I have been following Clara and \u00c1lex for years. I love their projects and I admire the growth of their studio thanks to their constant, intelligent and brilliant work, which shows confidence in their own style, built up over the years, without obsessing over the aesthetic trends of the moment, working for Spanish and foreign companies, whose main objective is to provide solutions for people rather than to cultivate stardom in the design scene.<\/p>\n\n\n
Clara and \u00c1lex are industrial designers by training, they developed their careers separately for years until they met at the exhibition of young designers Nude in Valencia in 2004. At the end of 2006 they presented their first collection as Yonoh. Since 2014 they collaborate as teachers with the Cardenal Herrera CEU University in Valencia and give conferences and workshops all over the world disseminating their work methodology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those interested in learning more about Clara and Alex, their style and design methodology, can do so with their Product Creation course at Domestika. A jewel for any student or design enthusiast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yonoh is one of the most important Spanish design studios at the moment. They have earned their reputation thanks to their intense work over the last 15 years, during which they have created very interesting products, some of which we analyse in this conversation, winning important international awards such as IF Design, Red Dot Design, German Design, Good Design or Wallpaper* Design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The beginnings are always complicated, fortunately, the network of small furniture companies in the Valencia area has always been important, and that helped us to be able to start creating our first projects with them. In any case, the growth of the studio has always been very calm, this seems bad, but from our point of view, this has allowed us to grow at our own pace, without losing our personality. And we believe that this is reflected in our work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The name Yonoh is almost like an ambigram, we wanted to show our bicephaly, as Clara and \u00c1lex are two different personalities that converge in a common interest, design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We coincided in our early days exhibiting at Nude (the exhibition for young designers organised by Feria Habitat Valencia), where we began to collaborate and, shortly afterwards, we decided that the best thing to do was to join forces under a single brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have many references, from the great classics of the Bauhaus, to current designers such as the Bouroullec brothers or Konstantin Grcic. As for teachers, we have certainly been learning from the designers we have been close to, but, above all, we have learned a lot by collaborating with companies, they have taught us a lot about the profession, from when we started working in wood until now, when we have the opportunity to think about moulds and much more complex pieces than before. We jumped straight into forming Yonoh, with no previous experience in other design studios to teach us their own methodologies, we found our own way little by little, making a lot of mistakes to finally understand how we work best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alex, for example, prefers to generate creativity in more private spaces and in a more traditional way (pencil and paper), at home, for example, and when there is a solid concept, develop it in the studio in a more digital way.<\/p>\n\n\n
We tend to move forward on projects separately and, at a certain point, start to collaborate on the project to bring it to the highest possible standard. The important decisions are always made by whoever is in charge of the particular project, but the other always collaborates to focus and improve each project. We try to contrast our own ways of seeing design in each project, this makes each one of them better, moreover, Yonoh is formed only by us, this is because we still prefer to go deeper into the design process than managing the design.<\/p>\n\n\n