Santa & Cole: a small, independent and global editor of design products

Designer Lamps: We are closely acquainted with their products and designers, and also understand the different design principles they advocate and the business ethos around which each of them is organised. Hailing from everywhere around Spain, each one of them has something unique and endearing, be it a particular piece we love, a designer whose work we find particularly exciting, or perhaps just the general vibe of the brand itself. Although we would certainly like to talk about every single brand in our catalogue, today we will focus on showcasing just one of them: Santa & Cole.

Founded by Nina Masó, Javier Nieto Santa, and Gabriel Ordeig Cole in 1985, Santa & Cole has been in the business of designing exceptional objects for almost forty years now. However, according to them, using the term ‘design’ to describe their practice would result in a slight misnomer. They understand themselves not merely as producers of designer pieces, but as editors. They draw the analogy to the materialisation process of a book in the hands of a book editor: carefully preparing an object to have both a public presence and everyday use.

With their main offices located in an impressive complex in the Parc de Belloch (Catalan for ‘beautiful place’) outside of Barcelona, Santa & Cole has collaborated with more than eighty renowned designers and creators such as Antoni Arola, Miguel Milá, André Ricard and llmari Tapiovaara, to name just a handful. Although their catalogue spans home lighting, designer lamps, commercial furniture and art (as we will see below), they are perhaps most widely recognised and respected for their work in the first two of these. Let’s take a look at some of their work in this field

The Cesta family by Miguel Milà

The fact that Santa & Cole is known the most for their designer lamps and home lighting pieces is not at all a coincidence: back in the 80s, they started their journey by creating lamps for some of Barcelona’s most famous bars and nightclubs. To this day, they remain staunchly committed to crafting ambiences and moods through experimenting with light and shade. However, today they also go to great lengths to adapt themselves to the current times. With sustainability concerns in mind, since 2010 they switched to LED in all their catalogue, and they continue to re-edit older models with these new parameters. Furthermore, they have recently embarked on an ambitious project to use as many biodegradable and reusable materials as possible in their designer lamps, while keeping the high-quality standards and timeless aesthetics they are known for.

The Cesta family hardly needs an introduction. The original Cesta that started it all was designed in 1962 by the renowned and award-winning Catalan designer Miguel Milà, when Milà found an abandoned opal globe in front of a glass factory somewhere in Barcelona and decided to build a floor lamp with it. When it comes to lamps, Milá thinks that “A lamp spends more time off than on, so you have to take great care to ensure that its shape contributes to the space in the most exciting way possible.” The iconic design of the Cesta is living proof of this approach. Its charming and carefully balanced design, made from a delicate steam-bent cherry wood structure and a sleek glowing white opal glass lampshade, has withstood the test of time. While the design of the original Cesta has remained pretty much unchanged for 60 years, it also spawned equally successful progeny.

The Cesta metálica swaps the wood for stainless steel while keeping the same lampshade that the whole family is famous for. While the original Cesta (Spanish for “basket”) emanates warmth and cosiness, the cherry wood structure gently embracing the opal spheroid, the steel version is sternly minimalist. Instead of being embraced, the fragile opal shade is firmly gripped by four icy fingers. This contrast between firm and delicate can be enhanced by adding an optional leather handle, which results in a profile more reminiscent of the original version. The forthcoming Cesta outdoor, on the other hand, will stick closer to the original version albeit swapping the cherry wood for aluminium and the opal for polyethylene. These two materials are completely weatherproof, turning it into a piece of designer outdoor furniture that you can place on your entryway, terrace or backyard.

The Cestita Alubat is another metallic member of the family of designer lamps, although its approach is quite different. One of the latest additions to the catalogue, the Cestita (you guessed it: Spanish for “small basket”) changes the original design in two additional ways: while it also sticks to the original aesthetics and is built with aluminium, it is smaller in size, and, most importantly, it is fully portable. The Cestita Alubat eliminates the cables and has a chargeable battery which can last up to 24hrs at the lowest intensity. Due to its being super lightweight (under 1.5kg in total) it can even be easily brought along for a nightly stroll on the beach or countryside.

