One of his most notable lighting designs is the Inout lamp co-created with Otto Canalda and manufactured by Metalarte; since being launched in 2003, it has become one of Spain’s most emblematic designs of recent times. Other fruitful collaborations with Canalda include the Janet chair (of 2008) for BD Barcelona Design, the Cul is Cool stool (2006) for ABR and Triana lamps and Nanit light (2006) for Metalarte.

Quite possibly, more architecture and design books (over 20 in fact) have been written in Spain about Úbeda than about almost anyone else, one example being the highly collectible tome, Graphic Design with Mariscal. Moreover, he regularly collaborates with the world’s most prestigious national and international design magazines. His first two jobs were editing the magazines De Diseño and Ardi. And today he writes regularly for publications like Domus, Frame, Experimenta and Diseño Interior (meaning interior design) as well as in the newspaper El País.

He has initiated and curated many exhibitions, among them, Cocos, Copias y Coincidencias (about the thin dividing line between copying something and being inspired by it), Mail Me, El baño natural, HHO: Pioneros de la cultura en el baño (pioneers of bathing culture), an anthology of work by Mariscal in Tenerife on the Canary Islands, Mater in Progress and the History of Spain’s National Design prizes which was held in Barcelona and travelled to Turin, when the Italian city was European capital of design in 2008.

But Úbeda most enjoys being a creative director and consultant for companies. He currently holds this position in five of Spain’s most important companies, many of them worthy recipients of the country’s Premio Nacional de Diseño (Nationl Design Prize) - ArtQuitect, Bd Barcelona Design, Camper, Signes and Metalarte. In order to help these companies develop their projects, he has worked alongside some of the world’s most distinguished designers: Ross Lovegrove, the Campana brothers, Alfredo Häberli and Konstantin Grcic. Úbeda was also the first person to have actively fostered the talent of Jaime Hayón, who, today, is Spain’s best-known designer internationally.

What’s more, this versatile designer has always taken a huge interest in cutting-edge materials, for example Maderón, a material made out of almond shells, later renamed Duralmond. He also founded the Mater ‘materioteca’ (meaning an archive of materials, products and innovative techniques for architecture and industrial design) – the first and only one to be set up in Spain. An altruistic designer, he devotes a great deal of his time to instigating projects at a variety of institutions like FAD or the Signes Foundation.