The origins of Morillas

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The evolution of the Morillas studio is linked
to the evolution of the sector, and its story is
that of the appearance, development and
consolidation of design in our country.

Antoni Morillas’ way of doing things and his
personal approach to design still determine
the vision and attitude of Morillas.
Even today, we continue to face and overcome
challenges which, in hindsight, never stray
far from those of our roots.

1932

Antoni Morillas i Verdura was born in 1932, in Barcelona.
Following in the footsetps of his father, who was
an expert plaster sculptor, he began working in artificial
stone workshops, which awakened his
interest in the three-dimensionality of objects.

In 1948, he studies artistic drawing at the Llotja school
in Barcelona, where he learned a trade, that of the
drawing artist, integrated into the dynamics of printing.
He went on to work as a graphic artist for various
workshops, pulishers and advertisin agencies.

Morillas forms part of a group of design
pioneers in Spain: the protagonists of
an eruption in this sector in our country,
who succeeded in shaping, exercising and
living from a profession that was entirely
brand new.

The profession of graphic
designer was in constant evolution,
and its progress was inextricably
linked to the processes of
modernization.

This generation of pioneers intervened in
the main debates of the times: the
definition of the profession, and the
investigation and preservation of
the graphic quality of design projects.
They also fought to raise awareness
and dignity for the sector.

graphics

1962

In 1962, he set up on his own and
founded the Morillas studio.

cultural
interest

Design, due its industrial
nature, was no longer a factor
of progress, which drove many
graphic designers to focus
their interest on cultural
activities and on the
publishing world.

Many moved away from advertising
and branched into corporate identity
services, in search of greater
longevity than conventional
campaigns could offer.

Antoni Morillas taught Advertising Arts
at the Massana School in Barcelona.

pioneers

brand
packaging
manuals
posters
displays

That was the time in
which a need emerged to design
emblems and logos that would
create brand images for companies
and their products.

The pioneers also had to face
challenges in the packaging and
wrapping of products that began to
be marketed, as well as in company
stationary, manuals, business forms,
posters and displays.

Mayo
del 68

The crisis of ’66 and the May ’68
movement generated a review of
the development concept, of the idea
of industry as a factor of progress,
and, consequently, of the very
notion of design.

The sixties were characerized
by the institutionalization of
the profession: these first graphic
artists got together and formed
the Grafistas FAD association.

As the years passed, they joined
international movements
and became professors at schools
that progressively incorporated
graphic design workshops.

éxito

1970

1980

The seventies and eighties
heralded the progressive
strengthening of the profession, until
it became a strong and lucrative
sector highly connected to the rise
of brands.

Fast
Moving
Consumers

The Morillas studio experienced a
huge growth during the ninetees as
a result of the close collaboration
with Fast Moving Consumer Goods
teams, which were the new trend
setters. Under the direction of
Lluís Morillas, it completed
prestigious projects.

With the change of millennium, it
began an internationalization process,
with new offices in cities like Madrid,
Tel Aviv and Guatemala City, and
most recently Miami, in response to
the appearance of more global clients
and the consolidation of design that
was “made in Barcelona”.

FAD

Grafistas

start

work:

The still image
as a communication
challenge

Posters, billborads and covers for editorials
became the pieces that best represented
the designer’s work and contribution.

ideas

“Morillas constructed images to
conceptualize sensations, moods
or feelings, but always transmitting
clear and distinctive ideas.”

