You can’t escape light! DesignBlok brings the theme of light to the Trade Fair Palace, the Museum of Decorative Arts and Prague Castle, while also becoming the first event to reopen the Industrial Palace at Výstaviště Praha
26. 5. 2026
Light as a symbol of knowledge, truth, hope and life. The theme of the 28th edition of Central Europe’s largest design and fashion festival explores a phenomenon that shapes our senses, emotions and everyday lives. This year, DesignBlok will welcome around 300 curatorially selected designers, studios and brands from the Czech Republic and abroad. Alongside installations by exhibiting designers, studios, schools and companies, the programme will also feature major curated exhibitions dedicated to design created for Prague Castle at Václav Havel’s initiative, retro lamps and Czech craftsmanship. Key highlights will also include installations by Eva Eisler and Maxim Velčovský. The festival will premiere a new visual identity by the studio Permanent Office, which invited photographer Viktorie Macánová to collaborate on this year’s campaign. The main festival venue returns to the Trade Fair Palace of the National Gallery Prague and, at the same time, to the Industrial Palace at Výstaviště Praha, reopening as the first event after its extensive reconstruction. Professionals Day will take place on Tuesday, 6 October 2026, together with the DesignBlok Talks conference, which will newly expand into a two-day event. The festival will be open to the public from Wednesday, 7 October to Sunday, 11 October 2026.
Exploring light on both symbolic and practical levels
Light is the central theme of the 28th edition of DesignBlok and permeates this year’s visual identity, curated exhibitions and the Designblok Talks conference programme. The festival will present light both symbolically and practically — as a cultural phenomenon, a technological tool and a significant element of architecture, design and everyday life.
“The theme of this year’s DesignBlok is light as a symbol of knowledge, truth, hope and life. It will resonate throughout the festival programme in both abstract and highly tangible ways. At the Riding Hall of Prague Castle, we will present the exhibition Design for Václav Havel on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the birth of the first president of the free Czech state, a figure who embodied the values we wish to highlight through this year’s theme. Together with the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, we will present an exhibition of retro lamps from the 1950s to the 1980s from the Central European region. We have also prepared an important collaboration with the National Gallery Prague at the Trade Fair Palace building. It will take the form of a performative light installation by Maxim Velčovský. We all need light to live — and DesignBlok will provide it in abundance,” says festival director Jana Zielinski.
The new visual identity places visitors centre stage
The new graphic identity of DesignBlok was created through an invited competition by the studio Permanent Office, led by creative director Jiří Mocek. This year’s visual campaign builds on the established slogan “You can’t escape design!” and shifts it towards the new motif “You can’t escape light!”. The campaign was created in collaboration with young and talented photographer Viktorie Macánová, who regularly works with the festival and has attended it since her studies at UMPRUM.
The visual campaign places real people connected to the festival at its centre: visitors, designers and team members emerging from darkness through a beam of light. “Design enthusiasts of all generations create the unique atmosphere of DesignBlok. The campaign introduces friends Míša and Naďa, who have attended the festival for many years and have themselves worked in culture, design student and now our colleague Anežka, adorable Beatka, who has attended the festival with her parents since birth, as well as UMPRUM students Anton, Barbora, Jáchym, Miloslav, Sofie and Tereza, for whom Designblok is both inspiration and an opportunity to showcase their talent. The campaign also features contemporary Czech design icon Maxim Velčovský, who has literally grown up with the festival and now attends regularly not only as an exhibitor but also as a father,” says Patrik Florián, Head of Marketing & Communication. The stories of the individual protagonists will gradually unfold on the festival’s social media channels.
“This year’s edition marks the beginning of our long-term collaboration with DesignBlok. The festival has a rich history and photo editorials have become part of its DNA — something we did not want to abandon. However, we approached them with a rather radical transformation. Our goal was to bring more authenticity and a real atmosphere into the visuals, as well as the environment, mood, exhibitors and visitors on whom the entire festival is built,” explains Jiří Mocek.
“I never imagined that one day I would be photographing the visual campaign for DesignBlok. For me, it means that my work has purpose, but at the same time I also feel a great sense of responsibility and an opportunity to reflect on years of work. It was important for me that the campaign feel human. At the same time, we incorporated striking design elements into the photographs, such as original lamps that will form part of one of the exhibitions. The static photographs are complemented by animated versions that further develop the campaign,” adds Viktorie Macánová.
