Our intergenerational gatherings of RDIs and emerging designers,
scientists and engineers to share, inspire and challenge.
The Royal Designers invite applications from early-career designers, scientists and engineers from all backgrounds to join us at our three-day residential Summer Session at Dartington Hall in Devon. If you have between three and fifteen years of professional experience, you are eligible to apply.
Use the link below to Apply.
Supported by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, we are delighted to offer free places to all successful candidates including accommodation, meals, and transport from London. Up to forty of these places are available.
Successful applicants will join twelve Royal Designers and eight ‘wildcards’ over three days and two nights. The Session’s full complement of sixty provides a chance for cross-inspiration, reflection and activity as we share experience and search for insight.
Squeak & Bubble
This year's theme is Squeak & Bubble. Let's make the most of skrap.
We extend an invitation to join this conversation - to those finding their feet or looking for a catalyst or safe harbour; beyond formal education with its curriculum, classes and friends; to those moving beyond a first job, a teacher, or a mentor; to those who may want to engage with kindred spirits that spark them into the next phase of life and work.
The Session will take its unique shape when we come together as this year’s cohort. It is open-started, open-ended and open-hearted. There is no expectation of a particular outcome (though past participants have remarked on the Session’s profound and lasting effects). The Session gives everyone space for a pause for thought, to enjoy shared experience with like-minded people across generations. Dartington Hall is in a beautiful landscape, with a history of hosting creative people to think, make, show and perform.
If you need time and space for reflection and new exploration, this is for you. It’s challenging, unexpected and rewarding. The only requirement is to bring yourself and be generous with your thoughts, and the rest is free. We look forward to welcoming you.
More information
Squeak & Bubble: October 2025
Dartington Hall, Devon
What Is It?
A welcome chance to step from the everyday world into an immersive residential retreat for a three-day collaborative experience with other early career designers, scientists and engineers, Royal Designers and "wildcards". It is an opportunity to explore this year's theme of "Squeak & Bubble” openly, playfully and inventively to bring about change for the better - nourishment, sustenance, energy, vitality, inventiveness, alchemy, floating, release, health …or something else entirely.
When Is It?
The 2025 Royal Designers Summer Session will run from midday on Friday 17 October to Sunday 19 October 2025.
Where Is It?
The Session will take place at Dartington Hall, Devon. Dartington is a charity delivering progressive learning programmes in the arts, ecology and social justice, set in a beautiful 1,200-acre estate. It is a creative community with its own year-round programme of art and craft short courses, theatre, music, cinema and dance.
Who will be there?
In total, the Session will have 60 participants:
● 40 early-career designers, scientists and engineers.
● 8 wildcards: people whose life intersects ours in some way. They may come from arts and music; from economics, from health; from think-tanks; they may be carpenters, baristas, soldiers, spies, philosophers, teachers, shopkeepers.
● And 12 Royal Designers.
What happens while we're there?
The Session programme is designed so that everyone has something to learn, and everyone has something to give. The only prerequisite is to bring an open mind and the ability to let it run free for a while. We usually work in close-knit groups of between 4 and 8, in a mix of early-career, wildcard, Royal Designer. There will also be shared sessions, often centred around meals, where we will come together for reflection and more-or-less-gentle stimulus.
We will stay on or near the Dartington Estate and have all our main meals there. We will use many of Dartington's amazing collection of indoor spaces, including the Great Hall which we use as our base. The gardens and grounds are uplifting and well-aligned with human nature, so many spend a lot of their time wandering the estate and the riverbank, to which we have generally free access.
No charge for attendees
We are grateful to the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 whose grant support means there is no cost to attend. The Royal Commission's support covers all main meals and accommodation at Dartington.
Getting there
The Royal Designers will provide complimentary transport from the RSA, London to and from Dartington Hall. We are unable to cover other travel costs to the event. If you are travelling independently by rail, Totnes is the nearest train station with a regular taxi service.
Detailed joining instructions will be sent to successful applicants.
Reflections from RDI Session 2024
‘I know it was a pivotal experience, even though I don't yet know where that pivot will lead.’
‘A truly transformative experience for me. Connecting with people from different disciplines, many of whom I wouldn’t have met otherwise, sparked fresh perspectives and ideas.’
‘We each brought our gifts of broken things,
we shared breaths and explored 'Mend, Do and Make.'
‘It is a surprisingly heady mix - an ambitious, optimistic space for thought, action and play.’
‘The weekend felt like it was about opening doors to uncharted thoughts. The mix of voices, the setting, and the shared curiosity created a space for unexpected connections.’
Applications for Squeak & Bubble are open from 2 May to 1 July 2025 (noon).
Applications are invited from early-career designers, scientists and engineers. If you have between 3 and 15 years of professional experience, you are eligible to apply.
To apply please submit the following as a single PDF file:
1. Contact details: name, email address, mobile
2. A short statement on why you would like to attend, in no more than 250 words.
3. Three examples of your work, in no more than 3 A4 pages
4. A one page CV
5. Two professional referees. Please include their names and email addresses, and in what connection you know them.
6. Please let us know how you heard about the Summer Session.
Upload your pdf
About the Royal Designers
The title ‘Royal Designer for Industry’ is the UK’s highest accolade for designers.
Our mission is to inspire new generations of thinkers to design a better world. The faculty demonstrates the diverse impact of designers in shaping our world. Explore the profiles of current and past RDIs to understand their work.
Read about previous RDI Sessions in our Journal