Spread

Book design & around it

Elisava des de 1961

A history of the school

Catalogue / Elisava / 2014 / Daniel Cid (ed.) / Catalan, Spanish and English editions / Hardback / 205 x 310 mm / 320 pages / Colour / ISBN: 978-84-617-0936-5 (english) / This volume, large in size and classical in style, describes the narrated and illustrated history of Barcelona’s emblematic design school from 1961 to the present. However, the linear structure of text and narrative is interrupted by colour-page spreads  – full-bleed photographs printed on coated paper –that, rhythmically alternated, create visual pauses that can be read independently. The sequence of interspersed spreads offers two parallel readings of one and the same story. / Designed in collaboration with Claudia Parra.

Elisava 50

50th Anniversary

Catalogue / Elisava / 2012 / Daniel Cid (ed.) / Trilingual edition Catalan-Spanish-English / Hardback with fabric in spine / 210 x 320 mm / 144 pages / Colour / ISBN: ND / Fifty items correspond to fifty concepts that define the Elisava School of Design and Engineering. The design of the fifty miscellaneous fragments is totally flexible and heterogeneous. The cover acts at once as a table of contents and as a foundational statement.

El artista ingenioso

Exploring Collage and Mixed Media Techniques

Catalogue / Víctor Escandell / Promopress / 2016 / Spanish, English, French and Italian editions / Hardback / 210 x 255 mm / 128 pages / Colour / ISBN: 978-84-16504-62-6 (english) / This is a joint project carried out by illustrator Víctor Escandell, photographer Alicia Martorella and editor Montse Borràs, in close collaboration. The pages are arranged to resemble the artist’s desktop. Throughout much of the book, chapter by chapter, we may follow the construction of the collages as if were taking part in a workshop in progress. The layout reflects the organic quality of the creation of the works, revealing to readers an apparent disorder that is, however, balanced by the underlying graticule to bring rhythm and liveliness to the reading experience.

Fab City

The mass of distribution of (almost) everything

Catalogue / Institute of advanced architecture of Catalunya (IaaC), FabLab Barcelona / 2018 / Tomás Díez (ed.) / English edition / Paperback / 150 x 210 mm / 224 pages / Color / ISBN: 978-84-948142-1-1 / «The book focuses on the power of human-centered technology to transform urban environments and our socioeconomic systems. It showcases the ideas of key thinkers from disciplines including science, design, architecture, urbanism, technology, and sociology, all offering insights from their theoretical experience on how to bring about systems change through the distribution of acces to tools and knowledge.» Tomàs Díez (excerpt from the back cover)

Diseños y esbozos para elBulli

Luki Huber

Catalogue / Planeta Gastro / 2018 / Luki Huber / Spanish edition / 155 x 215 mm / 320 pages / Colour / ISBN: 978-84-08181-28-9 / For the first time, the entire object design developed by Luki Huber for Ferran Adrià’s elBulli restaurant is brought together in this book. Specific cooking utensils and a variety of artefacts are displayed in sketches, well-made photographs and short texts. The book’s rigorous cataloguing system is accompanied by a simple design, divested of all expression.

Promopress / Hoaki

Covers, books, dummies, etc.

Selection of books / Promopress – Hoaki / 2013-… / A graphic collaboration with Promopress publishing house (Hoaki Books, since 2019) translated into cover designs, complete publications and smaller catalogues on architecture, fashion, design and art.

Disseny per viure

99 projects for the real world

Catalogue / Museu del Disseny de Barcelona / 2015 / Oscar Guayabero (ed.) / Catalan, Spanish and English editions / Paperback with flaps / 165 x 230 mm / 208 pages / Colour / ISBN: 978-84-9850-682-2 (english) / Disseny per viure (Design for Living) was the first exhibition produced by Museu del Disseny de Barcelona and its graphic design developed in the catalogue, the display and the communication campaign. The publication describes ninety-nine designs in a sequence arranged according to a person’s life and the influence they exert over it at each different moment. This linear structure is interrupted by thematic breaks that are enhanced by texts by reputed authors. The design is multiplied in order to meet the content requirements of each piece on display. The volume includes photographs by Xavier Padrós. The exhibition was awarded the City of Barcelona Prize in 2015. / Designed in collaboration with Claudia Parra and Bet Puigbò.

