Jaime Hayón: a serious but fun designer

There are a few widespread misconceptions about Jaime Hayón (Madrid, 49 years old), but none of them keep him up at night.

“For example, I'm from Madrid, but since I decided to come to Valencia so long ago, people think I'm Valencian,” he clarifies, amused.

“And, at the same time, many see that I am moving around the world, in Hong Kong or New York or somewhere in Italy, so they assume that I only come to Valencia for a walk, when in reality I basically live here.”

It is difficult for a certain centralist conception to understand that a creator born and raised in the capital of Spain, and who has also lived for long periods in some of the largest cities in the world, moves of his own free will to a smaller city, to stay there. as long as he can.

He, on the other hand, always saw it clearly: “When I lived in London with my ex-wife and she got pregnant, the doctor recommended a quieter life, so here we came.

I quickly realized that the quality of life in this city is incredible.

For me it is the Berlin of the south.

Creative people have to be in a comfortable place, where there is good weather and good gastronomy, and availability of spaces to create.”

Jaime Hayón, in front of the door of his study.

The pattern on the wallpaper and on his shirt is his own design that he regularly uses in his work.

The shirt was made in collaboration with the Japanese brand Comme des Garçons.Raúl Belinchón

Speaking of spaces, last May he moved his design studio to a ground floor with a bright patio in the El Carme neighborhood, halfway between two art centers, the IVAM and the Center del Carme.

He himself was in charge of designing the renovation — “which we did with local workers,” he points out — to turn it into an enviable space where, among the objects and furniture that bear his signature, some prototypes and projects that were never produced stand out.

To explore it is to witness the unfolding of a very peculiar universe, half Mediterranean fantasy, half Nordic rigor.

At the back, past the patio, is the artist's workshop.

There, half-painted canvases accumulate, with a colorful figurativism that refers to the characters in his design pieces, which could be thought to be a two-dimensional continuation stripped of practical use.

But it is not exactly like that.

This gives him the opportunity to clarify another of the misunderstandings that surround him: that he is a designer with recent artistic whims.

“Actually, it can be said that I was born in the world of art,” he says.

“I want to say that at the beginning he did not do design, although he had studied it first at the IED in Madrid and then at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris.

But I started making artistic ceramic pieces, and sold them in galleries.”

Two of the paintings that Hayón is currently working on, in the middle of the process.Raúl Belinchón

From there he went on to create and direct the design department of the creative center Fabrica in Treviso (Italy), to work for brands as significant—and

a priori

opposite—as Lladró or Fritz Hansen, in addition to embarking on an endless number of collaborations, and to win, in 2021, the National Design Award, according to the decision of a jury that highlighted his “artistic astuteness”, whatever that means.

“Perhaps they were referring to the fact that I did not take the typical path, that I have tried to constantly reinvent this profession, which for me has no boundaries, and that I am a designer and artist like Leonardo was both a painter and an engineer,” he interprets.

And, just in case the comparison of him with Da Vinci might sound megalomaniacal, he returns to earth: “I have always had a transversality that has given strength to my work.

“I have tried to break with what has been said, but in a positive way, simply looking for another path.”

Apparently he had been like this since he was a teenager—Madrid, in the late 1980s—when skateboarding was his main interest: “I was always a big

skater

.

And with my

skate

friends I went to the championships in Getxo [Bizkaia], where I met very creative people.

One of the first people who were important to me was the father of my girlfriend at that time, an architect from Bilbao, Carlos Puente: he discovered Danish furniture to me, for example.

One of the companies he liked the most was Fritz Hansen, which I work for now.

Neither he nor I could have imagined it in a thousand years.”

Painted at the entrance to the workshop.

“I always paint things on the windows,” he says. Raúl Belinchón

Lamp prototype designed by the artist more than 20 years ago that was never published. Raúl Belinchón

After his Parisian training, in his early twenties, in 1997 he was chosen to be part of the breeding ground of Fabrica, a residence and creative research center founded by Oliviero Toscani, visible head of the Benetton fashion brand.

He ended up staying there seven years.

“Toscani asked me to head the design department.

I started working transversally, with very different people.

At the same time, I founded my own studio, which was also in Treviso, and which was very

arty

.

Because of my work for Fabrica, I came into contact with a gallery owner from London, David Gill.

When he discovered my work he proposed to me, in 2003, to do an exhibition in his gallery with my sculptures and wall paintings.

That was the first exhibition I did, already with my name.

A lot of people from London culture came because David always did very

cool

things .

So they said: 'If David chose it, there must be a reason.'

