Parámetro Studio is taking inspiration from things that “might be out of trend, or a bit aged”

Surrounded by small studios and local artist ateliers in their hometown of Monterrey, Mexico, Cristina Arreola and Vanessa Santos set up Parámetro Studio just over a decade ago with “a vision to collaborate with creatives worldwide”. Now based quite far from home, in Paris and New York City, and with a team spread out across the globe, the studio has the international presence and ethos that the pair always dreamt of.

Throughout their time as Parámetro, Cristina and Vanessa have steered their joint multidisciplinary practice towards fashion, food, art and interior design — “fields that resonate deeply with us and continually inspire our creative process,” says Vanessa. Plotted all over the planet, and all travelling often, the team’s influences reach far and wide, often drawing on things that don’t aim to feel overtly ‘designed’. Instead, they “develop a magnetic character over time,” Cristina says. “We take time to appreciate things that might be “out of trend” or a bit aged; that’s where we find the true inspiration that drives our work.”

With an expansive portfolio of work spanning everything from art direction and signage systems to exhibition design and copywriting, Parámetro has always worked with varied mediums and techniques, “which can be from anything digital to watercolour and collages — cutting up magazines like when we were kids”, says Vanessa. The studio always lets each project’s specific parameters determine its approach, which (as you can imagine) leads to pretty varied looking desk from week to week.