DTI-Design Center launches IDC 2025 for global design

The Design Center of the Philippines, an agency under the Department of Trade and Industry, announced the 9th International Design Conference (IDC) scheduled for September 26, 2025, at Samsung Hall, SM Aura Premier in Taguig City.

IDC 2025 is the flagship event of Design Consciousness Week and a key program under Philippine Creative Industries Month.

With the theme “Holding the Whole: Designing for Collective Flourishing,” the conference will challenge participants to view design as a regenerative force that reframes systems, restores relationships, and advances shared agency.

The program will emphasize that climate change, economic inequality, and social crises are interconnected and require systemic redesign to enable communities and the planet to thrive.

Now in its ninth year, IDC has established itself as a cornerstone of ASEAN’s design ecosystem, bringing together local and global leaders across design, technology, business, and governance.

In 2023, IDC received the Silver Anvil Award in the Arts, Culture, Heritage, and Tourism category for its role in catalyzing inclusive growth, cultural resilience, and design-led policy innovation.

“Design is not a luxury. It is central to how we build economies, shape policy, and imagine futures,” said Rhea Matute, executive director of the Design Center of the Philippines.

“IDC 2025 is our call to action: to design with courage, with care, and with consequence,” Matute added.

The event will feature keynote speaker B. Joseph Pine II, co-author of The Experience Economy and a leading business theorist who introduced the concept of the Transformation Economy.

Joining him is Eisuke Tachikawa, CEO of NOSIGNER and pioneer of Evolutional Creativity, whose award-winning work spans disaster resilience, climate adaptation, and social innovation.

IDC 2025 will also highlight Filipino leaders such as Jen Horn of Pagbubuo & Ugnayan Cards, Sarah Queblatin of Green Releaf Initiative, Carl Cervantes, Bella Tanjutco of Kids for Kids Philippines, Erwan Heussaff of The Fat Kid Inside Inc., Maisie Littaua of Canva Philippines, Marga Valdes of BEAVALDES, Raf Dionisio of MAD Travel, and Dr. Nikki Carsi Cruz of Ateneo de Manila University.

The program will include immersive sessions titled Break, Make, and Become, designed to provoke reflection, encourage experimentation, and commit participants to design as a tool for systemic change.

IDC 2025 is free and open to professionals in design, policy, business, and education.

Program updates are available at www.designcenter.gov.ph/international-design-conference.