Interview with Jon Santacoloma

After getting my degree in Economics and Business Studies I started working freelance making cartoons, and got a grant to study furniture and product design in the UK.

After getting my degree in Economics and Business Studies I started working freelance making cartoons, and got a grant to study furniture and product design in the UK.

I design products and services for others, myself, manufacturers as well as institutions. So undertaking projects becomes basic and essential, in that you have to make and deliver what you’ve designed.

Work hard, be steadfast, have or find people who believe and support you, allow you to make mistakes in order to learn. I’ve been lucky.

I believe there are fashion professionals and those who solve problems. Taking the economic model we live in, you see the former more than the latter, although they’re the ones who stay. It’s a more long-term vision.

Simplicity and timelessness. Nothing which can’t be explained by itself.

A good design would be a good investment, useful while you have it and may well increase in value over time.

I feel that more than designing for someone what’s really interesting, or rather would be, is to teach them to design so you can design together.

A flagship project for my city, which already has shape, function and location; however, I need support. A unique sustainable design centre.

Work hard and never give up.

Maybe the group of design pioneers who started out on the adventure of this profession without realising it. Even though design has existed since the beginning of mankind, since the first problem arose and he/she stopped to think how it could be solved.

There are countless products and services worldwide which I think are admirable.

I can’t be objective so I couldn’t give an answer. I like and dislike them all. I’ve thought of them, mind you, I’ve also seen the changes, concessions and shortages during the process; and that being the case I’d improve them all. Design is like life, constantly changing and evolving.

Being alert and open to the environment. NOT overlooking inputs (positive or negative). Learning and undertaking projects.

I only know what I am and what I have yet to learn (which is a lot), so the other scenario wouldn’t be valid.

For me design is thinking/reflecting and giving valid answers at a specific time to a specific problem with specific determined means.

Everyone who’s supported me, given me opportunities and above all those who’ve let me make mistakes to learn and even then have continued supporting me.

Study, constancy and upholding a series of values at work, in proposals and designs.

I think I’ve still got a way to go to reach that status. And in design, I’m not sure whether that level is ever achieved.

With great passion, confidence and being aware it’s impossible to know everything about everything, and so with a little uncertainty.

I’m hoping for new projects, products and services which help make this world a little better for everyone.

To continue working as a designer.

They can expect an ordinary person with an ordinary person’s worries.

I suppose helping everyone to have the same opportunities.

I’m interested in the part of Design As A Service. In this field I believe the company which started from one product and is now 100% digital www.triporg.org can have a lot to say in this globalised world which delves deeper into differences.

Maybe those whose starting point was total ignorance of the area we were stepping into, transport, automotive, energy, lighting, Smart cities, and so on.

I think ideally the creation in the end of a sector as such which placed value on design work.

Well, if a sector isn’t created then I think we’re headed for a loss of value, where young professionals work for a pittance, and who after seeing there’s no future abandon the activity without leaving anything behind.

It depends on the project. Throughout almost two decades of work and over 300 different projects, we have all sorts: hours, days, weeks, months; and even years.

At the beginning, to understand what exactly is being asked, who it’s for, and what’s expected to be obtained.

Since living kills us little by little, the best thing is to enjoy what you do and do things with enjoyment.

I think consumer society is rather perverse with a great tendency to rehearse and not go outside the growth model via consumption.

It helps reduce times and go faster. But it’s just that a tool to help (very important); however, you must reflect first and know how to use it.

Different ones according to the design phase. Corel Painter, Autocardsolid Works, Rhino, Office, Corel Draw, Photoshop, etc., etc.

They help make a product more appropriate or attractive at a given time. They might be based on trends, whereas a good design goes beyond that.

The stories behind them, why they were made and how they were solved; and what do they offer as whole.

That the solution was standing in front of me and obvious although nobody had yet made it.

I think it’s very definitely complex; mind you my team is excellent.

Above all those familiar with the design process, who had experienced it and therefore were good interlocutors.

Everything, science, novels, technology, comics, and so on. I think everything affects you from the viewpoint we’re not isolated beings, but rather social ones. Although with technology I’m not sure the process won’t be inverted.

Working on many different projects.

Well, I’d love to be able to talk and find out where I’m going. Who our ancestors were, our parents’ parents and grandparents, and so on, to find out why I am the way I am and maybe try to find out where I’ll be in the future and apply it to work.

Despite having other recognitions, all prophets are without honour in their own land, so it has little influence on the day to day. Except for fashion, design is the great unknown.

