Querida on art directing the brand everybody wants a piece of, Paloma Wool

Date
11 July 2019

Querida, the Barcelona-based studio famed for its tactile and composed design sensibilities – with just a hint of wit and humour – is a group of designers sought after globally. Yet one of its most recent projects is with a brand a little closer to home, its neighbours, Paloma Wool.

Working together for a number of years now, Albert of Querida explains that the studio’s relationship with Paloma’s namesake brand began kind of by accident. When the studio started to grow legs it initially shared a studio with the designer, “plus Barcelona is a small city so we also have many friends in common,” he explains. It was only natural then that Paloma would enlist the studio to work on her art direction and “over these past five years, we have designed her website and the three books she has published so far,” even now collaborating on further projects such as the recent artwork for Spanish singer, Amaia.

Similarly to Querida’s celebrated art direction for Solange, Albert points out how “Paloma Wool is one of those brands with which we share a very similar aesthetic universe and that’s something really rare to find,” he tells It’s Nice That. “Having this connection makes things very easy when it comes to working together on the book,” often meaning the collaborators have too much brilliant content to sort through once a concept is decided and shot. Still, this is process Querida and Paloma perform as one, “and it’s a difficult process because she has a lot of stuff and sometimes it’s hard to get rid of some,” he continues. “Once this is done designing is a piece of cake!”

Querida’s third book continues the visual aesthetic the popular brand has built, with little quirks continuing to sneak into its pages. In the first book, for instance, the collaborators dedicated double-page spreads to screenshots of WhatsApp conversations, the second features details of reference materials in the design layout of Wikipedia, and the third features a series of lengthy URLs. “We had this silly idea of putting some long and boring URLs on the top of some pages of the book,” Albert points out. “Truth be told, Paloma didn’t like it at first, but we finally convinced her… These URLs are nothing but Google Maps location of the places where Paloma took her photos. So, if you have enough patience enough to write these URLs on your browser, you’ll be able to visit the real locations where the pictures were shot.”

“We really hope no one does it as we all have better things to do in life,” Albert admits, whereas we just think you’ll be too busy looking at this book, or heading straight to Paloma Wool.

Above

Querida: Paloma Wool

Above

Querida: Paloma Wool

Above

Querida: Paloma Wool

Above

Querida: Paloma Wool

Above

Querida: Paloma Wool

Above

Querida: Paloma Wool

Above

Querida: Paloma Wool

Above

Querida: Paloma Wool

Share Article

About the Author

Lucy Bourton

Lucy (she/her) is the senior editor at Insights, a research-driven department with It's Nice That. Get in contact with her for potential Insights collaborations or to discuss Insights' fortnightly column, POV. Lucy has been a part of the team at It's Nice That since 2016, first joining as a staff writer after graduating from Chelsea College of Art with a degree in Graphic Design Communication.

lb@itsnicethat.com

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.