About Cristian Zuzunaga

Since 2010 Cristian Zuzunaga has been designing, producing and distributing home textiles worldwide, collaborating with other brands in the creation of carpets, furniture & footwear... He also develops his own artwork and among his most recent creations are urban murals and graphic work, printed using letterpress of from 1950.

His designs are nourished by his artwork and vice versa, setting up a dialogue presided over by the use of pixel and colour to positively influence emotions.

Cristian constantly moves between tradition and modernity, and among his sources of inspiration are disciplines such as biology, anthropology, architecture and the psychology of Carl Jung.

Zuzunaga's goal is to create unique, timeless and soulful works and products.

About Zuzunaga Brand

Zuzunaga creates timeless, non-gender specific and sustainable home and fashion textiles and accessories. Founded by artist and designer Cristian Zuzunaga, our brand and our products are a reflection on and of what it means to be human today.

zuzunaga

Colour is at the heart

"Colour is at the heart of everything we do, and we use it to positively affect human emotion."

Our History and Purpose

Our beginnings as a company go back to 2009 when artist, designer and creative force Cristian Zuzunaga gathered an eclectic group of individuals to start a brand of accessories. The scope of our work has expanded organically since then and we now create timeless, non-gender specific and sustainable home and fashion accessories, as well as limited edition furniture.


From the outset, our aim was to develop more than a brand. We wanted to create a global community of like-minded people: individuals with a strong sense of style, ground breakers who embody the duality of contemporary life, the synthesis of old and new, the natural and the man-made, the digital and the analogue. This marriage of opposites remains our guiding philosophy today.

Our products lie at the crosswords of art and design. At their visual core, they are based on the pixel, the icon of our time. Each one of our designs is based on an artwork hand-created by Cristian Zuzunaga, which we develop digitally into a print for design application. Our design process includes not just the translation of art, colour, tradition and material into a finished product, but follows a philosophical process that imbues our products with meaning.

"Colour is at the heart of everything we do, and we use it to positively affect human emotion."

We design timeless quality products that will last

Our designs allow you to have a good conscience. We use high quality, organic, traceable materials, traditional manufacturing techniques, sustainable processes and work with local craftsmen wherever possible. All our products are designed and made in Europe, the majority of which is within 50km of Barcelona. These methods allow us to design timeless products, of quality that will last and defy the whimsies of fashion.

As a result, many of our products are limited editions.We are respectful of our environment and of people. We believe in fair compensation. We believe in workers’ rights, animal rights and social responsibility. Working with local craftsmen allows us to support local economies, as well as imbue our products with soulful intent. We support and are part of a community of people inspired by the process of making.

We have two collections: Analogue and Digital, each then divided into sub-collections. Our Analogue collection is iconic, evocative and focuses on human experience. It is sophisticated, handmade and features soft textures and timeless patterns. Our Digital collection is more playful and modern, and combines strong patterns with bold colours.

Analogue Collection

Integrate: Time and Space

Integrate: Time and Space is our analogue collection of cushions and throws. The collection is the result of a collaboration with socially conscious Spanish company Teixidors, an enterprise that helps provide training, employment and support to people with a range of physical and mental disabilities by teaching them the art of weaving by hand.

View Integrate Collection

Inca Analogue collection

This collection is inspired by a trip that Cristian Zuzunaga took to his native Peru in 2015. There, he realized that the patterns that he had been developing over the last ten years seemed almost like contemporary interpretations of ancient patterns from the Incan and Mayan Empires. The resulting furniture collection is a nod to a culture that has subconsciously been at the core of who Cristian is, both creatively and spiritually.

View Inca Collection

Digital Collection

Pixel Digital Collection

The prints in the Pixel digital collection are derived from zooming in on photographs of urban landscapes taken by Cristian. While the landscapes may appear grey, they are in fact composed of millions of colours so small they are imperceptible to the naked eye. Pixel thus aims to shift our perception of our environment by transforming grey cityscapes into an explosion of colour. The cushions in our Pixel collection are the very first products that Zuzunaga released, and are part of a long-standing collaboration with the renowned textile manufacturers Kvadrat.

