A Week Built on Care, Curiosity, and Collaboration
DC Design Week 2025 brought thousands of creatives together across Washington, DC for ten days of programming under the theme Unparalleled Pathways. As the season of reflection arrives, we’re looking back with gratitude at the highlights, ideas, and moments that defined this year’s festival and the people who made it possible.
Highlights from DC Design Week 2025
This year’s events spanned architecture, visual design, fashion, food, film, technology, and community practice. Each program offered a different way to explore the nonlinear routes that shape creative work and the many places design lives across the District.
The week opened with The Creative Reset at Grounded, a wellness-focused gathering designed to help creatives slow down, recharge, and set the tone for the days ahead. That momentum carried into the Coffee Kickoff at The Village at Union Market, where attendees connected with organizers, volunteers, and partners in a warm, welcoming start to the festival.
PLATED: A Culinary Salon
An intimate, design-forward dining experience that treated food as a medium for narrative, memory, and sensory storytelling. PLATED brought together chefs, designers, and culture-makers for a multisensory exploration of how cuisine becomes a form of creative research.
HOMEGROWN: A Creator’s Playground
One of the most memorable events of the week, featuring Aria Hughes (Complex), Cam Kirk, Chela Mitchell, and Domo Wells. Together, they explored what it means to build creative careers rooted in the DMV, blending local identity, global impact, and the courage to forge your own path.
In partnership with Vega Studio, attendees experienced GEN-SYNTH, a short film created with AI as a cinematic tool. The post-screening conversation with Ceej Vega invited attendees to consider authorship, Black creativity, and the future of AI-driven storytelling, offering one of the week’s most forward-looking perspectives.
A rare look behind the scenes of architectural practice. Attendees explored materials, models, and process, reinforcing the week’s focus on tactility, experimentation, and the craft behind designed spaces.
Design students and emerging professionals received one-on-one portfolio feedback from creative leaders across the region. The event served as both mentorship and momentum for the next generation of designers.
On the final Saturday, attendees explored museums, nature, and design-forward spaces across DC and the region. These reflective excursions closed the week with movement, perspective, and shared inspiration.
The festival concluded in the new Molteni&C flagship showroom, celebrating the connections, collaborations, and creative sparks that shaped this year’s Design Week.
Investing in the Future of Design in DC
Across 10 days, the week celebrated design not only as a discipline, but as a shared experience shaped by culture, identity, and the city itself. Every program was powered by volunteers, partners, and community members who contributed their time, expertise, energy, and generosity.
For that, we are deeply grateful.
