Visitors to Mayfair’s South Molton Street this month will notice a vibrant addition to its well-heeled roster of boutiques. Applying her trademark colour and pattern to a characterful array of outdoor furniture, bunting and flags, French designer Ms Camille Walala has turned the street into an open-air living room for this year’s London Design Festival – enlivening London’s cityscape in the process.

Now in its 17th year, London’s annual celebration of design, art and architecture spans the city, providing a platform for London’s creative industries. According to Ms Walala, her interactive installation, which is set to remain in place after the festival ends, is intended to surprise. “These objects have a cartoonish element and might initially appear out of place,” she says. “I thought it’d be great to do something positive and playful within the city – colour and pattern are great tools to make people smile.”

Perhaps the antidote to a sombre national mood, bold colours play a central role within several key projects across the city, with Mr Adam Nathaniel Furman’s “Paddington Pyramid” forming a dramatic 13-metre high beacon in the Paddington Basin, while designer Mr Dan Tobin Smith has collaborated with creative studio The Experience Machine on an installation called “Void” in Islington – a multisensory world shaped by Mozambican rubies and Zambian emeralds and soundtracked by a female electronic drone choir.

Another designer aiming to create a meaningful connection with visitors this year is Mr Steuart Padwick, who’s teamed up with the Time to Change campaign to build two giant sculptures in King’s Cross’ designjunction that are intended to address mental health issues, with the structures whispering words of support to those who engage. “I wanted these pieces to be visually impactful, but also visually compassionate – conversation and talking to each other is essential if we are to make progress. We need to show people we care, but often we don’t know how to do that. It often simply starts with a ‘hello’,” says Mr Padwick, who argues that good design that enhances people’s lives will always be relevant. “If it helps one person in their difficulties or helps prevent one person from going down a deep downward spiral, then it will have been worth it.”

Throughout the capital, London Design Festival’s roster of public installations, tours, debates and brand presentations gives the city’s creative industry the chance to shine. Based in Shoreditch, lighting designer Mr Lee Broom has succeeded in elevating product display to an art form, with this year’s striking Kaleidescopia exhibition the latest in a repertoire that has previously seen him create Modernist merry-go-rounds, fake department stores and an Italian palazzo inside a delivery van.

This year, he uses large-scale mirrors to form an infinitely shifting optical illusion as a backdrop for products old and new. “Furniture and lighting presentations can often be very static, so I like to bring my own work to life and create inspired environments with a sense of intrigue or escapism,” he says, adding that designing shows is one of his favourite parts of the job. “I worked for Vivienne Westwood in the 1990s and it was always my intention when I started out in product design to try and instil that same drama and excitement into my own presentations.”

Appearing at the event for the 12th time, Mr Broom has witnessed London Design Festival grow to become an essential part of a global calendar and welcomes its outward-looking spirit – evident this year with the discussion of hot topics including biophilic design and waste-free manufacture. “London has always been incredibly open to innovation and creativity,” he says, “which is what makes the London Design Festival such an important platform for British designers.”