Design

Spanish design is having a moment thanks to people like Jordi Iranzo, the last winner of the Spanish National Design Award in the Young Innovative Talent category. Alongside Àngela Montagud, he’s the soul behind Clap Studio.

She wasn’t sure whether to study medicine or design, but she did know that she wanted to improve other people’s lives. Over time, biomedical engineering turned into her way of bringing together both of her passions and putting her talent at the service of her patients.

Talent for comics and graphic novels is endless in Spain. Paco Roca, Ana Penyas, Paco Sordo, María Medem, Juanjo Guarnido, Teresa Valero… Do you want to get to know some of the best illustrators in the country?

Generation after generation, Spanish fashion updates its talent. And the pool of young designers is endless. Discover the young designers who will walk the runway at the next edition of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid.

Once again, this year, Spanish haute cuisine is at the cutting edge of the world. The Best Chef Awards 2023 recently confirmed this. A ‘status’ that dinnerware designers contribute to with the dinner service great chefs present their dishes on.

Adventure, magic, and action flow from Salva Espín’s hands. Children’s fantasies fill the mind of this illustrator from Murcia when drawing the feats of the most spectacular superheroes in the world.

When she was a child, Inma Bermúdez didn’t know what design was, but she was already a designer. Today, with the 2022 Spanish National Design Award under her belt, she continues to create objects that cast light upon our everyday lives.

Designer Lucas Muñoz Muñoz, who reuses elements from recycling centres, factories, or shops, invites us to discover the creative and aesthetic potential of materials that we’re too quick to call rubbish.

Have you ever stopped to think about the font you choose to write with and what it expresses? Laura Meseguer asked herself this question as a child and, over time, typeface design has become her life.

Is agriculture capable of conveying the same emotion as a song? Cultivo Desterrado, the agricultural project designed and planted by Rafa Monge, answers these and other questions.

María and Javier took the leap from design to public art with murals that have taken them to several cities around the world. Creations that, under the umbrella of Reskate Studio, seek to attract the public gaze and awaken consciences.

Being an illustrator means more than drawing well, it means conveying an idea or telling a story in the simplest and most direct way possible. This goes beyond style, technique, or aesthetics, according to Del Hambre.

Design found Antoni Arola, and not the other way around. He saw the light and started creating inspired by it until becoming one of the most relevant designers in the world. Usefulness, yes, but also beauty and essence are the keys to his work.

Veteran designer Manuel Estrada continues to face his work with the eagerness of a novice, but the time has come to look back: the exhibition ‘Leer libros, diseñar portadas’ [Read books, design covers] goes over his 30-year career.

La Borda, a collective housing building in Barcelona, won the Mies van der Rohe Award granted by the European Union in the Emerging Architecture category. We chat to Lacol, the studio that came up with the idea for it.

Valencia is the World Design Capital 2022 and Cristina Chumillas, arts and cultural manager, recommends some of the exhibitions that visitors to the city of the Turia river can find.

His bestiary includes more than 130 species which, far from being frightening, arouse tenderness. But Bakelanasland is only one part of the visual universe of this Manchegan illustrator.

His work draws from Magritte, Duchamp, On Kawara and Michael Asher, among others. His elegant and minimalist conceptual art teases the audience to make them think. His latest project? The 'empty' Spanish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

If there’s one essential in María Hesse’s life, it’s her paintbrushes. Through them she adds colour, sensibility, and passion to the pages of all her books.

To design pieces that stand the test of time and have the capacity to transform in its wake. This is the sustainable motto of Corsicana, a brand that doesn’t believe in traditional collections, rather in fashion chapters that tell a story.

Isaac Sánchez became famous as Loulogio. Today, the famous YouTuber is dedicated to what he really loves, drawing, and is the creator of the poster for the Feria del Libro Madrid 2022.

We chat to Pedro Torrijos, an architect, writer, and communicator who 'bangs on' about fascinating stories on architecture, unlikely territories, and the people that make them possible on Twitter.

Paco Roca’s artistic talent stems from both the sharpness of his drawings and a narrative inquisitiveness that lead him to explore our most recent history and defend the nobility of many anonymous lives.