The Cestita Alubat is not the only smaller sibling in the family by far. The original Cesta also has a little sibling, the Cestita, which is basically the same design, just shorter (and arguably cuter). While the original design measures 57 x 33 cm (including the handle), the smaller iterations all measure 36 x 29 cm, making them more suitable as table lamps rather than floor lamps. The wooden equivalent of the Cestita Alubat would be the Cestita Portable, the other main member of the portable wing of the family. There is also a smaller version of the steely Cesta metálica that we mentioned above. In this case, the smaller size makes it look like some sort of modern iteration of a divination orb.

Lastly, although the Cesta family is better known for its wide collection of free-standing floor lamps and table lamps, the opal globe that served as the main inspiration for its design was also used by Milá for conceiving ceiling and wall fixtures back in the same years. The most iconic of them is perhaps the Wally Cesta wall light. For this stylish metallic lamp (available in matte black or white), Milá kept the gesture of gentle embracement that characterises the lamp design: one part of the fixture stands below the orb to keep it standing, while the other circles around it, not quite touching it but rather seemingly there to keep the floating globe from toppling sideways.

Designer Lamps: Antoni Arola’s pendants

Antoni Arola is another Catalan designer that has been working with Santa & Cole for decades. Born in 1960 in the province of Tarragona, Arola studied design at the EINA school in Barcelona. Winning prestigious awards for his lamp designs such as the 1994 Delta award and the 2003 National Design award, he has been long at the forefront of the popularisation of commercial Spanish lighting design—a field which is also Santa & Cole’s speciality. His approach could be characterised as subtle and artful, seeing the role of the designer less as one of imposing form on matter, but rather one of mediating between the two. In his words: “The designer is merely a catalyst, a mediator, a filter. It’s all in the air. You just have to materialise it, transforming ideas into objects that will improve the quality of life for everyone.” From the 2000s onwards his creative practice expanded, from the realm of product design to that of art installations, book publishing, and even perfume flasks. However, his main focus continues to be on light. His practice is not about designing lamps per se, but using light as his raw material in a subtle and playful game. As he intimates in an interview, “Light is matter . . . it is the mother of all and working with it is a treasure. It is rather a game of provocation and response, concealing and revealing. I’ve found a good playmate.”

The Nimba was the first designer lamp that Arola made for Santa & Cole when he started working with them back in 1994, earning him international acclaim and his first Delta award. The Nimba pendant is a great example of the masterful restraint and subtle minimalism that characterise most of his pieces. The concept behind it is as distilled as it gets: a floating halo of light. However, once you look into it with more detail and notice how the light is in fact coming from the metal profile and the glowing halo is actually working as a diffuser, it is hard not to be impressed. The Lamina is another one of Arola’s pieces that also display this simplicity, painstaking attention to detail, and intimate knowledge of how shadows, reflection, and diffusion work. In the Lamina, Arola exploits the virtues of indirect reflected light with another pendant with sculptural qualities that make it look like a mobile. This time instead of a halo we have a thin stripe of light with a hovering curved metal sheet gently hovering over it, diffusing the light. The Lamina is available in different versions with varying lengths: 45, 85 and in the sprawling 165, which measures 180cm long. Additionally, the Lamina Mayor takes things to the next level by adding a much larger metal sheet and emphasising the formal gesture of its curvature. While the other versions are sleek, elegant, and unintrusive, the Lamina Mayor is more of a bold statement.

