Designer of the Day: Antoñito y Manolín

Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.

Age: Born 1978 (Pablo Párraga) and 1980 (Trini Salamanca). 

Occupation: Artists and designers, emotional seekers, and beauty purveyors.

Instagram: @antonitoymanolin

Hometown: Seville, Spain (Pablo) and Fuente del Maestre, Spain (Trini).

Studio location: Downtown Seville, very close to the river Guadalquivir, in a complex of ateliers and studios where craftsmen, painters, musicians, and other creatives coexist.

Describe what you make: We create functional artworks.

The most important thing you’ve designed to date: We could say our own house as a whole, where all our works live together. Each new piece we create surpasses the previous one and we have sketchbooks packed with new ideas waiting to be developed. 

Describe the problem your work solves: We don’t see ourselves as problem solvers from a technical point of view, though every piece has inherent functionality. We firmly believe in the universal Law of Vibration: as everything is energy, we try our best to provide beauty and our aesthetic vibration to the universe, creating a soul-to-soul wiring between us, the materials we use, the products we craft, the people who own our pieces, and the places they’re meant to live. Everything is connected on a subatomic level, from here to the boundaries of the universe, since the beginning of history until the end of time. 

Describe the project you are working on now: We’re developing a new line of small- and medium-format household items. They’ll serve as everyday totems, propagating their energy and mystical feeling throughout the place. At the same time, we’re working on big pieces of furniture and trying ancestral materials such as gypsum, paper, and seashells.

A new or forthcoming project we should know about: We’re finishing a collection of lighting fixtures for a hyper-known New York gallery, but we can’t reveal their name yet.

What you absolutely must have in your studio: Huge amounts of hot coffee and cold sparkling water. Light. We alternate periods of noise, music, podcasts, and total silence, depending on the current phase of our work (planning, drafting-sketching, designing, producing, etc.). Our studio is wall-to-wall with the Music School of Seville, so there’s always soft muffled noites of a piano, clarinet, or a soprano singer floating in the air. 

What you do when you’re not working: We always daydream about our future (near and distant) and we work very hard to achieve our insights. Every aspect of our lives is interconnected: self inner-growing through reading, writing, and meditation; kids growing (4 and 7 years old); physical development (training and nutrition). Basically, we have a really tight schedule in order to achieve our daily objectives, big and small. 

Sources of creative envy: The ones that pushed the boundaries of creative establishment in every historical period—you all know who we’re talking about. Mother Nature.

The distraction you want to eliminate: Analysis-induced paralysis. 

Concrete or marble? Resin, clay, and paper pulp.

High-rise or townhouse? A small house surrounded by a large garden and orchard by the sea. 

Remember or forget? Imagine.

Aliens or ghosts? Parallel-dimension life forms, thus both.

Dark or light? You need one to enjoy the other. Both are powerful and necessary.