DJ Stout joins Designer Studio
Publishers Weekly reports a new Designer Studio at BolognaBookPlus focused on art direction and editorial design, and notes Pentagram partner DJ Stout is participating for the first time. (publishersweekly.com)
Pentagram partner DJ Stout is making his first trip to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair this week as a featured speaker in the new Designer Studio program. (publishersweekly.com) The Designer Studio is a 2026 addition to BolognaBookPlus, the general-trade arm of the fair, and it is dedicated to art direction, editorial design, and illustration. BolognaBookPlus said the 2026 fair runs April 13 through April 16 in Bologna. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) The official Designer Studio program lists Stout for an April 13 masterclass on fiction-series book covers alongside Society of Illustrators executives Arabelle Liepold and Steve Compton. An Eventbrite listing from the fair also scheduled a one-hour portfolio review with Stout on April 13. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) (eventbrite.it) BolognaBookPlus is in its sixth edition in 2026, and organizers described Designer Studio as one of this year’s main new features, alongside an expanded Artificial Intelligence Summit and WritersLab. The program broadens a fair best known for children’s publishing into the design and packaging of trade books for a wider market. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com 1) (bolognachildrensbookfair.com 2) That shift is visible in the speaker lineup. Publishers Weekly’s preview said Designer Studio brought in illustrators Pablo Amargo, Jon Gray, Lorenzo Mattotti, and Riccardo Vecchio, plus art directors and designers including Stout and Mondadori’s Cecilia Flegenheimer. (publishersweekly.com) The space also doubles as an exhibition hub. BolognaBookPlus said Designer Studio hosts “Jackets Off,” an annual show on book-cover design, “Talking Pictures,” and a display of work by the Italian illustrators Anna and Elena Balbusso. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) Stout arrives with a long magazine and book-design résumé. Pentagram says he started his design career in 1981, became art director of Texas Monthly in 1987, and is now a partner in the firm’s Austin office. (pentagram.com) In Publishers Weekly’s interview from Bologna, Stout said art directors should avoid over-directing illustrators and give them room to solve the visual problem themselves. That approach fits the fair’s new pitch: design as a publishing discipline worth its own stage, not just support work behind the scenes. (publishersweekly.com)
