Collecting Sheffield's Design Stories Through DWISS

Stories Behind the Festival

DWISS — Design Week in Sheffield Stories — was a project that recognised something important: the value of a festival lies not just in its events but in the stories they generate. Presented during Sheffield Design Week 2016, DWISS collected personal accounts from makers, visitors and organisers, weaving them into a narrative portrait of what the festival meant to the people who experienced it.

The project took various forms — recorded interviews, written testimonials, photographs and short films — all displayed in an accessible format that invited browsing rather than demanding linear attention. Visitors could dip in and out, following threads that interested them, building their own understanding of the festival’s impact.

Personal Accounts

I was drawn to the makers’ testimonials. A ceramicist described how exhibiting at Craftworks had led to her first significant commission. A graphic designer recounted how a conversation during Open Studios had changed his approach to typography. A student from Sheffield Hallam explained how attending a Design Talk had clarified her decision to remain in the city after graduation.

These were not dramatic stories, but they were authentic ones. They demonstrated that a design festival’s most significant outcomes are often invisible at the time — a connection made, a direction clarified, a confidence strengthened.

Documenting Creative Culture

DWISS also served as a form of institutional memory for a volunteer-run organisation. With no permanent staff and limited resources, Sheffield Design Week’s history risked being lost between editions. The stories project addressed this directly, creating an archive of experience that could inform future planning and demonstrate the festival’s value to funders and supporters.

For anyone wanting to understand what Sheffield Design Week felt like from the inside, DWISS provides the most direct access. It is a record of creative culture as lived experience — honest, varied and unmistakably Sheffield.