The Cirio pendant is another one of Arola’s trademark home lighting pieces. Like the Lamina, it also comes in different versions and that which varies is not in size but rather in number. Arola’s masterful hand is definitely recognisable in the the Cirio pendant. Inspired by the lamps of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, it is reminiscent of a large church candle, an impression that is also emphasized by its 21 x 11cm size. While designed with different shade options (like polished brass and opal glass), our favourite is made from beautiful porcelain from Sargadelos in Spain. Things start to get interesting when we move on from the single pendant. There is a linear version which is constituted by a row of 5 pendants. Then there is the Cirio Cascada 9, with different length cables that allow you to arrange its 9 pendants to create either a playful asymmetrical cascade or a shimmering downward spiral. Next is the amazing Cirio circular. It hangs the Cirio pendants in a circular arrangement to form a canopy of light which is reminiscent of the kind of chandeliers used in churches or religious spaces. How if you are floored by the chandelier, you will be knocked over by the Cirio small chandelier. As hinted by the name, it sets 20 pendants in concentric rings, which results in a chandelier arrangement that is nothing short of astounding. Its visual impact is considerable, and it is bound to become the focal point of any place one decides to hang it.

Before moving on, we also want to show you another of Arola’s designer lamps that we are very fond of. The Moare pendant takes its name from the Moiré effect, the name given to the visual effect of movement that results when two ruled patterns with transparent gaps are overlaid on each other. Arola plays with this visual effect by placing two cylindrical polyester shades, one inside the other. The result is subtle but also arresting when the light is turned on, its gentle glow creating a ripple effect as you move around it.

Anthony Dickens’ award-winning Tekio

Designed by the British designer Anthony Dickens, the Tekio pendant is one of the designer lamps that Santa & Cole is particularly proud of, due to the fact that it was awarded the prestigious Golden Delta ADI-FAD for the best product in the interior environment category back in 2018. The Delta Awards, organised by the Industrial Design Association ADI-FAD, is one of the most prestigious awards in the fields of product and industrial design in Spain. It has been showcasing some of the best design happening in Spain since its first edition in 1961.

Born in Dorset in 1975 and based in London, Dickens has been crafting innovative designs for almost 30 years now, creating widely renowned pieces such as the Anglepoise table lamp and the Origami designer coffee table. In 2010, he travelled to Japan, where he was captivated by the centuries-long tradition of bamboo craftsmanship and the subtle art of dim interior lighting that is such a deeply ingrained part of the culture. Inspired by Japanese designs from the 10th he created the Tekio lamp for Santa & Cole. The Tekio is a lamp with a handmade modular paper screen connected which can be connected to other screens by magnets to create different shapes setups. This adaptability (Tekio means ‘adaptation’ in Japanese) has resulted in several versions of the lamp.

The Tekio Horizontal and vertical versions can be ordered with 1 to up to 4 screen modules (or 67 to a sprawling 226 cm). Combining different sizes allows for playful lighting arrangements. Then there is also the Tèkio circular, available with 4 or 8 modules. The resulting canopy of light is nothing short of striking. If the Tekio family already stands out from most paper screen lamps due to its quality and craftsmanship, the torus-shaped circular version is truly one of a kind.

Designer Lamps by Santa & Cole Team

Besides collaborating with highly talented designers such as Milá, Arola, and Dickens, to edit top-quality designer lamps, Santa & Cole also has its own in-house design team which conceives pieces which are right up there with those signed by the big names. One of their trademark home lighting pieces is the Tripode table lamp, which has been in their catalogue for more than 25 years now. Its design is simple yet bold, made from three crossed thin metal tubes that contrast with a generous ribbon shade. The shade is available in several different colours which range from the discrete to the playful (natural, red, black, terracotta, mustard, and green). There is also the floor lamp version of the Tripode, which conserves the same shade design (albeit a bit larger) and elongates the tripod itself. One could say that the GT pendant belongs to the same family, and at first sight, it might seem like it’s basically a hanging Tripode. However, there is a fundamental difference that stems from the different luminous affordances that an overhead pendant ought to provide. Although the GT keeps the same classy ribbon shade championed by Santa & Cole since the 1990s, the light source is a large translucent disc diffuser with a powerful dimmable LED plate inside. The GT comes in several versions, which change the scale of the pendant while keeping its essence: with the GT5 is a medium-sized pendant (32 x 52 cm), while the GT7 is of a considerably larger scale (44 x 90 cm). Although both are suitable as home lighting for domestic interiors, Santa & Cole has produced even larger versions destined to be used in public spaces.

