2025: summary, projects, milestones and reflections

Some endings do not bring anything to a close; they do not shut things down. They prepare the ground. 2025 has been precisely that: a year defined not by a final full stop, but by the bridges we have built towards what comes next.

Three years after beginning our journey as a new promotion entity, born as a legacy of the World Design Capital project and now with a consolidated roadmap, the Design Foundation has experienced a period of expansion, maturity and projection. If 2023 was the take-off and 2024 the confirmation, 2025 has been the year in which we deployed a solid programme with a clear, connected and strategic international vocation.

Over these twelve months, our Design Foundation has continued to position the Valencian territory as a reference point for design at European, institutional and professional levels. We have actively participated in international cooperation projects, strengthened our presence in global design networks, and forged alliances that are already generating impact for companies, public administrations and young professionals.

On the events front, this has been a year of full houses, expansion and collective response. València Design Fest delivered its most ambitious edition to date, with more than 70 activities on the programme and a cross-cutting agenda spanning product design and contemporary crafts, architecture and the city, urbanism, fashion and critical reflection. A constant flow of audiences turned the festival into the creative meeting point of the Valencian autumn. Notably, at the beginning of the year València Design Fest entered the ranking of the Observatory of Culture’s report “The Best of Culture” as one of the year’s most outstanding cultural events.

Cross-disciplinary creativity and the fashion industry, “Paradís” and “Future of Fashion”, respectively, sold out completely, consolidating their communities with a level of engagement that reaffirms the need for spaces dedicated to dissemination, reflection and learning around design. And mid-year, València hosted World Industrial Design Day, organized by Andreu World with the collaboration of the Design Foundation, in an event streamed worldwide from La Harinera at Valencia Innovation Capital.

These milestones were joined by the launch of the “Distinciones al Diseño Social” (Social Design Distinctions), a new Foundation initiative that debuted with exceptional reception, recognising design as a tool for community impact and, above all, initiating a community of leading voices in social design. The editorial project “Escenas del Diseño Valenciano” (Scenes of Valencian Design) also continued to grow and travel, with new presentations taking it beyond our territory, reinforcing the value of narrative and memory in Valencian design. It was further recognised with a Silver award at the ADG Laus Awards 2025 and a Bronze award in Editorial Design at the ADCE Awards 2025 of the Art Directors Club of Europe.

Beyond the physical space, 2025 has consolidated the digital reach of our content, amplifying the presence of Valencian design through new formats and audiences. The “Iconos del Diseño Valenciano” platform continues to add visits and heritage documentation, with the collaboration of the Arxiu Valencià del Disseny and the publication of the second volume of Quaderns: Critical Studies on Valencian Design. Meanwhile, the “Design Procurement Guide”, developed with ADCV, has become a practical reference for public administrations and companies looking to incorporate design with professional criteria. The “Mapa del Disseny Valencià”, produced with Visit València and the agency Districte, remains a benchmark as a tourism tool, alongside the “Art&Design Walks” routes we organize with Turiart. In video format, our YouTube channel continues to grow in users and views for our activities and documentary content, while audiovisual distribution keeps expanding through “Valencia 22: City of Design” on Filmin and “From Tradition to Transformation”, reaching new audiences and projecting Valencian design culture internationally for another year.

Behind every exhibition, congress, festival, book, trip, project or meeting there is an intention that has remained intact from the very beginning: to activate design as a cultural, economic and social engine for the territory. We continue to do so with the support of public institutions, companies, professionals, schools, universities and organizations that believe in design as a tool for transformation. This is, perhaps, the greatest indicator of what we achieved in 2025: that Valencian design is not only a narrative, but a shared movement.

If anything defines this year, it is the transnational dimension of the work carried out. We have participated in meetings, encounters and international missions that have strengthened ties with other design cities; we have driven European projects that connect us with other territories sharing our vision; and we have continued building bridges with Asia, the Americas and multiple reference capitals.

Throughout 2025, an essential part of the Design Foundation’s work has been to demonstrate its strategic value: connecting agents. Matchmaking, the constant work of weaving relationships, identifying opportunities and enabling design to happen where it can deliver the greatest value, has become one of our main vectors of impact.

This year we carried out nearly two hundred direct matchmaking actions. Each one was a bridge: between professionals and companies; between institutions and projects; between media and local initiatives; and between national and international organizations interested in discovering, collaborating with, or investing in the Valencian design ecosystem. Approximately half of these connections took place within Spain, strengthening the presence of Valencian design nationwide and generating collaborations with key actors across the productive, cultural and creative sectors. The other half crossed borders: international missions, institutional exchanges, contacts with European organizations and global networks linked to innovation and design. All shared the same purpose: to create real opportunities for our territory.

Each meeting, presentation, visit or activated recommendation has been a multiplying opportunity. Some have already become concrete projects; others are still maturing through collaboration. All of them, however, have contributed to a fabric that grows stronger and opens outward. 2025 thus confirms the success of a single mission expressed through multiple formats: festivals, congresses, publications, digital platforms and documentaries. Different languages for the same idea: that Valencian design deserves to be told, shared and celebrated.

