visitors were catered to, as well as those new to design and the design enthusiasts. The length of the festival allowed us to produce a variety of experiences for everyone.

For children, we had visual storytellers, hands-on making workshops and places where they could have some fun as well as activities that could keep them engaged while waiting in queues both inside and outside of the museum.

For older visitors we allowed them to gain a deeper understanding of the museum’s history and opened the collection with talks and walking tours led by curators and actors. The RCA inhabited some of the hidden areas in the museum with sound installations that played off the unique architecture. Talks by the museum’s architect, John Pawson and other designers, as well as workshops by the museum’s Designers-in-Residence allowed visitors to get a better understanding of design.

I was part of the planning and production team with responsibility for many of the activities throughout the weekend and assisted the Public Programmes producer in coordinating all efforts across the museum. I was the main liaison for external parties participating in the festival such as speakers, workshop facilitators and artists during preparations and acted as the primary contact on the day.

In addition to the production and organisation of the festival, I also produced a lot of the written communication for the event across the Design Museum as well as its quarterly ‘what’s on’ leaflet and the festival programme for distribution throughout the weekend.

I prepared facilitator and speaker briefs when working with external partners such as Arup and The Royal College of Art. I also developed briefing documents for staff across the museum to update them on plans as well as provide them with relevant information for running the event including health and safety directions and details about all event activities, for example.

Alongside my responsibilities for the larger event, I also developed a live game show concept with the aim of creating a fun and interactive way to introduce the museum’s new visitors to design and architecture. ‘Riff on the Roof’ involved quiz master, Australian comedian Tim Ross challenging 3 contestants with questions about design and architecture for the chance to win a unique 3D-printed vase made at the museum, as well as medals and a small model of the museum’s iconic hyperbolic paraboloid roof. Questions covered some of the big hitters and icons of design and architecture from the 20th and 21st centuries and highlighted their importance in popular culture such as films and music.

During this time at the Design Museum, I built strong working relationships and I still have good connections and have worked on a variety of projects, including the Young Creatives programme.