AOD Lights Up Colombo with Creativity, Hosting Sri Lanka Design Festival 2025

SLDF 2024 in a new setting: The exhibition space at Cinnamon Life.

Inviting schools, students, parents, and industry professionals to meet the makers of tomorrow, AOD’s Create, Meet, Blend (CMB) movement transforms Colombo this November 19–23 with SLDF 2025

For over a decade, AOD has conceptualized and hosted Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF) with national and private partnerships, elevating it to one of South Asia’s most potent catalysts for design, innovation, and creative enterprise. Conceived to be much more than a showcase, SLDF is AOD’s living vision for how creativity can fuel economies, empower industries, and shape cultural identity. This year, that vision expands across the city of Colombo. With SLDF 2025, AOD reimagines Colombo as a living, breathing creative ecosystem; a space where designers, entrepreneurs, and the public converge to create, meet, and blend. From curated exhibitions and collaborative projects to interactive citywide activations, AOD transforms the capital into an open stage where design connects people, businesses, and ideas. It’s a powerful demonstration of how education can move beyond the classroom to ignite the national potential of creativity. By engaging the creative industries to claim Colombo as their shared ground, AOD continues to bridge local ingenuity with global opportunity, continuing its campaign to champion regional creativity.

Discovering a Lesser-known Creative City with Colombo Passport and Colombo Trails

AOD invites the entire city to bring SLDF to life with streets as galleries, neighbourhoods as studios, and every visitor as a collaborator. The Colombo Passport connects over 100 cafés, galleries, boutiques, and museums, allowing participants to collect stamps as they explore; the first 30 to earn 30 stamps receive a free ticket to Mercedes?Benz Fashion Week Sri Lanka (MBFWSL). Running alongside this are fifteen curated trails from sunset cruises and street-art walks to studio visits and designled activations blending heritage, lifestyle, and innovation into immersive, city-wide experiences that celebrate creativity and local culture.

City of designers and Creative Competitions

At the heart of SLDF 2025 is AOD’s flagship space, City of Designers, featuring immersive installations, interactive workshops, live studio tours, and a student exhibition across fashion, interior, visual communication, and digital design.

British High Commissioner Andrew Patrick, Douglas MacLennan, Design School Director (International Development) at Northumbria University, and Founder of AOD Linda Speldewinde in conversation with an AOD Alumni Pathum Egodawatta.

The space celebrates AOD’s graduating cohort, the next generation of industryready creative professionals. Industry directors can meet emerging talent showcasing polished briefs, portfolios, and professional thinking. Educators and parents get a firsthand look at tangible outcomes of a design education. AOD’s design competitions for young creators (ages 16–19) invite students to solve real design challenges and gain mentorship. Winners receive recognition, guidance, and a first glimpse of what a creative education can offer.

Fashion, Design and Creative Talent to Hire

AOD’s stewardship of MBFWSL as part of SLDF 2025 highlights its role as a bridge to industry, with runway shows, sustainability- focused collections, design-business panels, and brand showcases integrated into the festival. The ‘Hire a Designer’ booth connects employers directly with AOD’s graduating designers, trained on real-world briefs and mentored by international faculty. Across apparel, interiors, and motion graphics, this initiative links talent to jobs through AOD’s active graduate placement programme, strengthening Sri Lanka’s creative ecosystem.

Injecting Creativity into the Urban Fabric

Why does this matter? Because design is not frivolous; it drives growth, shapes identity, and strengthens global competitiveness. AOD’s vision builds design infrastructure, opens participatory pathways, and connects talent with industry, elevating Sri Lanka’s presence on the world stage. SLDF 2025 is where education meets enterprise, culture meets commerce, and talent meets technology. With national relevance, AOD invites schools to explore SLDF through curated viewing sessions, guided tours, talks, and exhibitions designed to spark curiosity, inspire creative thinking, and introduce students to future-ready career paths in design.

School students exploring the Graduate Exhibition and AOD graduates’ projects.

During SLDF 2025, creativity will be everywhere; in café façades, boutique windows, galleries, street art, and live studios. Visitors will meet makers, blend contexts, and experience Colombo as a living canvas. Inclusive and forward-looking, the festival celebrates local talent with a global mindset. SLDF shows that education goes beyond skills, turning ideas into businesses, spaces into experiences, and creativity into a force that reshapes cities and connects communities. Schools, students, parents, academic groups, and industry professionals are invited to engage with AOD at SLDF and meet the makers of tomorrow.

To arrange school viewings - contact shenali@aod. lk. For collaborations - contact nonimi@ aod.lk. For all other details and r e g i s t r at i o n , call/WhatsApp 074 1120 276 or visit www.aod.lk.

A student views the Graduate Exhibition 2024 with her parents.