Here are the best Design and Creativity events to attend this Summer

It’s an exciting time in the creative world. Event organizers on all continents continue to organize virtual, hybrid and in-person events. While experimenting with new formats, styles and models. For this summer, we’ve compiled a list of the most inspiring events and workshops taking place throughout July and August around the world. They’re all accessible via your computer or phone. Some events are combining on-site and online in new forms of social live streaming. With digital design, front-end development, photography, motion design and some installations too, there’s sure to be something you’re interested in.

Jump to July or August

July

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ULTRAFETT 2021

ongoing ends July 11th / Online, Free

The ULTRAFETT Typography Festival 2021 is taking place online from June 7th—July 11th. Enjoy new videos from our international speakers every week — on Youtube — for free! Eleven of the world’s best typographers and designers are ready to be your travel guides. With many inspiring contributions and personalities, ULTRAFETT celebrates a wide variety of typographic styles and disciplines: Explore current trends, new approaches, ultrafett means of expression and so much more!
With on:
Thurs July 1st, 6pm CET — Mitch Paone Watch back
Mon July 5th, 6pm CET — Vera van de Seyp
Thurs July 8th, 6pm CET — Fraser Muggeridge
Sun July 11th, 6pm CET — Paula Scher
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Right Aligned

Ongoing — every Friday / Online, £0 – £4.90 | 12:00 CEST

Right Aligned is a series of inspirational events featuring global creatives designed to empower your future in creative industries. Right Aligned aims to inspire and empower your future by digging deep on the challenges, processes and stories of others. From leading studios including DixonBaxi, Ragged Edge and Koto to individuals and organisations such as BBC and Channel Four, our sessions are a variety of disciplines and people.
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Creative Mornings FieldTrips

Ongoing — Daily / Online and free
FieldTrips is the peer-to-peer university from CreativeMornings. Hosted by people from their our global community. They are a celebration of creativity and generosity.
Discover all FieldTrips

Fake Me Hard

June 30 - August 15 / Rotterdam & Online, €12

On the cutting-edge of art and technology, FAKE ME HARD explores the complex reality of the 21 st century with futuristic installations by over 40 artists, performances, and debates.
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Media Architecture Biennale

June 28 - July 2 / Online, Free

The Media Architecture Biennale (MAB) is the world’s premier event on media architecture, urban interaction design, digital placemaking, urban media art and urban informatics. MAB is a conference, an exhibition, an award show and a number of workshops. It is the world’s top experts exchanging ideas and outlining the media architecture of the futur
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Gather: Words to the Wise

July 1 / Online, £5

Gather is an online event from the Birmingham Design Festival team. Best described as a combination of documentary and live Q&A, we livestream a pre-recorded video featuring talks and interviews showcasing incredible work by wonderful designers and follow up via a live link to all our speakers around the world.
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Forward Festival Hamburg

July 1-2 / Hybrid, From €55

Forward Festival 2021 is all about the transformation of society through digitization in the creative scene. It raises questions about the virtualization of our lives and our work, especially during the “new normal”. Forward Festival wants to be an eye opener to the striking aspects of digitization – applied to design, creativity and communication. Join the Hybrid Event and be part of 2 days of inspiration with 12+ Speakers, Masterclasses, Workshops & much more on-site or broadcasted to your home via Livestream.
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New Blood Festival 2021

July 5-8 / Online, Free

Second-year going digital with our New Blood Festival, aimed at supporting graduates as they emerge from study and make tentative steps into the professional creative industries. Four days of talks and insights will provide inspiration and practical tools, plus we'll be boosting the year's top talent with collated graduate shows and portfolio showcases.
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Content by Design

July 6-7 / Online £345 + vat

Content by Design is one of the first UK events for content design and UX writing professionals. It will provide 2 days of inspiration, practical advice and skills development, with a mix of talks and hands-on workshops from some of the biggest names in the industry.
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Primer21

July 6-7 / Online from $15

PRIMER is a conference about Futures. It was created to prepare you for the future and to equip you to help shape it. PRIMER conference was first organized in 2015 by the Design Futures Initiative and was originally created to serve its growing network of Speculative Futures meetups. The conference brings together futures communities from around the world by connecting a diverse spectrum of thought leaders, practitioners, artists, and academics to showcase their work and teach/learn new methods through workshops.
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Smashing Meets — CSSummer edition

July 8 / Online, Free

Smashing Meets — CSSummer edition — are two amazing talks on CSS and a panel discussion on our favorite coding language, CSS
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Spotlight UX 2021 Online