Curiosity, courage, commitment and, above all, a constant quest for connections between disciplines and languages. Under Pablo Erroz’s inquisitive gaze, design becomes infinite.

The design of the Spain Pavilion at the Dubai World Expo is founded on the idea of people and places. Designed as a space for tranquillity and reflection, this work by Amann Cánovas Maruri seeks to promote sociability.

After working on five continents for some of the most influential architects of the end of the 20th century, in 2010, Alfredo Muñoz founded ABIBOO Studio which, through architectural innovation, embraces cultural diversity, technology, and an optimistic vision of humans’ capacity to improve our environment.

There are few vantage points as privileged to get a feel for the talent of a country than being the creative director of an advertising agency. Toni Segarra, an indisputable guru within the sector, believes that we’re at a critical juncture, where new structures capable of releasing and setting talent free are needed. In Spain, we have a certain advantage: “No one improvises like us”.

Based in Valencia and Barcelona, ​​the Espai Tactel art gallery has worked as a platform for avant-garde contemporary art since 2013. Among their proposals, which in recent years have been showcased in the world’s most important art fairs, are 3D installations, net narrative, and digital art.

He is Spain’s most internationally renowned interior designer. His work is known and sought-after in many countries, including the United States, China, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Portugal. Lorenzo Castillo leads a team of eight people carrying out comprehensive projects ranging from architecture of spaces to the last decorative detail.

Iberia presents Espacio Iberia Aeroconsciente; an exhibition consisting of three installations which highlight the company’s main sustainability values: digitalisation, waste management and cabin weight reduction.

The factory of the future is located in Vizcaya. Comme des Machines is revolutionizing the fashion industry by using 3D printing while retaining an artisanal approach. Their machines revive crafts for a digital era that has memory.

Her talent is universal because creativity and good taste have no boundaries. Architect and designer Patricia Urquiola returns to the Spanish capital to inaugurate 'Nature Morte Vivante', an exhibition within the framework of the Madrid Design Festival to discover her very personal universe.

Madrid Design Festival returns to Madrid in February in order to re-design the world. Aspects such as sustainability or responsible consumption will be ever-present in order to prove design’s capacity as a weapon to change things and achieve a more humane, fair and content society.

In a year and a half, the Sevillian designer has positioned himself as one of the most promising emerging creators in Spain. His motto? To design clothes that aren’t subject to trends, nor to the planned obsolescence of seasons.

Designer Domingo Rodríguez is on the lips of many a celebrity and influencer. His social-media-inspired, futuristic clothes have put him in the radar of artists such as Rosalia, Lady Gaga and Rita Ora.

In late 2019, Marisa Gallén received the National Design Award, a recognition for a long career dedicated to an artistic discipline that is much talked about but about which little is known.

Ceramics and an overflowing imagination, that’s all Lusesita needs to create imaginary beings, animals, and objects with a childlike yet mysterious feel to them. She takes us by the hand to take a plunge into her personal and extraordinary world.

Artist and draughtsman Juan Carlos Bracho explores the relationship between space, time, and perception in the exhibitions Architecture and the Self, on show at Sala Alcalá 31, and Tutti Frutti, at the Alcobendas Art Center.

The Valencia-born designer claims there is life for fashion beyond aesthetics. A good example is to be found in her collections, which draw from the present to send a message of social transformation.

Becoming professional interior designers wasn’t among the plans of Iñigo Aragón and Pablo López Navarro. It was the latest economic meltdown that shifted their paths. Today, the projects of Casa Josephine speak Spanish beyond our borders.

For the second time, Taschen has reserved a place for María Herreros on the Olympus of illustration, among the 100 best artists in the world. Possessor of a distinct and unique style she defines as “empathetic and nervous”, she is also launching the book ‘Viva la dolce vita’, alongside Máximo Huerta.

She was one of the first to apply porcelain to jewellery. Not long after, she did the same with wood. Now, many of the pieces made by Helena Rohner are 3D printed. A new craftwork era for an entire industry that the designer unfolds first-hand.