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S. Hair Salon

Contemporary coiffure

S. Hair Salon / Tokyo (Japan) / 2005-2014 / Identity for a beauty salon in the Omotesando district.

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Abadir

Accademia di design e arti visivi

Abadir / Catania, Sicily (Italy) / 2012 / Identity for an academy of design and art. Fotos 1, 3: © Abadir

Design, Create, Thrill

The power of graphic design to spark emotions

Essay / Sara Caldas / Hoaki, Elisava / 2019 / English and Spanish editions / Paperback with flaps / 190 x 250 mm / 184 pages / Colour / ISBN: 978-84-17656-02-7 (english) / The content of this book is divided into two halves, fifty per cent is text and the other fifty per cent are images. In other words, pages designed only to be read alternate from beginning to end with exclusively visual pages, creating a sustained and balanced rhythm halfway between the essay and the visual formats. «Design, Create, Thrill is meant to be used as a tool to create successful emotion-driven design and to help designers to harmonize concepts, thoughts and ideas to touch someone’s heart. The book presents twenty-three principles which […] are grouped into chapters according to the level of emotions that they elicit. The reader will find timeless design pieces from all over the world and from distinct points in time, as well as brief interviews and conversations with some of the mentioned authors». Sara Caldas. (Excerpt from the back cover).

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Temes de Disseny

Disseny - Tecnologia - Comunicació - Cultura

Revista / Elisava / 2011-2016 / Edicions en català, castellà i anglès / 210 x 280 mm / 96 pàgs. / Color / ISSN: 1889-5913 / A series of academic monographic reviews published once a year. Designed especially for each issue, the cover is the most relevant visual feature of the magazine, along with the tags of concepts and authors.

Disseny per viure

99 projectes per al món real

Ajuntament de Barcelona, Museu del Disseny de Barcelona / 2015 / Òscar Guayabero (curator) / Graphic design applied to the exhibition and to the museum’s external communication. This was the first exhibition to be produced by the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona and was awarded the City of Barcelona Prize in 2015. / Designed in collaboration with Bet Puigbò and Claudia Parra. Photo: © Xavi Padrós

Ajoblanco libertario 1977

Fundació Suñol Barcelona

Fundació Suñol / 2017 / Espai Zero, Fundació Suñol, Barcelona / Revista Ajoblanco (curator) / A selection of contents from the first Barcelona period (the seventies) of  Ajoblanco magazine on display at Fundació Suñol. The idea was to present the context and hectic activity of those years with a dense graphic design, expressive and colourful, yet at once clear and synthetic in its display of messages. Photo: Inma Alcario

Ajoblanco. La revista

Ruptura, contestación y vitalismo

Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Acex / 2014 / Valentín Roma (curator) / Madrid / «[This exhibition] is an exhaustive thematic survey of the entire history of the publication, recovering material hitherto unpublished or difficult access, features, documents and meaningful lines of research, along with accounts and texts written by many of those who were involved in the venture. The intentions of the exhibition are, on the one hand, to revisit Ajoblanco in the present in order to explore its main contributions and contextualise them and, on the other, to passionately delve into that dissident, libertarian and roguish desire to experience culture, ideas and personal and collective changes.» Valentín Roma. (Excerpt from the brochure.) / Designed in collaboration with Manuel Cuyàs and Claudia Parra.

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Manual Thinking

Luki Huber - Gerrit Jan Veldman

Catalogue / Luki Huber / Empresa Activa / 2015 / English, German, Spanish, Dutch and Japanese editions / 240 x 165 mm / 160 pages and a sheet of stickers / Colour / ISBN: 978-84-941836-0-7 (english) / Manual Thinking is a new tool and instructions manual for team thinking in visual terms made by product designers Luki Huber and Gerrit Jan Veldman. Besides designing the publication, Spread has collaborated with the authors on workshops and practical sessions with students, professionals and collectives in the creative field.

Face the page

Storytelling through Grid, Type and Image

Elisava / 2019 / Àgora Room, Elisava School of Design and Engineering, Barcelona / Exhibition of publishing projects of the 2018-2019 Editorial Design course. Curatorial project carried out jointly with professors Rocío Hidalgo, Daniel Paladini and Edith Stone. / Photo: © Sandra Rojo

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Brunton

Despatx d'advocats

Misuna Nagasawa / Yokohama (Japó) / 2020 / A visual identity for a solicitors’ office in Yokohama, Japan. The name itself, Brunton, derives from a nineteenth-century Scottish engineer specialised in the design and construction of lighthouses, evoked by a commemorative statue dedicated to him close to the office. The brand refers to the light of lighthouses guiding sailors at night as a metaphor of solicitors’ clarification of facts in legal processes. / Photo: © Brunton.