Sandra FIGUEROLA

Professional career

Sandra Figuerola is one of the leading figures of the new Spanish design that emerged in the 1980s, around the emblematic collective La Nave. She was a pioneer as a designer and as a woman, and since then, during her almost forty decades of active work, she has not stopped innovating, creating and developing as a professional.

Her career is linked to the design studios she has shared with other colleagues and to her more personal projects, in which she has masterfully combined aspects such as a sense of humor, sustainability, craftsmanship and textiles, addressing disciplines such as graphic and industrial design and space design. Sandra Figuerola is a multi-faceted designer who has helped to open new avenues of expression in many areas of design.

La Nave, Estudio NI, Sandra Figuerola+Marisa Gallén, El Almudín and Hup In- teriorismo+Diseño are the studios in which the designer’s career has taken place. Her professionalism has been recognized by the award of the San Carlos Medal from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Valencia and the recognition of the Cadena Mestres del FAD of Barcelona.

Since her debut, the designer has participated in national and international exhibitions and her work has been published in books and media specialized in design.

Sandra Figuerola sees design, above all, as a creative discipline, historically linked to art and culture, which must combine function and emotion. Her colorful and eclectic profile has found its maximum expression in her work for textile companies, in graphic design applied to industry. This is the origin of his first collaboration with the company Gandia Blasco. This relationship dates back to 1990, when the company introduced the first collection of printed and reversible cotton carpets, which was a resounding success, receiving the Impiva Innovation Award the same year. In the following decades, the designer continued to be linked to the company, regularly collaborating with the GAN brand, designing rugs. Sandra Figuerola is also the author of the brand’s symbol: the cat, a logo with a very powerful visual force, which is part of the collective imagination in the furniture sector.

Nature, travel and art are closely linked to Sandra Figuero- la’s lifestyle. This graphic culture, which she acquires through her experiences, nourishes her and provides her with symbols and languages to work with.

In 2013, she created the studio HUp Interiorismo+- Diseño, together with the interior designer Zdenka Lara. The studio specializes in boutique hotels, a new creative adventure and opportunity to apply her creativity in the field of space. They have carried out the restoration and interior design of the Palacio de Rojas, the Palacio del S.VII, in Alicante, the restaurants Péndola or El Papagayo, the chain Dormitienda or the Hotel Marrakech, villas and hotels in Jávea, Altea and Moraíra or the Hotel Marqués Hou- se, in Valencia.

Her commitment to the dissemination of design has been reflected in her participation in all kinds of initiatives to promote the benefits of design and, in particular, design by women. The projects La Casa que Ríe (The Laughing House) of the Spanish National Association of Furniture Manufacturers and Exporters (ANIEME) and Serielimitada are part of her contribution to the field of women’s design and crafts.

Sandra Figuerola has been a lecturer in several design masters at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) and the Cardenal Herrera-CEU University for over 12 years.

She has been a member of ADCV since its creation and a creative supporter of Valencia World Design Capital.

In 2008 she received the San Carlos Medal, Faculty of Fine Arts, for the collective La Nave.

In 2008 she received the recognition of La Cadena, Mestres del FAD, Barcelona.