Hasta La Ideas

Seven anthropomorphic designs from Spain’s biggest design fair

Other than sunshine, Spain has an abundance of laughter. Blame it on the jamón, verdejo wine or siestas, the good humor of the country’s people shows up in design too. At this year’s Habitat Valencia, we spotted several examples of one of our favorite ways to add wit to furniture and objects—anthropomorphic design.

From concepts that add function (like a light that doubles as a butler) to those that are just plain cute, the below represent some of the newest and best ways to add Spanish levity to your life.

Originally produced in 2009 for Lladró, Jaime Hayon‘s porcelain clown lamp is still an elegantly cheeky way to jazz up a room. That it turns off and on by a touch to its golden nose seals the deal.

Triangulo‘s new series of modular furniture called Crezko grows with kids, giving them appropriately-styled bedrooms for whichever age they are. The winking chair, produced by the new brand Kimoo, will rock infants to sleep and humor them when they’re old enough to laugh.

Javier Ares Armero lights up the room with his Sisyphean Humallum lamps, which incorporates cord storage into the design.

Part of Estudio Marsical‘s Me Too kids furniture collection, the humorous Ladrillos (Spanish for cinder block) creates shelving through power of adorable little plastic creatures.

Bringing tons of personality to furniture for kids, bm showed off their Facebox in Valencia this year. The uber-cute rolling cabinet’s drawer-pulls give it the appearance of having a face. Guaranteed to get a rise out of any fun-loving tyke, these cabinets (which come in multiple color combos and with different, funny-sized eyes) are a must-have in the design-forward children’s bedroom.

Designed by Nacho Timon, Mr. Light is a well-considered lamp. Not only does the light illuminate for you, it also—by way of interchangeable arms—can act as a towel rack, butler or sitting companion. The cute, functional lamp is a great take on harnessing modular parts to offer dynamic functionality.

Fitting on a desk or fastened to a wall, the Handy by Vandidoo is more than a key hanger, it’s a place to dump the entire contents of all your pockets. Holding keys, a wallet, mail, change, sunglasses or just about anything else that can fit on the steel-toothed tray, the Vandidoo borrows from one of the body’s most useful designs for a high-functioning home accessory.