On rare occasions, the motivation behind an exhibition becomes clearly visible to the audience even before their eyes. Such a moment occurred during the opening of Buenaventura’s exhibition in Loja, when the reason for holding this show in that precise location became unmistakably apparent.
Why present an exhibition of the latest work by a design studio based in Loja in a venue located just a few metres from its own headquarters? Buenaventura has worked—and continues to work—with a wide range of local and regional clients and is already well known in this context. But to what extent is the studio truly known by its fellow townspeople?
For years, Buenaventura has pursued an ambitious and challenging goal: to become a nationally recognized design studio with a strong, distinctive identity and international reach—without leaving its hometown, its roots, or its geographical and emotional environment. And they have succeeded.
The happy paradox is that this success has been achieved not despite remaining in Loja, but precisely because of it. What might initially have seemed like a limitation has become one of the studio’s greatest strengths: a top-level design studio that carries out projects in places such as Saudi Arabia, Argentina, or the United States, all without leaving the western region of Granada.
The exhibition currently on view is, in essence, an act of gratitude to the local community—a way of saying that this achievement is also owed to them, to all the people who make up the society in which the studio is embedded and which provides it with a singular identity. An identity that allows Buenaventura to be both local and cosmopolitan, Andalusian and global.
This spirit of gratitude that underpins the exhibition—this rare moment of clarity—became evident on the opening evening, when members of the studio team offered visitors a guided tour of the rooms of El Pósito. As they walked through the different works from Buenaventura’s recent projects, the tour became the best possible way to explain the inner workings of design to an audience largely unfamiliar with the profession. Expressions of surprise emerged in response to some of the explanations, along with those unexpected questions that often come from people who know nothing about a subject but are genuinely eager to learn.
“Design, Territory, Reflection”
The exhibition, titled “Design, Territory, Reflection”, is structured around three main areas that define the studio’s design approach: typographic branding, illustrated layers, and product image. This perspective is articulated through a selection of projects developed over recent years, both nationally and internationally.
Custom typography is one of the core pillars of Buenaventura’s work and plays a key structural role in the studio’s recent branding projects. The illustrated layer, in turn, enhances and expands visual storytelling through graphic pieces that merge artistic and design languages. Finally, product imagery represents the materialization of this visual narrative, conceiving the object as a vehicle for the elevation of the product. Three facets of a single vision, closely intertwined and in constant dialogue with one another.
All the works on display are accompanied by detailed wall labels and QR codes that link to the studio’s website, where each project is explained in depth. Each project is presented through multiple large-scale pieces, functioning like the components of a precise visual communication system.
At the same time, the exhibition context allows each piece to be viewed as an autonomous work, independent of the system for which it was originally conceived. This offers visitors the opportunity to enjoy forms that possess beauty in their own right and require no explanation beyond the pleasure of contemplation.
The graphic works are displayed unframed and in their raw state, allowing viewers to directly appreciate the textures of ink and paper. This enhances the sensation of experiencing something that is rarely accessible: it is as if the creative process behind each design project had been captured and frozen at key moments.
This duality reaches an unexpected peak in a piece that emerged almost by chance, as a form of serendipity. It consists of a sheet featuring the various screen-printing test proofs produced during the development of the illustrated layer for the Raffles Diriyah project. The result is a highly expressive abstraction that could stand on its own as the starting point for something akin to a visual suite.
“Design, Territory, Reflection” can be visited until 14 February at the Centro de Iniciativas Culturales El Pósito in Loja, Granada.
Vicente Ortiz
Creative Copywriter
