Barcelona hosts the 1st edition of the ESDESIGN Recognition Awards as part of FESesDesign 2025
Design as a tool for social transformation, critical thinking and commitment was the central theme of the first edition of the ESDESIGN Recognition Awards, held as part of FESesDesign 2025, the design festival promoted by ESDESIGN School of Design, part of Planeta Formación y Universidades, on 30 and 31 May 2025.
The awards ceremony, hosted by designer, curator and ESDESIGN lecturer Oscar Guayabero, recognised four professionals and projects that embody design’s ability to generate impact beyond aesthetics.
The Award for an initiative linked to Barcelona went to the exhibition Matter Matters, by architect Olga Subirós, presented at Disseny Hub Barcelona. The exhibition offers a critical perspective on sustainability, addressing the environmental emergency and the scarcity of raw materials. It invites us to rethink the way we produce, consume and coexist with materials. Subirós, recognised for representing Spain at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021, further strengthens her profile as one of the most committed voices in contemporary design.
The Award for professional career was given to industrial designer Curro Claret, whose career has been defined by a deeply human and social approach. Through collaborations with vulnerable groups and the use of reused materials, Claret has developed an honest and functional visual language that places design at the service of inclusion and dignity. His work with vulnerable communities, such as the creation of furniture with Arrels Fundació, shows how design can become a tool for inclusion and change.
Fashion designer Txell Miras received the Award for outstanding professional. With a solid and international career, Miras has successfully merged fashion with contemporary art, creating conceptual collections that reflect on identity, the body and the architecture of clothing. Her visual language, conceptual, monochrome and structured, has positioned her as a coherent and distinctive creator, a regular presence at 080 Barcelona Fashion and part of the European scene for more than two decades.
Finally, the Award for emerging professional went to Pol Juliá, a young designer and art director whose work stands out for its visual strength, experimental character and distinctive identity. Juliá, who has worked on branding, scenography and visual communication projects, explores new graphic languages that merge the digital, the analogue and the sculptural, bringing a fresh and daring perspective to the national design scene.
With this first edition, the ESDESIGN Recognition Awards celebrate not only talent, but also the commitment, courage and critical capacity of contemporary design. An initiative created with a desire for continuity and with the aim of continuing to give visibility to projects that understand design as a driver of change.