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Edmonton Design Week is more than a festival, it’s a reflection of our city’s creative pulse. Each year, the identity we put forward becomes the first impression of that spirit, carrying the weight of both celebration and invitation. For 2025, we turned to local designer Bijhan Zaver to lead the creative direction. Bijhan’s work doesn’t just give Design Week a look and feel, it anchors the theme of Made in a way that speaks to our community, our ambitions, and our place in the wider design conversation.

The them of “Made”, aligns naturally with MADE as an organization and with our own 25-year journey. It’s an opportunity to create a stronger bond between Edmonton Design Week and MADE itself, showing that the festival is not just an event but a living expression of the values we’ve carried forward for a quarter century.

One of the self directed outcomes that touched us all, was the poetry that Bijhan wrote as a love letter to design, it was raw, unfiltered and embodied a lot of what we believe to be true about design.

The word Made holds depth, it’s the past tense of “make,” a reminder that something was created, constructed, or produced. It invites us to look at the tangible outcomes of design, experiences, buildings, brands, while also acknowledging the human stories, collaboration, and care behind them. For us, it’s a theme that grounds the festival in the work of designers past and present, while opening space for new possibilities to take shape.

Through Bijhan’s creative direction, the identity for Edmonton Design Week 2025 doesn’t just signal an event, it reflects our belief that design is a civic force, that what is made leaves traces, and that after 25 years, MADE continues to stand as a platform for shaping what comes next.

We sat down with Bijhan to get to know the person behind the creative and the inspiration that defined this years identity.

Can you tell us a bit about your background as a designer and how your practice has evolved to this point? I grew up in a house that highly encouraged making things — drawing, painting, building. I was always sketching on whatever I could find, drawing fighter jets to family portraits. In my early twenties I got hooked on web design and how it could shape real experiences for people. My practice has evolved into something broader and more fluid, where different disciplines feed each other. Each project has taught me something new — and honestly, I still love the process as much as I did when I first started but now with a clearer sense of how design can move people and ideas forward. It’s become more than a profession — it’s truly a labour of love.

You were responsible for crafting the first Edmonton Design Week identity, what drew you into working on Edmonton Design Week 2025, and what excites you most about shaping its identity? I’ve come a long way since designing the first Edmonton Design Week identity back in 2017. My perspective — and the city’s design scene — have both evolved a lot since then. At the time, Design Week was a brand-new initiative that had to be many things to many people, so the identity needed to carry a lot of weight and speak broadly. Coming back to it in 2025 felt like a chance to build on that foundation with fresh eyes. What drew me in was the opportunity to spark a new dialogue — not just among designers and creatives, but between the city itself and the people shaping it. I wanted to help create something that feels connected to Edmonton’s energy right now and invites more people to be part of this conversation.

How do you see the theme of “Made” influencing the creative direction this year? “Made” is such a strong word — it says so much in one syllable. It’s about the process, that first sketch, the struggle, the shaping, moulding and refining - and the final thing you put out into the world. It connects everyone who creates — designers, makers, students, all of us trying to bring ideas to life. It just felt like the right theme to celebrate what this week is really about. So much so that the very act of “making” was the definitive language I weaved throughout this year’s creative direction.

Every identity project involves choices—what were some of the tensions or “forks in the road” you faced while developing the creative? Designing something for designers brings its own kind of pressure, but I see it more as motivation than challenge. The goal was to create an identity that could stand up to that level of attention and still feel effortless. It needed to feel bold, honest, and still Edmonton. But it also needed to feel like it was me - something that I would connect with personally and the audience would be feeling it too.

Graphic designers can often find themselves lost in the visuals, yet you took it upon yourself to write a love letter to design through poetry, this feels especially raw and unique - what inspired you to take this approach? I sat down to begin this project and found myself daydreaming about those moments when you are in and out of the creative flow. I started writing down how I felt in those moments — call it a current of thought, emotion, and instinct. What came out wasn’t about defining my process or method. It became the Design Week manifesto, but really it’s meant to capture that feeling I love about making something. I just hoped people around me would feel it too. The words of the manifesto shape the visuals — they’re woven through it, making the process of creating the identity for others feel really personal. I didn’t fuss over making it perfect; I kept it raw, always in a v1 state, with the designer and maker in mind.

Collaboration is key in civic design projects. Who or what has inspired you along the way? There are so many talented designers and creatives on the Design Week board and working groups — it was impossible not to be inspired at every stage of this project. The collaboration comes from a shared love for the city, so it feels natural. It’s a kind of civic responsibility, driven by imagination and creative execution.

How do you want participants and visitors to feel when they first encounter the Design Week identity in the city? I want the identity to feel like it was made for them — but also by them. Like they can see themselves in it, know the grind it takes to make something from scratch. At the same time, it’s a celebration — of what we’ve done, what we’ve built, and a push to keep making more. I want them to feel “Made,” but also feel the journey it took to get there.