The Design Market will be held in the heart of Helsinki and in online stores on 10–12 September 2021

The Design Market is the largest warehouse sales event in the Nordic countries, which traditionally starts the Helsinki Design Week festival. The purpose is to empty the warehouses and make room for new stock. The Design Market is a curated event whose sales booths are very popular. The selections favour companies that bring suitable products to the event: products from previous seasons, prototypes or second-rate items.

This classic event of Helsinki Design Week will be held in the autumn in exceptional circumstances and in a new location as it takes over the third and fourth floors of the festival’s main venue, Glasshouse Helsinki. In addition, the event will be brought to the vendors’ online stores. In addition to the Design Market, Helsinki Design Week will organize exhibitions, discussion events, parties and a children’s programme at Glasshouse Helsinki from 9 to 19 September 2021. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are concentrating our production resources on one main site and closely monitoring the Covid-19 situation.

Design Market at Helsinki Design Week’s main venue

The Design Market will be spread over the 3rd and 4th floors of the building at Glasshouse Helsinki. The space planning takes both the exceptional circumstances and the new, smaller venue into account. The focus is instead more on curation and vendor selection. First-time visitors purchase an event ticket. With the same admission ticket, you can also experience the festival’s main exhibition, U-joints. Helsinki Design Week donates part of the entrance ticket proceeds to charity.

The three-day (Fri–Sun) Design Market offers sellers one additional sales day. The aim is also to divide the number of visitors to the event over several days and invest in enlivening the city centre. The event’s diverse programme and the main exhibition U-joints offer visitors interested in design events throughout the weekend!

Online campaign

The Design Market online campaign will be implemented as planned. The implementation method has also been developed. The selected vendors will be listed on Helsinki Design Week’s revamped website, which brings together all brands and offers on a single platform. Helsinki Design Week provides vendors with ready-made marketing materials and communication guidelines. The participation fee for the online campaign is determined by the number of employees in the company.

Helsinki Design Week focuses on curating

Helsinki Design Week encourages all of its actors to act in accordance with the principles of sustainable development, and the Design Market is primarily intended for design companies whose products are of high quality and manufactured in accordance with responsible operating principles. We also hope that the design and manufacturing activities of the applicants will be transparent and that the origin of the products (including the materials) will be clarified. Vendor choices favour companies that import products suitable for inventory sales: products from previous seasons, prototypes, or second-quality items.

The application period for sellers is open until June 18. Apply by filling out the form below. We will be in touch with all applicants by the Midsummer holiday.

Cancellation policy: Main venue 5.8.2021 / Online 18.6.2021

If Finnish authorities prohibit physical events in Helsinki between 9 and 19 September 2021, your participation fee will be reimbursed in full also after 5 August 2021.