It wasn’t just the joyously colourful display of woven home and fashion accessories that caught my eye on the Zuzunaga stand in the Super Brands area at TENT during the London Design Festival. The working loom that had been brought from Spain to show how these textiles are lovingly hand-crafted was pulling in the crowds too – and with good reason. It was fascinating to see, and learn more about, the processes and people behind the products.
Founded by artist and designer Cristian Zuzunaga in 2007, the studio is now based between Barcelona and London and comprises an international team whose philosophy and ethos chimes in perfectly with our own here at colourful beautiful things – the “restorative and enhancing” power of colour, the enduring value of the handmade in a world of mass-production, and the fusion of traditional craft methods with modern design inspiration.
The Integrate: Time and Space collection of hand-woven 100% merino wool blankets and cushions in collaboration with Teixidors won Zuzunaga Studio the Editors Award for Best Textiles at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York earlier this year. This collection is a further exploration of their Alchemy series, which they explain as:
“… an ancient tradition whose philosophy underpins much of our work at Zuzunaga. While in popular culture it is best known for turning metal into gold or creating an ‘elixir of life’, for us, alchemy is inherently about transformation.”
“The Alchemy series is about this process of transformation and follows its methodology. Each design starts from a photograph we have taken of the urban environment. We use this analog image and transform it into a digital one. This enables us to manipulate it and create designs that are then applied to products using different materials, printing and manufacturing techniques.”
“The new collection … specifically seeks to explore colour and scale through architectonic shapes and digital imagery. It reflects alchemy not only through its original design process, but also through the transformative effect that results from making products by hand.”
These gorgeously soft and vibrant pieces are hand-woven on wooden looms by the skilled craftsmen of Teixidors in the Spanish region of Terrassa, near Barcelona. Teixidors started up as a social project in 1983 with the objective of helping and supporting people with learning difficulties by teaching them the art of manual weaving.
It successfully continues this project today, teaching a creative trade to people with a wide range of disabilities who would otherwise be at risk of exclusion from the world of work.
I’ll leave the final word(s) to the team at Zuzunaga, as they say it so very beautifully:
“Our mission is to create beautiful, colourful products that encapsulate the dynamic nature of modern-day city living. Drawing inspiration from supermodern architecture and the way global cities like London, Barcelona, New York and Shanghai function, our designs combine global outlook with local culture and crafts to reflect the unique characters and architectonic shapes that form today’s cosmopolitan cities.
We believe in quality over quantity and uphold sustainable and ethical ways of working, valuing handmade craft over mass-produced, trend-following products. We believe in the restorative and enhancing power of colour and fly the flag for colour in a grey landscape.
We stand for individuality, self-expression and non-conformity.
Be bright! Be bold! Join our colourful revolution!”
Visit www.zuzunaga.com for more information and to buy online.
Images: Zuzunaga.
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