This year, our display explores objects that shape our world, experiences, and personal lives, on both tangible and abstract levels. We present six individually curated themes: nostalgia, daily ritual & routine, round objects, female world, the colour yellow, and the world of books. From Irish peat blocks to Cypriot tumbleweed, both familiarity and curiosity are essential to this display. Through these varied and distinct categories, we explore the intentionality of joyful design, and how people across the globe shape and personalise the items that connect us all.

By noticing the physical shapes that surround us, we can understand the greater world of intentional design that keeps life fascinating. The act of slowing down and noticing these forms, colours, and themes in our daily encounters allows us to connect our practices with those around and before us.

In this exhibition, the first theme of nostalgia presents objects that tell us childhood stories of our own and of others, and shares unique and fond memories of worldwide culture. This brings us to daily routine, a second selection detailing the mundane things we do every day as humans that connect us in character and existence. Then, looking at round objects, we explore the playfulness and functionality of repetitive design in the context of ordinary items, from Jamaican Dutch pots to Mauritian mosquito-coil packs.

With an amusing array of print media, maintenance products, and clothing, the global female experience takes a sly lens in the exhibition, exploring what it literally looks like to be a woman in many different countries. The collection also presents an assortment of books; from Chinese Little Red Books to Polish miniature books of exotic poetry, we delve into the texts that shape our  perspectives and experiences. Last but not least, we look at nothing else but joy! Our final curated table presents a complete array of yellow objects, emphasising the importance of colour in design psychology.