Belfast Design Week, Our New Partnership
Diversity in design is needed everywhere and as a commitment to that, we’re excited to announce our first international partnership with Belfast Design Week & Womenfolk! We hope you’re as excited as we are.
We have been working with Christine James and Karishma Kusurkar, the founders of Belfast Design Week, to start a long-term partnership for the opportunity for diversity and inclusion on a global scale 〰️ belfastdesignweek.com We couldn't be happier to connect with these lovely women and everything they stand for as we grow together in hopes of opening the table for more women in the design & creative industry. What started as an email back in October turned into many correspondences and Zoom meetings to where we are today, forming a new friendship across the pond in Belfast, Ireland. With many ideas in the works, we cannot wait to share them with you and for many years to come! Here's to new friendships and to elevating women all over the world.
“We are excited to see what the future holds for the design community in Northern Ireland and Belfast.”
Belfast Design Week EST. 2015 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by close friends Christine James & Karishma Kusurkar. Now, it is much more than a one-week event; it’s a community of artists, designers, & creatives, a family.
Photography by Chris McKenna via Belfast Design Week BDW19: The Time is Now x Womenfolk
“Belfast Design Week is an annual design festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland, celebrating local and international design in venues across the city. Our festival covers design sectors including User Experience, Graphic Design, Illustration, Architecture, Interior Design, Digital Design, Product Design, Game Design & Maker Culture.
Born out of the local design community in 2015, we’ve worked together to nurture a design festival inspired by the city we live and work in. Belfast Design Week is about design, but it is also about the people who inspire us. It’s the diverse communities, cultures, and individuals that make Belfast the gem of a creative city we know so well and that compels us to showcase all it has to offer.
Each November, we host design events, exhibitions, and experiences that inspire our creative community while opening up conversations about design in all its forms. Alongside our core festival, we have worked on and set up projects including design challenges and podcasts.
We are excited to see what the future holds for the design community in Northern Ireland and Belfast. We’ve embraced a new way of doing things and are currently working on an exciting new project behind-the-scenes!”
“We’ve embraced a new way of doing things and are currently working on an exciting new project behind-the-scenes!”
Why did you decide to start Belfast Design Week? Karishma and Christine’s responses in a BDW WomenFolk Interview
“A group of us had formed a design community called The Design Salon and one of its aims was to come up with ways of promoting Belfast as a design destination.
We held gatherings where we came up with lots of ideas and setting up a Design Week seemed one of the best ways to put Belfast up there alongside other cities such as Copenhagen, Portland, and Dublin as a design destination. It was a natural and collaborative project that has grown year on year and we hope to continue that way!” Karishma Kusurkar
“As Karishma said we were brainstorming ideas to make Belfast a better place to live and work for creatives and designers. We are all invested in Belfast and passionate about Northern Ireland and love living and working here and just want to make it a better place so were coming up with different ideas we felt could make a difference and really put Belfast on the map as a global creative and design city. Someone mentioned that most major cities have their own Design Week and it seemed a great idea and one that we were all passionate about. So we just decided to go for it! we figured if we wanted it to happen we needed to be the ones to put that into practice and make it a reality.” Christine James
Photo provided by Christine James & Karishma Kusurkar of Belfast Design Week
Karishma Kusurkar, co-founder of Belfast Design Week and Karishma’s World in Belfast, ireland.
Karishma Kusurkar is a Multidisciplinary Designer who works within the spheres of design, facilitation, and podcasts. Karishma is involved in several collaborative projects and, along with Christine, is Co-Director of the annual design festival Belfast Design Week (BDW). Karishma also lectures with Belfast Met, helping businesses research and develop concepts and to facilitate design thinking workshops. Check out her website at Karishma’s World.
“The creative industry is changing—there are more female designers and creatives in leadership positions, speaking at conferences and setting up their own businesses. However, there could be so many more and we hope to encourage this with what we are doing at Belfast Design Week.”
“Put yourself out there, share your ideas with other folks, and don't let your ideas remain in the ideation stage.” Karishma’s answer to “Do you have any advice for females who are looking to collaborate with other designers/creatives?” in a BDW WomenFolk Interview
Photo provided by Christine James & Karishma Kusurkar of Belfast Design Week
Christine James, co-founder of Belfast Design Week, Blick Studios, and Womenfolk in Belfast, ireland.
Christine James is the founder and CEO of Blick Shared Studios, a network of social enterprise creative workspaces in Belfast, Northern Ireland, providing workspace for more than 60 creative businesses and business support for more than 1000 creatives in Northern Ireland. Christine has also founded Flock NI a creative consulting company and Womenfolk, a community for Northern Irish women designers. Christine has also Co-Founded Belfast Design Week and Co-Founded Small Town Big Dreams, a podcast for creative entrepreneurs. ⠀
Christine has a background in design and is passionate about supporting the creative industries through building creative communities, encouraging diversity within entrepreneurship, and supporting and championing creative entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland.
“I think collaboration is a wonderful way to meet new like-minded people and to learn new things, something I definitely recommend. I would advise anyone looking to collaborate to see what events are on within their industry/local community and to make an effort to attend those events and chat to new people and push yourself to get involved with the community through volunteering, competitions, speaking at events etc.”
Christine’s answer to “Do you have any advice for females who are looking to collaborate with other designers/creatives?” in a BDW WomenFolk Interview
WOMENFOLK IS a non-profit organization founded by Christine James in March of 2017 in Belfast, Northern Ireland to TOAST Women.
“Womenfolk is a celebration of Female Entrepreneurs in design in Northern Ireland. We seek to highlight the existing design community as well as encouraging and inspiring those thinking of starting their own business in design.”
“Womenfolk is a project close to our hearts. Blick Shared Studios is an organisation founded and run by women. We host a variety of creative industry support and networking events and generally have more women than men in the audience, but sadly don’t see that translated into female-led businesses using our workspace.
Currently, just 37% of the workspace across our three properties is occupied by female-led businesses. We know women are more than capable and don’t believe they need special help, but we would like to see more women with a passion for running their own business make that dream a reality.
We have set up this project with the aim of inspiring those women who attend our events and dream of running their own business to follow the example of the many talented women design entrepreneurs currently working in NI [Northern, Ireland].”
