Luís Eslava
Emiliana
Design
NANIMARQUINA
2006
ABR
2005
Emili Padrós and Ana Mir elevate
the carpet into three dimensions
by inserting form-fitted cushions
covered with felt.
2006
Ramón Ubeda
and Otto Canalda
BAROQUE
QUIRKY
COLORFUL
Modeled after the famous backside of
Michelangelo’s David, the stool is made
of lightweight expanded polypropylene.
Ubeda and Canalda also work as design
directors for BD.
Spanish design. “Many people from Italy, France,
and England came to Barcelona. It was very, very
exciting. There was total freedom in the street for
parties. People could smoke and drink, do drugs.
There was political freedom, and there was an
explosion of joking with a lot of things.”
That first generation of post-Franco designers
sketched out two directions that continue to flourish
in Spain. The first, characterized by the baroque
exuberance of La Movida, is typified by the work
of Javier Mariscal, a graphic designer who began
making furniture in 1980 for a bar in Valencia,
produced by the then fledgling company BD
Ediciones. Formed in 1972 by a group of architects who were dissatisfied with the products available on the Spanish market, BD perfectly timed
its entry into the furniture business to capture the
impetuous energy of the era.
“In 1973 no one understood design,” says Cristian
Cirici, one of the cofounders of BD, in its showroom, which is a few blocks from both Gaudí’s Casa
Mila and Vinçon, a design department store on the
A cartoonist, artist, and graphic and
interior designer, Mariscal created
famous logos for the city of Barcelona
and the 1992 Olympics but also a
wide range of furniture, including this
injected-polypropylene chair reminiscent of the Eameses’ Shell.
Javier
Mariscal
Courtesy the designers and manufacturers
AMAT- 3
2005