What do we consider when selecting our finishes and colors?

At Mobles 114, when it comes to our color palette, we always aim at selecting colors that merge together in our designs. We prefer subtle, calm tones that are not overly saturated and have a gentle brightness, ensuring a modern and timeless design that fits into any environment. These qualities prevent color fatigue in your home, contributing to the comfort that comes from enduring items, reflecting our commitment to sustainable design. This thoughtful color combination ensures our clients satisfaction with our designs over time, enhancing the well-being of their spaces.

Choosing Woods

When it comes to woods, the situation is a bit different. Being natural materials, woods tend to complement each other. For instance, in a forest, various tree species coexist with diverse trunk and leaf shades while maintaining harmony. Nature does not require a choice.

However, in a forest, we don’t see the wood’s interior as we do in furniture. Just as different tree types can coexist harmoniously in a forest, various wood tones can blend naturally and unobtrusively in a home.

In our production, we use woods like oak, ash, walnut, and beech, always selecting the finest planks to ensure the highest quality. These woods allow us to create furniture for residential and office projects with a natural and elegant finish, providing a sense of balance and well-being, in line with the tradition of functional and elegant design.

Examples of Harmony in Design

A parallel may be drawn with the different bricks that make up the facade of Alvar Aalto’s Muuratsalo house. Although made from the same material, they come in different shades, creating, we believe, an undeniable harmony.

In our contemporary furniture we apply a similar principle: a careful combination of materials and tones to maintain balance in each piece.

Our Experience with Woods and Materials

At Mobles 114, we have extensive experience working with a variety of woods: oak, beech, walnut, cedar, maple, bubinga, cherry, iroko, ash… We have produced chairs, coat racks, armchairs, tables, and shelves. We always select the best planks from each tree. We do the same when choosing veneers: we pick those with the best figure and tone, to offer you a collection of the highest quality.

Each summer, Mobles 114 entrusts to an artist, designer, photographer or illustrator to design the artwork of our summer greetings. In 2019, Andreu Carulla collaborated with us.

 

Carulla supports Mediterranean culture (including the noise of crickets, olive trees, pines by the sea or the smell of rosemary and lavender). A Mediterranean atmosphere made of water and sunshine, with children playing on the beach, that has strongly inspired Andreu in its work.

 

In everything that Carulla works there is a defense of the near, of the local that becomes universal. An attitude of respects towards nature, traditional craftsmanship, mixed with advanced technology. This proximity also connects with the ideas of primitiveness and intuitiveness.

Children’s games have a great influence on his work. One example is the Wild Ware Jurassic Cutlery inspired by the dinosaurs his child used to play with during lunchtime.

 

Or the Plat Facetat designed for the Celler de Can Roca that starts from a flat plate that you can transform with your hands to give it multiple shapes. A game, in short.

The projects of the designer all come from a spontaneous background: everything that surrounds him can be of influence. With his imagination, he always ends up transforming its creations into honest and beautiful objects.

Andreu Carulla founded his studio in Banyoles in 2006. His work is based on the recovery of traditional and industrial materials. He is committed to always promote the Mediterranean territory and culture. A contagious enthusiasm makes his projects spontaneous and well thought.

Two years ago, Andreu invited us to collaborate on a furnishing project for the Helsinki Design Week, designed together with Mikko Laakkonen for the residence of the Spanish Embassy in Helsinki. From this collaboration came out a collection of tables and stools made of wood, clay, and cork. Natural materials that belong to both Nordic and Mediterranean tradition.

 

Changes are occurring at an ever-increasing pace and Mobles 114 has realised it needs to define a new visual identity in tune with today’s world while still preserving the values and coherence achieved by the brand over the last 45 years. It all started with Josep Maria Massana, Josep Maria Tremoleda and Mariano Ferrer who founded Mobles 114 back in 1973.

Number 114 in Enric Granados Street, in the Eixample district of Barcelona, was the company’s first home and where its name originally came from. The image of the Eixample, with its orderly blocks of flats arranged into octagonal islands, is identified with the contemporary nature of Barcelona and also with the soul and DNA of Mobles 114.

Foto Manuel Serra

 

The first logo was designed by América Sánchez and was displayed on the façade during the first few years of the business. A radically modern logo befitting a new generation of designers, architects and artists who were embarking on a groundbreaking venture.

The façade of Mobles 114 at Carrer Enric Granados 114 in 1973.

 

The logo was redesigned several times by América Sánchez, updating the visual identity and adapting it to the changes occurring throughout the history of Mobles 114. For the last version in 2011, the redesign was carried out together with Helena Tremoleda.

Mobles 114 now needs to define a new visual identity in tune with the times. ‘We also needed to resolve the problem caused by a brand with a logo represented principally by the number “114” which did not coincide with how we want to be recognised: as Mobles114.’

 

On this occasion Folch Studio has taken over and created a new visual identity at the same time as designing a new logo including the word “mobles” with all its letters, followed by the identity always provided by the number “114”.

 

 

Folch’s vision and insight into the values of contemporary classic, a timelessness which Mobles 114 has always defended, are reflected in a new identity that clearly conveys these values.

An animated image created by Eugeni Quitllet is the responsible for wishing you a pleasant Summer, on behalf of Mobles114.