India’s leading design and innovation festival, DesignUp, returns with its 9th edition — DesignUp25, to be held from 3–5 November 2025 in Bengaluru. This year’s conference comes with a bold and timely theme — “The Design Currency” — spotlighting how design itself drives value in business, technology, and society.

DesignUp25 aims to explore how design generates economic, social, and environmental value — bridging the seemingly divergent worlds of technology, business, and human systems to highlight design’s role as both a relational and infrastructural medium.

“DesignUp25 is where India’s design, tech, and innovation communities converge — not just to exchange ideas, but to redefine the very value of design,” said Jay Dutta, founder and curator of DesignUp, and Global Head of Design at Deutsche Bank.

The three-day event will bring together leading Indian and international design voices through workshops, keynote talks, lightning sessions, and panel discussions, exploring how design acts as a powerful medium of exchange — influencing trust, innovation, and human experience in an AI-driven world.

DesignUp25 — Speaker and Panel Line-up Highlights:

• Archana Thiagarajan, VP Experience Design, Adobe — How Designers Can Build & Keep Trust in the Age of AI
• Alex Skougarevskaya (Skougs), Head of Design, Content & Discovery, Canva — on AI-powered creativity in large, global systems
• Janaki Kumar, Chief Design Officer, Global Banking, JPMorgan Chase — on orchestration and design in enterprise systems
• Catalina Estrada, Illustrator & Pattern Designer — on design’s power to restore dignity and voice
• Fonz Morris (Netflix, Coursera, FNZMS) and Mahima Chandak (Hard Problems) — The Design Business: A Design Entrepreneur’s Playbook (panel)
• Allen Shaw, Illustrator & Storyteller — Drawing on Life
• David Dylan Thomas — bridging design, ethics, bias, and systems
• Noopur Datye, Co-founder, Ek Type — on designing regional scripts and typographic value

A major highlight of this year’s edition will be the unveiling of the Futures Challenge 2025 winners, where young designers reimagine what “currency” could mean in 2050 — from trust and attention to energy and reputation. The challenge was judged by an international jury of design leaders, creative directors, and innovation experts, led by Thomas Küber and Andreas Wegner of Futur2 Studio, Berlin.

Marking a significant milestone, DesignUp25 introduces a fresh thematic lens that positions design not as a cost centre, but as a generative force in the economy and society. In a world increasingly shaped by algorithms, machine intelligence, and rapid automation, design is no longer merely aesthetic — it is currency. Just as currency powers economies, design powers innovation, trust, behaviour, and systemic change.

Also Read: India’s Next Great Design Movement Will Be Local, Not Global