Designing for complexity, community and climate resilience—WDCD’s one-day festival is back with a sharper edge.
By Next Gen Design
What does it take to design for real change? On 6 June, creatives from across the world will gather in Amsterdam to explore that question at WDCD Live 2025, the latest edition of What Design Can Do’s long-running festival for social and environmental impact. Set against the buzzing backdrop of Pakhuis de Zwijger, this year’s event feels more urgent, more critical—and more collaborative—than ever.
Rather than focus on design as a solution, this year’s edition asks: what is design obliged to do in a world shaped by inequality, ecological collapse, and disinformation?
Here’s what you can expect—and why it matters.
Three themes that cut deep
WDCD 2025 revolves around three interconnected themes, each unpacking a core challenge of our time.
- Climate Futurism invites us to rethink what progress looks like. Beyond carbon targets and efficiency metrics, how can design help regenerate systems and shift entire worldviews? This isn’t greenwashing—it’s about long-term resilience and radically local solutions.
- Truth to Power tackles the murky terrain of manipulation, disinformation, and AI’s role in shaping narratives. How can creatives wield new tools with integrity? Expect conversations on ethical storytelling, digital justice, and the politics of visibility.
- Belonging Beyond Borders is perhaps the most personal of the three. With growing tensions around migration and identity, this theme explores how design can build spaces—physical, cultural, emotional—where everyone feels seen and heard.
Together, they form a lens through which design is not just decorative or problem-solving, but deeply political.
Two parts, one mission
WDCD Live is structured as a day in two halves:
- The Work (afternoon): Intimate, hands-on workshops and discussions that invite deep dives into each theme. This is where festival-goers connect, test ideas, and co-create with experts and fellow participants.
- The Celebration (evening): A public gathering of talks, stories, and performances, spotlighting the next generation of design-led changemakers. There’ll be music, food, and more than a few surprises.
Throughout the day, you’ll also meet winners of recent WDCD open calls—projects pushing circularity, inclusion, and justice forward in surprising ways.
Why attend?
WDCD Live isn’t your standard design event. It’s less about shiny portfolios and more about bold provocations. It’s where creative practice meets protest, community organising, and climate action. And it’s where design isn’t just talked about—but lived, tested, celebrated.
Whether you’re a student, policymaker, strategist or storyteller, this is a chance to connect with people asking the hard questions—and proposing daring alternatives.
📍 WDCD Live Amsterdam 2025 takes place 6 June at Pakhuis de Zwijger.
🗓 More info at whatdesigncando.com/events