After attending another design event in London and returning back to Manchester, I knew I had visited some of the same brands who had dedicated showroom space or representation in Manchester and the north of the country. Why were we, Manchester showroom and sales representatives and our fellow northern design community, jumping on trains or driving down to the Capital when we had the resources, spaces and talent in Manchester, ready to showcase what we were all travelling to see in the first place? “Why don’t we all do something about this ?!” I shouted out loud, probably in the middle of an otherwise quiet Friday morning office, post a strong coffee. So I did something. I got on the phone and began emailing.
The first Design Crawl event was organised with very little time, involving the support of the key design showrooms within Manchester City Centre. We knew we had a great design resource here, we just needed to shout about it. It was a success. Over 300 people attended over the 2 days from interior designers and architects, to end clients and other design brands coming to see what was happening.
Could we make this “a thing”?
We made it “a thing”.
We launched Design Crawl as an official event in December 2019. It was exciting. We started to get ready for 2020. Let’s do this! Let’s go for earlier in the year, March 2020!!!…..Oh….no.
After what we’ve all adapted to and survived over the last year and a half, with the support and belief of the key teams, showroom spaces and new brands too, we’re ready for this event and I really think our design community is too. I hope that at this year’s Design Crawl we can celebrate and encourage each other to keep moving forward, and remind ourselves of just how talented our design community is and continues to be.
It’s all here, On our doorstep. Lets keep shouting about it!
Faye Robinson
Design Crawl
Designcrawl MCR 19th to 21st October 2021
