The 20 books that DGLAB will submit to the international competition Best Book Design From All Over the World 2026, organised by the German foundation Buchkunst, have been selected. Among those selected are three Undergraduate in Design - Communication lecturers, Inês Nepomuceno, João Castro (The Royal Studio) and Rúben Dias, and ESAD alumni and former lecturer Mariana Marques, who collaborated with Inês on the competition project.
Designers Rúben Dias and Inês Nepomuceno are also researchers at esad-idea.
- Joyeuse Apocalypse !
- Design: Mariana Marques and Inês Nepomuceno
- O que faz falta: 50 anos de arquitetura portuguesa em democracia
- Design: The Royal Studio (dir.), Ana Resende (dir.), Eunice Bastos and Rita Constante
- Paper, Paper, Paper
- Design: Rúben Dias, Fábio Martins and Ricardo Dantas
The results of this competition will be known at the beginning of 2026, and the prizes will be awarded at the Leipzig International Book Fair next March, where the candidate books from all the countries will be on display.
This result comes from the 8th edition of the Book Design Award, which evaluated a total of 98 books submitted to the competition. The jury, composed of Ana Catarina Silva, Joana Baptista Costa, Sofia Santos and Susana Carvalho, unanimously recognised ‘Dança não dança’ as the winner, designed by Ana Baliza, in collaboration with Mariana Veloso, co-published by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda and produced by INCM.
Special mentions were awarded to the Macedo Cannatà studio, for the design of the book Os Ovários das Papoilas, and to Sofia Gonçalves, for the design of the book Problemas do Primitivismo - a partir de Portugal.
All the candidate books will be exhibited again in October 2026 at the Frankfurt International Book Fair.