Valencia Design Week #1

Yesterday was the first day at Valencia Design Week. We had a really full scheduled day, with many interesting visits. Starting with some graphic design masterpieces by Pepe Gimeno, one of the most influent designer in Valencia and in the whole Spain; the exhibition has been attended by Pepe himself, explaining the processes behind the projects. One in particular has captured our attention, a personal project called “Diary of a Shipwreck Survivor”, consisting in a deliciously crafted book containing a collection of art/graphic pieces made of objects found on the shore.

We then had a stop at Odosdesign, a product design studio. The space is lovely, people are great as much as their project, and the thing that really impressed is that they not just create the design of the product, but they also make the art direction of its communication. This is being creative! This professional and amazingly inspiring aproach is what we found in each of the Valencian studios we have been today.

The end of the day has been illuminating, not just literally. The visit to Luzifer lamp factory showed us a reality we supposed to find just in California maybe. The creative aproach of this team of amazing people should really be teached at school. The place is an amazing former wine farm in the countryside, the picnic area was just stunning (as the food) and their creative process and production is pure art. Also they really make art of their products, with a designer creating digital art out of their photographed lamps, making series of prints and doing exhibitions of them! And inviting graffiti artists to create art pieces and displaying them in the factory (which basically is a big lab where lamps are handmade one by one!), and calling illustrators and artists to create original artworks for their catalogues, posters and stuff. What we found there was Art rather than “simply” product design. Really inspiring.