Sixty design and advertising professionals from different generations gathered on January 11 at «EMCUENTRO»

After mentioning the colleagues who are part of the MDRM_DIP working group, with some absences due to professional reasons, ‘Así fue RE-CONOCIMIENTO y DISEÑAR LO POR VENIR’ was shown, an audiovisual summary of the presentation day that took place in June 2024 at the General Archive of the Region of Murcia. The coordinator of MDRM_DIP then informed about the three main actions planned for 2025: expanding the project website, regiondemurcia.design, with more interviews, documents, and the option to submit comments on each Protagonist, to be developed collectively and with the team led by Fernando Marín and Andrés Montalbán; expanding the experience of the intergenerational fanzine workshop held in 2024 with students from the Higher School of Design (Edi) and designers Vicente Martínez Gadea, Desiderio Guerra, and Juan Álvarez, with the support of the director, Armando Cano, and the professor Carmen Iranzo (both present at ‘EMCUENTRO’); and tackling the publication of a bilingual Spanish-English book, yet to be conceived, to give visibility to the project beyond the regional scope.

The creative added, ‘A fourth objective, which we did not foresee at the time, and which throughout this process has perhaps become the most important of all, is care, from a purely human and emotional perspective. Through our interviews and conversations with the protagonists to shape this design memory of the Region of Murcia, we have become aware that our work goes far beyond collecting, organizing, and cataloging. In each of these conversations, doors are opened that are related to emotion, to memories that constitute the essence of the people. Because behind all these names of studios and professionals, behind their work, what truly resides is human nature and impulse. The pride in materializing this project often intertwines with the emotion of discovering works that speak to us of a time, a moment, that we miss, that will never return, and that must help us understand where we come from, know our roots, and realize that what we enjoy today is the result of the work of others who, long before, laid the foundations and paved the way.

Before moving on to the buffet meal to continue conversing and sharing, some ‘M’s as souvenirs and copies of the fanzine ‘Ganas y Canas’ that had been pending since last June were handed out.

The sunny and warm weather helped everyone enjoy, alongside the artworks and crafts housed in the restaurant, the terraced spaces of the estate, and visit its orchards and animals until the evening, which ended with music and karaoke.

However, as Jorge Martínez rightly recalled, ‘in this project there is also sadness and anger, for those who leave us suddenly and whom we will never be able to interview.’ This is the case of designers Antonio Ballester, Chipola, and Antonio Álvarez, who passed away in 2024, and Faustino Fernández Conejero, founder of «El taller», who died the day after this event. And there are many others who are currently convalescing from illnesses and surgeries, to whom, without disturbing their rest and with the help of their loved ones, the MDRM_DIP group is trying to include.

The ‘Design Memory of the Region of Murcia’ project is made possible thanks to the funding from DIP, the Ministry of Culture and Sports (through the Grants for Promotion and Cultural Action received in the 2023 and 2024 calls), and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Youth, and Sports of the Region of Murcia, with the collaboration of the General Archive of the Region of Murcia.

And, very notably, thanks to the collaboration of the Higher School of Design (Edi), the DEA Students Association, the company CartonLab, the Paparajote studio, and many people, members, and friends of DIP, in a collaborative effort that has only just begun.