DesignBlok Talks conference expands to two days
The second edition of DesignBlok Talks, the Czech Republic’s largest conference on design, architecture and development, will newly take place over two days, on 6 and 7 October 2026, in the historic central hall of the Industrial Palace at Výstaviště Praha. The series of lectures, panel discussions and interviews will focus thematically on light as a design phenomenon, architectural tool and cultural symbol.
The conference is organised in collaboration with the world’s most-read design platform Dezeen. One of the conference’s main moderators will be Dezeen editor-in-chief Max Fraser, who will also serve as president of the DesignBlok Awards jury.
International speakers will include Laurids Gallée, Daniel Rybakken, Lee Broom and Judith van Vliet. The Czech scene will be represented by Jan Plecháč (Moser), Martin Wichterle (Rückl, Bomma), Michaela Tomišková and Jakub Janďourek (Dechem), Maxim Velčovský (Lasvit), Václav Mlynář, Lucie Koldová, Jiří Zavadil (Vitra) and David Řezníček (Konsepti). Additional Czech and international speakers will be announced gradually.
Design for Václav Havel, Eva Eisler and the best of Czech design and craftsmanship at Prague Castle
In collaboration with Prague Castle, DesignBlok continues to open exceptional spaces within the castle complex. Three exhibition projects will be presented at the Castle. “Designblok at the Castle will once again showcase the very best of Czech design in 2026. In addition, we are preparing an exhibition commemorating what would have been Václav Havel’s 90th birthday. Havel brought many exceptional creators to Prague Castle, including Bořek Šípek, Jiří Pelcl and Eva Jiřičná. Specifically for this year’s edition of DesignBlok, we will also open the Chapel of the Holy Cross, where one of the Czech Republic’s most prominent designers, Eva Eisler, has prepared an installation,” invites Veronika Wolf, Cultural and Programme Director of Prague Castle.
The exhibition Design for Václav Havel will present the first post-revolutionary president as an exceptionally sensitive commissioner who fundamentally transformed the appearance of Prague Castle after 1989 and gave it a new cultural and aesthetic identity. The exhibition is organised by DesignBlok and Prague Castle in collaboration with the VIZE 97 Foundation. Curators Andrea Běhounková and Jana Zielinski will present iconic works created for Prague Castle at Havel’s initiative in the Riding Hall of Prague Castle, including Bořek Šípek’s legendary Olga chair designed for the Spanish Hall, handwoven carpets, unique glass objects and the Castle Guard uniforms designed by Theodor Pištěk.
The fourth edition of the curated exhibition High Craft, presented under the patronage of Vogue CS at the Riding Hall, will feature more than twenty carefully selected Czech creators and brands that build upon traditional Czech crafts. Through innovative technologies, ecological approaches and the highest aesthetic standards, they develop and move these traditions from the present into the future.
For the first time, DesignBlok will also open the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Prague Castle’s Second Courtyard thanks to the installation Oneness by designer and artist Eva Eisler. The installation will transform the desacralised chapel into a place for slowing down and quiet reflection, where visitors can momentarily detach themselves from the constant stream of everyday stimuli and reconnect with themselves. The exhibition is curated by art historian and DesignBlok Programme Board member Michaela Kádnerová.
The exhibition Design for Václav Havel and Eva Eisler’s installation Oneness will remain on view until 3 January 2027.
The heart of the festival will beat inside the Trade Fair Palace of the National Gallery Prague
The key festival venue will be the Trade Fair Palace of the National Gallery Prague, to which DesignBlok returns following a successful collaboration two years ago. Hundreds of presentations by leading European designers, students, emerging talents and manufacturers will be spread across the mezzanine, the third and fifth floors, the Small Hall and the Great Hall. The festival will also extend into the exterior of the palace and the adjacent Kolektor café. The Small Hall will host a performative installation by Maxim Velčovský dedicated to light, movement and community gathering.
“We are pleased to continue the collaboration established in 2023. The connection between the National Gallery Prague and DesignBlok reflects the gallery’s ambition to open itself to contemporary design and new audiences, as well as to follow current trends in linking art, design and the creative industries. It is also part of the National Gallery Prague’s effort to bring younger generations closer to the gallery,” says Olga Kotková, Director General of the National Gallery Prague.
Visitors holding a festival pass will have access to all exhibitions at the Trade Fair Palace, including the current exhibition NGP 230 Years and the Atlas space.
