Spain is colour, liveliness, and warmth: material experiments, surprising shapes and functional deconstructions. In fashion as well as in architecture and design, language is explosive, made up of contaminations where European rigor meets the colour and art of Maghreb. Despite being a young, modern, colourful, sometimes even industrial language, the manual work of craftsmanship is always present.
Patricia Urquiola
Patricia is a “Milanese” Spanish lady. Despite having been trained in the capital of design, thanks to Achille Castiglioni, Maddalena De Padova and Vico Magistretti, with whom she collaborated on several projects, she has never lost her Iberian background. On the contrary, her volcanic, strong and obstinate spirit has helped her build a totally innovative and recognizable language. She has designed stands and fittings for many leading brands in the sector, created several prestigious and award-winning hotels and since 2015 she has been the artistic director of Cassina. Patricia Urquiola is now the most requested woman designer in the world not only by brands operating in this sector, but also others.
Always multifaceted, she has designed for Kartell upholstered furniture, chairs, and even a collection of table items such as plates, glasses and centrepieces named Jelly, represented by a jelly image (hence the name), which has become very successful.
She has designed the Slinkie rugs collection for CC-Tapis, handmade in Nepal, which features a sequence of colours that revolve around a shape, defining final shapes which have never been seen before.
” A succession of chromatic evolutions developed in a composite universe of organic forms”
For Cassina, Patricia has not just been in charge of the fittings, but has also dealt with the restyling of the showroom in via Durini, redefining the spaces through a very courageous and effective architectural operation. The dome initially designed by Magistretti has been demolished to insert another more scenic and functional one, consequently the helical staircase below becomes the fulcrum of the plant. She has designed the Gender armchair, skilfully playing with contrasting colours and finishes, and the successful Beam sofa, in which the soft seats are suspended, raised off the ground by a metal beam.
Eugeni Quitllet
The Catalan designer has been Philippe Starck’s most talented collaborator.
His aesthetic language is enclosed in the motto “future without gravity”. The theme of lightness, and consequently the void intended as a material element, is easily readable in every project, which has led him to a manic knowledge of the materials and their elastic and structural characteristics.
Shine vases, the Air Du Temps watch and the Light Air lamp are a clear example of this, where the transparency of the plastic materials with regards to the element they support, favours the sensation of a suspended element.
“I dreamed of taking a piece of sun to share with the world”
In Elle by Alias, the aluminium structure, inclined slightly forward to give a feeling of dynamism, becomes a well-defined element on which the soft organic body rests. Thanks to this innovative seating concept the artist has received a Compasso d’Oro special mention.
He also received the nomination of Designer of The Year at the Maison & Object in Paris in 2016.
Always for Alias, he has reinterpreted the traditional craftsmanship with the Tabu chair, working on the solid wood structure with a variable section, modelling and shaping it according to the organic concept of nature itself.
Jaime Hayon
The creative spirit of the Spanish designer can be summarized in his words:
“An optimistic, pleasant, positive and happy aesthetic, which is sometimes tinged with a curious sense of humour and a good dose of irony”
His work lies in the subtle line between art, decoration and design, giving new life to complex and finely crafted objects and thus contextualizing them in the culture of contemporary design. A visionary and a surrealist, he also created interiors and concept work for important hotels, restaurants, museums and showrooms all over the world. He has been named by Times magazine as one of the 100 most influential artists of our times, a “visionary” and a true icon of creativity. He was awarded the title of Designer of The Year at the Maison & Object in Paris in 2015.
He has been entrusted by Cassina to create Réaction Poétique, a collection of objects that are both functional and have great aesthetic strength for which Jaime has chosen wood, a material Meda company is a master in the processing. The formal reference was Le Corbusier’s artistic work, especially the Esprit Nouveau paintings. His choice was to design mono material and mono chromatic “totems”.
Javier Mariscal
Multifaceted and creative, Mariscal uses every type of support and discipline as a creative outlet. His work ranges from graphics to design, to painting, sculpture, illustrations and digital animation.
“My specialty is to be creative, innovative, to expand the language, and help evolve codes, signs, and graphic messages. Basically, bring them up to date and be a sponge, observe, capture in images what society is breathing, what we believe in, what excites us and the ideas that are in constant flux. To that end, I use whichever system, language or discipline that is my disposal.”
A playful, ironic and humorous artist, he designed the mascot for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Cobi the dog, then the graphics for Vlencia America’s Cup. He made the animated film “Chico & Rita” for which he won a Goya award and was nominated for an Oscar.
He has also ventured into the world of design: for Artemide he has designed Lotek table lamp, whereby a simple aluminium extruded divided into several parts becomes a pair of black painted articulated arms, and two coloured joints to anchor the steel base and the led diffuser …something between a Mondrian work and a game for children.