70th ANNIVERSARY OF THE DBUK BOOKBINDING COMPETITION

The dbUK Bookbinding Competition was established in 1955 to encourage bookbinding students, craftspeople and apprentices to produce an originally designed and bound book, though anyone who loves making books can enter. The only criteria to entry are that you are resident in the UK when the book was bound, and that you are not a Fellow of Designer Bookbinders. For more information, please click here.

To enter the competition, you must bind the set book Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones. You may also enter up to three Open Choice books, which can be produced in any form or style. Design bindings, cloth bindings, paper bindings, artists’ books, book arts and book objects are all admissible. To enter the competition and receive the set book please click here.

The cost of the set book is £25 for members and £40 for non-members to include postage, packing and submission fee. You may also enter up to three Open Choice entries at £20 each. The set book is sponsored by The Folio Society whose sponsorship goes back to the last century! We are forever grateful to The Folio Society, and all the prize sponsors, for their generous and continued support.

This year we welcome new sponsor James Oliver for the Olive and Oak Prize for Craftmanship £500 Voucher (not exchangeable for cash, no change given and not to be used towards the cost of shipping). Some of you may know James, producer of beautiful wooden bookbinding equipment in Portugal. Another new sponsor is Bruce Munro, one of judges of the 2023 competition. He is an artist working on large-scale light installations.

This is an exciting opportunity to exhibit in a central London venue at Maggs Bros. Additional benefits of entering the competition are valuable feedback from Designer Bookbinders Fellows, the chance to win many glittering prizes, including the coveted Mansfield Medal, and a step onto or along a fulfilling career path in bookbinding. Many fine bookbinders have been discovered as a result of winning prizes at the competition and have gone on to apply for Licentiateship and Fellowship within the Society. We hope you enjoyed Ben Maggs’ wonderful piece on Brian Maggs in the Autumn Newsletter, commemorating 70 years of the dbUK Competition. Look out for future articles on dbUK Competition grande dame Lisa von Clemm, and long-term supporter and collaborator The Folio Society.

Kaori Maki, Eri Funazaki and Ethel Mercedes dbUK 2025 Competition Committee