This is the month to feed your muse. To help you decide which Bay Area design and art events need to be on your calendar, In/Visible Talks’ co-founders (and long-time practicing designers) Arianna Orland and Dava Guthmiller share their “must dos”. Wander the FoodieLand Night Market, get inspired by beautiful images at the San Francisco Art Book Fair, check out festivals, talks, and exhibitions. We hope to see you out and about.

FoodieLand Night Market.

We were hooked when we saw the lineup of more than 100 food vendors for this amazing Asian-inspired street-food festival. Yum! So it’s a total bonus that while our taste buds are being delighted, our creative muses will be fed by the 50 arts & crafts vendors also participating. With live entertainment and games, it’s family friendly, too. $5–$20; free for children under 5. July 5–7, 3:00–11:00 pm. (Also August 2–4 and October 4–6.) Golden Gate Fields, North Lot, 1100 Eastshore Highway, Berkeley.

Cityscape.

Creativity Explored, one of our favorite arts organizations in the City, offers a packed slate of programming that never disappoints. Next up, artist and In/Visible Talks Salon speaker Isaac Haney-Owens makes his curatorial debut with “Cityscape”. The show features Isaac’s hand-painted, three-dimensional replicas of vintage signs and work from several emerging Creativity Explored artists. Haney-Owens says that “The urban environment is fascinating to me because of the variety of architectural styles, the different types of people it attracts, and the amount of cultural diversity there is in a city.” Free. July 18, 7:00–9:00 pm; VIP Opening 6:00–7:00 pm. Creativity Explored, 3245 16^th Street (at Guerrero Street), San Francisco.

San Francisco Art Book Fair.

Last year 120 exhibitors—including publishers, antiquarian dealers, artists, and collectors—and over 10,000 visitors came together to celebrate artists’ books, art catalogues, monographs, periodicals, printed ephemera, and more. We love this event, as it inspires our brains with loads of freshly inked paper with beautiful type, illustrations, and images. Free. July 19, 6:00–10:00 pm; July 20, 11:00 am–6:00 pm; July 21, 11:00 am–5:00 pm. Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco.

In/Visible Talks Drink & Draw.

Did you know that closing your laptop can lead to great ideas and lots of fun? Join In/Visible Talks for our first ever drink and draw. We’ll have drawing supplies, still lifes to work from and drinks and snacks. All you need to bring is yourself and the willingness to let your pencil wander. Beginners welcome. $10. July 23, 5:30–7:30 pm. In/Visible Talks Project Space, 1616 16th Street, Suite 360, San Francisco.

Grey Area Festival 2019.

Hands down, this is one of the best conferences we’ve been to in the Bay Area. Artists, thinkers, and practitioners come from all over the world to take part in workshops, exhibitions, performances, and the two-day conference. Reserve your place now for four days of art, technology, music, and culture as the Grey Area Festival 2019 plots the future through AR, VR, XR, installation, and immersion. Individual Tickets and Festival Pass available, $25–$250. July 25–28. Pier 70 and Grey Area / Grand Theater, 2665 Mission Street, San Francisco.

Touchy Feely with Ellen Lupton, Hosted by the Letterform Archive.

When Ellen Lupton, Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, comes to town, we clear our calendars. Her topic at this “crunchy, slurpy, brainy type talk” will be ocularcentrism, specifically how, in modern society, vision is given precedence over all other senses. Discover how we can practice inclusive design that engages touching, hearing, and smelling, and explore new possibilities for visual design in the process. Free. July 30, 6:00 pm. San Francisco Public Library’s Koret Auditorium, Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco.

Want more? Check out the In/Visible Talks blog for reviews of design and arts events we’ve attended recently and to learn about upcoming opportunities.