Patricia Urquiola Style Guide

Patricia's Website

Hanyan Guo

Table of Content

  1. Intent
  2. Voice
  3. Tone
  4. Brand
  5. Example of Personas
  6. wireframe
  7. Copy Deck
  8. Competition

1.Intent

Patricia Urquiolais an architect, who was born was born in Oviedo, Spain and studied architecture in Madrid before graduating from the Milan Politecnico in 1989. The key words for her work are: rigour and emotion, innovation and mental comfort. She was mentored by some of the masters of Italian industrial design: Achille Castiglioni oversaw her graduate thesis, and Vico Magistretti, with whom she designed her first projects. She learned her craft in Italy, and opened a studio in Milan in 2001, where she has developed a truly global enterprise. Some highlights from her career include her encounter with Maddalena de Padova (1990), her collaboration with Piero Lissoni (1996-2000), and her partnership with Patrizia Moroso (since 1998). Basically, her website is selling designs to clients from different places, such as Panerai in Milan and Gianvito Rossi in New York.

2.Voice

The website gives me a feeling of soft but meanwhile it captivated me. All the images have a very strong specific personality that not only have the characteristics of Patricia but also show the style and level of brands. The following adjectives are the voice of this website:

  1. Calm
  2. Delicate
  3. Emotion
  4. Elegent
  5. Innovation
  6. Mental Comfort
  7. Rigour
  8. Soft

3.Tone

The tone of Patricia's Website is sort of monochrome. Black, blue, grey, red, and white are the primary colors. While pages are more focused on presenting images contain little to no text. However, when we go to the news's page, we can see a timeline and a lot of information there. Every news is clearly separated with white color frames.

4.Brand

How does the website establish its brand? Is it consistent? Is it upscale, casual, youthful, objective? The website is cohesive with the brand and Patricia's personality. It is also consistency between pages and pages as size of texts, size of images, the tonal value, and typefaces are connected and have the sense of hierarchy.

This website definitely targets at upscale, upper level.

5.Example of Personas

Luxury Brands

As a high end architect, luxury brands definitely would be potential clients. And, since the key words for her work are: rigour and emotion, innovation and mental comfort. She was mentored by some of the masters of Italian industrial design: Achille Castiglioni oversaw her graduate thesis, and Vico Magistretti, with whom she designed her first projects. She learned her craft in Italy, and opened a studio in Milan in 2001, where she has developed a truly global enterprise. After having these experiences and strong background, I believe that luxury brands, such as LV, Prada and other high end fashion brands, have the potential to be her clients.

Hotel

The new Mandarin Oriental Hotel by Patricia Urquiola in Barcelona is the best example of her design. The unique designer has worked along major design firms which clearly have made a mark. Prior to setting up her own design studio in Milan, she managed De Padova firm's new product development office, in collaboration with the designer and architect Vico Magistretti, she later headed Piero Lissoni's design team for five years. An impressive journey leading up to this impressive project.

Furniture Firms

The concept of the Cassina Midtown New York Showroom, executed by Cassina's Contract Division, has been designed by Patricia Urquiola in an exciting first time collaboration. Since Patricia Urquiola has been nominated Art Director of Cassina in 2015, there will be a huge potential that other furniture firms will invite her to design.

6.Wireframe

7.Copy Deck

Title: Elegant House

Body Copy: She designs for Agape, Alessi, Andreu World, Artelano, Axor, B&B Italia, Bart Design, The City of Bilbao, Bisazza, BMW, Bosa, Budri, Chevalier Edition, Il Coccio, De Padova, De Vecchi, Dior, Driade, Emu, Fasem, Salvatore Ferragamo, Flos, Foscarini, Gallotti & Radice, Gandia Blasco, Glas Italia, Kartell, Kettal, Kvadrat, Maurice Lacroix, Liv’it, Louis Vuitton, Peter Mabeo, MDF Italia, Molteni, Moroso, Mutina, Olivari, Panasonic, Paola Lenti, Rosenthal, Champagne Ruinart, San Lorenzo, Tronconi, and Viccarbe. Consulting for Moroso, Honda, LG, Panasonic, the Singapore Government, and the Qatar Museum Authority. Artistic direction for Mutina.

8.Competition

Charles and Ray Eames are among the most important American designers of the 20th century. Charles and Ray married in 1941 and moved to California where they continued their furniture design work with molding plywood. During World War II they were commissioned by the United States Navy to produce molded plywood splints, stretchers, and experimental glider shells. In 1946, Evans Products began producing the Eameses’ molded plywood furniture. Their molded plywood chair was called “the chair of the century” by the influential architectural critic Esther McCoy. Since Charles and Ray are well know furniture designers, I assume that they are one of the biggest competitors to Patricia.

Charles and Ray