The flagship event of Design Consciousness Week and a co-branded highlight of Philippine Creative Industries Month, IDC 2025 is positioned as the region’s premier platform for design-driven innovation and strategic foresight.
A Call for Collective Flourishing
Carrying the theme “Holding the Whole: Designing for Collective Flourishing,” this year’s IDC challenges designers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and business leaders to embrace design not just as form or function, but as a life-centered, regenerative force.
The program underscores the urgency of systems change, recognizing that crises such as climate change, inequality, and social unrest are deeply interconnected. Participants will explore how design can reframe systems, restore relationships, and unlock shared agency to ensure both people and the planet thrive.
“Design is not a luxury. It is central to how we build economies, shape policy, and imagine futures,” said Rhea Matute, executive director of the Design Center of the Philippines. “IDC 2025 is our call to action: to design with courage, with care, and with consequence.”
Anchored in ASEAN’s design ecosystem
Now in its ninth year, IDC has become a cornerstone in Southeast Asia’s design calendar, drawing global and local thought leaders to probe intersections of design, technology, business, and governance.
In 2023, IDC was recognized with a Silver Anvil Award in Arts, Culture, Heritage, and Tourism for its role in shaping national conversations and steering creative industries toward inclusive growth and policy innovation.
Global keynotes on the future of design
Two internationally renowned design thinkers headline this year’s event:
B. Joseph Pine II, co-author of "The Experience of Economy," whose concept of the Transformation Economy has influenced Fortune 500 strategies, national policies, and academic discourse worldwide.
Professor Eisuke Tachikawa, founder and CEO of NOSIGNER, a multi-awarded strategist known for Evolutional Creativity, a design framework inspired by biological evolution. His work spans disaster resilience, climate adaptation, and social innovation.
Filipino voices in the spotlight
IDC 2025 also highlights Filipino talent shaping the country’s design landscape:
Their contributions will fuel dialogue on design’s role in inclusive economies, resilient communities, and culturally grounded innovation.
Beyond inspiration: Sessions to activate change
This year’s program introduces Break, Make, and Become—immersive sessions designed not just to inspire but to activate. Attendees will critically examine outdated paradigms, co-create prototypes for new possibilities, and commit to design as a strategic tool for systemic change.
Open to All
IDC 2025 is free and open to professionals across design, business, education, and governance. By convening diverse voices under one roof, the conference seeks to transform ideas into actionable pathways for collective flourishing. —Ed: Corrie S. Narisma
