Second-generation Italians from Argentina, the Santamaria family pride themselves on working together and tackling projects with the aim of bringing something unique to each job. The key word in this close-knit collective is personalisation – on services and products.
As the hand-made, the unique and personal become increasingly important across all areas of design (see WGSN’s ThinkTank trend One), Santamaria’s approach is a blueprint for modern design practice.
Their new self-titled book tackles the issues of identity and communication, concepts that form the driving force of the group. Between them they have worked on branding for UK internet bank cahoot, Granada Media and Manchester United. They have also created the identity and interior design for a British chain of opticians, and stores for the Spanish luxury clothing brand, Devota & Lomba. In Milan, Fabio’s clients include Area-Lite Lighting and furniture company Lamm Spa.
Santamaria are leading a quiet revolution with their personal and innovative approach to design. They work from home, invite their clients around for dinner and, most importantly, get their clients excited about each project they undertake by tackling proposals from an unexpected angle. The group are not driven solely by business but by the challenge of pushing boundaries.
Santamaria: the book
Santamaria’s
self-titled debut book, which launched November 2001, is a portfolio of
personal work from the entire family, exploring the meaning of identity.
"We want it to act as a way for us to break out of the commercial arena and into different visual fields," says Damian.
After approaching numerous publishers, the group decided to publish independently. They sold 500 copies in the first two weeks and already have plans for a second edition.
Identity: personal = corporate
Damian and Laura disagree with the No Logo sensationalism of the late 90s and believe the best way to tackle creating a corporate identity is by drawing parallels with personal identity.
“To create a corporate identity,” say Damian and Laura, “you have to treat the brand as a person. If a brand is a person, what would they do, what do they eat, where do they live, who do they want to hang around with? Ideas come easily from this concept. What is a brand itself? It’s a means of communicating something to a group of people with similar interests" says Damian.
“We’re coming to a new era,” says Laura. “Before it was the logo era and companies relied very heavily on symbols. That symbol had to represent everything and you ended up with things that were very obvious and often very ugly – just to keep everyone happy.”
Laura believes that the approach to branding has changed a lot. "Now it´s got to do with people and culture", she says. "It´s about image as well, not symbol based image, but the brand proposition, the brand language, the brand promises. It´s more abstract than it used to be."
"We take brands as a communication tool, something that you need," says Damian. "We are against No Logo because the trend now is that anyone who uses a logo is exploiting people. This is not true. Human beings first tried to mark their own products for specific purposes and we´re trying to come back to this. Branding doesn´t have anything to do with the behaviour of a company. Branding, logo and identity are all part of the communication process."
Creating Identity = the process
When
creating a new identity for a company or product Damian and Laura say a
surprise element is key, especially when it comes to grabbing the attention
of a younger market.After a thorough briefing from the client they conduct comparison research, looking at the existing products in the market and defining how the new product is different.
They then ask the client what it wants the branding to look like regardless of the product. Do they want it to have the allure of a perfume or a designer item? "It´s just images at this stage," says Laura, "but it very quickly gives you the idea of the market they are trying to target and the positioning of the product."
Contemporary working practices
Santamaria´s biggest buzz is when they can work together on a project, pulling in the expertise of each family member as they did on working with Spanish clothing brand Devota & Lomba. Fabio and Felipe in Milan and Madrid designed new store interiors, including rug concepts for the firm and Laura and Damian in London worked on the brand´s identity, suggesting the company introduce a perfume.
For Damian and Laura inspiration ranges from contemporary architecture to fashion – or any visual arts discipline outside of the field they specialise in. Santamaria´s overall aesthetic has a natural, raw, minimalist edge. "It´s experimenting with dreams," says Laura.
Whether creating rugs for a Chinese company, street furniture for a London council or, their latest project, designing the branding for a range of ready-mixed cocktails, Santamaria´s cross-discipline approach brings a unique strength to the group´s design solutions.
In future, Damian and Laura say they´d love to design for IKEA, products for architects and fashion designers and create their own brand with a wide range of hand-crafted, personalised products.