“His works were language games in which
the lingua franca was illustrations,
drawings and visual symbols”

Next work ⟶

The eruption of
packaging

campaigns

Advertising billboard design “Billboards
on the street” 1st
Edition of Conozca España en Barcelona
1963
Original technique: Collage, quill and
anilines. Lettered text.
Format: 2 x 3 m

Soliday Poster
Sanitized
1963
Original technique: Gouache
Format: 100×70 cm

IDEA. International Advertising Art Cover,
Tokyo Magazine
1965
Original technique: Collage, quill, anilines and
transparent, self-adhesive Pantone
strips.Transferable letters.
Format: 295x225 mm

Illustration
Democracy campaign
1963
Original technique: Gouache
Format: 290×217 cm

Leaflet for S.A.M. Fenwick
1967
Original technique: Photomontage
Format: 297×210 mm

Public billboard design series“Posters
on the streets”Fifth and Final
Edition: Barcelona International
Music Festival.RED and Grafistas FAD
1967
Original technique Collage, quill and
anilines. Transferable letters.
Format: 2 x 3

start

work:

Art and design, an
ongoing dialogue

A way of feeling, living and working.
Morillas embraced the artistic dimension,
as mode of experimentation and
investigation, but also as a mode of
personal expression.

The font as a visual image became one
of the cornerstones of design, and
designers began to create their own
alphabets at the dawn of the typographic
revolution.

dialogue

Christmas greeting cards were often used by
Antoni Morillas to touch base with clients
or to nurture friendships.

Throughout his career, he established an
open dialogue, with the trends of lyricial
abstraction and of informalism.
He demonstrated this in his constant
obsession with the materials with
which he worked, be they wood
or metals.

surrealism

Morillas tackled diverse themes, from
surrealist landscapes to
representations of animals, and
even portraits.

Series were habitual, like a
constant search for truth.

quality

go final

Diagonal Font
1973
Original technique: Alphabet made with
lettering ink and photography.

Illustration
Personal project
1963
Original technique: Chinese ink
Format: 133×183 mm

Leaflet for Plataformas elevadoras
Industrial hall/Maschinenfabrik Trepel KG
1962
Original technique: Gouache and Chinese ink
Format: 297×210 mm

Greeting card
Mindán.
Mechanical constructions
1961
Original technique: Gouache
Format: 210×102 mm

Sculpture prototype
Personal project
1972
Format: 300x300x150 mm

Graficmovil
Personal project
1972
Original technique: Die-cut sheets and serigraphy
Format: 310×310 mm

Poster
Personal project
1974
Original technique: Spot colours
Format: 477×490 mm

Painting
Personal project
1980
Original technique: Anilines and quill
Format: 350×390 mm

Illustration
Personal project
1982
Original technique: anilines and coloured
pencil
Format: 220×230 mm

Untitled. Character series.
Personal project
1974
Original technique: Relieve,
recycled, painted and assembled
pinewood slats.
Format: 225x140x20 mm

Untitled. Character series.
Personal project
1973
Original technique: Recycled
and painted wood sculpture
Format: 410x120x15 mm

Relieve
Personal project
1975
Original technique: painted and
assembled wood
Format: 477×490 mm

illustration

start

work:

Advertising graphics and
commercial illustration

The chemical and pharmaceutical industry,
which had been developed since the
1940s, propelled and represented
the best design in the country, for years.

From the get-go, pharmaceutical laboratories
like Uriach/Biohorm acknowledged
the need to create quality advertising
and turned to the best
professionals of the time.

Within his projects, processes and
techniques, we can see clear evidence
of discoveries of the historic
avant-garde, such as collages of
cubist origins or expressionist
photomontage.

The years of “creativity at the service
of the market” began

Morillas didn’t want to get too comfortable
or complacent with any one font.
Instead, he took a more experimental
stance that would enable him to
demonstrate individual traits that would
set him apart from his contemporaries.

Creating images was becoming and increasingly
interesting and complex activity,
and successfully fulfilling it,
represented a serious challenge.

Calendar design was, for Morillas and
many other creators, one of the business
areas that permitted greatest creative
license and experimentation.

