DesignThinkers 2025 Toronto: Who, what, when and more!

Canada's largest graphic design conference, DesignThinkers, connects you attendees from across Canada and beyond during roundtable discussions, workshops and a variety of social activities. Hear from inspiring design leaders from across the globe forging a new world through design, meet vendors and suppliers and much more.

Oct 1 

Talks

• The End of the Website, the Death of the Screen: Designing for a World Where AI is the Interface by Kemp Attwood, Founding Partner & Chief Creative Officer at AREA 17
• Turning Science Fiction Into Reality by Mardis Bagley, Partner & Creative Director at Nonfiction
• Making Play, Work by Chris Clarke, Editorial Creative Director at The Guardian
• The Confidence Con: Why Creative Bravery is Broken by Stephen Gates, Founder of CRZY design and strategy studio
• The Age of Personal Agency Is Upon Us by Rachel Gogel, Independent Design Executive & Educator
• The Power of Play by Meg Lewis, Artist, Performer & Educator
• Give It All You’ve Got by Rob Lowe, Artist, Illustrator & Writer
• Creative OS: The Soft Stuff is the Hard Stuff by Zia Somjee RGD and Kristian Hay, Co-Founders of ZAK
• The Secret Lives of Brands by Yo Santosa, Brand Matchmaker & Founder & CD at Ferroconcrete
• The Economy of Fun by PUPILA, Design Studio, Costa Rica
• Print Over Pixels: Why Print Marketing Still Inspires

Workshops

• The Shape of Type to Come: The Collective Creation of a Typographic Magazine by Dominic Ayre RGD, Partner & Creative Director, Hambly & Woolley
• Letter-Sketching for Humans by Jamie Chang, Founder, Manic Type
• ⌘X ⌘V by Alanna Chelmick, Multidisciplinary Artist
• Licensing Type Workshop – An Introduction to Understanding Rights and Usage by Eleni Beveratou, Creative Director at Dalton Maag
• Break Free from Creative Chaos by Xand Griffin, Digital Marketing and Strategic Consultant
• Doodle Wild: Freestyle Illustration for Designers by Andrea Rodriguez RGD, Creative Designer & Mural Artist
• Designing Sustainable Designers Workshop by Emma Segal RGD, Creative Director for Sustainability, Circular Economy & Organizational Transformation
• Making Friends with Failure by Diana Varma RGD, Design Educator & Podcaster

Oct 2

Talks

• Changing Perceptions by Debra Bishop, Design Director of The New York Times for Kids
• From Dark to Light: Designing for Live Experiences by Kate Dawkins, Designer & Creative Director, Kate Dawkins Studio
• Oops, I Designed It Again by Verònica Fuerte, Founder & Creative Directress of Hey
• Drawing as Thinking by Samar Maakaroun, Partner at Pentagram
• Behind the Design of NOTEBOOK Magazine by Pablo Martín, Creative Director at MUBI
• Accessibility: Designing Products that Empower Not Just Comply by Dee Miller, Director, Product Strategy & Insights, Product Equity at Adobe
• Lived, Not Learned by Pali Palavathanan, Co-Founder & Creative Director at TEMPLO
• Designing for Spreadsheets or Designing for People? by Ash Phillips & Miro LaFlaga, Co-founders of Six Cinquième
• Drip & Slop: Why Great Brand Design Needs Big Ideas by Laura Stein RGD, Partner, Chief Creative Officer at Bruce Mau Design
• Design for Stories by Nadia Tzuo, Director & Motion Designer
• Synthetic Creativity: How Creative Roles Are Evolving and Why Upskilling is the Answer

Workshops

• The Rise of Fractional Design Leadership by Rachel Gogel, Independent Design Executive & Educator
• Tactile Type & More: Printing with Pixels You Can Touch by Thomas Hull, Chair of Graphic Design at Savannah College of Art and Design
• Full-Time You: Build a Career That’s True to You by Meg Lewis, Artist, Performer & Educator
• From Passion to Profit: Building a Thriving Creative Business by Andrea Rodriguez RGD, Creative Designer & Mural Artist
• Everything BUT the Résumé: A Workshop for Designers Ready to Rethink What Comes Next by Robert Smith RGD, Branding Expert, Author & Speaker
• Drawing Mid-Century Letters by Paul Twa Associate RGD, Graphic Designer, Illustrator & Lettering Artist
• Introduction to Brush Pen Calligraphy by Serena Wong, Calligrapher & Lettering Artist

Join us for drinks at Bier Markt, 58 The Esplanade for our Delegates' Party! The first drink is on us. Enjoy hors d'oeuvres and engage in valuable in-person connections with conference speakers and creative colleagues from Canada and beyond. DesignThinkers delegates can attend for free, but must wear their conference badges.

View and download the detailed schedule here.

Are you travelling to Toronto for the conference? With the discounts we've lined up, you can save on your airfare and hotel stay.

2025 Partners: The Garden (Branding Partner), Elite Digital (Development Partner), Porter (Official Airline Partner), Domtar (Paper Partner), Akran Marketing, Flash Reproductions (Print Partner), MINOH (Signage Partner), MUBI

Gold Sponsor:  Cella, Genumark, MITCHELL, Moveable, Night Owl Nation, Pangram Pangram Foundry

Silver and Bronze Sponsors: Adobe, Area 17, Hemlock, Issues Magazine Shop, Mitchell Sandham, SCAD, Swipe Design, Books + Objects, WeirFoulds LLP

Questions about travel, accommodations, volunteering & more are answered here!

Enhance your conference experience with these additional events

Design Educators Conference

Friday, October 3 | 8:30 AM | George Brown College, Toronto
Educators and researchers from across Canada are invited to explore ShiftShaping—a theme that embraces curiosity, resilience and bold experimentation in design education. Presented in collaboration with George Brown College, the conference follows DesignThinkers Toronto.

Type Workshops with Eleni Beveratou

Two half-day sessions on typography:

• Workshop 1 (9 AM–12 PM): Wordmarks – From Sketch to Digital Typography
• Workshop 2 (1 PM–4 PM): Designing for a Global Audience – Cultural Nuances in Typography

Tour Dates: Halifax (Sept 24), Montréal (Sept 25), Ottawa (Sept 26), Toronto (Sept 29)

Branding Awards Ceremony

Tuesday, September 30 | 6 PM | Toronto
Celebrate the winners of the RGD Branding Awards, enjoy hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar, and view an exhibit of the winning work.

Studio Tours

Tuesday, September 30 | Toronto
Go behind the scenes at some of Toronto’s top creative studios. Choose from morning, afternoon or evening tours.