Speed and acceleration, that’s what the body experienced during the ExperimentaDesign opening days, a whirlwind of events hitting the streets of Lisbon. If a few years ago the secret word was ‘Matter’, this year’s edition is about ‘Time’.

Under the ticking title ‘It’s About Time’ the opening week programme from 9 till 13 September featured its usual massive calendar of events, always on the move, from the morning Open Talks, the afternoon Conferences, the late-night Exhibition premieres to the midnight and early-morning parties. No time for a religious moment to contemplate the unique designs of the pastel de nata or the pasteis de bacalhau. But always good to see how Guta and her team succeed in bringing all these thinkers, makers and doers from the design world together to celebrate design and creativity in some of these wonderful settings, from Belém to Oriente and from Avenidas Novas to Chiado. Think we spend at least 100 km in taxis and buses… passing the many boulevards and backstreets of Lisbon, passing places with names that make you smile. A small tick a tick a time bomb on sustainability…

With its countless offerings on show, the more ‘timeless’ exhibitions were ‘Quick, Quick, Slow’ curated by Emily King, which ‘surveys the dimension of time in graphic design, looking as far back as the early 20th century and tracing the mutual influences and exchanges between motion graphics and print’ (at CCB/ Museu Colecção Berardo) and ‘Lapse in Time’ by Hans Maier-Aichen, subtitled Design between elasticity and socio-cultural responsibility (at Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes) – embroidering further in 3D on his book called New Talents (released Spring 09), with the same usual suspects of tinkers, tailors, sailors and soldiers of design: ‘Lapse in Time spotlights young designers who have chosen the opposite route, uncompromising designers whose work is grounded on highly individual, in-depth thinking and boundary-defying creative elasticity. Pursuing innovation and cutting-edge experimentation at the crossroads of design, cognitive sciences, environmental concerns and intercultural exchange, they strive towards a change in paradigm, one that is also temporal. Though unique in vision and attitude, they share a common trait: that of operating on a wholly different lapse of time’. We couldn’t have said it better.

Another part of the programme were the Conferences at Teatro Camões, with among others presentations of Michael Young and Konstantin Grcic, delivering a closer look inside the practices of both industrial designers on how they think and work. While Grcic shared his daily realities about creation and production, his days on the road when travelling from Vitra to Plank - dealing with numbers, figures, facts and counterfeit - Young clarified some of the reasons why he enjoys working in Asia (first Taipei, now Hong Kong), where he as a designer can generate much more control on the total business aspects of product creation – from design, prototyping, manufacturing, packaging, to marketing and communication.

If this 5th Experimenta felt more about the consolidation of the event - more people, the big names, the pomp and circumstance - it’s about time for the next edition to slow down and come back to the origins of its name and offer more room for ‘experiment’ in the broadest sense of the word. If ‘It’s About Time’ may sound like an indigestible title for a reflection on design and creativity, content wise we stayed on our hunger as most proposals felt a bit predictable or abstract and vague. And as it goes for most design events, there were the many absent friends from the industry. Distant voices from the Portuguese design front were rather critical, preferring a design event that could be beneficent for the country’s entire creative class, inspiring to both its creators and its captains of the domestic industries, whether it’s about time, glass, ceramics, fabrics, leather, lace, wood, cork or even wine, fish and rice or whatever material that is around and available. It’s about time to stop and think about that.