The exhibition “Design 1900 – Now” at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), home to one of the world’s most important collections of applied arts, presents 250 objects from the museum’s collections of 20th- and 21st-century art and design, displayed across two galleries. This diverse and often surprising collection invites visitors to explore and reconsider every aspect of the designed world – from familiar and everyday objects, such as the first Apple iPhone from the 2000s and early Tupperware products from the 1960s, to politically engaged and provocative examples, including a series of Benetton posters from the early 1990s and a pair of Adidas trainers made from recycled illegal fishing nets collected in 2015.

From mass production to YouTube and smartphones

The exhibition brings together key examples of 20th-century design with objects that represent the digital present. Visitors can follow the development of design from early modernist experiments and Art Deco aesthetics, through popular culture and Michele de Lucchi’s Flamingo Table, to objects that have become part of everyday life in the 21st century.

The inclusion of a reconstruction of the first YouTube homepage and the first-generation Apple iPhone reflects the growing role of digital culture within the history of design. Objects that were once symbols of technological innovation are now part of museum collections, documenting the rapid changes in the ways we create, use, and understand visual and functional forms.

A significant part of the exhibition is the V&A’s Rapid Response Collecting initiative, which focuses on acquiring objects connected to important contemporary events and social developments. Through this project, the museum collects examples of design that respond to political, environmental, and cultural issues.

The objects in this section are closely linked to current events and everyday realities. They include design responses created during the global pandemic, adidas trainers produced from recycled illegal fishing nets recovered from the oceans, as well as objects carrying activist and political messages.

Why visit this exhibition?

Located on the second floor of the V&A Museum, the permanent exhibition “Design 1900 – Now” is free to visit and offers an opportunity to explore how design reflects wider social and technological changes.

The exhibition is not intended only for design professionals or enthusiasts. It invites visitors to reconsider everyday objects – from the smartphone we carry to the chair we use – and to view them as products of particular historical, economic, and cultural contexts.