Santamaria is a collaboration that spans three countries, with the skills of brothers Felipe (Spain), Fabio (Italy), Damian (England) and his wife Laura embracing a wide variety of disciplines, says Clare Dowdy.

Here's a truly international, cross-disciplinary network that truly speaks the same language. Its members cover visual communication, product design, fashion and architecture; they work out of the UK, Spain and Italy; they're second generation Italians from Argentina; and they're all related.

Santamaria comprises husband-and wife team Damian and Laura Santamaria in London, and Damian's older brothers Fabio in Milan and Felipe in Madrid, all of whom are in their thirties. They all came to set up shop in Europe in the Nineties, and have since honed their own style of fruitful cross-pollination.

While the Londoners, who met at Buenos Aires' UNLP, offer graphics and branding, Fabio is a Domus Academy-trained product designer.

Felipe practises architecture and fashion design and studied under the Pelli brothers of Canary Wharf fame – who also happen to be family friends.

‘We are a unit because we are a family, and give each other freedom to go our own way,’ says Laura. ‘At the same time we're trying to push the Santamaria ideal. ’That ideal includes creating a look which has more in common with European style than with the London scene, and building the sort of client relationships that themselves border on the fraternal. While in Spain and Italy, business has traditionally been run on a more informal, friends-and-family basis; this approach sounds less conducive to the UK market.

Laura and Damian, however, have set up a workspace at their home, and regularly have clients over for supper. ‘The model we are trying to adopt – working from home – is very common in Latin America,’ says Laura. ‘The UK is starting to be more open to the approach.’ But this does not mean relying on a kitchen-table style of offer. The couple's delivery and presentation is slick and professional, and hence in keeping with the expectations of their UK-based clients.

This means there can be frustrations for them in dealing with their more laid-back Continental associates, for whom issues such as lead times may be less pressing.

Even the way Santamaria established itself here goes against common UK business practice. Instead of slogging it out in the big agencies for ten years, the couple opened for business in 1996 with little experience of the UK market save for six months of freelancing when they first arrived. So unlike your average start-up, they weren't able to take a few friendly clients with them from their former employer. It was only after setting up that they were able to chase clients.

Their bullish approach seems to have paid off, and Santamaria's client list includes Granada Media, Abbey National's internet arm cahoot, and Manchester United. A knock-on effect of having overseas credentials is the ability to attract clients working in Europe. The couple have handled the rebranding of the Europe-wide John Bull pub franchise, following its acquisition by Charles Wells from Allied Domecq, and the merchandising they designed for the chain is currently being manufactured.

When they're all working on a project together, the Santamarias feel they bring something special to the party. On a practical level, this means being able to brief each other quickly and clearly. A shared educational background contributes to this. ‘We all have the same understanding of image and identity, but we each have a specialism,’ says Laura. Felipe describes it as feeding off each other, as the interaction between such a variety of disciplines has the capacity to throw up unexpected solutions.

Their first joint project was for Hains & Smith, a chain of opticians based in Cirencester. It started with a commission for a new identity through Laura and Damian. They called in Felipe for the interiors ‘because he would understand very quickly what we wanted to do’, says Laura. Fabio contributed from Italy on the design of the display units.

In recent months, the Spanish and London studios have been putting their heads together on a variety of projects for Spanish luxury brand Devota & Lomba.

It was Felipe who first made contact with the company. Now they are working on the identity and retail design for stores in Barcelona and Madrid. Fabio and Felipe have also designed some rug concepts together for the firm, and D&L is about to appoint an advertising agency to give the brand an extra push. It was Fabio, Laura and Damian who joined forces to enter a competition to design a piece of street furniture for Westminster Council. Out of two hundred entries, they reached the last ten with their design for a millennium post – the only non-architectural company to do so.

As well as holding actual clients, the family team invent their own projects. The latest is a tool for hair stylists, a sort of brush with a vacuum-cleaning facility to remove hair trimmings after a cut. They hope that their contacts with manufacturers on the Continent will help them out with these sorts of product concepts.

‘We want more joint projects,’ says Felipe, as the finishing touches are actually being put to one. The four are also producing a book which charts their designs, both joint and individual, to be released in November. The book, called simply Santamaria, features corporate identity, packaging and retail design along with conceptual art, sculpture and photography, with the idea of displaying the breadth of their interests on communications and culture.

It may seem tricky and time-consuming to manage these long-distance relationships, but all four promote them because they get so much out of the collaborative process. The result is ideas which themselves cross boundaries, and are influenced by the designers, various locations and skills.

But alongside these collaborative efforts, each studio is busy carving out its own reputation on a national level. Fabio can name among his Italian clients Area-Lite Lighting and Lamm Spa, for whom he is designing directors' chairs. The London studio has worked on the branding, positioning and product development in the UK and Far East of Manchester United Lager, and new product development, merchandise and point-of-sale for Red Stripe Jamaican Lager - another job with European exposure.

The London office probably has the lowest profile of the three, which could be due in part to the size of its projects, or the less press-worthy nature of its discipline. Felipe accuses the UK press of only being interested in the big-fee contract rather than the style – he is well known in Madrid for Devota & Lomba's shop interiors.

The lower profile contributes to the determinedly proactive approach that the London-based couple have cultivated. If, morning after morning, Laura and Damian find themselves staring at a badly designed cereal box on the breakfast table, they will drop a line to the brand's marketing director, suggesting a redesign. And if that doesn't work, three proposals follow by post – it has paid off in the past. It was this tack that landed them the identity design commission for the Pro-European Conservative Party. And it was their idea for Devota & Lomba to introduce a perfume.

The Santamarias are fired up with enthusiasm and energy and their unashamed passion, particularly in the established, corporate world of UK branding, is refreshing. Indeed, they are all firm believers in the hot-shop approach to work, over big business. ‘The majority of people working in the creative industries in London commute for at least two hours a day,’ says Damian. ‘It's no surprise that they are fed up with their jobs and can't be creative in the workplace.’

It is then that Santamaria will get the call to help a design agency out of a creative cul de sac on a specific client project. Picking up subcontracts from creatively drained staffers may not be the most glamorous end of design, but it is testament to the fact that Santamaria has the ability to bring something new to a job.

The Santamarias describe themselves as a partnership, and although they're family, each studio has its own personality. Their clients‚ with varying attitudes towards Argentina, play a role in shaping these personalities. All four Santamarias normally introduce themselves to clients as Italian, to explain how they are able to work in the EU. It comes out that they have dual nationality.

To an uncosmopolitan European, Argentina is just another Latin American country, suffering all the usual cultural stereotypes. In this case, the designers have a job of re-education to do. But anyone in the know will think of Argentina as one of the most advanced Latin nations, boasting an education system with its roots firmly in European soil. To these people, ‘to be Argentinean is to be glamorous’, says Damian.
Much of the output reflects this sense of quality and stylishness, and perhaps at the same time, there is an other-worldliness about it too. There is something here for UK clients who feel they've seen it.