I find it very hard to write about Ximo Roca despite the fact that everybody knows him to be a splendid designer with many projects, awards and an unblemished and financially successful professional career under his belt.
Patricia Urquiola (Oviedo, 1961), the most international of Spanish designers, lives and works out of Milan. She cites Magistretti, Munari and Castiglioni as her maestros. Of Castiglioni she recalls his most famous lesson: “the imperative of seeking out one’s own poetics, following neither rules nor guidelines”. Author of a prolific list of products and projects, and keeping true to wise teachings, she stays spontaneous and fresh by imbuing her works with her passion for handiwork.
Kiko Farkas is one of Brazil’s most active graphic designers. Through a rhythmical fluidity, his work manages to capture the ethereal ideas present in the creative process without weakening or rigidly fixing their meaning. In this way, his work exists in a space that is both moderns and contemporary without falling into contradiction. Working primarily as a poster designer, he has participated in more than a dozen international posters biennials.
La obra de Kiko Farkas, uno de los diseñadores gráficos más activos de Brasil, logra congelar las ideas incorpóreas presentes en el proceso de creación por medio de la fluidez rítmica, sin quitarles su fuerza o determinar el significado excesivamente.
Willem Gispen, a trailblazer in his double role as designer and manufacturer, decided to go for tubular steel and serial production and, in so doing, he chose to forgo aesthetic pretensions in his industrial creations. A well-known activist in the artistic and business circles of his time, Gispen was one of the individuals responsible for promoting the social values of the arts and crafts movement. The incorporation of his designs into the Dutch Originals replica catalogue is proof of the validity of his work.
Poet, bookseller, actor, script-writer, creative director, Fernando Beltrán did countless jobs before leaving one of the most cutting-edge, award-winning advertising agencies of the 1980s fifteen years ago to devote himself entirely to putting a name to things. This made him a pioneer in the specialist field of ‘naming’ [known in Spanish as ‘el naming’], which has since become an ingredient in all corporate identity programs and is now an established subject taught in leading schools and colleges of design.
Felipe Taborda, designer from Río de Janeiro. He defines himself as a man of incorrigible curiosity, and it is this insatiable appetite that incites him to work and enjoy life in equal parts. The Brazilian designer tackles the rich creative explosion that Latin America is currently living through as well as the special growth and energy of Brazil.
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Felipe Taborda, designer from Río de Janeiro, Experimenta in Río de Janeiro.