Ferrán Adriá, Paco Roncero, Dabiz Muñoz… Many of the biggest Spanish chefs show their haute cuisine creations on crockery made by Pedro León. We met this artisan (this is what he considers himself) in his authentic workshop in Madrid to talk about his pieces, the raku technique and the growing interest in this millenary art from the world of gastronomy.

Tested on Instagram with thousands of likes, big tulles and maximalist ruffles have become synonyms with avant-garde. Madrid-born designer CÉLIAvalverde has turned them into her hallmarks, but her universe doesn’t end here. Ask Kendall Jenner!

Jaime Hayón has proved there is emotion in functionality and that porcelain has a second reading. His universe finds in imagination its most powerful resource. No wonder he is the most influential creator of his generation. We chatted with him about how to conquer a territory few designers dare to conquer: playful designs that draw a smile on your face.

Although they claim they don’t ascribe to any particular style, the furniture designed by Madrid-based studio Kresta has a personality of its own. With iron-forged elements and a colour palette that enlivens spaces, completely changing their intention, their pieces are more artistic than they are intended for industrial production. Each piece aims to transcend utility, that’s why they conquer the aura of any living room.

Núria Madrid’s work is an explosion of colours, textures and volumes, a playful display of movements and gears. The Barcelona illustrator gives her pieces personality and character, presenting, she says, complex concepts “in a fun way through illustration”. She defines herself as a designer and her works are indeed packed with design, but also very artful.

On the verge of turning a decade in the market, Mercules has gone from making waves on social media as ‘the bags with the arrow’ brand to being a household name with a complex creative universe behind them.

On 9 September a dream came true for Valencia. The World Design Organization (WDO) named the city World Design Capital 2022, a designation previously held by Lille, Seoul and Helsinki, among others.

José Naranja is not a common artist, nor does he consider himself one. However, his illustrated notebooks are real works of art everybody wants. A pleasure for lovers of contemplation, calligraphy, and drawing.

He loves each of his pieces like they were his children. Which is why he speaks with the same enthusiasm about the ones that made him the Movida Madrileña’s jeweller as he does about the pieces belonging to his new, second brand, ChusXChus. Curious, full of creative talent and a perfect host, Chus Burés welcomes us to his Madrid studio before returning to New York, where the Leslie-Lohmann Museum is hosting an exhibition dedicated to his work.

The Madrid Official Professional Association of Architects (COAM) is celebrating its 90^th anniversary, and its legendary 'Arquitectura' magazine is turning 100. Two great reasons to host an architecture week in the Spanish capital, an international benchmark in the field.

It is no surprise that, in recent years, Eva Hernández’s ceramic pieces have found their way to the best design and interior decoration boutiques, both in and out of Spain. Handmade without moulds like yesteryear, and painted by hand using her own formulas, her timeless designs are destined to last.

Marcos Seseña, quality, loyalty to the craft, exquisite customer service and a constantly renewed vision of a legendary garment: the cape coat.

Leaving a mark is not easy, even more so in the Spanish footwear market. However, Magro Cardona managed to leave theirs in record time.

The Leon town of La Bañeza is fighting the exodus to big cities with street art. Every August, the town’s facades serve as a canvas for artists from all over the world participating in the Art Aero Rap festival.

We have a chat with Jorge Arévalo, without a doubt one of the most important illustrators in Spain today. Creative and multidisciplinary like no other, the Madrilenian combines his gorgeous illustrations with an analytical mentality and a great capacity to communicate, which he applies in projects for companies like BBVA and Cartier.

Their work decorates the streets of cities such as Berlin, New Delhi, Panama and São Paulo. For Boa Mistura, art is participative—both the place and its neighbours have a say because they believe in resident’s critical and human capacity.

Mysterious, haunting atmospheres characterize the work of Mercedes Bellido, one of Spain’s most influential illustrators. Brands such as Chanel and Zara have shown interest in the particular world of this young artist from Zaragoza.

María Simun, a 25-year old from Madrid who has become Rosalía's key designer, thanks to her evening dresses and also to her new line, Simun Basics, which combines comfort with freshness and style.

For designer Miguel Giner, winner of the Rado Start Prize Spain at the 2019 Madrid Design Festival, the thought is almost a credo: “I have a long way to go, so I plan to make it as hard on myself as possible.”