Surface Design Show 2025 – why you should attend

This year’s edition of Surface Design Show is bringing about a shake-up with an exciting programme of events, brand new exhibitors, innovative products, and a switch-up for its annual awards. Here are a few highlights to whet your appetite…

From Green Grads to the Innovation Gallery, the 2025 edition of Surface Design Show (SDS) will have even more unique features for visitors to discover in 2025. Held from 4-6 February, SDS brings together the best in material innovation with over 180 companies showcasing thousands of materials many of which will be launched at the show, alongside a range of features and collaborations that have been designed to educate and inspire.

Exhibiting at the Surface Design Show 2025 for the first time are the Green Grads, a platform that spotlights recent graduates from UK universities who are confronting the world’s most urgent environmental challenges.

“Our graduates are tackling sustainability, climate change, circular production, waste and pollution, biophilia, bio-diversity and much more. They include engineers, product and furniture designers, material scientists, ceramicists, textile and graphic designers, craftspeople, artists, and film makers.” explains founder and curator Barbara Chandler, who brings over 25 years of experience as the Design Editor of the London Evening Standard.

The materials showcased will be biomaterials made from woodchips, breadcrumbs and wool, algae-based dyes an alternative to synthetic and often toxic pigments and materials made from organic waste such as eggshells and banana peel.

The Innovation Gallery is a further debut for 2025, designed to champion up-and-coming material innovators, it is the place to discover ground-breaking materials and concepts emphasising new companies at the forefront of material innovation. With a strong commitment to fostering small businesses, the Innovation Gallery provides an invaluable platform for independent creators and SME’s to showcase their work on a global stage.

Mustard yellows feature as inspiration for surface colours as referenced by a story board showing mustard dye in powder form and a mustard wallpaper concept on a wall with a bright orange sofa in the foreground

Image caption: DWC Moire and Dutch Wall Textile showcase mustard yellows, images courtesy of Surface Design Show

A team from the Journal of Biophilic Design, the publisher and broadcaster of research into the health and environmental benefits of Biophilic Nature-inspired Design, will be present to bring visitors knowledge, inspiration, case studies and ideas on how to design and help businesses reach net zero, how to increase biodiversity, and how biophilic design improves the whole value chain from real estate to employee costs.

For Everyday.Life (FE.L) will showcase ‘Housing Salinas’, a project that was designed in response to community displacement in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria. It is the creation of a long-term solution that strives towards a future where residents can live, work, and flourish in an environment that embodies the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility. The low cost, 3D printed housing solution is constructed from mortar-based concrete and combined with the robotic capabilities of construction company, ICON. Jorge Mendez-Caceres, Co-Founder at FEL said: “The Housing Salinas project highlights our commitment to creating a vibrant and sustainable solution that could be measured against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The ambition is to provide more than just houses; there is an aspiration to cultivate a harmonious living environment that prioritises social inclusivity, environmental responsibility, and economic prosperity.”

Two images side-by-side show the variety of different surface finishes: the first shows an art installation created by tiles of an artist's impression of a woman's face, made even more contemporary with her lips highlighted with neon strand lighting; the second image is a futuristic lobby space made up of different levels of reflective metallic surfaces in cool silvery finishes.

Image credit: DC Custom Tiles and Metal Solutions Limited showcase the possibilities of their very different products, images courtesy of Surface Design Show

Located right in the heart of the show, Surface Spotlight will once again be presenting a selection of carefully selected surfaces, finishes and materials that embrace the 2025 show theme ‘Creative Conscience’. Curated by material, design and trend expert Sally Angharad, the trends highlighted will be blended, softened, curved and polished. Surface Spotlight is an interactive display that allows visitors to get up close and personal with some of the materials that will be shaping our future.

A pop-up serving space for food and drinks within an exhibition space has been elaborately decorated with colourful tiles in lots of colours and patterns, with thick foliage sprouting out of the roof.

Image credit: DC Tiles brings a pop-up cafe to life, image courtesy of Surface Design Show

SDS is proud to announce its continued partnership with Furnishing Futures, an incredible charity founded by interior stylist, writer, and social worker Emily Wheeler. Furnishing Futures focuses on creating beautifully designed, fully furnished healing homes for women and children who have suffered domestic abuse. After escaping domestic abuse these individuals often find themselves in social housing without basic amenities, such as flooring or white goods. The charity addresses this critical gap by partnering with the interiors industry to repurpose good quality ex-display items, returns, props, or donated furnishings and designing beautiful safe spaces. Based in Leyton in East London, Furnishing Futures will be present at the show, giving visitors the opportunity to see examples of their work and discuss this important topic in more detail.

Two examples of delicate lighting products, the first image is a close-up of a chandelier inspired by nature where strands of white leaf-like shapes look as though they're falling from the ceiling; the second is a pendant light made up of three layers of frosted and stippled oblong pieces of varying lengths.

Image credit: Andra Munro and Spark & Bell’s nature-inspired lighting, images courtesy of Surface Design Show

This year’s Surface Design Show will also welcome guests with a porcelain light installation courtesy of Andra Munro, a multi-award-winning lighting designer based in the UK. The installation will be comprised of approximately 1,500 porcelain pieces, each individually and intricately crafted by hand. When illuminated, the porcelain radiates a warm, inviting glow, casting mesmerising patterns of light and shadow that shift and evolve with the viewer’s perspective. From the hustle and bustle of London, the entrance hall will be a room in its own right – an important space that embodies the essence of transition and arrival.

Register for your free ticket to attend Surface Design Show 2025 now!

 

Main image credit: Surface Design Show