A multi-disciplinary showcase of UAE-based creative talent, The UAE Designer Exhibition is a curated feature situated at the heart of Downtown Design fair, offering early-career designers a platform for visibility and commercial opportunity.

With the aim of providing a platform for the local creative community, the UAE Designer Exhibition primarily focuses on presenting emerging talent and young practitioners with opportunities to break into the region’s market to launch new works, gain visibility, face audience feedback for further development and generate potential commercial leads and avenues for collaborations.

Encouraging designers and studios to explore materiality and form as well as incorporating the use of technology and today’s fabrication processes, the submitted works should be durable, feasible to produce, and influenced by cultural and regional contexts, and in fitting with the Downtown Design fair’s mandate of high-quality and contemporary design.

Contributing to building a diverse local creative scene, designers, makers, and independent studios based in the UAE and producing work locally can apply to participate in the 2025 iteration of the UAE Designer Exhibition and have their works showcased to a vast audience of B2C and B2C visitors at Downtown Design, 5-9 November, including opportunities for mentorship with globally renowned profiles of the creative industry, as well as opportunity for participation in showcases taking place internationally.

Submissions for UAE Designer Exhibition are now open, until 30th August 2025.

Criteria:

  • Designers must reside, operate and preferably produce works in the UAE
  • This exhibition is targeting an early-career generation of creatives with emerging or SME practices, or who are not represented by a gallery or other
  • Applicants can be from different cultural/geographical backgrounds and diverse or design disciplines
  • Supporting local producers or sourcing materials produced in the UAE
  • Objects presented need to be at prototype phase already and past the sketching / 3D renders phase
  • Works submitted preferably should not have been exhibited before
  • Proposals must contribute to the local supply chain
  • Designing responsibly; considering environmental, social impact and emotional impact
  • Innovating; proposing design concepts that disrupt traditional solutions
  • Contextually; containing cultural references of historical or contemporary narratives, while maintaining contemporary design aesthetics
  • Incorporating the use of technology and today’s fabrication processes is encouraged

Submission Material:

  • A minimum of 5 digital files. Digital files should be named and show the submission with real life identical high-resolution renderings – physical models, 3D’s, architectural drawings and/or sketches are encouraged
  • A preferred layout on how the project will be exhibited
  • A description text describing the concept of the design (max. 300 words)
  • Professional biography (max. 300 words)

*All images must be high quality and a maximum of 1MB. Please follow submission form guidelines.