- Posted at 24/11/2017
- in News
Joan Gaspar's studio is a little secret in Barcelona. An intimate space sheltered from the hustle and bustle of the city on you can breathe another activity. The prototypes and pieces of the same designer configure a two-level space, on office, meeting and workshop tables coexist in a fluid way. The past is present a l space, on the indications of a previous activity of the lloc are revealed by the sutures of an earlier distribution. The m multiple miniatures of chairs give a domestic dimension to the shelves of the bookshelf on coexist with books, catalogues and projects. In short, a lloc that speaks for si of a ja extensive production in design that embraces chairs, lamps, hangers and small furniture among others.
At the large table, illuminated by one of its suspension lights, we sit face to face with Joan, who is moving frantically through the space while solving some issues, here there are many open fronts.
On September 14 at 7:00 p.m., you have the opportunity to hear from his own voice, how he designs and thinks m where the designer Joan Gaspar.
In the second edition of the series of conferences Objecte de Desig #2 in La Capell, the scriptwriter and presenter of dio and television Òscar Dalmau will moderate this meeting between Joan Gaspar and Lluís Porqueras, two generations of designers with a close relationship with each other.
You learned the profession of designer from the m from one of the pioneers, how did that experience ser ?
Yes, with Lluís Porqueras, a reference for me, fet I call my website from the start. Lluís was a self-publisher, he had founded a company on designed and produced a l lamps himself and that's ser on where I really learned the trade.
It was in pre-Olympic Poblenou, it was a neighbourhood with a certain decadence, but it still retained an industrial fabric, still very rich.
Lluís designed with what he found, rethinking or modifying hardware elements and with very few means.
Do your designs retain something of that way of working?
I think it's still the essence of my work. Learning to develop projects or objects with few resources ser an experience that gave me a very good foundation. SI well, I couldn't always exercise in this way, it's still a way of thinking. The desire to solve orders with the m minimum of processes is always a priority, although sometimes this essentiality is not achieved.
Was it another way of designing, then?
I wouldn't say that, but we were lucky or peculiar that for this industrial fabric a l reach, most of our suppliers were very close. This allowed us to leave the studio and be able to witness the processes that were taking place. An essential aspect for the designer's work ja that processes become a key element of language, quan you can know and control them, they allow you to interpret or rethink them and with this exercise you get a key eina a l when developing new designs.
Now that you name new designs, how do you see the current design scene in Barcelona, especially among emerging ones?
I have the feeling that design is being led to an alley. It seems that they want to dress him in something m is extraordinary than he is. For me, design is an important discipline, of course, m I dedicate myself to it, I m earn a living and enjoy what I do, but sometimes it seems that design is not important enough and that it is dressed up in something else.
Do you mean too much concept?
The importance lies in generating good professionals. Humanistic education is acquired well in schools, but there is often a lack of knowledge of the subject and control of industrial processes, among others, which is what allows you to develop ideas.
We seem to be waiting for designers to become gurus. JO believe in design with the essence of craftsmanship, a discipline that can address many fronts from its nature. In ind industry, everything that is produced needs ser designed and this can be done well or badly.
Has the disappearance of an industrial fabric like the one you were talking about about Poblenou made the work very difficult?
Well, jo would say that the network has not disappeared, however it has been reduced t, distant and disintegrated, but the resources and processes still exist. What has changed over the years has been the publishing companies. Before, although it is ser m small, we had m about forty, this allowed us an interesting essay for those who were starting, to be able to present the work to different publishers and receive different opinions about the work you were developing. Currently this panorama has become complicated, the companies that publish are fewer and m is large and this makes it difficult m is access, in some way this agility that we had has diminished a lot.
Speaking of agility, I see that you work with a 3D printer here in the office.
It has become a very good eina, we use it a lot to see volumes or even to be able to do some simulation of material behavior. With this eina also build m full-size prototypes based on assembled parts.
How do you design Joan Gaspar?
I almost always start from a material and it is from this, from on I begin to develop. But as far as the development of ideas is concerned, I continue to work with paper and pencil unquestionably. I'm constantly drawing. The computer is a eina that enters later in the process and that does not interest m to work, it is simply necessary. In this sense, the process is the same as always. I feel very m it is agile in this part of the process, the freedom of paper and pencil is not t gives anything m is, new technologies have enhanced even m is its potential.
After so many icons, can classics still be designed?
I think si, well ja we'll see. In this field, time is t the key. SI your proposal is very tendentious, it is m it is difficult cil that it lasts over time, but si you manage to work in a way m is open, although this seems paradoxical, you have m possibilities to define what a classic can ser . However, I don't think that the job of designers is to make classics, we have to take care of making a design that works for companies and then that people love it and want it to accompany them for a long time.
The classics in m also arise quan there is the appearance of a new material and the dozens of objects that are designed to apply it, there is one or a minority who know how to read and interpret that new resource in an exemplary way, and usually these become classics.
Does your work evolve in parallel with t ethnic advances, or do you have a predilection for specific materials or processes?
We usually work with materials that did ja exist thirty years ago or m, what has changed or become sophisticated is the form and processes we use. In this sense, the role of the designer is essential.
In m, often the customer ja has a specific form of production, depending on this industrial resource, we try to explore new terrain or ways of working in it. Let's make a new interpretation. Create a new language with the same materials.
Who are your role models?
They continue to fascinate me quan I look at books from the forties and fifties. QUAN I see that degree of modernity that they achieved, I feel far from being able to achieve it. But one is also what surrounds him. We may also make an idealized vision of the past, but it is surprising what could be achieved in line with its time.
Do you think, then, that there was m is design culture then than now?
No, in any case in the past, it was a culture m is elitist and now it has become popular, currently design is in quite good health.
How can we do m is the work of designers like you extensive, which may be overshadowed by some large firms that champion the marketing of design en masse?
Jo I think that the designer and design exist after all for companies, quan we see that design has to ser promoted by the administration, it makes me think that maybe something is wrong. In our context, I have the feeling that companies that are dedicated to manufacturing elements for the home or domestic, lights, furniture... They have achieved this communication very well, but in many other areas you don't see this attention a l communicating their product, as si it didn't go with them.
However, you have developed the role of art director for some companies.
Si, this facet of the designers' work has also influenced this good communication of the product with all that this entails.