Vancouver Design Week is back: a fact many curious pedestrians learned when they came across downtown's Alley Oop yesterday evening (May 12), which played host to bundles of bright balloons and a crowd of enthusiastic design folks.

The event, which was free and open to the public, marked the launch of the city's official interdisciplinary design festival, a multi-day celebration of the local creative community working in sectors such as industrial design, fashion, graphic design, landscape architecture, and everything in between.

Co-hosted by HCMA Architecture + Design, the party included refreshments from Roaming Dragon food truck and Faculty Brewing Co., as well as opportunities for citizens to engage with Vancouver's designscape. Organizers of VDW and participating designers in this year's festival were also present and available to answer questions about the refreshed program.

VDW's abridged lineup for 2017, branded Vancouver Design Week(end), takes place at various venues around the city until this Sunday (May 14). The schedule includes a series of studio and building tours, where Vancouverites can explore 45-plus design-oriented workspaces and sites of interests; food-and-beverage tastings at cafes, craft breweries, and kombucha bars; and a number of workshops, talks, and other events. Many of the functions are free.

This year marks the second edition of VDW, which was founded in 2014. The biannual fete failed to return in 2016 due to a lack of funds, though organizers are now working with the City of Vancouver to ensure a full, 10-day celebration in 2018 that will focus explicitly on the theme of "impact". This weekend's abridged iteration is meant to whet Vancouver's design appetite in the meantime.

"We've had great conversations with the city so far and we look forward to collaborating even further to leverage the Design Week platform," Jennifer Cutbill, cofounder and director of VDW, told a crowd at yesterday's launch party.

Check out the images below for a glimpse at last night's VDW kick-off in Alley Oop.

For more information about Vancouver Design Week schedule, including the full program of events, visit vancouverdesignwk.com/ .