La Nave 1984 – 1991

La Nave was a group of designers formed out of a merger between two studios, Caps i Mans and Enebece (NBC). It comprised eleven professionals from different disciplines, from industrial and graphic designers to visual artists, architects and quantity surveyors: Eduardo Albors, Paco Bascuñán, José Juan Belda, Carlos Bento, Lorenzo Company, Sandra Figuerola, Marisa Gallén, Luis González, Luis Lavernia, Nacho Lavernia and Daniel Nebot.

The group became a referent for the design of the 1980s and a particular way of understanding the discipline of graphic and industrial design. The creation of Spain’s autonomous regions and the need to modernise its public administrations led to burgeoning job opportunities. It was necessary to create an image for new political and social institutions and to modernise others tinged with the grey halo of the dictatorship, whose prestige in Europe was at rock bottom.

La Nave led the transition from a classic concept to a postmodern mentality suited to the new social and productive reality in which the communicative value of the object progressively gained ground over functional aspects. At the same time, the market and its insatiable need for novelty started to become dominant. This was the intermediate step between the modern movement and its motto of “form follows function” and the current situation, where the motto could be transformed into “form follows the market”.