Jordi Miralbell and Mariona Raventós are a couple of craftsmen of design that have little by little come to build a variety of pieces of domestic lighting such as desk lamp and furniture, pure and poetic.
Jordi Miralbell, born in 1953, studied with Mariona Raventós in the design school Elisava, in Barcelona, between 1974 and 1977. Two years after, they set up their own interior and graphic design studio, m&j.
They soon expanded their professional career of designing lighting such as unique floor lamps to special designs for movies and photography, publicity and stage design, and space lighting projects. In 1986, they also started designing pieces of furniture, lighting and complements through their new production company, Neo-Series, that was still inspired by with their crafts style. In fact, one of their first lamps, the Arco, included a parchment shade that Mariona would hand paint. Among their first works, we may find a series of fashion dummies, or a furniture and lighting collection called Atmósfera that was composed of the Arco lamps, the Sud and Vertical lamps, and the Oceanía, Bere-B and Asia pieces of furniture.
Their conception of design led them in 1989 to be part of, Santa & Cole for which they had already designed some pieces of furniture,. Miralbell and Raventós were responsible afterwards for the art direction Santa & Cole, and as a part of the editorial committee they selected the products that the firm would edit
In this team, Mariona expresses herself better with materials, textures and color, she represents the sensual part of the project, whereas Jordi Mirabell contributes with volume, proportion, structure and supervising that the whole object will work. Their projects are simple and warm, they live together peacefully with all kinds of furniture. Their lighting elements offer different ways to give light thanks to parchment, wood, raffia or cotton and their poetic forms, thus reflecting the team’s conception on life: "design is the art of turning what is practical into a desired thing, into human warmness, into something that men have created."
Jordi Miralbell has put into practice for many years his good taste and know-how as Santa & Cole`s Indoor editor.