Welcome to DES
Celebrating & sharing exceptional objects & ideas for the everyday through podcasts, exhibitions, conversations & commissions.
DES Talks podcast – take a listen!
We have launched a podcast about making and creating, materials and ideas and inspiration ancient and modern. DES’s founder Susanna Beaumont talks to some of our most adventurous, curious and brilliant makers, designers and artists about the joy of creativity.
Listen here
DES Talks . . 11 eleven episodes to enjoy!
- Celebrating the Guyanese artist, Donald Locke and his time at Edinburgh College of Art in the 1960s
- Exploring Bard, Custom Lane & Brown’s of Leith
- Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine – V&A Dundee
- Harvest – Craft Scotland’s celebration of contemporary craft
- Bernat Klein – Gráinne Rice on the life & times of the visionary textile designer
- Studio potter Cara Guthrie on clay, the personal and the political
- The Hugo Burge Foundation – celebrating making & creating in the Scottish Borders
- The Marchmont Workshop on chair making, rush seating & the early years
- Chris Dobson & Guy Philips on the making of Monolith and the joy of Scottish timber
- Stefanie Ying Lin Cheong on jewellery, geology and the gathering of stones
- Frances Priest on ceramics, delighting in the decorative & firing up
Earth Matters
Inverleith House Gallery, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 20 March – 1 November 2026
DES is delighted to be curating Earth Matters, an exhibition celebrating the tercentenary of the birth of the Edinburgh-born geologist, writer and farmer, James Hutton (1726-1797). Often described as the ‘father of modern geology’, Hutton is known for his ground-breaking theories into the earth’s creation and his exploration of rock formation. Hutton also gave much attention to the earth beneath our feet – soil.
Earth Matters is inspired by Hutton and subsequent trailblazers who have helped challenge and change our understanding of soil. Earth Matters will explore Hutton’s writings on soil and include the rarely exhibited ‘Lost Drawings’ by his contemporary, the artist and writer John Clerk of Eldin. Through art, craft and design dating from the 18th century to the present-day, Earth Matters will illuminate the vital beauty and brilliance of earth.
Sitting Pretty
James Rigler’s animalistic bench sits centre stage in Mount Stuart’s Marble Hall.
Earth Matters – open call
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Design Exhibition Scotland are delighted to announce an open call to artists, makers, craftspeople and designers based in Scotland to submit expressions of interest to exhibit in Earth Matters at Inverleith House Gallery, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Earth Matters will open in March 2026 and run to October 2026. The deadline for submissions is 9am on Friday 23rd May.
Read on
Dixon lands in Dundee!
DRINKING FOUNTAINS
Over the last 4 years, DES has commissioned a series of drinking fountains. The latest is Dixon, an eye-catchingly good looking fountain for our contemporary age. Created by Mirrl of Glasgow, here fountaineer Simon Harlow talks design inspiration & colour ways.
Watering Spots
DRINKING FOUNTAINS
DES has long wanted to revive the drinking fountain and celebrate outstanding design and provide free and clean drinking water. In 2019 we invited Tania Kovats and collaborating artists Laura Aldridge and James Rigler to design a fountain fit for our contemporary age.
Sitting Pretty
Design Exhibition Scotland’s OPEN CALL to design a park bench was inspired by a wish to celebrate all that the public bench offers: the joy of sitting down, the great outdoors and of course the chance to pause for thought and take in a view. Partnering with Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute, the selected benches were shown at Mount Stuart last summer before travelling on to V&A Dundee earlier this year.
Read on