Next work ⟶

The still image
as a communication challenge

Advert for Meritene Laboratorios Wander
1980
Original technique: anilines and coloured pencil.
Format: 155×200 mm

Advert for MeriteneLaboratorios Wander
1981
Original technique: Chinese ink and anilines
Format: 280×210 mm

Leaflet for Binomil, medicine
Laboratories Biohorm/Uriach & Cía
1965
Originak technique: Chinese ink, anilines
and self-adhesive transparent
Pantone strips.
Format: 210×150 mm

Biodramina, medicine
Laboratories Biohorm/Uriach & Cía
1965
Original technique: Photo montage
and anilines/collage
Format: 210×150 mm

Leaflet for Nico-hepatocyn, medicine
Laboratories Biohorm/Uriach & Cía
1964
Original technique: Mixed illustration, gouache,
Chinese ink and self-adhesive transparent
Pantone strips.
Format 210X150 mm.

Noveril series, medicine.
Laboratorios Sandoz
1972
Original technique: Three-dimensional pieces
photographed and retouched by airbrush.

Campaign for the promotion of Etumina,
medicine.
Laboratorios Wander
1974
Original technique: Collage with Pantone
letrafilm, transferable letters and linotype.
Format: 297×210 mm

Leaflet for Viskén,
medicine.
Laboratorios Sandoz
1976
Original technique: Painted clay
Format: 220×230 mm

Velactín illustration
Laboratorios Wander
1979
Original technique: Painted wood
Format: 220x163 mm

Nutrodrip illustration
Laboratorios Wander
1982
Original technique: Painted wood
Format: 220x230 mm

Calendar Laboratorios Wander
1982
Original technique: Ink drawing,
photographic copy and anilines.

Advertisement
Tutti Fruti
1979
Original technique: photography
Format: 280 x 210 mm

irruptive packaging

start

work:

The eruption of
packaging

The raise of mass market entailed
entailed spectacular development in
packaging processes; for the first time,
products had to stand out to capture
the consumer’s attention.

In the late sixties, new movements like
Pop Art, and the psychedelic wave in
design for the counterculture and youth
movements generated the eruption of
new resources like chromatic
colour palettes.

Next work ⟶

Brand image

Neviska Packaging
Procelsa S.A
1970
Original technique: Collage
Format: 80 x 100 mm

Press advertising for Neviska
Procelsa S.A
1970
Original technique: Offset
Format: 270 x 200 mm

Packaging
Juguetes Yuti
1974
Original technique: collage and quill.
Format: Packaging

start

Morillas’ work reflects the birth of
a profession and the work of these early
pioneers who established the bases
upon which the sector as we know it today
was developed. A new profession filled
with challenges and questions, many
of which remain as open today as
they were back then.

new

profession

Antoni Morillas’ work exudes a vision
and a commitment to his profession
that led him to investigate, experiment
with, and incorporate breakthroughs
and techniques over the years.

He chose a profession that was unknwon
in those days, and that never ceased
to evolve, which obliged him to
confront a new challenge with
each new project.

The passion with which Antoni Morillas
approached so many blank pages,
today still defines the character
of Morillas.

Leaflet
ROF
1967
Original technique: gouache and indian ink
Format: 230x210 mm

Parlodel brochure
Laboratorios Sandoz
1982
Original technique: anilines and coloured pencils
Format: 235 x 180 mm

Parlodel illustration
Laboratorios Sandoz
1981
Original technique: gouache and pencil
Format: 325 x 365 mm

start

work:

Brand image

Creating images became the main
focus for designers from the 70’s onwards
with the inception of corporate
identities and products where the format
fused with the conceptual.

In keeping with the standard concept of
brand image at the time, Morillas
created an abstract emblem, almost a
sculpture, which would act as an
ornamental detail or as a complement.

Next work ⟶

Art and design,
an ongoing dialogue

Bugatti identity
Menswear store
1972
Original technique: Chinese ink.
Volumetric scale model on cardboard.

Identity 2A
Advertising Agency 2A
1972
Original Tecnique: Chinese ink

Dos A identity
DOS A advertising agency
1972
Original technique:
Lacquered sheet steel

Identity redesign
Boutiques Jordi Roura
1974
Original Tecnique: Chinese ink

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