Experimento | Plutarco
Plutarco is a design office located in Madrid founded by Ana Arana and Enrique Ventosa in 2015. They design architecture and interiors, branding and identities, installations, exhibitions and products.
I first came across their design through the trusty discovery tool that is Instagram and fell in love with their use of materials & colour.
Its a pleasure to have them on board to answer the makers Q & A.
Explore more of their work below & on their website here
How important do you think your working and home environment are to you? ... for example is the work you make reflected in your personal space?
We believe that they need to be extremely related, in the end your house/working environment are a reflection of your work, they are your personal Showroom. In our Case, Experimento -The space where our architectural office is, together with a design gallery and a community for creatives - was conceived as a reflection of what Plutarco is. We chose the materials, colours to be our ‘presentation card’ but we wanted as well to integrate the gallery and the community, because Plutarco aims to be more than a Design/Architecture office, we would like to generate and encourage design in Madrid, so thats why Experimento is so open and inclusive, a space where we generate ideas - by ourselves and together with the rest of the creatives that work here - and we have a space to exhibit them too.
What do you think has informed your personal aesthetic?
We are always looking for new ideas everyday, we are huge consumers of paper magazines, Instagram, online references and we love traveling while absorbing new and fresh visual references. We love colour and we believe its a constructive material, just like a brick or concrete. Colour has the ability to transform a space completely and sometimes people are afraid of using it to widen or shorten a space, or to create a feeling within the user… there is a huge psychological charge in the use of colour.
Do you collect anything/ have a favourite object?
We love paper magazines, we have them from all over the world and in many languages. We always have overweight luggage due to the excess of magazines that we carry haha. We are lucky to have a space in our studio to exhibit them and we always say that its an open archive for people to come and check them out. It is really hard to find interesting and different magazines here in Madrid so we believe that maybe thats the reason for our obsession towards magazines.
What is your opinion on taste and style?
This is something people always want to avoid, everyone has a taste and a style, this does not mean that you always need to make the same thing over and over or during your whole career. We always say that we do not like to use the same solution twice, this forces us to experiment constantly. Related to the first question, we believe that your ‘style’ must hint at your personality and in how you can differentiate from other professionals that are working in the same field as you.
Are you interested in trends, both in and out of your field?
Trends are everywhere. We are interested, but ideally we like to say that you need to digest them in order to make them yours. This is something very difficult but unconsciously we are affected by trends so trying to refuse and to avoid them is nearly impossible. You need to be able to absorb what interests you and cook something supposedly unique haha. We are also looking everywhere, we are interested in fashion, food, technology… we try to stay updated.
Do you have a dream project or client?
We would like to work on a hotel project in the near future, but its true that we are always open to new challenges. The Change in scale is something that attracts us, working with big and small things … and concerning a dream client, thats a difficult one. We tend to like clients that gives us freedom to create and propose new things, thats always nicer and easier but its true that we always learn from our clients, they can be experts in their fields and combining their knowledge with ours normally works and better things emerge.
Do you have a project that was a turning point in finding your creative path?
We think making Experimento was definitively an inflexion point. It was a real challenge firstly because it was a considerable change in scale (we were making tables before) but it was also a very ambitious project so everything had to be extremely thought through and the boundaries between uses (Studio, gallery & co-working) also needed to coexist in harmony. This project is our offering to Madrid and we are very excited.
How important is collaboration to you?
For us being able to collaborate is the key. We are not afraid in making visible the collaborations we have made, because we believe that from the interaction and the conflict more interesting ideas emerge. One of the main ideas behind the creative community we started was to encourage collaboration. We realised that creative people don’t have the platform to share their knowledge, new techniques or material providers … thats why sometimes designers can become a bit insular. We are sure that sharing knowledge is the key for success and collaborating on projects enriches the final result.
Where is your favourite place to be?
We love eating and discovering new restaurants, there is one restaurant in Madrid called Fismuler that we love. We like the food, the atmosphere… everything is just perfect, they even have live music! We also like to discover new bars and cafes as well… so yes… we love eating and drinking … very Spanish haha.
Form, function or fantasy?
All of them, but among all, fantasy! A space, a book, an object... needs to awaken something in you, in order to succeed! It needs to have some kind of a ‘fantasy’ halo. We like function but things in order to become special doe not need to be always functional or have the perfect shape… we believe that the recipe and the ingredients need to have a concrete intention to fulfil the aim of whatever you’re cooking.