I love blue, the sea, that feeling of freedom and calm you experience next to it, albeit winter, summer, and autumn or spring.

When I was young and with much less experience it was overwhelming to come across companies who saw the designer as their saviour; and yet later he/she was to blame if things didn’t turn out as expected. The shadows and lights of this profession, which even now continues to surprise me.

Having to face challenges every day, which you have to overcome and provide answers for countless problems. Every day is a challenge.

I don’t think so. The only thing I can tell you is that I spent hours and hours imagining and building: cars, industrial buildings, cities, cable cars, etc. Lego played in my favour.

I’m confident that we as a society will do better, that we’ll go a little slower while reflecting on each movement and change more carefully.

Design is not an occupation apt for the general public, which is something anybody aiming to shackle themselves to this tough yet fantastic profession must have perfectly clear in their minds.

When I finished my product design studies in the UK, the panorama was very different. There were very few design schools with approved qualifications and almost no qualified professionals, so there was a possibility. I had somebody who believed in me and supported me. Ideilan (ideien lantegia in Basque or the factory of ideas in Spanish) was created in 2000, and we haven’t stopped since then, almost two decades later. Over this period we have tackled many highly varied projects, always aiming to provide the maximum and learn along the way.

Design is a very simple word with many highly diverse implications. It’s thinking, reflecting, testing and forging; and all the foregoing to solve problems in the best possible manner with judgement, method while bearing in mind the world and its resources are finite. Moreover that economic growth can’t be solely a question of consuming products as its end, but rather it should go down the path of being, experience, enjoying and making use of time. Here design has and will have a lot to say.

Every project’s interesting, including those which initially seem the most straightforward in the end have minor or major nuances that make them unique. Any challenge is interesting, however absurd it may seem. Providing a solution for any problem in any ambit is a good design project.

I reckon all those I’ve worked on. They’ve all got good and not such good things, innovation, creativity, etc. The design of systems is highlightable, since they’re what change the way things are done. For example, enable all the plumbing and drains so there can be a washing machine every home. So in the end it’s a question of evolutions as opposed to specific designs. A washing machine is great, mind you it wouldn’t have had so much acceptance had not it been for the manual ‘washers’ that homes used to have in the past. A good design includes some evolution.

That was ages ago. I remember the first spaceships designed using Lego when development was much less. I remember well my first project in the design world, a candelabra. For a company the launching was full on, with a range of furniture for living rooms and bedrooms. A challenge where I learnt how the furniture world works and how effective commercial relations should be established. Design as a project is something more than the result and I realised during the process, how effort, illusion and the desire to establish and determine the relation to be started up is essential.
Afterwards came the lamps, cars, jewellery, children’s games and countless others.

I haven’t got a special one; I like them all and find them amazing. The mixture of different materials leads to amazing designs. Obviously, depending on the sector you’re designing for you prioritise some materials over others, there again occasionally taking a material out of context may even result in new business lines. Logically if you start with paper and pencil then you have more time to think and reflect. Once you know what you want to do, have a target set, then put forward ideas and make them tangible via CAD, 3D, to get photorealistic images, while at the same time experimenting with your hands, making, building, modelling and prototyping. It’s all a luxury and the entire process is a single thing.

To be honest I’m at my most creative first thing in the morning. I’m an early riser and the expectation of having the whole day before me to be lived is extremely motivating, and even more so if it’s a sunny day. Apart from this scenario, whenever I get in-depth knowledge of the problem to be solved via the design process, ideas start flowing even quicker. Just like real life, the most interesting ideas plop out at the last moment in the day, which is probably why creativity needs work.

Depending on the client the product’s being designed for, its function is essential for me. The resulting product or service has to be used by somebody, so knowing his/her vision, expectations, wishes and motivations are essential for me, i.e. those of the client and his/her client. This world we live in is not for isolated individuals, so knowing the environment where the product/service is to move is essential. This includes aesthetics; however, when a design is really good it already contains timelessness, sustainability in other words aesthetics beyond fashion.

All of them, because you start every project with illusion, desire, interest, etc., and the more complicated the challenge the greater the interest, and occasionally a certain frustration, but also satisfaction when you see the projects advance. And this happens over and over again. It’s cyclical in projects and in time it seems to become controllable.

Design is never finished, you only stop at certain milestones or steps, just like life itself, it grows, evolves, changes yet never finishes.

To correctly satisfy a function, the one it was designed for and be as timeless as possible, far away from fashion. Although it must come on the market at the right time, in the right place via the right channel. There are many variables in play, besides having a bit of luck. I’m certain great designs exist, which haven’t appeared because of that, yet they’ll be recovered and be as useful as the first day. That I think is part of being a good design.

