Culture

For Duplo Design, Each Product Has a Hidden Story

According to Guadalajara-based product designers Marcela and Tania Medina, all products have a story to tell. This is theirs.

By Rachel RobeyJul 5, 2023
Two women in aprons are sanding wooden pieces in a workshop, with a man working in the background.
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In Guadalajara, a studio sits over 5,100 feet above ocean level, but is encircled by mountains and ancient volcanoes looming even further above. There, two sisters practice industrial design on a small scale, partnering with local artisans to create and sell beautiful kitchen tools that draw on the regionโ€™s ancestral traditions, natural materials, and current design landscape. For them, products are an artistic medium like paint or charcoal.

Product designers Marcela and Tania Medina, our collaborators on the Duplo Design x Made In Collection, describe the meticulous design processโ€”which was informed by craftspeople and their expertiseโ€”as the โ€œhumanityโ€ behind our collaboration. As consumers, weโ€™re all prone to prioritizing performance and aesthetics over how, where, or why something was made, but as Tania explains, โ€œthe productโ€™s story isnโ€™t just about the art design. It's all of the people involved, too.โ€

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Since launching Duplo Design six years ago, theyโ€™ve been working iteratively, continuously returning to familiar objects with new methods, materials, and silhouettes. But in some ways, the products they make have a history that predates them. Molcajetes, like the ones they produced for the Duplo Design x Made In Collection, were used by the Aztec and Maya, and the artisanal processes behind Duplo Designโ€™s wares are still handed down from generation to generation within local families, like the Rodrรญguez Coculas who make their volcanic stoneware products.

However, the construction materials themselves are the most acutely ancestralโ€”the basalt forming each Molcajete and Tequilero has waited some thousands of years to be carved.

The Medina sisters strive to make each item feel โ€œatemporal.โ€ While each piece is grounded in the history that preceded it and the current design moment in which it was created, their primary goal is to make timeless objects that feel as familiar as they are functional. โ€œTheyโ€™re not just art objects. We want to tell a story,โ€ says Marcela. This intention comes through in the final products, which Marcela says have a magnetic pull when you first notice them. โ€œPeople want to know, โ€˜Is it real? Can I touch it?โ€™โ€

duplo molcajete

But thereโ€™s a third element thatโ€™s integral to the product narrativeโ€”what the sisters call โ€œthe hidden stories.โ€ These are the most personal. Theyโ€™re the anecdotes associated with the design and craft process, which customers typically remain blissfully unaware of.

โ€œEven things produced on a massive scale had to be physically made by someone,โ€ says Tania. Weโ€™re used to products just showing up on our doorsteps with the click of a button, but, as Tania reminds, โ€œproducts pass through so many hands to get to you, to your home.โ€

duplo behind the design molcajete

For the two designers, these hidden stories are the most salient, despite being the most likely to go unnoticed by customers. With the 2023 Duplo Design x Made In Collection, weโ€™re encouraging people to think more about the storiesโ€”hidden or otherwiseโ€”behind their products. And hoping customers will make their own stories with the products, as well.