In 2025, together with the Associació de Professionals del Disseny de la Comunitat Valenciana, we launched a project to strengthen Alicante’s creative ecosystem, facilitating connections, collaboration and dialogue among professionals, as well as with the territory’s industrial fabric and public sector. In addition to signing a new agreement for this project, throughout 2025 we also collaborated reciprocally with ADCV to support our respective events, such as Valencia Disseny Week and València Design Fest, both organizations rightly proud of the Valencian design agenda we have helped drive.

This has also been a decisive year for our position within global design networks. With the recent appointment of the Foundation’s Director to the Board of Directors of the World Design Organization, we have gained an active role in strategic decision-making and in shaping international design-related policies. Our participation in the World Design Congress held in London reinforced this institutional presence, opening new lines of collaboration with leading cities and organizations. Likewise, joining BEDA (The Bureau of European Design Associations) as a promotion entity has integrated us into Europe’s leading design platform, with direct participation in the BEDA Forum in Brussels and in working groups focused on policy, innovation and sectoral cooperation. And this very month of December we celebrated the launch of the Glorious 42, the expert group behind one of this European organization’s most ambitious projects to advance design as a strategic European lever. The Region of Valencia is strongly represented, with four profiles selected among the six Spanish members, most notably Kike Correcher, a member of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, within this reference group.

All of this is complemented by our participation in the annual meetings of UNESCO Creative Cities Network, both the general meeting held in Enghien-les-Bains and the specific gathering of the Design Cities cluster in Saint-Étienne, together with the 1st European UNESCO Creative Cities Meeting recently held in Burgos (Spain)

We welcomed to the Foundation the President of the World Design Organization and its board, the Designregio Kortrijk delegation from Belgium, Dundee City of Design from Scotland, the Italian city of La Spezia, the Polish Institute of Culture, as well as visits from the Guangdong Design Association (China) and the Consulate of Denmark in New York, fostering international cooperation through design.

We also collaborated in bringing to València the first edition of Architect@Work, participated in the exhibition of the Ibero-American Design Biennial in Madrid, launched the ECOterrazas Sostenibles project together with the City Council of València, took part in the Generalitat Valenciana’s tribute to 30 years of the tram, contributed to the conferences at the Region of Valencia stand at FITUR, participated in the presentation of The New Habitat at COAM in Madrid and at the European University of Valencia, joined the DIN Awards of CDICV, and took part in the design day at IES Cotes Baixes in Alcoi. We also delivered sessions in Tourism and Marketing classes at the Faculty of Economics of the University of València, presenting the case of València as a City of Design.

We also took part in round tables at Casa de México in Spain during Madrid Design Festival, invited by Universidad Anáhuac; contributed talks at NUDE within Feria Hábitat València; participated in the 5th Annual Congress of Fira de Cocentaina; gave talks at events organized by CEU Cardenal Herrera University; and, with PADIMA, contributed to a conference on ethics, legality and artificial intelligence at EASD Alcoi, as well as an Intellectual Property webinar.

This year we signed collaboration agreements with the Associació de Professionals del Disseny de la Comunitat Valenciana (ADCV), Espai Alfaro, Feria Valencia, the Concéntrico festival, and the City Council of Aldaia to formalise the donation of the exhibition “Designing the Air” to the Museo del Palmito (MUPA). We also renewed the collaboration of Andreu World, APE Grupo, Padima, ACTIU and JISO Iluminación as sponsors of the Foundation for another year.

As 2025 comes to a close, we served as jury members for Cevisama’s young talent competition; sat on the committee for the MINI Design Award at Madrid Design Festival; participated as jury for the La Mostra de València festival; and for the prestigious Seoul Design Award 2025. We also professionalised eight calls for competitions and awards, safeguarding the ethical dimension of the sector’s professionalisation.

Throughout 2025 we generated more than 350 media pieces through the Foundation’s activities, across both specialist and mainstream outlets (Yorokobu, Diario Design, Spain Contract, Makma, Telva Living, Vogue, Experimenta, Valencia Plaza, Ràdio Nacional, Verlanga, Flat Magazine, DXI Magazine, DissenyCV, VEIN Magazine, VLC Extra…). We also contributed editorial content and organized a press trip with Visit València to promote the city’s most creative side. This resulted in a press audience of more than 500 million people and an estimated media-clipping value exceeding half a million euros, consolidating our public impact and relevance.

Across social media and mailing lists, our digital communities have continued to grow, surpassing 75,000 followers this year, with a total reach of more than 300 million users, an impact that increases year after year and supports the institutional positioning of the Foundation and its stakeholders, as well as the projects and activities delivered.

As an end-of-year milestone, at the most recent meeting of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, held this same month of December, we approved both the action plan and the budget for 2026. In the same session, we also appointed Amparo Balbastre as Secretary and welcomed new members to the Board: Nieves Contreras (Creative and Design Director at Lladró), Alberto Martínez (Founder and Creative Director of Venture), Juan Pons (CEO of Point, Spain’s National Design Award 2019) and Sophie von Schönburg (Co-founder and CEO of Signne Creative House). These profiles, with recognized creative and business trajectories, extensive professional experience and a strategic vision aligned with the Foundation’s values, reinforce the plurality, judgement and ambition of a governing body that is increasingly solid and better prepared to face the future challenges of design from the Region of Valencia.