Where fine art meets industrial design: Interview to Martín Azúa

Martín Azúa is a designer whose experimental approach has won him corporate clients as well as an 'indy' reputation

*  The following article is an excerpt from Design in/from Spain magazine for smartphones and tablets.

Youthful enthusiasm for the unconventional or the avant garde often passes, and the older you get, the more you play safe and conform to the norm.

This hasn't happened to award-winning designer Martín Azúa, however. He's been a leading name in the high echelons of Spanish design since the mid '90s, but has never sacrificed his commitment to the experimental or dampened down his idiosyncratic approach to product and space design.

Not that Azúa hangs the label 'experimental designer' around his neck: 'What I do think is that design is about investigation and shouldn't always be about commercial products. Design should ask questions...’what would happen if..?’ And by imagining different scenarios, well sometimes that can start to make things happen.'

Azúa's portfolio spans furniture and lighting design (clients include Mobles 114, Arturo Alvarez, Vibia); sanitaryware (for Roca, Porcelanosa, L'Antic Colonial, Cosmic); carpets (for nanimarquina and shoe brand Camper); street furniture (Escofet); while he's also designed spaces and exhibitions for the Culture Forum in Barcelona and Expo Zaragoza.

While he's very happy to design for the big brands, his experimental work and collaboration with craftspeople always run alongside.  And he likes to focus attention on how design can be unorthodox while meeting need. His prototype Casa Básica – which is in the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Architecture – is a good example.

Azúa, who also lectures on design at the Elisava School in Barcelona, was trained in fine art rather than industrial design, and he thinks his way of working appeals to clients who like a more conceptual approach to product design and development.

Do you want to read more? Download Design in/from Spain magazine for free.

Android tablets & smartphones
iPhone & iPad
Amazon Kindle Fire
Windows Desktop & tablets