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“Whether a product is good or not so good depends on the designer and largely on the company responsible for its production; particularly regarding how it is produced, how it is launched onto the market, how it is explained and how it is promoted. Of all these hows I would focus principally on how it is produced. The technical solutions and materials used determine the image and functionality of the product and this is where its success or failure lies”, affirms Joan Gaspar. The designer believes in the need for collaboration between producer and designer for a quality end product.
Joan Gaspar, born in 1966, studied industrial design at the Barcelona Arts and Crafts School. In 1988, he began working for the company Vapor S.A., created by Lluís Porqueras and Jaume Vaquero in 1979 to produce objects that ran counter to the High-Tech metallic design that was fashionable at the time, adopting a rational and minimalist approach. Together with Lluís Porqueras, he created the Finisterre bollard, one of the first reconceptualisations of a classic urban element, with clear functional improvements, and which the Urban Division of Santa & Cole, now Urbidermis, edited in 1992.
From 1992, Gaspar collaborated with different companies in the creation of new product lines: Santa & Cole, Mery, Industrias Conesa, Manufacturas Rocal, B-Lux, Sellex and Daisalux. Since 1996, he has collaborated closely with Marset Lighting in the development of new products, and is currently the company’s creative director.
Joan Gaspar’s creations have been recognised in the design field. He was awarded first prize in 2000 in the International Competition of the 37th edition of the Valencia Furniture Fair, for a coffee table with a sliding tabletop. His Atlas lamp, which the creator himself describes as effective and ingenious, earned him the ADI-FAD Silver Delta Award in 2001. Also noteworthy are the Atila and Tv lamps designed for Marset. In 2005, he won another Silver Delta Award for his neon light.
From 1998, Joan Gaspar gave classes on materials and technology applied to industrial design at the Elisava School of Design and Engineering in Barcelona, and currently teaches Projects at the Eina School of Design.
In 2002, he opened his own professional studio, which focuses on industrial design. “A good design is one that tries to be simple, restrained and down to earth, keeping in mind that an object’s value arises from its demonstrated effectiveness of use, something which can take time but ensures the product’s long-term value. This latter element is what determines if a design has hit the mark or is simply the product of a passing trend, which I would not consider a negative aspect, if this is the desired goal.” As a freelance designer, he currently creates products for Urbidermis, Marset, Perobell, Mobles 114, DAE, Cerámicas Aguadé, Pomd’or, Abr producción, Stilus, Resinas Olot S.A. and Astral Pool.
Together with Lluís Porqueras, Joan Gaspar is the creator of the Finisterre bollard (1992), which functions as a lighting element and bollard to delineate and protect spaces.
Products
Urban pathway lights