Melbourne International Design Festival

Where: Various locations, Melbourne
When: 10am Sunday 27 July

The world's richest design award exhibition, INDEX is embarking on its inaugural worldwide tour and will make Melbourne its first port of call next week for the opening of the Melbourne International Design Festival on Thursday July 17, 2008.

The Index exhibition, which is housed within over 70 life-sized Perspex 'bubbles', will showcase designers from across the globe who's work has been selected for the improvement it makes to everyday life.

The Melbourne International Design Festival, presented by the National Design Centre features more than 50 events held in numerous locations across Melbourne and beyond, from the ever-popular Melbourne Design Market at Federation Square undercover car park which attracts many thousands of visitors each year, to Festival forums, workshops, exhibitions, tours and much more.

The theme Strength in Numbers is reinforced through a number of Festival events including the fourth Australian Poster Annual, featuring 50 finalist posters selected from hundreds received Australia-wide. This year the Poster Annual is on display at BMW Edge, Federation Square.

As a 10-day celebration of design, the Festival continues to be a major focal point on the cultural calendar for the design industry and broader community. In the National Design Centre's ongoing efforts to make design widely accessible, most of the Festival events are free.

Other major events include the Vertical Garden project at Melbourne Central; the Melbourne Unbuilt audio walking tour; and Melbourne Open House- a day modelled on the highly successful New York and London Open House events. Melbourne Open House sees the city's most intriguing buildings opened up to the public for a day (Sunday 20 July).

Festival programs will be available at the National Design Centre from Friday July 11, cnr Russell and Flinders Streets, Federation Square or visit nationaldesigncentre.com.