Olympia And The Design Museum Bring NIGO’s World To A New Digital Canvas

As London’s cultural calendar continues to expand beyond traditional galleries and museums, Olympia is bringing fashion and design into the public realm through a new year long partnership with the Design Museum. The collaboration launches with a digital presentation of NIGO: From Japan with Love, projected onto the new 83 metre Canvas, created in collaboration with Pixel Artworks. As the Design Museum exhibition enters its final days, the presentation offers a new way to experience NIGO’s work outside the museum itself, connecting his influence across fashion, streetwear, music and contemporary culture with one of London’s most recognisable destinations.

Running every 15 minutes until 4 October, the free to view presentation takes the exhibition beyond its original setting and into the city. NIGO’s work has always existed across different creative disciplines, moving between fashion, collecting, music and design, making the scale of Olympia’s Canvas a fitting setting for the presentation. Rather than requiring visitors to enter a gallery, the work becomes part of the surrounding environment, allowing audiences to encounter the exhibition through a digital format while moving through the newly transformed destination.

The activation also marks the beginning of a wider programme of free cultural experiences at Olympia, with the partnership drawing from the Design Museum’s exhibitions and creative programme throughout 2026 and 2027. The collaboration reflects a broader shift in how cultural institutions can engage audiences, creating opportunities for design and visual culture to exist in spaces outside their traditional homes. For Olympia, it also establishes a continuing relationship with one of London’s leading design institutions, bringing a changing programme of ideas and creative work to its evolving site.

One of the next major exhibitions to feature within the partnership will be Es Devlin: Other Worlds, opening at the Design Museum on 2 October and running until 4 April 2027. The first European retrospective dedicated to the British artist and designer’s 30 year practice, the exhibition brings together her work across sculpture, stage design, music, language and light. With artworks, installations, film and the largest presentation of her archive to date, Devlin’s multidisciplinary practice offers another perspective on the relationship between design, performance and public space.

The partnership arrives as Olympia itself undergoes a significant transformation, reintroducing the 140 year old destination as a wider cultural and social destination within London. Alongside its exhibition and design programming, the development brings together dining, entertainment and new spaces for people to spend time, shifting the perception of Olympia beyond its history as an events venue. The Design Museum collaboration adds another layer to that transformation, positioning creative programming as part of the everyday experience of visiting the site.

With NIGO: From Japan with Love currently taking over the Canvas and a year of further activations ahead, Olympia and the Design Museum are creating another route for audiences to engage with contemporary design. The programme places exhibitions, artists and creative ideas in front of audiences beyond the museum walls, while giving Olympia a platform to become part of London’s wider cultural conversation. It is a fitting opening chapter for a partnership built around making design more visible, accessible and connected to the city.