Hasta La Ideas

Spanish design studio Masquespacio chose hospital colours for the exterior, interior and branding of this smartphone and tablet repair shop in Valencia (+ slideshow).

Masquespacio picked four tones to use throughout the 40-square-metre Doctor Manzana shop and on the brand’s matching product packaging. The designers chose turquoise and blue to emulate a medical facility, referencing the brand’s name.

“We wanted to create a concept based on a hospital, but overall we limited it to a few metaphorical details like through two of the principal colours of the brand: green and blue,” Christophe Penasse of Masquespacio told Dezeen. “The salmon colour on the other hand was chosen to attract attention from fashionistas and the purple colour is for the tech freaks.”

Turquoise green is the dominant colour around the shop, covering the ceiling and sections of wall, while other surfaces are mostly white. Products are displayed on diagonal panels over corrugated steel sheets that line the walls.

“When we saw this location for the first time the floor, walls and ceiling were in really poor conditions,” said Masquespacio creative director Ana Milena Hernández Palacios. “We decided to use galvanised steel sheets, a resistant material with a lower price than that needed to restore the walls.”

The diagonal motif is continued on the boxes and packets for phone cases and accessories, which also sit on white tables in the otherwise unfurnished store.

External stonework is painted green, while the doorway and two windows set into alcoves are each coloured in the other shades.

Masquespacio also used bright colours as wayfinding tools at a languages school in Valencia. Photographs are by David Rodríguez.

The designers sent us the following information:

Masquespacio designs the new brand and space of Doctor Manzana

Masquespacio presents their last Project realised for Doctor Manzana, a store specialised in technical service for smartphones and tablets, besides being a seller of design gadgets for mobile devices.

The project consists of the redesign of Doctor Manzana’s branding and the realisation of the design for their first point of sale located in Valencia, Spain.

The project starts from the necessities from Doctor Manzana’s brand to open their first physical point of sale after the great success reached through their technical service offered until now only online in Spain.

Due to the growth of the company in first case design studio Masquespacio redesigned the graphic identity of the brand with the purpose to strengthen the identity and apply it to the point of sale.

The logotype starts from the principal axe of the company the touchscreen and his reflection that creates an angle of 54 degrees. That angle ends being part of the whole communication and his defragmented into different applications that create an infinity of forms able for the graphic and interior design.

Ana Milena Hernández Palacios, creative director of Masquespacio: “Talking about the colours as we started from a company name allied with a doctor we wanted to create a concept based on a hospital, however as we didn’t want to create a conventional design, we discarded this option, but maintaining blue and green colours as a reference to the first word in the company’s brand name.” Looking at the store everything starts from the striking façade that incorporates the same angles and colours like for the graphic identity.

The blue and green colours like a reference to the doctor, the salmon colour for the fashionistas and the purple for the freaks. Both windows contain texts like “Doctor Manzana? Is it an orthopedic doctor? No! It’s a team of technicians specialised in smashes, drops and accidents for smartphones and tables” communicating Doctor Manzana’s services in a funny way. Entering at the store we can see how the interior design as the graphic design contains fresh funny colours and a bunch of angles appearing continually in their original form or defragmented, making reference to the reflection of the touchscreen.

A technological air blows through the store, while some details like the blue curtain refer in a metaphorical way to a hospital.

Materials like the galvanised steel sheets are doing their more industrial work in the space, while white furniture is offering a light warm touch to the whole. Meanwhile, the different pastel colours bring the diversion part of Doctor Manzana’s identity to the space.

Masquespacio, through this project, shows again that creativity has no limits and that high budgets aren’t needed to obtain an explosive result for brands looking to transmit a sober or a funny image like in this case with Doctor Manzana.

The post Gadget repair shop fitted out in hospital
colours by Masquespacio appeared first on Dezeen.

Spanish design studio Masquespacio have turned a dilapidated Valencia art gallery into an office for a law firm, featuring clusters of empty picture frames on the walls (+ slideshow).

The 100 square metre office has been divided into compact work areas with full-length glazed walls.

The original wooden ceiling beams were restored to complement the wood of the tables, counter and chair legs.

The overlapping wooden picture frames on the meeting room wall are “a metaphor of the diplomas usually displayed in a law firm,” the designers explained.

Thin strips of wood hanging vertically on the walls are partially painted in the company’s colours of grey and black, which are also picked up in the furniture around the office.

Other buildings in Valencia we’ve featured include a house with a glass facade that reveals what’s going on inside and a nursery with circular holes in its concrete walls.

We’ve featured lots of offices on Dezeen, most recently a Russian internet company with walls designed to look like pixels – see all of them here.

See all our stories about offices »
See all our stories about Valencia »
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Photographs are by David Rodríguez from Cualiti.

Here’s more information from the architects:

Masquespacio present their last project realised in an emblematic building from the end of the 19th century, situated in the historic centre of Valencia, Spain. The project designed for the law office Zapata y Herrera starts from his historic values to which are added the firm’s corporate values by the use of colours black, grey and natural wood tones.

At first the old beams have been restored, making them an essential element of the project. The noble wood is one of the protagonists of the office, not wanting to stand out, but in order to transmit confidence as one of the most important values of Zapata y Herrera. The grey colour takes over, symbolising stability and professionalism, while the powerful black transmits certain elegance and especially the seriousness with which the firm practices its profession.

Down the noble wooden entry stairs is standing out the combination of different sensations transmitted by the office. Some will call it elegant and sophisticated, while others call it sober and robust. Going further into the description of the lawyers’ office, on the left we can find the offices where the central element is a curtain of wood strips that repeats the colours of the firm’s values. The small space was maximised using L-shaped tables positioned above the storage lockers. The three pillars from the entry garden at their time are repeating the primary colours.

Above: office plan

In front of the last offices and behind the reception we can find the interns’ area with a sense of green offered by a range of aloe vera plants matching with the Green chair from Javier Mariscal, 100% recycled and 100% recyclable

On the other way of the entrance we find the boardroom starring a bunch of frames proposing a metaphor of the diplomas usually exposed in a law firm. The oeuvre, as well as the wood strips curtains where created by Masquespacio’s creative director, Ana Milena Hernández Palacios. At last, alongside the boardroom is situated a lobby in which we can recognise the Float couch, the latest design from Karim Rashid for Spanish brand Sancal.

Masquespacio in this project didn’t want to fall into the usual clichés of a law firm, so they converted them into metaphors. The law office Zapata y Herrera can be considered as an example of a corporate space that transmits its values, giving more importance to the work of their employees highlighting their seriousness, professionalism and confidence, with a vanguardian look unusual for a law firm.

Finished: 22/09/2012
Space: 100 m2
Client: Zapata y Herrera
Address: Plaza San Nicolas 3, 46001 Valencia
Design: Masquespacio
Address: Paseo de la Alameda 65, 34 B, 46023 Valencia
Designer: Ana Milena Hernández Palacios
Graphic Design, oeuvre and interior design by Ana Milena Hernández Palacios
Materials:
Construction: José Manuel Paz Agra Construcciones
Visitor office chairs: De Vorm
Director chairs: Inclass
Couch and lobby tables: Sancal
Intern chairs: 114 Mobles
General lighting: Arkos Light
Reception lighting: Luzifer
Lobby and boardroom chairs: Hay
Storage lockers: BM2000
Floor: Rapidmix

The post Zapata y Herrera lawyers’ office
by Masquespacio appeared first on Dezeen.