Support us

Birmingham Design Festival is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting and celebrating the international design community.

The founder’s belief that high-quality design education should be accessible for all means the festival doesn’t charge high ticket prices and as a result support from those who can is absolutely vital to future success of the festival.

Make a one off donation

Where does your money go?

In 2019 the generous donations we received not only helped deliver an amazing, accessible festival but also supported the local design community.

£60k

That’s how much (roughly) it costs to put on BDF taking into account all the fees, travel and expenses.

£3,000

Went to local festivals, kickstarters and projects delivered in Birmingham that help support the design & tech community.

Building for the future

We’re hoping to do more and more over the next few years for the local community and we’re just getting started.

Become a partner

Our partnerships are absolutely vital to delivering BDF and offer an opportunity for organisations who are passionate about design to support the festival whilst engaging with a broad, international design community.

Get in touch

Your name up in lights

Sell your wares

Reach thousands of attendees

Engage with the design community

Benefits for 2022

Partnerships for BDF last year-round with prices alternating depending on whether we are in a ‘Festival’ year or a ‘Conference’ year. Below are the benefits for the festival in 2022, happening 9th–11th June.

Download as PDF

Benefits

Supporter

£1,000

District partner

£6,000

Main partner

£12,000

Free festival passes

Free job listings on Birmingham Design site

Logo listed with fellow BDF partners on website/programme

Article on BDF journal

Activiation in the form of competitions, workshops and events at the festival

Opportunity to promote via leaflets at festival venues

Logo displayed on banners & screens at District hubs and on targetted district promotion

Get in touch

Like what you see? We’re keen to bring you on board as part of the BDF family in 2021 and beyond. Drop us a line and we can chat further.

Get in touch

Current & previous partners

Some of the companies that have already shown support for BDF over the past two years.

“The BDF made it clear that, in the most genuine way, a huge amount of people are enthused by design, creativity, discussion and inclusion.

They came along to be part of it, to celebrate it or learn more about it. Against a backdrop of creative subjects being down-graded in our schools, your event in Birmingham (with the highest youth population of any European city) showed that young people are defiantly passionate and motivated about our creative industries.”

Mark Jessett, G . F . Smith

Case studies

Our partners continue to think of new and engaging ways to speak to our audience. Here are a few examples to give you some inspiration for how you can work with us.

McCann, 2018

Global agency supergroup McCann were a main sponsor of BDF2018, and took their role very seriously, getting stuck in with a unique and exciting partnership activation.

They invited creatives to pitch themselves in 130 seconds to ‘win’ a new job, from the back of a van! This challenge was hugely popular with over 40 pitches over the festival duration – and 4 candidates awarded placements – and one full time junior creative position!

Awesome Merchandise

As main sponsors Awesome Merchandise threw themselves into helping make BDF as awesome as possible – from hosting multiple workshops at ROPE Press and free to attend live-screen printing demo’s, to filming Aaron Draplin talking about his love of merch, to introducing our evening speakers at the Conservatoire!

All our attendees went home with awesome merch thanks to Awesome Merchandise, and volunteers were highly visible in their BDF t-shirts, lanyards, badges etc.