who

COMPEIXALAIGUA

WE ARE COMPEIXALAIGUA

A PRODUCT AND CORPORATE INTERIOR DESIGN STUDIO

We (Xavi Moncunill and Ruth Perez) met again surrounded by rigid plastics and metal meshes at a Servei Estació’s corner, a well-known warehouse for tools and materials in Barcelona. Xavi was looking for bits and pieces to build a lamp; while Ruth needed some foam to soundproof a refrigerator. After many coffees, memories from Elisava and some stuff we better don’t tell publicly, we finally founded COMPEIXALAIGUA DESIGNSTUDIO.
We had a common view on objects as a thing in need of the user and vice versa. A vision clearly influenced by work of designers like Emili Padrós, Ana Mir, Martín Azúa, Martí Guixé, the Droog design group and artists like Rebecca Horn and Lygia Clark. COMPEIXALAIGUA’s objects are not independent, static and unalterable beings; they are user dependent to have a proper development –“We invite the user to be part of it, treat the object with no fear or respect and why not sometimes with a high dose of humor”-. Bowls changing their shape depending on what we want to cook or eat; chocolate thimbles to dirt our faces to act again like children; flower vases for the moments when they have no flowers to hold, can be used as dildos, or iPad cases that require the surrounding objects to improve its uses.

We’ve been told that irony is quite a key in some of our products, something quite Mediterranean, but at the end, the World is so connected this days that we noticed there is quite a Worldwide source. So provably our style is quite global with particular specifications, for instance the Steam Roaster is much more appreciated in Japan than Spain.
The real best thing on Industrial design is the fact that you’re always moving from one field to another, so opportunities to discovery and experience new materials or processes are always around, sometimes as a key role, sometimes as part of the path.

PRODUCT

Passionate by objects requiring interaction which are not just independent beings, but something that grows, develops and varies as the user does. A complicity user-object is created through morphological or perceptional changes.
Materials are our second obsession. We always try to extract the most qualities from the material the object will be made of, “If it can be made of a different material and still having the same advantages, something may not be fine.”
We emphasize innovation and potent conceptual objects; but we always work focused with the market and environment reality in mind.

INTERIOR

“And first, the concept was born…” the concept organizes our spaces, shapes them, draws them.
We believe that a space should communicate way before the graphics come in. A wall may be able to softly whisper, talk about technology, efficiency, trust, security, happiness,… for what every space is unique for a client and a moment. “If we can change logos and the corporate color scheems from that space and it still works perfect, it may mean that it doesn’t really work in first place.”

AWARDS

Gold Delta Award 2011, ADI-FAD, Barcelona, Spain. Steam Roaster.
GOOD Design Award 2011, Japan Institute of Design Promotion, Japan. Steam Roaster.
Best Toy of the Year 2014, Ibertoy, Barcelona, Spain. Nan Casteller.

EXHIBITIONS

Barcelona, a future inspired by design. Barcelona guest city Beijing design week. Beijing (China) 2014
Casa Barcelona. Barcelona guest city Beijing design week. Beijing (China) 2014
TAPAS, Spanish Design For Food. AC/E Acción Cultural Española. Worldwide travelling exhibition, 2013-2014.
F.O.O.D.(Food, Objects, Objectives, Design). MINT Museum, Charlotte (EEUU), 2012. It is part of the Design Collection and the Study Collection for educational purposes at the MINT Museum from 2012.
El millor diseny de l’any. FAD. Seu del FAD, Barcelona, 2011.
Premis Delta. 50 anys de disseny. Generalitat de Catalunya. Palau Robert, Barcelona, 2011.
Design Expo. Month of Design. Ljubljana, 2011
and many more…

PUBLISHINGS

ON Diseño. 360 Emerging interior & Product design. Barcelona, p. 111. ISSN: 0210-2080
MASERES, Lidia. “Diseño (nada) improvisado”. Forbes. Madrid, Spainmedia, (Octubre) 2013, núm. 7, p. 196.
CAPELLA, Juli. Tapas. Spanish design for food [exhibition catalog]. Madrid, Acción Cultural Española, 2013, p. 65. ISBN: 978-84-15888-17-8
“Lezioni di Progetto”. Ottagono. Bologna, Compositori comunicazione, (July-August) 2012, núm. 252, pp. 42-43.
Rückblick Juli 2008 – Juni 2012. Designtransfer [Hrsg. Holger Neumann & Ilka Schaumberg]. Berlin, Univ. der Künste, 2012, pp. 60-61. ISBN: 978-3-89462-224-4
and many more…

XAVIER MONCUNILL (A.K.A. XAVIER FLORES)
Barcelona, 1975

Degree in Industrial Design at Elisava in 2002.
Erasmus at Central Saint Martins School of Arts and Design in 2002.
Collaborator at Heatherwick Studio in 2003.
Founding member of COMPEIXALAIGUA DESIGNSTUDIO from 2006.
Former Master in Product Design Director and Professor at ESdesign.

RUTH PEREZ
L’hospitalet de Ll., 1977

Degree in Industrial Design at Elisava in 2001.
Founding member of COMPEIXALAIGUA DESIGNSTUDIO from 2006.
Project Professor at Escuela Superior de Diseño e Ingenieria Elisava.
Collaborator at IDEP and IED.
Former Master in Product Design Director and Professor at ESdesign.