As always, the first thing is what you see; we either like or dislike the appearance followed by compliance with the work requirements, adaptation to the client, company and market (user/purchaser). And finally execution of the solution in terms of sustainability and contribution to improving the standard of living (in its widest sense).

That growth doesn’t come at the expense of making more and more products. Design must offer a new point of view closer to being rather than having.

Design is at a crossroads. Technology and the general situation make us all feel like designers, yet reflection and professionalism are lacking. The future is cooking now.

I haven’t held any design exhibitions. I think that part would be closer to the designer as an artist of unique pieces as opposed to the profile of solving real problems within the framework the market limits. It’s in this latter group where I see most of the work I’ve had to do. It’s the companies who I design for which show the products and are constantly moving around different competitions and international fairs.

Inspiration is in knowing and studying the problem, once all that’s been done, anywhere’s good for solving; however, no place solves anything by itself. In most cases inspiration is found in the most unlikely of places.

As a designer it’s not a question of imposing a style but rather listening to the client and providing a response bearing in mind his/her interest, aims and available resources.

I live and work in the Basque Country, which I think is good because we know how to do things well. It’s a nation which has known how to grow in the face of adversity, making it unique in the world.

They contact us or we contact them. We meet, get to know each other, talk and if there’s chemistry, projects pop up on their own.

The main thing is companies have a design culture and there’s a shortage. It’s not shape or function but everything. A good designer depends on what the company demands or wants how well he/she manages to provide a response.

It’s easy: know, study, analyse, create and conceptualise then develop with its rights and wrongs. The process isn’t very original but it’s got a specific vision.

The mop (its aspect of social change), washing machine (time-freeing), dining-room (its social component), armchair (a time for reading and reflection) and router (life’s difficult today without access to the information we have).

Well it would be a working day just like anybody else’s, nothing special. I get up early, help my daughters dress, give them breakfast and take them to the bus stop to catch the bus to school. It’s my first contact with the street and the short walk is welcome. It helps me plan the day a bit. Next I drive to the studio in the Technological Park, a journey among mountains to flee from traffic congestion. I arrive at the studio and we get up-to-date on the projects, targets to meet during the day, topics pending and those which are urgent; and of course a coffee to wake up. Next the individual work, contact with clients, collecting feedback and reflection. Once the day is over I get my notebook with a couple of ideas to mull over at home. Then a little bit of sport, dinner with the family and a little time to relax. In other words a lot of work and little free time, rather like other professions I suppose.

The more they know, they live, etc., the better designers they’ll be. It’s not a question of designing to impose but rather with commitment, reconciling interests and advancing.

Positive – you learn from many fields and the more you see the better you solve problems and greater creativity.

To know how to solve problem you must understand it well.

Transversality and management of multidiscipline teams.

Paper, pencil (biro so you don’t go backwards), Solid Works, Office, Rhino, Corel draw, Painter, … magazines, comics, etc., anything that might be useful for the project, which aren’t always the same, so a little bit from everywhere.

Badly. Almost always more time is spent on the project. It’s difficult but getting the balance and learning how to disconnect is good. Working to milestones helps. Making decisions to advance is difficult, but by doing so time management is easier.

Depends on the object or service, but hours, days, weeks, months and even years.

Where do you get your inspiration? What I see is that the designer is frequently confused with the inventor, which maybe the case but not necessarily all the time.

They’ve all been good insofar as I’ve learnt from the all, although perhaps most importantly the fact of creating ties with people beyond the professionals.

Small companies and large multinationals. CGGLOBAL, ZIV, THYSSENKRUPP, BLUX, SOLAC, URALDI, PROTEC, VITRINOR, MAGEFESA, ….

I like them all, but more for the team and people involved than for the product.

To continue with new projects, products, services, teaching, living and enjoying life.

I have an excellent team for developing projects, what more can I ask?

I like Triporg.org, it’s a great change. Its user-centred proposal, which contributes, helps and puts everyone in the same situation, democratising the capacity of providing anybody with a destination and it’s free for any destination. www.triporg.org Try it and tell us. It’s a system where anyone registered can introduce information about where they live, their town and places they like. I think it’s a very democratic tool which came about as result of a prospective design project from the last century and technology enabling it to be created in this century.

It’s easy to contact me via the studio web www.ideilan.com or calling.

Designing is no mean feat, it’s long and tedious, besides needing persistence and illusion. Moreover you must never lose the latter!!!