Another great pendant created by the Santa & Cole team is the Arne S Domus. Showing its industrial inspiration on its sleeve, the Arne S is a formal synthesis of the traditional industrial spotlight, made smaller and sleeker for modern domestic interiors. It is straightforward and simple, yet refined and finely crafted. Plus, it is also colourful: besides white and grey, the Arne S’s aluminium body is also available in mustard and dark green finishes. Lastly, the Head hat Plate is another formally distilled design by Santa & Cole’s team. As revealed by the name, it is constituted by polished metal inverted plate-shaped lampshade of generous proportions. It is available in three sizes (35, 50 and 75 cm) and four colours (white, berry blue, truffle brown, and hematite red). We like the largest version the best for the way it looks when hovering silently over a round table or a desk.

Furniture designs by Santa & Cole

Santa & Cole also has several tasteful pieces of commercial furniture designed by their in-house team. Originally designed to be used in their main offices (where it gets the name from), the Belloch is an elegant and light stackable chair made from a polypropylene backrest and seat (available in several colours) and slender beech wood legs. The result is a modern chair with a classic feel. There is also an outdoor furniture version available, which switches the wooden legs for aluminium. The Ramon is another lightweight stackable chair inspired by classic designs. In this case, the main source of inspiration is the traditional wicker chair. The Ramon’s seat and backrest are made from flexible hand-woven synthetic rattan and are designed for maximum comfort and ergonomics. Moving on to more lush territories, the Cadaqués ensemble is Santa & Cole’s lounge proposal. Consisting of a luxury sofa, lounge chair, and ottoman (all upholstered and sewn by hand), the Cadaqués is soft, expansive and inviting. It takes its name from the quaint Catalan fishing village where Salvador Dalí had his studio.

Santa & Cole also has a couple of charming and masterfully crafted tables in their catalogue. The Sube y Baja (up and down) is a multifunctional round table made from oak that has the particularity of being height-adjustable with a very discreet mechanism. With seven adjustable heights from 39 to 72cm it can serve many purposes, from unique coffee table to side table. The Belloch table takes the same design principles and materials from its homonymous chair to make a spacious, modern, and highly functional office table. Together they make for an ideal setup for any work or educational space.

Art

Although Santa & Cole might be better known for their work editing designer lamps, they also dip their toes in the art world, working with artists that are as talented and devoted in their fields as the designers we just showcased above. Along with a new collaboration with the Madrid based Museum Thyssen Bornemisza, producing masterpieces from their collection, they also work with contemporary artists such as Carmen Galofré, Sílvia Martínez Palou, Marcos Isamat, and Montse Campins, to name just a few. Some of the work of these artists comes in limited and numbered series of print and graphic works, using techniques such as engraving, lithography, and photography. However, Santa & Cole has also come up with their idea of Neoseries. In a direct challenge to Walter Benjamin’s famous idea about how the reproducibility of artworks brought the death of the ‘aura’ attached to the original, Santa & Cole deploys cutting-edge techniques to produce faithful copies (up to the last tiniest detail) of paintings which aim to provide the same aesthetic experience as the original work. These copies are numbered, authorised and certified by each of the artists.

As you can see, Santa & Cole’s work is wide-ranging. The spectrum of designers they work with is very broad, and their catalogue of designer lamps is extensive. In this short text, we have barely managed to scratch the surface of what they have to offer. However, we hope that we were able to transmit some of our enthusiasm for this remarkable Spanish furniture brand. If you want to continue exploring their work, you can take a look at their website or contact us if you would like more specialised guidance.