REBECCA BAIRD: Dundee Design Festival wasn't what I expected

I have a confession to make: I don’t think I get ‘design’.

Having lived, worked and studied in Dundee for the best part of a decade, it seems like something I should have an affinity with.

We are, after all, one of the 49 Unesco Cities of Design worldwide – a fact that we never stop boasting about.

And nor should we! We have Scotland’s design museum on our doorstep and one of the leading art and design schools in the country to boot.

And to be fair, I’ve whiled away many a happy hour perusing the always wonderful (and often weird) work of local designers at Doubledoor Studios, The Yard Market and the DCA shop.

But I’ve always felt a bit of a disconnect between this ‘city of design’ moniker and my real life.

I remember having to write two essays at school, on ‘art’ and ‘design’ respectively.

Art I get. Art can provoke or evoke or decorate – or just exist for its own sake, if like me, you’re an Oscar Wilde fan.

I don’t feel bad about myself when I stand in front of a painting and I don’t ‘get’ it, because for me, art isn’t about getting it. It’s just about enjoying it, or not.

Talking about design is like talking to a ‘car person’

But design feels different. It’s about stuff we use, but seems to bring a whole different language to everyday objects.

Materials, their sustainability and their source, become central. The process of how something is made, or the ideas behind it, are what people want to talk about.

But for me, talking about ‘design’ feels a bit like discussing cars with an aficionado, when I’m someone who describes them by colour.

Street Pixel installation with Designer Malath Abbas and son Eben at Dundee Design Festival. Image: Steve Brown/DC Thomson

I don’t know what engine size my car has or if it’s made with ultra-lightweight carbon whatevers or if it’s aerodynamic. I know it’s grey and has a big nose and I like that the wing mirrors fold in when I lock it.

To me, design always felt like the technical, practical side of art, and while I can appreciate it, I never got a buzz of it.

Which is why, in the decade since they began, I never attended a Dundee Design Festival.

Until today.

My whirlwind jaunt to Dundee Design Festival

It was a spontaneous trip, borne from a spontaneous phone call and decided in the car 20 minutes beforehand.

This year’s 10th anniversary festival, headed up by Dr Stacey Hunter, is the biggest yet, and is being held in the old Michelin factory on the outskirts of Dundee.

Visitors admiring the designs at Dundee Design Festival. Image: Steve Brown/DC Thomson

It was my first time on the site, which is impressive in itself. The old floor markings remain in the warehouse, preserving the remnants of one of the city’s fallen industrial giants.

Spotting the locals with family ties was easy enough – they were the ones looking up at the building, instead of ahead at what was inside.

And that took some doing, given the sheer volume of stuff to look at.

Please Do Not Touch The Art

Designers from all over the world featured, including from eight of the other Unesco Cities of Design, including Wuhan in China, Graz in Austria and Bilbao in Spain.

But the vast majority of work was from Scottish and local designers, with 50 Dundee designers just in the centre of the first room.

Both rooms (it spans a huge chunk of the factory) were a total feast for the eyes – and the hands!

(That’s one difference between art and design. Some designs, you’re allowed to touch.)

Jan Macdonald and Moira Moonlight from Dundee/Broughty Ferry with the Wild Wooly Beastie of the Law at Dundee Design Festival. Image: Steve Brown/DC Thomson.

One standout piece was the Wild Wooly Beastie of the Law by textile designer Donna Wilson.

It was huge knitted monster, whose ‘hair’ was funnelled through industrial tubing into a pop-up Knit Shop, where children (and big kids) could help turn it into a giant scarf, or make their own knitted beasties.

It was whimsical, and interactive, and I loved seeing all the wee faces frowning in concentration at their critter creations.

That’s the other thing – the place was absolutely hoaching.

Putting the ‘festive’ in festival

I don’t know why this surprised me. Logically I know that design is one of Dundee’s major industries, and thousands of folk must be coming to these events.

But even so, it’s hard to make an enormous warehouse seem busy, especially on a weekday.

There was the expected cohort of trendy students and schoolies, but also an abundance of families, retired couples and solo nosers like me.

Talks, demonstrations, screen-printing tasters (from Glasgow-based design stars Timorous Beasties), and even a light-up dance floor meant the place really put the ‘festive’ in festival.

Jasa and Qian Yin take in the designs from other Unesco cities at the festival. Image: Steve Brown/DC Thomson.

I think I’d been picturing some sterile white room where a few scattered, indiscernible objects sat upon white cube plinths and everyone talked in hushed tones.

And there was a bit of that vibe, for your design die-hards.

But there was also a table made to look like square sausage, a clock made of a pizza box and a LOT of noise.

So even if you, like me, don’t get design, it’s worth a wander down.

There’s just as much Dundee as there is design.

Dundee Design Festival runs until Sunday September 29 2024. Entry is free.