Designers and retro lamps from the 1950s–1980s at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague
Alongside dozens of product designers, fashion designers, jewellery makers and illustrators, the neo-Renaissance halls of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague will host one of the festival’s main exhibitions titled Retro Lamps: Rediscovered Stories of Czechoslovak Design from the 1950s to the 1980s. Curated by journalist and DesignBlok Programme Board member Eva Slunečková, the exhibition develops a project initiated by the Paris-based gallery Initio Arts & Design. Produced in co-operation with the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, it will focus on the phenomenon of modern lighting with special emphasis on table, floor and pendant lamps from serial production.
Special attention will be devoted to designers such as Helena Frantová, Josef Hůrka, Stanislav Indra, Ján Šuchaň, Štěpán Tabery and Ivan Jakeš, whose stories often remain overshadowed by the manufacturing companies for which they worked.
“We all know these lamps and many of us probably still have them at home — in our living rooms, attics or garages — yet we know almost nothing about their authorship. This exhibition will be the first step towards exploring the subject of serially produced lighting from the 1950s to the 1980s, about which we paradoxically know very little today. Finally, attention will turn to those who have quietly stood in the shadow of their creations all along: the designers,” notes Eva Slunečková.
The exhibition will be on view on the museum’s first floor until 1 November 2026.
“It is our pleasure that the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague can once again be an important partner of DesignBlok and host this internationally significant showcase of design within its halls. I am also delighted that this year we are jointly realising the festival’s main exhibition project,” adds Radim Vondráček, Director General of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague.
The first reopening of the Industrial Palace after its extensive reconstruction
The Industrial Palace at Výstaviště Praha shares a long history with DesignBlok. The festival was first held there in 2015 and continued at the venue until 2019. Now, DesignBlok returns to this iconic space, although prior to the full completion of the reconstruction it will temporarily occupy only the historic central hall. DesignBlok will become the very first event to reopen the palace to the public after its seven-year reconstruction.
“It is symbolic that DesignBlok will be the first major event in the reopened palace, whose reconstruction the whole of Prague has literally been waiting for. After eighteen years, a space unique on a European scale is reopening to the public — architecturally, culturally and through its enormous business potential. I firmly believe that the combination of outstanding architecture and the most significant design festival in Central Europe will elevate both Výstaviště Praha and Prague to a new level. We all believe that next year will be the moment when DesignBlok shines in the Industrial Palace in all its beauty and full strength,” comments Tomáš Hübl, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Výstaviště Praha.
The programme at the Industrial Palace will feature the DesignBlok Talks conference on Tuesday and Wednesday, a designers’ AZ quiz on Wednesday, and the ceremonial reopening of the palace on Thursday in collaboration with the Prague City Hall and Výstaviště Praha. Thursday’s programme will also include the presentation of the DesignBlok Awards 2026, the festival’s prestigious awards granted by an international jury of experts. On Saturday, the programme will conclude with fashion shows by the finalists of Diploma Selection.
Support for emerging talents, accompanying programme and installations throughout the city
The twelfth edition of the European graduate competition Designblok Diploma Selection will present diploma projects by graduates of product and fashion design programmes from prestigious European universities. Fashion shows will take place on Saturday at the Industrial Palace in the presence of an international expert jury, while the exhibition of product design projects will be displayed at the Trade Fair Palace.
A glimpse into the next generation of European design stars will also be offered through presentations by Central European schools and universities titled School Today and through the support programme for emerging designers DesignBlok Talent Cards.
Throughout the festival week, the DesignBlok Stage at the Trade Fair Palace will host lectures and discussions. The accompanying programme will also include creative workshops, activities for families with children and the continuation of running events and other community activities within the Design(Blok) Lovers Club platform.
In the evenings, the Kolektor café at the Trade Fair Palace will transform into an afterparty venue where festival gatherings will continue even after official opening hours. As every year, around fifty galleries, showrooms, design stores and other venues across Prague will also join DesignBlok.
Professionals Day will take place on 6 October 2026, the DesignBlok Talks conference on 6 and 7 October 2026, and the festival will be open to the public from 7 to 11 October 2026. Designblok will take place across several key venues, including the Trade Fair Palace of the National Gallery Prague, the Riding Hall of Prague Castle including the Chapel of the Holy Cross, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague and the Industrial Palace at Výstaviště Praha. Dozens of showrooms, galleries and other venues throughout Prague will complement the programme. Tickets are available at a discounted pre-sale price at designblok.cz.