From there he was claimed in other galleries, and in 2005 he made his first artistic object converted into a design piece: “It was an installation called

Mon cirque

, which had a table with many legs, on top of which I placed some vases.

Neither the table nor the vases were functional objects, but rather sculptures.

But the architect and designer Ramón Úbeda was interested in them, and through him the company BD Barcelona, ​​which proposed that I make a series based on that idea.

Those were my first proper design objects.

People found them very different and saw that there was a narrative behind them, and I began to be known as a different, more

arty

designer .

My collaboration with Camper was along the same lines, very colorful.

In that sense, for me design has always been another platform to tell my world.”

Spacious spaces and natural light that enters through the central patio are the main assets of Hayón's Valencian studio.Raúl Belinchón

Hayón paints in oil and acrylic, combining techniques on canvas.Raúl Belinchón

He passed through Barcelona, ​​New York and London before settling between Valencia and Madrid.

Today he maintains two studios, the one in Treviso and the one in Valencia.

Including both, she maintains a staff of 12 collaborators, to whom she adds local teams for each project she undertakes, whether in design or public sculpture.

Firms from all over the world claim him, some with a strong brand image, but he always manages to maintain his imprint: “At first they pushed me more in their direction, but I have now learned to do what I want.

Whether with Cartier, with Dior or with Zara, with Fritz Hansen, Cassina or Vista Alegre.

Now I have completed a hotel in Bangkok for The Standard chain, and there I have expressed myself to the fullest.

With respect, of course, but for me it is important to be me.

If not, what a bitch.”

—What do you think is your contribution to the design?

—Do not believe that design is a simple service, only function.

If I design a chair or a jug, I try to question what that chair and this jug mean.

Every morning when I look at the

Happy Hook

, which I designed for Fritz Hansen, I think about what it means.

Granted, it has a hook utility, and is therefore functional, but at the same time it asks me a question: are you happy?

The design has to be something that does not leave you impassive, it must give you emotions.

—His last art exhibition at the L21 gallery in Barcelona was called

Form follows painting

.

Should it be understood as an ironic jab directed at the architect Louis Sullivan, who formulated the principle “Form follows function”?

—That principle is very questionable.

We still live a lot in those past phrases, but we have to erase them.

I also tell you that doing the function is not that difficult.

There are people who are making chairs and they are super uncomfortable: if they first applied the ergonomics manual and from there they started thinking about something else...

—Are you worried that your aesthetics may be considered childish?

-It does not worry me.

I think that on the border with

kitsch

or even the grotesque lies beauty.

If you work with the concept of serious-fun, as is my case, that is not childish.

Irony and humor are also very important to me, which I consider a deep game.

It is a way of playing with perception, both in art and design.

That's why I've been called many names: from the Almodóvar of design to the new Gaudí.

Sketch of one of the latest works that Hayón prepares, a constant work in progress.Raúl Belinchón

This connection with Gaudí must have influenced something so that, within the framework of the year of

art nouveau

in Brussels, the MAD Brussels center dedicated an exhibition to his creative universe under the title

New Nouveau

.

“Dieter Van Den Storm, the creative director of MAD, came to see the exhibition dedicated to me at the Center del Carme in Valencia, which ended in April, and decided to show in Brussels the capacity of my world to touch different areas and anticipate the future of this work.

So

Nuevo nouveau

encompasses 10 different moments condensed into 10 of my projects.

"I really like being with my work there, in the heart of Europe."

—Is design valued enough in Spain?

-I think so.

If there is a country that is growing and being avant-garde, it is Spain.

There is Patricia Urquiola, Mariscal, and many new designers.

You have to make a flag.

Furthermore, there is production here, something that other countries have burned.

Denmark produces abroad, for example.

I truly believe that, in design, after Italy there is Spain.

Although it would be nice if there were more institutions supporting the new design.

—What is your relationship with crafts?

—I have always incorporated and claimed it.

I prefer to work with artisans than with machines.

They are the ones who give sophistication to the work.

Plus, it's interesting when you work with someone and you question them.

Work with someone who makes pots in Mallorca, and ask them for a vase, and go with them in a new direction.

—New technologies don't interest you, then?

Do you think they are a threat?

—Technology is a threat to everything and everyone.

Either we use it well or we're screwed.

I use it, I have 3D programs, but I absolutely believe that it should be at the service of people.

If we do not manage artificial intelligence well, design could disappear.

Just like art or journalism.

But it happens the same as with any innovation that there has been.

We have to remember that everything has been coming, and so far nothing has killed humanity, right?

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