Interview with Armando Mora Medina
Armando Mora Medina is a Designer pursuing an MFA in Furniture Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Designer Interview
30 October 2021
I did not always know I wanted to be a designer. I have to thank my sister for that. I began my design journey by studying architecture in Mexico, and then, together with my architect wife, we both decided to continue digging in more design realms and come to the United States to make that happen. Our design is all about expressing the joy and fun we have creating home objects with a touch of elegance, personality, and movement necessary for a well-balanced interior living.
My design studio, Design VA, which I founded with my wife Viviane Hernandez Padilla, is mainly a home furniture atelier. Our purpose is to bring smiles and joyful moments and memories to people’s homes through statement pieces and art, each one telling a unique story that hopefully will make a difference in every one of their users.
Design for me is an everyday activity that humans do. We do it when we wake up and chose what to wear, where to go, how to develop our week, work, and life. We design everything like our dishes and our way of presenting ourselves to the world. Design is a one of the most beautiful paths for human expression. We cannot avoid design, it is a human instinct and I love it for that reason.
I truly enjoy design in most of its branches. I enjoy mostly furniture and fashion because of the close relationship these objects have to people and how they influence our lives. I especially love chairs and jackets.
Walky chair is a chair I enjoyed designing and prototyping. I enjoy it the most from all of my designs because of the different reactions it causes on people when they see it or sit on it. Walky is a challenging chair that instantly evokes memories and a very personal dialog with its environment and people.
An industrial warehouse when I was part of the Parabola Estudio team.
Wood, definitely, it is a warm material that is alive, it constantly tells a story and that is something we constantly look for in our designs.
During the nights. I am a night owl.
We like to focus on having fun and evoking that emotion through piece itself. I would say we focus more on form than function at the beggining and then we push hard to make our designs work and function as any good design should do.
Mostly I feel happy, fulfilled, and I experience lots of joy. Tough, that is not always, I can also many other times feel uncertainty, fear, and anger when ideas just dont come or when I don’t love the outcome we are getting.
Extreme joy. I don’t have children yet but I suppose it should feel close. Especially when I put my hands on building the prototypes, the feeling of transforming ink, a piece of paper, and raw materials into a flawless beautiful working design is just unique and amazing!
A successful design is the one that excecutes exactly what its designer is looking for. It can be extremely functional and not very artistic or extremely artistic but not functional at all; if in the end, the design is accomplishing the designers intentions, and people are getting it, then I would say it is successful.
First, I would research the designer and the design’s history/intentions. Then I would judge based on the designer’s intentions. If I am not able to find any information, I would always look for a balance between form and function.
To always look for the improvement of humanity, in their way of living, but at the same time, to respect and acknowledge the huge harm we do every day to our planet and prioritize minimizing our negative footprint in our design processes and resources.
The design field always evolves with people’s necessities, as it always should. Today, we cannot deny the newer necessities for being sustainable, for celebrating and embracing differences withing humans, and for new healthier ways to operate. The near future of design to me is to manage to keep these three in balance and make them work with each other, and include these conclusions and solutions in design.
My next exhibition will be held at SaloneSatellite in April 2022
My design inspiration always comrs from my life experiences. Personally, I believe that traveling and surrounding myself with different cultures, people, and experiences is what brings the best of me to what I design.
Playful and storyteller. Having fun led me into this. I always look for designing objects that would put a smile on my face and in others. My designs are clean, organic, and simple for the eye to digest. I always look for making something that will somehow change the place that it will serve aesthetically. I usually am not happy with quiet design pieces.
Currently I am living in Savannah, GA; but I am originally from Guadalajara, Mexico. I believe being from Mexico as it happens to all Mexicans, gives me lots of strength, and good ideas (sometimes surreal). Mexico is one of the strongest countries cultural speaking, and my wife (especially she) always includes inspiration from our beloved country to the ideas we share when we design.