About — Ismael Velo

Industrial designer from Northern Spain, crafting products that are evocative in their approach and precise in their execution.

My work centres on Play and Wellbeing, areas in which I balance poetic expression with functional clarity through thoughtful making, keen eye for detail, and a love for the craft.

I love foreign languages, and I walked the Camino de Santiago twice: a physical, emotional and intellectual experience that led to this photobook.

I graduated from Elisava School of Design in Barcelona, where I complemented my Atlantic upbringing with the Mediterranean design culture.

A formative period in Norway added the clarity and quiet discipline of Scandinavian design.

Amsterdam, where I lived and worked for more than a decade, taught me how to embrace non-conforming and independent thinking.

Together with Japanese craft, these influences continue to inform my work today.

I have been the Lead Designer at FROLIC studio, a boutique studio working across industries, where I helped organisations like IKEA, Volkswagen and Vodafone, while contributing to the company’s shift from a tech-driven startup to a design-driven agency.

A shift in scale, as part of the in-house design team at Earthscape Play, saw me develop bespoke wooden playgrounds for renowned landscape architecture firms such as CCxA - creating high-quality playspaces that advanced industry standards.

But one of my favourite clients has always been children: hundreds of them across North America inhabit the playgrounds I helped shape, and some more are playing with charming little wooden toys that I made in the atelier.

Some of the other things I have worked on include a nightlight (and gender-neutral design challenge), a unique piece of furniture where sustainable sourcing meets CMF, and a range of IoT products designed to give technology a touch of human warmth.