Martiniblanco and Ramón Arnau Quintero were the winners of the fifth nude-Bancaja scholarships, set up to help young designers enter into contact with the habitat industry by means of remunerated working experience with companies at the forefront of design.

The presentation of the scholarships, chaired by the President of Generalitat Valenciana, Alberto Fabra, the Mayor of Valencia, Rita Barberá, and the President of Bancaja, José Luis Olivas, was held this morning at nude Show, against the backdrop of Feria Hábitat Valencia.

Martiniblanco were chosen to develop their work at the company Uno Lighting, while Ramón Arnau Quintero’s scholarship is to develop his projects with a placement at Expormim. The jury for the nude-Bancaja 2011 scholarships was comprised by Laura Cassotta, manager of Artemide, Antonio Muñoz, manager of Koo Internacional, Juan Antonio Pascual, interior designer and member of CDICV (College of Interior Designers of Valencia), María Fontes, head of nude Show at Feria Hábitat Valencia, and José Lledó, head of the Youth Department at the Bancaja Foundation.

Bancaja’s social responsibility programme has taken part for the fifth year running at the nude Show with funding of 28,500 euros, set aside for the scholarships as well as for sponsorship of the show itself which has become a meeting place where young designers can make contact with the professional habitat industry.

Martiniblanco

Raúl Blanco (Iniesta, 1986) and Carlos Martín (Alcoy, 1985) are currently studying Industrial Design and a Master in Furniture and Lighting at ESET, Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera in Valencia, and have pooled their learning and knowhow to create the Martiniblanco studio. They combine the creation of their own projects with a series of ongoing collaborations with studios both here in Spain and worldwide.

Martiniblanco understand design as a creative discipline and an independent entity that binds together other fields. At once, they view design as an end in itself for the final user: it is not about toying with abstract digressions in order to come up with a changing and ephemeral goal, but the complete opposite. For Martiniblanco the ultimate goal is the user, without losing sight of the surrounding reality and its specific features.

Ramón Arnau Quintero

The Ramón Arnau Quintero studio came about as a spontaneous response to the need to cover all fields of interest it wishes to address: architecture, interior, furniture, product, graphic and fashion design.

It is a chameleonic studio able to adapt to the conditions demanded by the specific project. At nude 2011, the studio headed by Ramón Arnau, architect, industrial designer and ‘life gourmet’, presents NAÏVE, a piece which ingenuously, innocently and naively prepares to throw itself in free fall and materialise itself for the first time.