Design Days
Design Days is a Swiss nonprofit association that has organized an annual design festival in Lausanne for approximately 17 years, convening designers, fashion designers, design schools, and cultural institutions around exhibitions, workshops, conferences, and design dinners, funded primarily through institutional sponsorships and low-price ticketing.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2009
- HeadquartersPuidoux, Vaud, Switzerland
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingServices
What Design Days does
Design Days is a Swiss nonprofit association (Association Design Days) founded in Puidoux, Switzerland around 2008-2009, dedicated to promoting design across French-speaking Switzerland. For approximately 17 years, it has organized an annual four-day design festival at the La Rasude venue in Lausanne, complemented by digital content. The event convenes designers, fashion designers (63 designers and 21 fashion designers in 2024), design schools, museums, public institutions, and commercial sponsors around exhibitions, workshops, conferences, and design dinners. With 7,500 attendees in 2025, it functions as the principal platform connecting the regional design community.
The business model combines a low-price public ticketing model (CHF 5-10 per ticket) with sponsorship and institutional partnership revenue. Major supporters include Pro Helvetia, IKEA Stiftung Schweiz, the Swiss Design Association, Canton de Vaud, Vaudoise, mudac, Espaces Contemporains, QoQA, and HEAD-Genève, reflecting a hybrid public-private funding base typical of Swiss cultural associations. Recent programming additions include workshops on AI tools for designers and the integration of the Swiss Fashion Point platform, signaling gradual expansion into adjacent verticals and digital design education.
The organization operates with a very small team of 1-10 employees, led by Patricia Lunghi (Event Manager), with Sarra Dhanani as Event Coordinator and Clara Jannet also on the team. Operations are event-anchored and seasonal, with programming concentrated around the annual festival window. The association's positioning within the Romandie cultural ecosystem — combined with its long-running brand and dense institutional network — provides structural defensibility, though absolute scale and revenue remain modest.
Design Days firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Design Days
- Legal name
- Association Design Days
- Website
- https://designdays.ch
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2009
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Design Days is a Swiss nonprofit association that has organized an annual design festival in Lausanne for approximately 17 years, convening designers, fashion designers, design schools, and cultural institutions around exhibitions, workshops, conferences, and design dinners, funded primarily through institutional sponsorships and low-price ticketing.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Design Days industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Design Event Management
- NAICS
- Indoor and Outdoor Display Advertising (54185), Interior Design Services (54141)
- SIC
- Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Retail, Consumer Goods & Lifestyle Shows Organizers (THAHABAJ)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Event Design, Decor & Styling (HSACAAAB), Interior Design Services (BPAHAKAB)
Keywords
Where Design Days is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Puidoux, Vaud
- HQ country
- Switzerland
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices2 records
Markets served
Design Days business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Ticket Sales: The primary revenue stream comes from ticket sales to attendees. Standard tickets are priced at CHF 10, with reduced tickets at CHF 5 for AVS/AI/Students. Children under 16 accompanied by adults enter free. Tickets are sold both online via QoQA and at the venue box office.
- Sponsorship and Partnerships: The event generates revenue through partnerships with sponsors including Pro Helvetia, IKEA Stiftung Schweiz, Swiss Design Association, Canton de Vaud, Vaudoise, and other regional partners who support the event financially and operationally.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Standard admission ticket |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Reduced admission ticket |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
Design Days product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Design Days organizes an annual multi-day hybrid design event in Lausanne, Switzerland, bringing together emerging and established Swiss designers, architects, and creative professionals. The 2026 edition runs May 28\u201331 at La Rasude in the Lausanne railway station and features exhibitions (Exposants, Swiss Fashion Point, Projets sur mesure), conferences (ArchiTalks, Salaires & honoraires des designers), professional development workshops (Le Pitch Lab), immersive design-gastronomy dinners (Design Dinner), family guided tours, and personalized archi-d\u00e9co coaching. Tickets are sold online via QoQA (CHF 10 standard / CHF 5 reduced) and at the on-site box office, with free entry for children under 16.
Product overview
Design Days is an annual Swiss design event (a single unified event, not a software platform) held in Lausanne. The 2026 edition runs May 28-31 at La Rasude, Place de la Gare 1. The event portfolio consists of: a main exhibition featuring Exposants (emerging and professional designers), the Swiss Fashion Point (fashion/designers showcase), and Projets sur mesure (custom projects); educational programming including ArchiTalks (conferences), Le Pitch Lab and Workshops (professional development), and a Salaires & honoraires conference; immersive experiences such as Design Dinner (design-gastronomy pairing) and family-friendly guided tours; personalized services like Coaching archi-déco; and ticketing infrastructure. The event also maintains an archive of Previous Editions.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Design Days Annual Festival
Quantifiable outcome
- 7500 passionate design enthusiasts attended the 2025 edition
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Design Days
Customer profileNamed customers3 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Design Days technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Design Days partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
14 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Pro HelvetiacoreSwiss arts council providing funding and support for the Design Days event. They support the workshops program and overall event operations.
- Swiss Design Association (SDA)coreProfessional association for Swiss designers that collaborates on the workshops program for professional development in entrepreneurship and design business skills.
- Canton de VaudcoreRegional government authority supporting the event as part of cultural promotion in the Canton of Vaud.
- Swiss Fashion PointcorePlatform showcasing young Swiss fashion designers, jewelry, and accessories. A dedicated section within Design Days featuring emerging fashion talent.
