Manuel Bano

For Manuel Bañó, design seems to begin not with a shape, but with a material. Born in Valencia in 1990 to an artist mother and a designer father, Bañó grew up in an environment where making was part of everyday life. His parents shared a studio at home, and both later taught at the university where he studied. From an early age, he became fascinated by the nature of objects, the way materials behave and the knowledge embedded in making.

After studying Design Engineering and completing a master’s degree in Furniture and Lighting, Bañó spent time in London working with Magnus Long before moving to Mexico City in 2013. The move would become an important turning point. Mexico introduced him to a deeply rooted culture of craftsmanship and to artisans whose knowledge had been refined over generations. Rather than treating craft as something nostalgic, Bañó found a way to use it as a starting point for contemporary design.

Much of Bañó’s work revolves around copper, brass and steel. He is particularly drawn to sheet metal, transforming something industrial and seemingly rigid into objects that feel surprisingly soft, sculptural and tactile. Surfaces are folded, hammered, heated and shaped by hand, leaving behind small irregularities that become part of the character of the finished piece.

His work sits somewhere between furniture, sculpture and functional object. A chair can appear almost like a piece of abstract sculpture before revealing its purpose. A table or lamp is often reduced to a remarkably simple gesture, allowing the material and the traces of its making to carry much of the expression.

This relationship between precision and imperfection is central to Bañó’s practice. He does not attempt to erase the hand of the maker. Instead, the marks left by fire, hammer and hand become evidence of the process. The object is not simply the result of design, but a record of how it came into being.

In 2016, Bañó co founded EWE Studio with Héctor Esrawe and Age Salajõe, while continuing to develop his own practice. His work has since appeared at Design Miami, Salone Satellite, Maison&Objet and Zona Maco, establishing him within the increasingly international world of collectible design.

Yet Mexico City remains essential to his creative identity. It is where his European design education encounters a different understanding of material, labour and craftsmanship. Projects such as Colima 162, where recycled copper pieces were handcrafted by artisans in Santa Clara del Cobre, demonstrate this particularly well. The resulting objects are contemporary, but they carry the memory of an older process.

Perhaps this is what makes Bañó’s work so compelling. He is not interested in making craft look contemporary, nor in making contemporary objects look handmade. Instead, he allows the two worlds to meet naturally. His objects are quiet, elemental and highly tactile, with an honesty that comes from allowing the material, the maker and the process to remain visible.