WIDN blog

But he isn’t tired. In fact he can hardly sit still. He walks around the exhibition, gesturing to the drawings from which all of his other work evolves. When I ask about one of his most famous pieces of furniture, the Duplex Stool, he strikes a pose, not to describe the stool itself, but to show me the way it makes people slouch, ‘luxuriously, sexily’.

The essence of Mariscal’s work never quite makes it onto the recording. His illustrations, furniture, interiors and sculptural installations speak volumes, but their meaning is rarely imposed by the designer’s words.

You may be familiar with Mariscal’s work, but won’t have seen it quite like this before: curator Daniel Charney has created an exhibition that embodies Mariscal’s approach to design: the way he jumps effortlessly from a corporate identity for the Swedish socialist party Socialdemokraterna to the interior of fashion retailer H&M’s flagship store in Barcelona; from Cobi, the character chosen as the mascot for the 1992 Olympic Games to his Amorosos furniture collection for the Italian manufacturer Moroso. This diverse work is all designed with a remarkable empathy for the end user, yet somehow, you can see the artist in everything he does.

Mariscal: Drawing Life is at the design Museum, Shad Thames, London until 1 November.