View Pixel Collection

Bitmap Digital Collection

Lastly, we have our Bitmap digital collection. A bitmap is a way of storing a digital image by compressing its elements. The prints in the Bitmap collection derive from this process of compression. The name is also a play on words: if one were to zoom out hundreds of times on each print, one would find a photograph of an urban landscape. Bitmap thus acts not only as a map of a digital image, but a map of a real, physical place.

View Bitmap Collection

Cristian
Zuzunaga

The Creative Force Behind

Cristian Zuzunaga (b. Barcelona, 1978) is the son of a Peruvian father and a Catalan mother. He gave up his biology studies and his career as a professional model to study Typo/Graphic Design at the London College of Communication followed by an MA at the Royal College of Art in London, where he has lived for more than twenty years.

Though the biological studies did not last, the practice of magnifying did–he has always been fascinated by the microscope and the way in which it enables one to magnify an object–and to this day, breaking down patterns and images into their infinitesimal components remains at the core of his work.

Cristian’s work is broad in scope–includes photography, video, letterpress, screen printing, sculpture, textile and furniture design–and it is informed by the psychology of colour, architecture and the urban environment, nature, Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, anthropology, sociology and the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung.

His designs and works of art are reflection on and of what it means to be human today. In 2010 he founded Zuzunaga brand, with the desire to create timeless, non-gender specific and sustainable home and fashion textiles and accessories.

Zuzunaga has won major accolades such as the Augustus Martin Award for Best Use of Print, in 2007; Elle Decoration International Design Award for Best Fabric Design, Skyline curtain collection for Kvadrat, in 2011; ICFF New York, 1st Prize for Textiles, Handwoven collection, in 2012 and the Wallpaper Award for Best Pixellation, in 2014.

Cristian combines his own manufacturing with collaborative work for companies and institutions like the Tate Gallery, Kvadrat, Camper, Ligne Roset, Fabergé, Nanimarquina and BD Barcelona Design, and also exhibits his work in a number of galleries around the world.

Dreams Cabinet
The Creative Process.

Barcelona Design Meets Cristian Zuzunaga

Selected Projectes and Collaborations

2018 Collaboration with Camper. Designed a limited edition shoe in the Art by category.

2017 
London Showroom launch in collaboration with BD Barcelona Design. 

2016 Origen exhibition. Galeria Lucia de la Puente. Lima, Peru.

2015
 Collaboration with BD Barcelona Design. Designed the Dreams cabinet in 3 colourways. Design meets Art.

2014 Collaboration with Metalarte, Art by category. Design of pattern design for award winning Alta Costura lamp.

2013 Domaine de Boisbuchet & Vitra, Summer workshop in collaboration with Texidors. Collaboration with Campaign for Wool and Brintons, designed 34m runner exhibited at Somerset House, London

2012 Designed 3 new curtain collections for Kvadrat (ongoing collaboration). Design colour collection for Danskina to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the company.

2011 Faberge Egg Hunt & Elephant Trust Charity event in London | Commissioned to design a one - off egg which was sold at an auction. Artists included: Peter Blake, Zaha Hadid, Chapman Brothers, Marc Quinn among others. 

2010 Digit rug collection for Nanimarquina, Salone del Mobile, Milan. Special commission for Hästens & Wallpaper*, Handmade, Salone del Mobile, Milan. Skyline curtain collection for Kvadrat, Orgatec, Cologne.

2009 Special commission for Tate Gallery, silk scarf and bag for the Color Chart exhibition at Tate Liverpool. Imaginatio print designed for Christophe Delcourt.

2008
Collaboration with Ligne Roset. Designed an exclusive print to upholster key furniture pieces to mark the 150 anniversary of Ligne Roset. 

2007 Cristian graduated from Royal College of Art and right after his graduation he was selected to take part at the Fashion V Sport exhibition at Victoria and Albert Museum in London

Selected Awards

2014 Wallpaper* Award for Best Pixelation

2012 ICFF New York, 1st Prize for Textiles, Handwoven collection

2011 Elle Decoration International Design Award for Best Fabric Design, Skyline curtain collection for Kvadrat

2007 Augustus Martin Award for Best Use of Print