Last week we brought you the ingenious Hangover Lamp and freezable beer tray, courtesy of one Luis Luna. Well his talents lay much deeper than simply reclaiming plastic red cups and making them pretty. Sure, we also love the Gluttony Lamp above — which does similar work as the Hangover Lamp only with plastic cutlery — but we really dug his work in furniture design as well. Hence we shot him a couple questions to see what made his talent tick — let’s read what he had to say…

Where are you from? Tell me a bit about your background.
I’m from Mexico, 25 years old, right now based in the south of Spain working for a design consultancy called Virtual Company — I’m in charge of the industrial design area. I graduated in industrial design last May in Mexico from the University of Monterrey. I have made many different projects; I like all kinds of design, architecture and art.

Can you tell me the inspiration for the Hangover Lamp?
Actually I was hung over! I woke up on the couch of my house thinking what happened last night, and all I could see was the red cups all over the place. So I don’t know how the idea came to my mind while I was suffering a very bad headchache.

What about the beer tray? Any Heineken connection, or is that just your favorite beer?
Well I like Heineken, but I think they take their marketing seriously, and it was something that I really wanted to release with a brand name because people can easily identify with a brand. Also I was inspired by the Heineken aluminum bottle designed by Ora Ito.

Last summer I received a call from Heineken, they were interested to develop the crate. But after they said there was no budget at that time, so I don’t know if they are going to call me back in the near future…fingers crossed.

When combined, both seem to have a “house party”-type theme. Have these environments spurred any other of your designs?
Well always I try to design with a strong concept or background, but it seems just these designs have a link.

How’d you get your start in the designing? What’s the first thing you remember doodling that could be deemed “design”?
Back in the days when I was 9 or 10 years old, I remember using Paintbrush in Windows 3.1 designing sneakers. Funny I had never noticed that I could become a designer, I always wanted to be an architect. Still now my dream is to design a cool pair of sneakers.

Hit the Jump to continue reading the interview and to see another full gallery of Luis’ work…

The Barcelona To-Go

“I break daily routines to see daily beauty.”

Tell me about the black Barcelona-like briefcase chair — is it made to actually close and carry like a briefcase, or is it just aesthetic?
Well it’s more like an art project; I wanted to declare my vision about design nowadays: more business and less inspiration. The idea was to take the most beautiful and pure design ever made, in my opinion, then make it look like something related with money… Also I thought to create a Barcelona “To Go”… actually it’s the real name of the project. But [if I sold it] I would do the same mistake that I’m criticizing.

What do you mean?
I would be contradicting myself, if the design were just something to carry away and you could buy everywhere, like commercially talking. Probably would look like a product you could buy in a late night infomercial. So that’s why I wanted to leave it like an art object. Of course people would find different meanings on it.

What about the FUNiture chair that looks like a Le Corbusier — is it made of particleboard? What is the unique design element?
The main idea of the design was to create a mixture between the best quality materials like the chrome tube frame and nice leather, with low quality materials like the particleboard and some wood leftovers. I guess that’s the unique element of it. And of course it looks like a Le Corbusier chair — another timeless design revisited, for good or for bad.

You should try to make it…. most of my designs seems like DIY projects.

Who are your design heroes?
Mies Van der Rohe, Eero Arnio, Kostantin Grcic.

How do you overcome creative block?
Breaking daily routines to see daily beauty.

What was the last beauty you saw  just because you broke out of your routine?
My thesis was totally inspired by breaking the daily routines; I developed a design style inspired by the Mexican urban iconography. Improvising furniture and objects more for survival than aesthetics, then I mixed it with contemporary design elements.

All this city chaos sometimes could be interesting if you see it in another angle or perspective. So I wanted to transform this everyday ugliness into something interesting, more like a reflection about what is design, and what if everyone could design free of the constraints of mass production.

What’s the last piece of technology that has affected your creative output?
Well probably is not an object but the fu**ing Facebook has taken my life lately haha…

Proudest professional achievement?
The C30 chair, even is not my favourite design. Volvo created a special award just for me in the competition.

The C30 Chair

Can you tell me about the inspiration for the C30 chair? Did you sneak a design element from the tail-lights of the car?
I was trying to be inspired for this project, but nothing interesting came to my mind. Then one day I saw the car on the street and the tail light was the first thing that caught my eye; the rest is history…

What about the Caramelo Chair? Why the stripes, and how/why is it for kids?
Caramelo means hard candy in Spanish, so the project was to create a piece of furniture for kids but I guess adults would like better. I wanted to  design something very styling and colorful, without falling into something tacky.

The Caramelo

What’s the most interesting example of design work you’ve seen over the last year? Be it industrial, fashion, product, packaging, etc.
I really love and found very inspiring the work of Jules Julien, a graphic artist from France. Also the TAF design studio from Sweden, is the best example of simpleness and beauty.

Ok one last question Luis: if you were lost in a supermarket, in what aisle would we find you in?
In the cookies aisle for sure…

“All this city chaos sometimes could be interesting if you see it in another angle or perspective. So I wanted to transform this everyday ugliness into something interesting, more like a reflection about what is design…”