Last month, WDO Corporate Member Spread Design and Innovation hosted the first Design Open event of 2025 at their Design Barn headquarters in Bengaluru (India). The event brought together 200+ future thinkers, 13 university leaders and talent from 7+ multinationals, across 9 countries including India, Canada, Japan, Australia, Africa, France, Holland, United Kingdom and the United States.
The event featured a WDO Hour with WDO President Thomas Garvey and WDO Board Member Sonia Manchanda, as well as a keynote from futurist and author Navi Radjou exploring the frugal economy, diverse presentations from 5 speakers, 6 hands-on workshops, 7 live performances and a pop up marketplace with 5 brands. Supported by MAHE Bengaluru, ATLAS SkillTech, Wesmarc Super Doors and Indian Craft Brewery, this unconference sparked bold ideas and global connections.
The day opened with the WDO Hour, where WDO President Thomas Garvey shared the organization’s vision, reach and structure, and highlighted some of its key programmes including World Industrial Design Day, World Design Capital, World Design Protopolis and Young Designer’s Circle. He also discussed WDO’s growing importance in India, challenges being faced by design education and the role of political support with the Indian Prime Minister’s vision to design in India and design for the world.
As noted by Garvey, “there are profound shifts in the center of gravity of design potential in the world, based on demographics, technology and culture, to a greater emphasis on systems level thinking. Now is the time for India’s rich design heritage, cultural diversity, and entrepreneurial foundations to be leveraged and scaled for greater positive global influence.”
This was followed by a conversation between Thomas Garvey and Sonia Manchanda, WDO Board Member, about how design in India is still evolving, how the country’s scale is both a challenge and an opportunity in design and the need for design policies and designing for the world.
Sonia presented Spread’s work in partnership with industry, governance and academia from a perspective of design playing a larger, systemic role in India and the world. Presenting Spread’s design approach, the concept of Imagination Design in talking about creating impact at scale and a future vision to shape India into a ‘design nation’.
Manchanda, who is both a WDO Board Member and a founding partner at Spread, noted during her remarks that “design exists to open up fresh possibilities, catalyse connections so that we can together address challenges and opportunities. In our world now. In the first Design Open of 2025 creators, leaders from academia and industry and creative founders immersed in lively conversations, dove into workshops. To decode emergence, sense the shifts and understand how design can better prepare us to collectively own the future.”
To learn more about Spread Design and Innovation, please visit their website.
