Lámpara Biscuit, Modiss; Foto: Modiss 20|REPORTAJE design. We know alittle of many things. A certain amount of ignorance gives you courage to propose designs that will eventually take shape. If you like what you do and you believe in it, you advance it. OAA: Is everything invented? If you surf the Internet ... MRU: Many times you design something that you think is great and one day you see it in the Internet. Many people believe that ideas are relatively original, they are limited.There are times when a design is so similar to something else, it has to be cancelled.It is impossible to know what is out there in the market at all times. You look at references from other companies but too much information can block your imagination. Being completely different is very complicated Even important designers reinvent chairs from the 50’s, redesignnew mounting systems, innovate part of a design or just change the materials. OAA: A project worth mentioning for whatever reason (a challenge, a success...) MRU: They all have something noteworthy. At the beginning, we made a lamp with flexible arm for METALARTE; a very technical and complicated project. We had just started and we had no experience but even now, a lamp with flexible arm is a difficult project; competing with what is out there, innovating. It is complicated. The lamp came out looking almost like what we wanted and we were very proud when it was finished but it is not Lagranja’s best project of product. Another poject, the Coral lamp, was noteworthy at a technical and geometrical level; drawing it was madness. Modules that lock one on top of the other starting at a core and moving out to form a sphere. We spent months doing that. At a technical level it stands out. OAA: Perhaps there was one that did not move you at the beginning, like a kitchen hood... MRU:Since we do not do very technical things, I like doing them because they are very different. The first time you do a chair, for example, it is very complex. Everything has its issue. There is great difficulty in kitchen hoods. It is a form of re-styling and it entails greater mental effort. You are given the opportunity to shake things up, to make a contribution.To innovate in a project with set limits has more merit; it is a challenge at a professional level. OAA: Future of the profession... Where is Lagranja going? MRU:Interior design in Spain is dead, it is saturated. Architects have become interior designers; there is no money in the institutions. There is more interior design in the private sector but it is doing worse than 5 to 10 years ago. We have had to venture overseas; we are working in Istanbul and in China. The creative process is done here but we have offices there, we do sites visits, client relations. We even move part of the studio for a couple of months to finish processes. We work in Italy too; things are better there. You have to be able to generate synergies and a lasting relationship with the strong companies. It is complicated. OAA: Has it been difficult to adapt to the new markets like Istanbul and Hong Kong? MRU:In the field of interior design it has been difficult. Over there they go for the gilded, the pompous, the flamboyant; very different from our designs. Everything mediterranean is fashionable, the brand Spain, flamenco. It gives us a lot of options. We work on things that we normaly would not make, but we do them our way. Product is different. The Asian market is facinated by everything occidential and the Brand “Europe”; they love the things and they copy them. Our designs get copied, it is inevitable; the companies are the most affected. Because they know this, they ask us to make designs that are difficult to copy. The complex is hard to duplicate; you can clearly identify the original. OAA: Complexity of design? It must increase cost... MRU: Design with the idea of making something complex but with a purpose. For example, the last project we presented in Milan was a lamp with sheet metal plates that spun. The mold was made and filled in Italy; it was not easy. Costs did not increase. We made a small mold and a sheet metal plate which was repeated. You get the same big lamp as with a bigger mold but reduce the cost that goes with size and at the weight of aluminum or steel. On a modular lamp your client spends less money and still gets an impressive lamp. It is not about complicating the design, it is about re- thinking it. OAA: To close, an object related to your work that you carry with you all the time... MRU:A pen. I try to leave work here. OAA: Recommended book, a designer that is a reference... MRU:Jasper Morrison. An English designer. His designs are very natural, unpretentious. Careful designs, beautiful; they do not draw attention. They simply are very well made, well thought and very harmonious. From the style of a Japanese designer, Naoto Fukasawa, an exposition was made. It was called “Super Normal”. With supernormal objects; nobody would say that it was design. His products were combined with normal, everyday products, like a coffee pot, a paper clip and everything looked harmonious. Designs that are very easy to accept, that never go out of style. There is a book of that exposition. More information: www.lagranjadesign.com