Francisco Javier Errando Mariscal (born 9 February 1950) better known as Javier Mariscal is a Spanish artist and designer whose work has spanned a wide range of mediums, ranging from painting and sculpture to interior design and landscaping. He was born in February 1950 in the city of Valencia, Spain, into a family of eleven brothers and sisters. Since 1970, he has been living and working in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Career

Mariscal's artistic language is synthetic, with few strokes and a great deal of expressiveness. He started studying at Colegio El Pilar in Valencia. After that he studied design at the Elisava School in Barcelona, but he soon left to learn directly in his environment and follow his own creative impulses. His first steps were in underground comics, a task that he soon combined with illustration, sculpture, graphic design and interior design. In 1979, he designed the Bar Cel Ona logo, a work that would make him popular. The following year, he opened the first bar in Valencia designed by Mariscal, together with Fernando Salas, the Duplex, for which he designed one of his most famous pieces, the Duplex stool, an authentic icon of the 1980s. In 1981, his work as a furniture designer led him to participate in the exhibition Memphis, an International Style, in Milan. In 1987, he gave an exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and participated in the Documenta de Kassel. Javier mariscal, sedia garriris, 1987

Throughout the 1980s, he designed several textile collections for Marieta and Tráfico de Modas and exhibited at the Vinçon salon in Barcelona. In 1989,

Cobi Cobi or COBI may refer to: People * Cobi (musician) (Jacob Michael Schmidt, born 1986), an American musician * Cobi Crispin (born 1988), an Australian wheelchair basketball player * Cobi Hamilton (born 1990), an American football player * Cobi Jone ...

was chosen as the mascot for the

Barcelona 1992 The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

. The mascot was the centre of great controversy because of its vanguard image, but Cobi is now recognised as the most profitable mascot in the history of the modern games. He later created the cartoon series ''The Cobi Troupe''. He opened the Estudio Mariscal in 1989 and has collaborated in several projects with designers and architects such as

Arata Isozaki Arata Isozaki (磯崎新, ''Isozaki Arata''; born 23 July 1931) is a Japanese architect, urban designer, and theorist from Ōita. He was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986 and the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2019. Biography Isozaki was ...

, Alfredo Arribas, Fernando Salas, Fernando Amat and Pepe Cortés. His most notable works include the visual identities for the Swedish social democratic party,

Socialdemokraterna The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( sv, Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti ; S/SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( sv, link=no, Socialdemokraterna ), is a social-de ...

; the Spanish radio station

Onda Cero Onda Cero is a Spanish radio station, a part of Atresmedia media group. It is Spain's third-largest radio station by number of listeners as of 2019. Among its programs are ''Más de Uno,'' ''Julia en la Onda,'' ''La Brújula,'' ''El Transistor,'' ...

; Barcelona Zoo; the

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ca-valencia, Universitat de València ; also known as UV) is a public research university located in the city of Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest surviving universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Vale ...

; the Lighthouse Centre for Architecture and Design in Glasgow, the GranShip Cultural Centre in Japan and the London postproduction company, Framestore. In 1995,

Twipsy Twipsy was the official Mascot of the EXPO 2000 World's Fair held in Hannover. The character was created by the Spanish designer Javier Mariscal. His draft was selected in 1995 by an international jury out of 17 proposals in total. During the cou ...

was chosen as the mascot for the

Expo 2000 Expo 2000 was a World Expo held in Hanover, Germany from 1 June to 31 October 2000. It was located on the Hanover Fairground (Messegelände Hannover), which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. Initially some 40 million people were expe ...

