Budapest Design Week is entering its tenth year in 2013; the anniversary festival takes place between the 27th of September and the 6th of October. The Hungarian Intellectual Property Office is the main sponsor and patron of the program series, its leading professional partners are the Hungarian Design Council and Design Terminal, and it is organised by HIPAvilon Nonprofit Ltd.
The anniversary is celebrated with two special publications this year: one of them is the English language Budapest Design Map calling the attention of tourists to the design treasures of the city, it is being issued in the beginning of summer. The map presents basic information about over 100 Budapest-based design businesses arranged in thematic groups. The other one is the Hungarian Design Yearbook planned to be issued this autumn. It is a publication, which fills a gap by presenting noteworthy local trends and developments on the basis of a thematic approach also taking the world's international trends into account.
In 2013 the key topic is Arts & Crafts. The festival focuses on the crossover trends in contemporary design; the dissolving of the genre boundaries between art, design and crafts, the original use of unique craft techniques.
Following on the popular initiative of the past few years, in 2013 Budapest Design Week's Guest of Honour is Italy. Programs organised by Budapest Design Week in the framework of the event series realised with close to 300 cooperating partners and attracting 60 thousand visitors year after year, have proven to be some of the most attractive parts of the festival: the festival opening exhibition displaying international and Hungarian pieces will again open in Design Terminal, the Open Studios initiative, the Design Week Discount, the Design Tours, as well as gastronomy programs will all take place, while there will be even more creative workshops for adults and children.
Similarly to previous years, a star designer guest is also being invited and the most prestigious awards of the design profession (Hungarian Design Awards, Design Management Award) are also presented in the framework of the festival.