Meltdown Talks: Design Journeys
Designers Dulcie Davy, Es Devlin and Yinka Ilori share their routes into their careers with chair Jeremy Ngatho Cole, dishing out advice to emerging creatives.
The panel discusses overcoming barriers in the industry, staying true to yourself and your craft, and building community and collaboration.
Dulcie Davy, a visual artist from south London, primarily works within the mediums of painting and sculpture. She specialises in sculpted functional art, drawing inspiration from the beauty and diversity within the female Black community, viewed through an afro-futuristic lens. Her work is influenced by both her mixed-race heritage and the vibrant city she grew up in.
Through three decades of major installation and performance works, artist and designer Es Devlin has become known as ‘the poet of light and sound’. Her large scale participatory choral sculptures Library of Light (2025), Congregation (2024), Come Home Again (2022) and Forest of Us (2021) explore porosity between self and other. Her celebrated luminous kinetic stage sculptures invite theatre, opera and stadium audiences to convene within resonant archetypal forms and gestures transfused with contemporary technology.
Drawing on Nigerian parables and verbal traditions, Yinka Ilori’s humorous, provocative and playful work is underpinned by the belief that art and design should be accessible to all. Often using the city as his canvas, he reimagines spaces to encourage a sense of community and invites audiences to engage and participate in his work and its surroundings.
Jeremy Ngatho Cole is an award-winning film-maker, artist and the creative director for Little Simz. His work spans film, music, and live performance and design, from co-directing Channel 4’s Four to the Floor to shaping the show design for major live sets like Simz’ No Thank You tour and Glastonbury headline set. As co-founder of the creative studio YOUT, with Marcus Grey, he has led visual projects for artists including Michael Kiwanuka, Ezra Collective, Celeste and Pa Salieu.
Need to know
This event is free, but ticketed. Seating is unallocated and tickets don’t guarantee entry: admission is on a first-come, first-served basis for those with tickets. Please arrive early to avoid disappointment.
Image gallery
For your visit
This event is held at the Purcell Room Southbank Centre
The Purcell Room is located in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, which is open from 90 minutes before events start until they finish. It’s closed at all other times.
Plan your visit
The Purcell Room is an auditorium located within our Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Food & drink
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.