When determining the composition of the jury, the organizers strive for both diversity and a strong presence of designers: accordingly, in addition to book design in the strict sense, the jury includes representatives from education, publishing, distribution, and other related fields. By accepting the invitation, jury members agree that any book in which they played a role as an author, editor, designer, art director, illustrator, or typesetter is automatically excluded from the competition. The composition of the jury changes from year to year. Jury members do not receive compensation.

The jury meets in two rounds: during the preliminary round, the digitally submitted volumes are evaluated to form the longlist; in the second round, the jury examines the books on the longlist in their physical form to determine the final ranking—that is, the shortlist and the five category winners.