This achievement is even more significant when we consider that out of more than 7,000 submissions, only 90 projects were awarded, and of these, only eight were from Spain. The fact that six of them are Basque demonstrates the strength of our region’s design education ecosystem and the potential of the new generation.

Six Basque projects among the world’s best

The iF Design Student Awards are distinguished from the professional awards by their approach: they are not organised by design category, but rather by their impact on the first 15 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The jury particularly highlights each proposal’s ability to address real-world problems, its feasibility, social benefit, ethics, and solidarity.

These are the Basque projects that were awarded in 2026:

• Locui — Iratxe del Olmo. Student in Graphic Design at IDarte, the Public School of Art and Design of the Basque Country.
  Locui is a set of Augmentative and Alternative Communication tools, specially designed for pre-adolescents and adolescents with autism and speech difficulties. It fills the gap between children’s pictogram cards and cold clinical devices. The system features a colour-coded communication board with over 100 icons and monochrome emotion cards, designed to minimise sensory overload and facilitate everyday expression through respectful visual language adapted to their age.
• Matterness — Saioa Villa, Graphic Design student at IED Kunsthal Bilbao.
  Matterness reimagines our relationship with materials in the midst of the ecological crisis, questioning the perspective that considers matter a passive resource. It includes an editorial essay on the life cycles of materials and a digital platform that serves as an open archive for biomaterial projects in design and art. Based on multiple researches, Matterness fosters critical thinking and evolves collectively over time.
• Post-Nuclear Housing — Mikel García, Interior Design student at IED Bilbao.
  The Post-Nuclear Housing project examines how contemporary architecture fails to meet the needs of a changing society. It emphasises the responsibility of architecture towards its users, proposing adaptable design strategies. This speculative project aims to create dwellings inspired by the ideas of feminism and posthumanism that promote reconnecting with others and the environment, while prioritising rest and enjoyment over productivity and consumption.
• SkiChair — Magdalena Real de Asúa, a student of Industrial Design Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at Deusto University. The SkiChair is a portable seat designed for resting in the snow, which can be used without needing to remove your equipment. It is positioned in ski boots, offering stability and comfort using the body and the snow, without any hard supports. It can be folded and unfolded in seconds, even while wearing gloves. The SkiChair promotes active rest, reduces fatigue and improves the skiing experience.
• Vida — Izaro López, an Industrial Design Engineering student at Deusto University.The ageing population requires more and more ostomies, and colostomies are the most common. Many people face physical and emotional challenges during the adjustment period, such as leaks and the ‘balloon effect’. A lack of social awareness leads to stigmatisation, which complicates the adjustment process. Vida offers a two-piece, closed colostomy bag, designed to alleviate the fears, uncertainties, and common difficulties that these patients endure.
• Numbra — a team of 12 Digital Arts and Animation students from the DIGIPEN Institute of Technology Europe in Bilbao.
  Numbra is a narrative puzzle and escape game in which players guide Lucy through a limbo-like world marked by trauma and memories. It is a non-violent game, based on empathy and problem-solving, complemented by atmospheric 3D art and symbolic storytelling. With over 30,000 downloads on Steam, our goal is to turn this student project into a polished and commercially viable product that will boost the games development industry in the Basque Country and inspire its young people to create interactive stories.

Young Talent: a springboard for new talent

This recognition is particularly pleasing for us at EIDE — the Basque Design Association. The six winning projects were selected in the Talentu Gazteak 2025 programme, which we organise annually as part of Bilbao Bizkaia Design Week to showcase the best final-year undergraduate and postgraduate projects from educational institutions teaching design in the Basque Country and Navarre:

• Digipen Institute of Technology Europe Bilbao
• EASDI Corella
• EASD Iruña
• EHU — Donostia School of Architecture
• EHU — Faculty of Fine Arts
• EUNEIZ University of Vitoria-Gasteiz
• IDarte — Basque School of Public Art and Design
• IED Kunsthal Bilbao
• MU — Faculty of Humanities and Education
• MU — Higher Polytechnic School
• UNAV — Higher Technical School of Architecture
• UNAV — Tecnun Engineering School
• Deusto University — Faculty of Engineering

A boost for Basque design on the international stage

The success of this 2026 edition reinforces the excellent impressions from last year, when EIDE was the local partner for the iF Design Student Award and the event was held in Bilbao, with the Guggenheim Museum as its host. Seeing the projects selected for the Young Talents programme stand out once again on the international stage reaffirms the importance of continuing to foster young talent and strengthening the bridges that connect education, design, and industry.

The Basque presence at the iF Design Student Awards 2026 demonstrates that our colleges and universities are training professionals capable of providing innovative, responsible, and transformative solutions. At EIDE, we will continue to work to ensure this talent has visibility, opportunities, and international connections.