Framing a decade at DDD26

To celebrate 10 years of visionary design at DDD26, we reimagined the conference's wayfinding as a temporal and interactive experience. We knew we didn't want to build a static timeline. Instead, we engineered a wayfinding journey that challenges the linear perception of time through three physical, overlapping levels. By utilizing transparency and intricate layering, we created a gateway where the past, present, and future of design influence one another in real-time.

The experience begins with a tactile encounter in the physical space of the fair, where visitors interact with panels that echo the insights of past speakers and preview the 2026 edition. However, we designed the journey to truly evolve when it dematerializes. Through a digital expansion, we invite participants to cross the border between analog and digital, transforming them from mere observers into authors of the next decade.

Using an AI-powered profiling system, visitors are guided to explore their own relationship with creativity and ethics to reveal their Designer Archetype of the future. This transition from physical orientation to digital introspection ensures the wayfinding continues long after the fair ends.

We then bring these digital visions back to the material world at our booth, where the collective desires are woven (and knotted) into a ritual of hopeful connection.