I am very proud and happy to share with you this article written about me in Designeers club

Guillermo Blanco

Guillermo studied Interior Architecture in Madrid and from a young age he has been working designing some of the most emblematic properties and clubs in Madrid of the late 80’s and 90’s. Between his notable projects is Penelope Cruz’s clothing shop in Madrid. He has been living in the Middle East for the last decade and he is now sharing with us his experience of designing for the Middle East clientele.

Interior Design of Dubai Hill Living villa

You are originally from Spain, have lived in Thailand and are now based in Dubai. How did you adapt working in new environments with clients having different styles and cultural influences?

Obviously when I moved to Dubai in 2013, I had to adapt to a new culture and taste of middle eastern clients. It was challenging but also very enlightening, the richness of the Islamic Art and culture. Also, you must adapt in speed, the work in Dubai is faster than in Spain, this is very energetic as here everything grows very fast, the project too. But the most impressive part of the adaptation is to work with multicultural people.

Interior Design of Resort

What are the biggest challenges you face when designing homes in the Middle East?

Speed and versatility. In Dubai the client expects you to surprise, create incredible concepts and realize in very short time. Clients in this part of the world are more open to different concepts, new ideas while in Europe we are more conservative in general.

What design partners are you loyal to?

I have been loyal to Spanish brands I use for long time in tiles and sanitary ware but in furniture and lighting I like Italian, Spanish, British, however, saying that, with the globalization I have favourite brands everywhere.

Interior Designing of  villa's entrance

What is one trend that we will see more of in the next 5 years?

I think in residential as we are working more and more from home clients will increasingly desire a comfortable workspace at home and their houses cosier and more liveable but without losing the design aspect. In the workplace, we will be making the office more fun and less rigid while in hospitality there is a trend in making the hotel rooms feel more like home.

Interior architecture of living room

Who is one style icon or interior designer that inspires you?

Many, in my youth I loved Phillipe Stark, now I’m more into Ferris Rafauli and Tom Ford.

Is there any advice you would give to someone planning to enter the interior design industry?

Be creative and challenge yourself to make something new. Avoid copy pasting ideas from Pinterest and use this as inspiration tool only. Pace your ideas, young designers have too many ideas, use them one by one and develop them. This industry also required perseverance and tenacity, and these are skill you must cultivate.

Store Designing
Interior design of hotel room

Is there any advice you would give to someone planning to enter the interior design industry?

The only advice we can give is to deeply understand yourself and your taste. If you don’t focus first of all on your own training as designers it will be very difficult to be able to express yourself through creativity. Exactly how we decide the clothes to wear, our style, how we want to be seen by other people, in the same way we must understand how we want to express ourselves in our projects, paying attention to every detail.

interior designing of villa by Guillermo Blanco
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