DEMO: the world’s largest open-air design exhibition

On October 6, DEMO – Design in Motion Festival –  will take over 5,000+ digital screens across the Netherlands to showcase the best motion design work from across the world. After receiving over 5,300 submissions, this unique, public exhibition of creative work will feature 815 moving artworks by designers from 54 countries.

DEMO 2022 is the second edition of the festival that took over all digital screens at Amsterdam Central Station for an entire day in 2019. This year, all of the Netherlands will be turned into an open-air exhibition, with all digital screens at train stations, metros, motorways, petrol stations, airports, shopping centres, and streets showcasing moving artwork for 24 hours. Tours will be organised in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, where designers will provide explanations of the works. In the Royal Waiting Room at Amsterdam Central Station, a seminar will take place about the role of and importance motion design in this digital age.

The final selection of 815 works from 5,332 entries was made by a team of curators: Liza Enebeis, creative director of Studio Dumbar/DEPT® and initiator of DEMO; interdisciplinary designer Koos Breen; experimental motion designer Connor Campbell; creative coder Tim Rodenbröker, and 3D animation studio YONK.

The exhibition will showcase work by designers across the world including: Dirk Koy (Switzerland), ines alpha (France), Sucuk und Bratwurst (Germany), Wang & Söderström (Sweden), Yehwan Song (South Korea), BUCK Design (USA), Melissa Santamaría (Mexico), Hey Studio (Spain), Michiel Schuurman (Netherlands), Studio Feixen (Switzerland), PPPanik (Germany), Raman Djafari (Germany) and Hassan Rahim (USA).

The programme on all screens has been divided into nine themes, including ‘Happy Hour’, ‘Better than Real’, ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Type Only’. The themes will be alternated by ‘takeovers’, during which the motion work of one designer will be highlighted simultaneously on all screens. 

In the Royal Waiting Room at Amsterdam Central Station, DEMO has organised a publicly accessible programme featuring various talks about motion design. The program consists of renowned speakers including: Connor Campbell (UK), motion designer and known for brands such as Nike, Apple and MTV; video and installation artist, 3D animation studio YONK (Netherlands), working for META and the New York Times; Sander Sturing (Netherlands), lead creative coder at Studio Dumbar/DEPT®; web artist and designer Yehwan Song (South Korea), and Tim Rodenbröker (Germany), creative coder and educator.
All day, there will be tours at Amsterdam Central Station, Rotterdam and Utrecht, during which groups will be guided past digital screens by a motion designer explaining the work. The public programme and tours are free of charge.

DEMO is an initiative by Studio Dumbar/DEPT® in collaboration with Global. The digital screens were generously made available by Out of Home operators in the Netherlands. See demofestival.com for full details.