The Spanish graphic designer and furniture designer Javier Mariscal was born in Valencia in 1950. From 1967 to 1970, he studied philosophy at the university in Valencia. In 1971 he moved to Barcelona to study graphic design at the Escuela de Grafismo Elisava. It was there that he founded in 1973 El Rrollo Enmascarado, the first underground comic strip that was sold on the streets. Two months after it was published, all copies were confiscated by the regime.
From 1975 to 1976 Mariscal lived on Ibiza, where he produced other comics and designed his first furniture. In 1976 he returned to Barcelona to freelance as a graphic artist and designer. In 1979 Mariscal developed the BAR-CEL-ONA lettering, the silhouettes of which are like a window on scenarios beyond. In 1980 together with Fernando Salas he created the "Dúplex" barstool and the "Valencia"-lamp for the Dúplex Bar in Valencia.
In 1981 Galería Vinçon mounted "Muebles amorales", an exhibition of Mariscal's postmodern creations, which made Ettore Sottsass invite him to participate in the 1981 "Memphis, an International Style" exhibition in Milan. Mariscal showed the "Hilton trolley" and the "Colón" table there.
In subsequent years, Javier Mariscal continued to create furniture as well as textiles and objects of ceramics and glass. In 1988 he designed "Olé", a vase wearing a hat, and "Garriri", a chair sporting large Micky-Mouse ears on the back as well as comics footwear on the chair legs. Mariscal's designs are always funny and recall figures from comics. The comics style also affected his commercial graphics designs. Mariscal designed the mascot "Cobi" for the Barcelona Olympic Games (1992) as well as the mascot "Twipsy" for the Expo 2000 in Hannover. In collaboration with the architect Alfredo Arribas, Javier Mariscal designed El Gambrinus, a trendy Barcelona scene restaurant in 1988.
Since 1989 Javier Mariscal works in his own studio "Estudio Mariscal", located in an old tannery in Palo Alto, Barcelona. There he designs among others furniture for famous manufacturers as Magis, Moroso, porcelain for Rosenthal and illustrations for diverse magazines.
Javier Mariscal has never abandoned the more artistic side of his career and his work has been showed in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the years.
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