July 15 / Online, $40

An online event focusing on UX with UX leaders from Google, Adobe, Shopify, Pluralsight, NASA and more. How has UX evolved, and where is it heading in the future? What core issues do we need to prioritize? How do we advocate for change when facing biases, and what can we do to find the balance between client / organizational constraints and the needs of the market/user?
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Design & Content Conference

July 21-22 / Online, $250 + GST

Designers and content strategists team up. Hear from industry leaders about crafting experiences and telling stories that shape the future of the web. Two days of talks and thoughtful extras focused on delivering inclusive content and design outcomes.
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A Maze./Berlin

July 21-24 / Hybrid, from €0

An International Festival focusing on arthouse games and playful media. For the day experience, A MAZE. / Berlin invites globally spread and diverse experimental game and VR creators, digital artists, musicians and other playful creatives from around different countries who share in an inspiring 3-day program of talks and workshops, idea market places and knowledge bazaar the art of video games making.
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Hue Design Summit

July 24-25 / Online, form $59

Hue Design Summit is an immersive 2-day virtual un-conference for Black developers & designers to foster relationships & build community. With workshops like creating expressive typography, exploring the future of experience design, positioning yourself for senior design leadership, and hosting Amos Kennedy and Tim Allen as our keynote speakers, the un-conference brings the disciplines of product design, user experience, and visual design to professionals and students alike looking to grow and connect with Black creatives across the country - and engage in some games and watch parties during our HUE After Hours event once the day is over.
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August

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Elevate Festival

Aug 4-8 / Hybrid

Elevate is an annual interdisciplinary festival held in various venues in Graz, Austria, with a strong focus on cultural and socio-political topics. In addition to performances, concerts, installations and DJ sets, the interdisciplinary program offers workshops, film screenings, lectures and discussions.
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Design + Diversity Virtual Conference

Aug 5-7 / Online, form $25

The Design + Diversity Conference explores proactive ways to make the design and creative industry more diverse, inclusive, and equitable.
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Semi Permanent Sydney 2021

RESCHEDULED TO NOV 17-19 / In-person, from A$249

Following an immensely transformative year, Semi Permanent returns to its Sydney home for their leading festival of business, design and creativity. Curated around the theme ‘BRIDGES’, the redesigned multi-day event seeks to assess this new reality, to bring audiences deeper into the conversation and reflect the multitude of perspectives across business, design and creativity today.
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Type Craft Masterclasses

Aug 16-26 / Online, students €75 / pro's €95 + vat

The ‘Type Craft’ Summer School consists of five multiple-day masterclasses entirely devoted to typography in various ways. The use of signs and text goes back centuries and still plays a major role in how we transfer information and how we design it. During the masterclasses, Studio Dumbar, Underware, Autobahn, Edgard Claes and Grilli Type will share their knowledge and skills on current developments. Participation is limited to 36 years of age.
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TypeCon2021

Aug 19-22 / Online

TypeCon covers a broad range of topics, including typography, type design, font production, graphic design, digital media, printing history, calligraphy, lettering, book arts, advertising, wayfinding, type in motion, literacy, type sales and marketing, legal issues, design education, and other related areas.
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Front Conference 2021

Aug 26-27 / In-person, CHF649

To build a kick-ass frontend, we rely on each other: Designers on developers, and developers on designers. But it’s often difficult to work together; you need to learn each other's language, understand each other’s priorities and have to be willing to make compromises that serve both. Front Conference is a conference for everyone involved from concept to implementation of a frontend
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Pictoplasma Berlin Conference

Aug 26-29 / Online, form $340

Pictoplasma Berlin takes place at the extensive premises of a former crematorium, the Silent Green, a beautiful, vibrant cultural venue that already hosted several memorable Pictoplasma events. For the first time, Pictoplasma’s premiere summer edition will concentrate all activities at one lively venue, with conference talks, panels, animation screenings, workshops and exhibitions happening both inside and Open Air—all taking into account the governing rules of hygiene and social distance while delivering tons of infectious character inspiration.
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Biennale internationale de design graphique

Ongoing, ends 21 Nov / Chaumont, France and Online

Following in the footsteps of the emblematic poster festival of Chaumont, the Bienniale will celebrate graphic design over a period of four months, an opportunity for all its participants to meet up, discuss practices and topical issues thanks to a variety of events all over the city.
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Which event(s) are you attending?

If you’re planning to attend any of the listed events and have a question, drop us an email or DM on Instagram. I am happy to help you. If you want to share your experience, drop us a line, on twitter, email or in the chat.

Are you missing a conference in this list, feel free to submit, we will review and update this post.

Would you like to receive more conference recommendations? Sign up for our weekly newsletter, Neon Monday

Header photo by Johan Mouchet on Unsplash

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