A NEW festival aims to position Brighton as a world-class urban design centre, alongside established design weeks in London, Milan and San Francisco.

A launch event for Design Brighton will be held on Wednesday July 11 at the Brighthelm Centre on North Road.

Local businesses are invited to attend.

Initial plans include tours of design workshops, walking tours of Brighton’s urban realm, inspiring talks, exhibitions and networking opportunities for students and businesses in the sector.

The festival has been founded by the Cowell Consulting Group alongside Stickland Wright, a local architect and interiors firm.

It has already secured support from Brighton and Hove Council, Royal Institute of British Architects, RLF, Groundsure, Minton Young, Wolfstrome Design, Stokes Group, University of Brighton, Lollipop Print Shop and Midnight Communications.

Festival co-founder John Cowell, pictured, of Cowell Consulting Group, said: “Our vision is to create a leading design week to promote Brighton’s global reputation as a design rich city.

“The festival will showcase the city’s exceptional designers, producers and educators to create a strong collaborative network and put Brighton on the map.”

Festival co-founder Nick Stickland of Stickland Wright said: “This city all too often loses out to London for projects large and small, and some of our outstanding students are being lured away.

“Design Brighton will light a beacon to attract investment, visitors and students to the unique offering of Greater Brighton.

“Brighton is leading the charge for stellar urban design and we want the world to know about it.”

Businesses across the county are invited to attend the launch event to find out more about the plans for Design Brighton and discover how they might be able to participate.

To register for the event, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/design-brighton-pre-launch-tickets-46563255952.

For more information regarding Design Brighton, go to www.designbrighton.org