The designer’s notebooks
Thinking, Drawing, Designing

Whenever we see Manuel Estrada, he is always carrying a small notebook where he jots down and draws words, creates images and cuts out and pastes a variety of materials. And the fact is that the creative event is something so fleeting that it needs to be captured on the spot.
‘Drawing, thinking, designing’ is comprised of the most personal and unpublished work of Manuel Estrada through his visual diaries. These notebooks show this graphic designer’s creative process and let us share in the curiosity and in the pleasure of discovery proper to the creator. The exhibition establishes a dialogue between the end designs and the works in progress where drawing and collage play a prominent role. Moving among Estrada’s images becomes an intimate walk that reveals the footprints left by designers such as Paul Rand, Ivan Chermayeff, Anton Stankowski, Roman Cieslewicz, Daniel Gil and Félix Beltrán. On the way, we come across a tightrope walker whose graphic pirouettes generate fascinating images that contribute to expanding our collective imagination.

Sonia Díaz / Gabriel Martínez. Exhibition curators
November 2017