Javier Mariscal
A Spanish Designer
Javier Mariscalis aSpanish artist and designer whose work has spanned a wide range of mediums, ranging from painting and sculpture to interior design, comics, graphics and landscaping. He was born in February 1950 in the city ofValencia, Spain, into a family of eleven brothers and sisters. Since 1970, he has been living and working inBarcelona.
Career
Mariscal's visual language is fun and playful, with few strokes and a great deal of expressiveness. He started studying design at the Elisava School in Barcelona but he soon left so that he could learn directly in his environment and follow his own creative impulses. His first steps were in the world of underground comics, a task that he soon combined with illustration, sculpture, graphic design and interior design.
Mickey Mouse Chair by Mariscal
In 1979, he designed theBar Cel Onalogo, a tourist / travel advert that would make him successful and popular.
The following year, he opened his first bar in Valencia. He designed most of the interiors and furniture. This bar was called the Duplex, for which he designed one of his most famous pieces, the Duplex stool, which became an authentic design icon of the 1980s.
In 1981, his work as a furniture designer led him to participate in the exhibition Memphis, anInternational Style, in Milan. In 1987, he gave an exhibition at theCentre Georges Pompidouin Paris.
Throughout the 1980s, he designed several textile collections for Marieta and Tráfico de Modas and exhibited at theVinçonsalon in Barcelona. In 1989,His playful comic character, Cobiwas chosen as the mascot for theBarcelona 1992Olympic Games. The mascot was the centre of great controversy because of its unusual, lighthearted image, although time has shown its creator to have been right and nowCobiis recognised as the most profitable mascot in the history of the modern games. He later created the cartoon series The Cobi Troupe.
He opened his own design Studioin 1989 and has collaborated in several projects with designers and architects such asArata Isozaki and Alfredo Arribas.. His most notable graphic works include the visual identities for the Swedish socialist party,Socialdemokraterna; the Spanish radio stationOnda Cero; Barcelona Zoo; theUniversity of Valencia; theLighthouseCentre for Architecture and Design in Glasgow, theGranShipCultural Centre in Japan and the London postproduction company, Framestore.
In 1995, he designed covers for magazines as famous as The New Yorker.
He also designed the Amorosos Furniture collection for the Italian manufacturerMoroso, which includes one of his most successful pieces of furniture, the Alexandra armchair, in which the organic shapes and the use he makes of colour communicate the vital, extroverted style that characterises Mariscal's objects.
Alexandra armchair by Mariscal
In 2001, he designed the much sought after diary room chair used inChannel 4's second instalment ofBig Brother.[1][2]
In 2005, he made several objects for the children's collection, Me Too, byMagis, a fruitful collaboration that is still under way. Some of his most recent works, which he continues to combine with his artistic task, are the image of the Spanish financial institution, Bancaja; that of the32nd America's Cup, of the new brand of bags forCamper, Camper For Hands, as well as the interior design of the Ikea Restaurant in Vitoria.
In 2009, from July until November,[3]a major UK retrospective of Mariscal's work was shown at the LondonDesign Museum, in which visitors entered through a tunnel showing 640 examples of the designer's style from 1970 to the present day, including histypefaces. He also created a mural for the outside of the DesignMuseum itself.[4]
Chico and Rita, an British/Spanish animated feature-length film by Oscar-winning directorFernando Truebaand drawn by Javier Mariscal, has recently been released in 2010. The film celebrates the music and culture ofCubaand depicts a love story set against the backdrops ofHavana,New York,Las Vegas,Hollywoodand Parisin the late1940sand early'50s.