The cover of Confluencias.
The soon to be published Confluencias is a compact, densely illustrated book featuring the work of two key Spanish/Cuban graphic designers: Félix Beltrán and Pepe Cruz Novillo.
Both are now in their late 70s and have been practising for six decades. They stem from that disciplined period of the late 1950s when Swiss modernism was king.
A style where everything had a place and there was a place for everything through the carefully structured grid system.
But all of that painstaking, straitjacketed work was cast aside in the late 1960s, when a free-spirited ethos swept America and the UK, having a considerable influence on the rest of the world.
But both Félix Beltrán and Pepe Cruz Novillo continued to stay faithful to the Swiss discipline that they felt most comfortable with, deviating little over their respective working lives.
Here I feature just a fraction of their respective output from the 1950s to the 2000s.
Símbolo de Veterinaria Ministerio de Educación, 1969 Félix Beltrán
Font Romeu Restaurant, 1971 Cruz Novillo
Bolín Fábrica de bolígrafos, 1964 Cruz Novillo
Hernández Fotomecánica, 1985 Félix Beltrán
Cartel de solidaridad Departamento de Orientación Revolucionaria, 1971 Félix Beltrán
Ana y los Lobos Cartel, 1973 Cruz Novillo
Barnicuba, 1962 Félix Beltrán
Barnicuba Portada de folleto, 1962 Félix Beltrán
Paquexpres Renfe Trenes de reparto de paquetería, 1990 Cruz Novillo
Atlantis Urbanización en la costa, 1976 Cruz Novillo
Petróleo Ahorro de electricidad» Carteles, 1968 Félix Beltrán
Los Desafíos Cartel, 1969 Cruz Novillo
Circo, 2008 Cruz Novillo
American Publisher Portada de libro, 1958 Félix Beltrán
Le Terrier Cartel, 1968 Cruz Novillo
Símbolo de Veterinaria Ministerio de Educación, 1969 Félix Beltrán
Banco Cooperativo 1990 Cruz Novillo
Cuenca 2016 XX aniversario de la Declaración de Ciudad Patrimonio de la Humanidad Pepe Cruz/Cruz Novillo
Ruperto de Nola Restaurante, 1971 Cruz Novillo
Mamá cumple 100 años Carteles, 1979 Cruz Novillo
Instituto Cubano del Petróleo Símbolo, 1967 Félix Beltrán
Fósforos del Pirineo El Circo, 1968 Cruz Novillo+Olmos
Sala Torres García Casa de América, 2016
The book Confluencias is an analytical study of Beltrán’s and Novello’s work, researched and collated by a group of designers and academics, principally Sonia Díaz, Gabriel Martínez and Julio Ramón, to bring a greater awareness of these two Spanish/Cuban graphic designers.
It will be published by Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha.
For more information, click HERE.