Where Ideas, Materials, and Cultures Meet
Ways Forward
Overview
Founded by RE/CRAFT, Ways Forward received hundreds of submissions from creators worldwide, featuring works across material experimentation, craft, graphic and visual arts, painting and illustration, product design,architecture, landscape，Interiors，UI/UX, sculpture, and installation.
International artists, designers, and industry experts—including XZoya Taseva, Elizabeth Glazko, Xinyue (Hope) Shen, Yanwen Hang, Marta Ornelas Monteiro , Sahasa and Katya Shkolnik—were invited to serve on the jury. Selected outstanding works are exhibited at London Design Festival (LDF).
Ways Forward brings together international designers and artists from diverse regions and cultural backgrounds, exploring how different perspectives, practices, and creative approaches can open new ways forward.
This exhibition was openned during London x Design Festival 2026, on view at RE/CRAFT website from Sept 12 to 20, 2026
Stand out brilliantly
Yuwei Liu
This project is inspired by the talented Chinese women I know who lived aboard. Ceramics symbolize our Chinese heritage and roots—upon which we develop our own patterns and colors. Through this piece, I want to highlight both the shared experiences and individuality of Chinese women living abroad, showcasing how they navigate a path that blends tradition and innovation, shining brightly in their own way.
Bagel, be good!
Zefeng Lu
Bagel, be good! is an independent product design project exploring how everyday pet essentials can become more thoughtful, expressive, and enjoyable objects for both dogs and their people.
At its core, Bagel, be good! explores the emotional dimension of product design: how simple, frequently used objects can strengthen everyday rituals and reflect the relationship between people and their dogs. The result is a collection designed not only for the walk itself, but for the life that happens around it.
Lacquer Guqin — Metal Powder Decoration
Han Liu
The guqin body is reinforced with ramie fabric as a structural base, coated with multiple layers of raw lacquer, and finished with metal powder decoration.
Ramie fabric is embedded in the lacquer layers as a structural reinforcement. The woven textile becomes an integral part of the instrument's body, bridging textile logic and lacquer craftsmanship.
Infinite Us: A World Without Boundaries
Lucille Huang
Infinite Us: A World Without Boundaries is a product design series that explores this tension. The highly reflective chrome surfaces symbolize the overwhelming information explosion of our time, constantly mirroring and fragmenting our identities. Through three progressive chrome figures, melting and collapsing, partially formed and unstable, then standing tall yet hollow, the work visualizes the journey from dissolution to a polished but empty shell.
This series serves as both a mirror and a warning.
Sonibaux
Bowen Wu
Sonibaux is a series of newly designed instruments that I have created, built, and performed with in my sonic art practice, particularly within live performance contexts. Rather than referring to a single controller or instrument, the project is an open system composed of combinations of boxes and sensors of various sizes and shapes, designed to accommodate diverse performance and creative scenarios.
Flow N_W_
Qun Fu
Flow N_W_ is a climate-responsive ecological art interactive installation rooted in the philosophy of “Effortless Action” (“Wu Wei Er Wu Bu Wei”). Against the backdrop of the low-carbon era, it introduces an energy-efficient art form that requires “zero grid electricity,” relying entirely on natural wind for mechanical kinetic energy.
It transforms invisible air currents into visible, iridescent bubble patterns. The installation encourages public interaction, allowing people to alter local wind flow patterns and visualize these changes in real-time bubbles.
“0:00A.M.”
Yuanshen Yang
At 11:59 p.m., a white-collar worker, who has been working overtime for days on end, finally arrived home. Excessive exhaustion caused him to misalign his behavior and his thinking. In his mind, time is so long and endless, and the entrance hall became a boundless sea of water. He felt like he had spent a long time in this small space, but the reality is that it was only a minute.