ESAD is interlinked with several spaces: its Research Unit esad—idea, and its gallery space Exploratório; the esad—design [cluster] located in the Mercado de Matosinhos, an iconic building in the city’s port area; and the Casa do Design, located in the Paços do Concelho building. Since 2019, ESAD has organized the Porto Design Biennale, the largest Design event in Portugal, and leads the Blue Design Alliance consortium of higher education institutions.

ESAD is widely recognized for the quality of its conferences, workshops and master classes, which are organized with great regularity.

In its first year of activity, in 1989, it organized the 1st National Design Meeting, a pioneering event in Portugal. This was followed by international conferences dedicated to the theme of interfaces in Design and at the beginning of the century the School actively collaborated in the programming of Porto 2001 — European Capital of Culture. In 2003, Personal Views, a cycle of conferences in the field of Communication Design, became an international reference. Conferences open to the whole community allowed contact with leading designers such as Ken Garland, Wim Crouwel, Neville Brody, Jan van Toorn, Katherine McCoy, Experimental Jetset, Rick Poynor and dozens of others. Among countless other initiatives, in 2014 ESAD was an official partner of the government initiative Ano do Design Português (Year of Portuguese Design) and was responsible for holding the exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary of April 25th. In 2016, it was responsible for the Portuguese program at the 21st Milan Triennale and, since 2019, it has been organizing the Porto Design Biennale.

Through the actions of the School, its Research Unit, its teachers and alumni, ESAD's talent and creativity are present in projects in the most varied contexts and geographies.

Our alumni are our best ambassadors: we find their presence in leading companies in the design and technology industry such as IDEO and Logitech, in Portuguese and foreign universities, in objects included in the collection of MUDE — Museum of Design and Fashion and in the interior design of La Galerie Bourbon in Paris, in Western Digital's My Passport external disk, the best-selling hard drive in the world, and in the visual identity of the city of Matosinhos. Innovation and design imagination are featured in fashion design collections that have been shown in Milan and Paris and have reached Expo 2020 in Dubai and the FIFA World Cup in 2022 in Qatar. While brilliant minds travel the world, ESAD is their home.

Consolidated internationally, ESAD has partnerships with around 180 higher education institutions on five continents, activating various inter-school projects and promoting the mobility of hundreds of students, teachers and staff.

The positive reception of foreign students earned ESAD the Good Practices Award from the Erasmus+ National Agency in 2018. The School is a member of Cumulus — Global Association of Art and Design Education.

With 35 years of history and a long future, we are a school with personality. You will only fully understand this by being part of it. We are waiting for you here: in the North of Portugal, in the South of Europe, in the Center of the World.

ESAD — College of Art and Design
Av. Calouste Gulbenkian, 907
4460–268 Senhora da Hora
Matosinhos, Portugal