Design Magazine Leida Open Call for Proposals for Articles

Leida invites you to take part in an Open Call ahead of compiling the journal’s 7th issue. The autumn issue will focus on design curation, exhibitions, and understanding the curatorial field of design. We welcome ideas for reviews, essays, interviews, case studies and other formats on the topic.   Design is a fast-evolving and developing subject. The many forms and mediums where design is presented and exhibited are also changing. Some design museums today try to avoid putting design objects on plinths. They look for experimental formats that make discussing issues and ideas possible. On the other hand, classic retrospectives or shows on design icons have not gone out of fashion either. Design curation also happens in residencies, galleries, publications, department stores, event spaces, biennials, and elsewhere. Exhibition makers and theorists have found that the discipline’s health is connected to the conversations surrounding it. In Estonia, the discussion about design curation often focuses on what is not happening or what we lack. How can we change the discussion and create a more meaningful debate? Can we imagine a new era full of experiments, symposiums, newspaper discussions and theoretical analyses about the curatorial in design? If the subject speaks to you, please submit a short abstract stating the central subject and questions you want to write about. Guest Editor: Sandra Nuut Application deadline: 30.05.2025 Selection announcement: June 2025 Launch of the issue: November 2025 APPLY Please submit the following materials: abstract (500 words) images (1-3 if suitable) Please apply by sending materials to Sandra Nuut sandra.nuut@etdm.ee Sandra Nuut is a curator working at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design. Nuut’s work includes teaching, writing, and curatorial projects, including: “Martin Pedanik. Man Behind the Scenes” (2025), “Uneversum: Rhythms and Spaces” (2023) at the museum and the Dear Friend exhibition and symposium (2022) at EKA Gallery. Before her appointment at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design in 2022, she worked at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2017–2022) and the New York-based gallery Chamber (2014–2017). ABOUT LEIDA Leida is an online journal initiated by the Faculty of Design, Estonian Academy of Arts and is focused on publishing texts that describe, analyse and reflect upon the various facets of being human and non-human through the critical visual, material and processual aspects of design. Leida brings together both Estonian and foreign practitioners and theorists with a background in design, craft, architecture, visual arts or the fields in between. The journal provides a discussion platform that empowers a multiplicity of different media, disciplines and perspectives in order to ensure a level of criticality and adequacy to understand the modern person, their experience and the surrounding environment. leida.artun.ee/en