Tender Revolution

Dominant systems demand conformity, suppressing humanness and erasing stories that fall outside their binaries. As lived realities become increasingly commodified, Tender Revolution asks: what if contradiction, vulnerability, and embodied experience could themselves become sites of renewal? Here, design is framed as both offering and act of resistance — gentle, yet radical in its insistence on care. Rather than chasing speed or spectacle, the practitioners in this exhibition ground their work in processes of listening, questioning, and making with intent. They work in symbiosis with materials, communities, the everyday, and the self, taking stock of the present to chart pathways toward more generous futures. From acts of noticing and extending empathy to designing through personal, cultural, and local perspectives, the works in Tender Revolution both provoke and respond. Introspection and intuition become methods of practice, reimagining design not as the pursuit of certainty but as a connective force. Attending closely to experience, tactility, and memory, these practitioners demonstrate how small gestures can repair, connect, and imagine otherwise. We invite you to explore these works and join our nine-day programme of events during London Design Festival, featuring contributions from Graduates from Design Products (MA), Fashion (MA), Ceramics and Glass (MA), Innovation Design Engineering (MA/MSc), Jewellery and Metal (MA), and Textiles (MA) Programme: SATURDAY 13 SEPTEMBER Pot Dialogics: Short Film Screening + Q&A, Saym Hussain 2:00-3:30pm SUNDAY 14 SEPTEMBER Workshop Lime Bike Landscape: Using corporate assets as sculpture material, Maxim Lester 12:00-2:00pm Talk Footwear Reimagined: An Anatomical Approach to Shoe Design, Patrycja Koziara 3:00-5:00pm THURSDAY 18 SEPTEMBER Late Night Opening A celebration of "Tender Revolution". Light refreshments provided 6:00-9:00pm SATURDAY 20 SEPTEMBER Panel Discussion Beyond Biomimicry: Designing for the More-than-Human 3:00-5:00pm