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

. The success of this mascot led to the Twipsy series, in which the star is a virtual space messenger and the action is set in the Internet. Twipsy was sold to over one hundred countries. In 1995, Mariscal also designed the Amorosos Furniture collection for the Italian manufacturer Moroso, which includes one of his most successful pieces of furniture, the Alexandra armchair, in which the organic shapes and the use he makes of colour communicate the vital, extroverted style that characterises Mariscal's objects. In 1995, Mariscal collaborated with schoolchildren in the

Land of Valencia The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid with ...

to create a collective mural sculpture during protest days for the use of the

Valencian language Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the El Carche comarca in Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance language also known as Cat ...

in the education. The mural is now located in the Teacher's Faculty of the

and open to the public free of charge. 200px, Partial view of the mural created by Mariscal and students of schools in Valencian as part of "Meeting of Schools in Valencian (language)" in 1995. In 2001, he designed the much sought after diary room chair used in

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

's second instalment of Big Brother. In 2002, his multidisciplinary career culminated with the integral design of the Gran Hotel Domine Bilbao, nestling between the

Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. The museum was inaugurated on 18 October 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Spa ...

and the ria, the creative concept of which is based on reflecting the history of design of the 20th century. Mariscal designed things from the uniforms to the façade, including the graphic image and its website. He did the interior design of the GHDB with Fernando Salas, who also collaborated in Calle 54 Club, a project in which Fernando Trueba also forms part and which provides Madrid with a live space where the most prestigious Latin jazz musicians perform, such as

Bebo Valdés Dionisio Ramón Emilio Valdés Amaro (October 9, 1918 – March 22, 2013), better known as Bebo Valdés, was a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger. He was a central figure in the golden age of Cuban music, especially due to his big b ...

and Paquito D'Rivera. Madrid is also the home of Hotel Puerta América, belonging to the Silken Group, a project in which the best architecture and design studios of the moment participated. Estudio Mariscal and Fernando Salas were responsible for the interior design of the eleventh floor. Another sample of his interdisciplinary vocation is the audiovisual show Colors, which premiered in Barcelona in 1999 and starred the robot Dimitri, another of Mariscal's creatures. The script of Colors has been adapted for the frequent conferences on design he gives all over the world which, rather than conferences are entertaining pocket shows marked with humour and tenderness. In 2005, he made several objects for the children's collection, Me Too, by Magis, a fruitful collaboration that is still under way. Some of his most recent works, which he continues to combine with his artistic task, are the image of the Spanish financial institution, Bancaja; that of the

32nd America's Cup The 2007 America's Cup was the thirty-second challenge for the America's Cup and was won by Alinghi in the 7th race. The Cup is the most famous and most prestigious regatta and ''Match Race'' in the sport of sailing. As per the Deed of Gift o ...

, of the new brand of bags for Camper, Camper For Hands, as well as the interior design of the Ikea Restaurant in Vitoria. In 2006, he participated in ARCO with the sculpture, Crash!, a homage to the optimist design of the 1950s and a way of telling us that that confidence in the future has exploded because now we need to think about how to make a future possible. In 2009, from 1 July until 1 November, a major UK retrospective of Mariscal's work was shown at the London Design Museum, in which visitors enter through a tunnel showing 640 examples of the designer's style from 1970 to the present day, including his

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands o ...

s. He will also be creating a mural for the outside of the Design Museum itself. Mariscal drew and co-directed, with

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-winning director

Fernando Trueba Fernando Rodríguez Trueba (born 18 January 1955), known as Fernando Trueba, is a Spanish book editor, screenwriter, film director and producer. Between 1974 and 1979, he worked as a film critic for Spain's leading daily newspaper ''El País''. ...

, the 2010 Spanish-British animated feature-length film ''

Chico and Rita ''Chico and Rita'' is a 2010 Spanish adult animated music romantic film with Spanish and English languages directed by Tono Errando, Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal. The story of Chico and Rita is set against backdrops of Havana, New York City ...

''. The film celebrates the music and culture of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

and depicts a love story set against backdrops of

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, New York,

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, Hollywood and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Awards

In 1999, Mariscal received the National Design Prize of the Spanish Department of Industry and the BCD Foundation grants in recognition of achievements throughout a professional career. In 2011 he won the Award of the Hungarian National Student Jury for ''Chico and Rita'' at the 7th

Festival of European Animated Feature Films and TV Specials A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival con ...

.
10. Kecskeméti Animációs Filmfesztivál 7. Európai Animációs Játékfilm Fesztivál
'. Kecskeméti Animáció Film Fesztivál. 2011.

Career

Awards

References

External links