The webinar was an opportunity to discuss and review the current Art Direction in small and medium-sized Valencian companies with top-level experts. Among them were the designer Nieves Contreras, the latest signing of the firm Lladró; Pablo Ginonés, with a long career as a creative director; and Silvia García, director of Art de La Mediterránea, a design company that was a reference in Valencia in the 80s and 90s.

As explained by the directors of the AVD, Ester Alba and Xavier Giner, this activity was the first of many others that aim to promote the value the Arxiu’s collection, hosted by the Faculty of Geography and History in Blasco Ibáñez and managed through the General Foundation of the University of Valencia.

In this sense, they affirmed: ‘Keeping alive the reflection on the different agents that make up the design ecosystem is also to make the knowledge that is deposited in the AVD something alive that is returned to society’.

With this webinar, based on the experience of La Mediterránea, which is part of the AVD collection, they debated ‘with professionals, of opposite profiles, but of the highest level, about what place can Art Direction occupy today in design-oriented SMEs, how is it articulated with the practice of design, etc.', they added.

The guest speakers were:

SILVIA GARCÍA, Art Director of La Mediterránea, a Valencian glass company founded in 1975. She holds a degree in Philosophy by the University of Valencia and a Masters’ degree in Senior Business Management by the ESADE. She has also taken courses in Marketing and Design Management. In the company La Mediterránea, where she worked for 23 years, she managed the Design and Communication Department. She is currently working on interior design projects.

PABLO GIRONÉS, born in Ontinyent (Valencia). He studied Architecture at the Universitat Politècnica de València and Economics at the University of Valencia; he has an extensive career as a consultant and creative director; he has worked for GANDIABLASCO, Punt, Martínez-Medina, Mad Lab, Point, Nerinea and LZF lams.

NIEVES CONTRERAS is a designer and Director of Product Creation and Development at Lladró since 2018. She studied Design at the Universitat Politècnica de València, as well as a Master’s Degree in Design Management. She has collaborated in different signature design and industrial design studios, mainly in eliumstudio, where she carried out design and artistic direction tasks for almost 10 years. At the same time, in 2006, together with Vicente Gimeno, she founded the contemporary ceramics brand sagenceramics.

Moderators:

VICENT MARTÍNEZ (designer)

MANUEL LECUONA (retiree professor of Design at the UPV)

The activity, which was open to the public, was organised by the Arxiu Valencià del Disseny with the participation of the Generalitat Valenciana, the UV, the FGUV, and the EASD Valencia.