- Espaces ContemporainscoreMagazine and platform for contemporary design that co-organizes Design Days and provides editorial support.
- mudacminorMusée cantonal de design et d'arts appliqués contemporains in Lausanne, supporting the design event.
- QoQAcoreOnline ticketing platform powering ticket sales for Design Days. Provides the e-commerce infrastructure for advance ticket purchases.
- HEAD – GenèveminorGeneva University of Art and Design. Partner in the USM Design Grant program and showcasing student projects.
- La Buona StampaminorPrint and media partner supporting Design Days communications.
- Supernatural ClubminorEvent partner associated with Design Days activities.
- Urban KombuchaminorPartner providing refreshments or sponsorship for Design Days.
- Docteur GabsminorPartner associated with Design Days events.
- MangiobevominorPartner for Design Days food/beverage experiences.
- Dizerens VinsminorWine partner for Design Dinners and other gastronomic events.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Design Days competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- WantedDesign: WantedDesign is an annual NYC-based design event with parallel editions in Manhattan and online programming featuring emerging and established designers, talks, and curated exhibitions — closely aligned in mission and format to Design Days' showcase-plus-education model at a smaller per-event scale.
- Stockholm Design Week: Stockholm Design Week is an annual Nordic design week featuring exhibitions, talks, and showrooms across the city, organized around a small producer team and partnering furniture/lighting brands — directly comparable to Design Days in seasonal cadence and design-show-with-ancillary-programming format.
- Helsinki Design Week: Helsinki Design Week is the largest design festival in the Nordics, with a city-wide programme of exhibitions, open studios, and seminars targeting both design professionals and the general public — a strong peer to Design Days in mission, hybrid city-wide format, and SME/community audience mix.
- Dutch Design Week: Dutch Design Week (DDW) is an annual nine-day design event in Eindhoven presenting work by emerging and established Dutch designers across multiple venues, with strong institutional backing and a parallel trade/conference track — a close analogy to Design Days' annual multi-venue Romandie showcase.
- D'Days (Paris Design Days): D'Days is a Parisian design event/showcase presenting contemporary and emerging design across multiple venues in Paris over multiple days — a direct name and structural analogue to Design Days, organized by a nonprofit association and targeted at design professionals and the design-curious public.
- London Design Festival: London Design Festival is a city-wide annual celebration of design across multiple venues in the UK capital, featuring exhibitions, installations, talks, and workshops — structurally identical to Design Days at a larger scale and geographic ambition, run as a focused event-production organization.
- Vienna Design Week: Vienna Design Week is an annual ten-day festival of contemporary design held across Vienna's museums, galleries, and design venues — the most direct structural analogue to Design Days in scale, cadence (annual), and mission (showcasing design in an atypical urban setting). It is a region-based design event operated by a small dedicated organization.
Regional players
- Art Basel: Art Basel is the premier global art fair, with its flagship Swiss edition in Basel and additional shows in Miami Beach, Hong Kong, and Paris; it shares Switzerland as a host country with Design Days and overlaps in serving the design/art-curious audience and institutional sponsor base, although at vastly greater scale.
Broad incumbents
- Milan Design Week / Salone del Mobile: Salone del Mobile is the world's largest annual design trade fair, with the surrounding Milan Design Week programming becoming a global design event; it is a broader, incumbent version of the design-show category that Design Days sits within at a much smaller regional scale.
- Maison & Objet Paris: Maison & Objet is a twice-yearly Paris-based trade show for furniture, decoration, and lifestyle design, attracting both trade buyers and the design-interested public. It is a larger, more commercially oriented incumbent in the same exhibition-for-design-lifestyle-products category that Design Days operates in.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Design Days social profiles
Digital presenceDesign Days compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Design Days financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Design Days leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Design Days funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Design Days M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Design Days
What does Design Days do?
Design Days organizes an annual multi-day hybrid design event in Lausanne, Switzerland, bringing together emerging and established Swiss designers, architects, and creative professionals. The 2026 edition runs May 28\u201331 at La Rasude in the Lausanne railway station and features exhibitions (Exposants, Swiss Fashion Point, Projets sur mesure), conferences (ArchiTalks, Salaires & honoraires des designers), professional development workshops (Le Pitch Lab), immersive design-gastronomy dinners (Design Dinner), family guided tours, and personalized archi-d\u00e9co coaching. Tickets are sold online via QoQA (CHF 10 standard / CHF 5 reduced) and at the on-site box office, with free entry for children under 16.
Is Design Days a public or private company?
Design Days is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Design Days founded?
Design Days was founded in 2009. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Design Days based?
Design Days is headquartered in Puidoux, Vaud, Switzerland, in the Europe region.
How does Design Days make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Ticket Sales are the primary driver. The others are sponsorship and Partnerships.
Who are Design Days's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are WantedDesign, Stockholm Design Week, Helsinki Design Week, Dutch Design Week, D'Days (Paris Design Days), London Design Festival and Vienna Design Week. Art Basel is listed as a regional player. Broad incumbents are Milan Design Week / Salone del Mobile and Maison & Objet Paris.
Does Design Days have an API?
No public API is recorded for Design Days.
What industry is Design Days in?
Design Days's product category is Design Event Management. Its primary akta.pro industry code is THAHABAJ, Retail, Consumer Goods & Lifestyle Shows Organizers, with a secondary code of HSACAAAB, Event Design, Decor & Styling. Its NAICS code is 54185 and its SIC code is 7900.