Bold and bright: Masquespacio revamp studio with Memphis twist

Colour can be a scary business, but not so for Masquespacio founders Ana Milena Hernández Palacios and Christophe Penasse. The Valencia-based design studio relish the opportunity to pair hues and explore tonalities, pushing vignettes to the extreme and making them modern and fresh; a bright disposition which has translated into a new identity and branding for the multidisciplinary consultancy.

The identity itself plays on their copious colour confidence. The ‘S’ in their otherwise minimal ‘Mas’ logo – meaning ‘more’ in English – is slit down the middle, illustrating the ‘added value offered by the creative consultancy in each of its projects’, the duo explains. The ever-changing background colours – which can be adapted to suit different clients, projects or times of year – illustrate their versatility and adaptability.

Big fans of the Memphis Group, the Masquespacio team looked to pairing bold hues and geometric forms to create a comfortable office environment.

‘Although it is a working space, we looked to incorporate decorative elements, besides vivid colours and upholstered furniture, with the aim of creating a warm atmosphere, rather just a place of work,’ explains creative director Hernández Palacios.

But furniture is certainly part of it. The studio's 'Toadstool Collection' for Missana decorates the reception room, while creative material combinations – like marble, birch plywood, oak and lacquered MDF – create various spaces within. Bringing everything together in a natural way is an array of greenery.

That's not say Hernández Palacios and Penasse are finished with the space; Masquespacio may be bedded in, but the duo have more prospective plans for the studio. 'We are thinking about adding a workshop to an actually inhabited space; when we designed the space we were already thinking about it, although we didn't have the need to do it at that particular moment,' Penasse explains. 'As we start to work on new products to launch exclusively through our studio and not through a commercial brand, our need to have a workshop space for the prototyping process is growing on a daily base. The space itself helps us to focus on another kind of client looking for a more elegant design, but still with our personal explosive touch.'

For more information, visit Studio Masquespacio's website

Since this article was published we have explored Masquespacio's new HQ, its base from 2024.