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Design Matters

Telling Stories Through Furniture

November 16, 2025

Some things begin by chance.‍

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That was the case for Ryan Preciado, who learnt carpentry simply because someone couldn’t pay him for a film. Instead of money, he received a lesson. From that moment, a passion was born - one that has since evolved into an artistic language blending craft, memory, and history.

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Preciado doesn’t make furniture. He tells stories through it.

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Each of his designs is a dialogue between past and present, between the craftsmanship of his Chumash ancestors and Californian car culture. It’s a fusion of Memphis humour and modernist discipline, where contradictions aren’t flaws but spaces for reflection.

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His works, such as the Chumash Chair and the Pope Cabinet, show that design is not merely about aesthetics, but about memory - both personal and collective, often forgotten or erased from history.

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In Preciado’s projects, one can find questions about who truly shaped the heritage of modern design and whose names have been written out of it.

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The future doesn’t spring from innovation, but from memory.

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From everyday objects, from the work of one’s hands, from the places our thoughts return to. Preciado reveals that design is not only form, but a language of remembrance - a record of emotions and stories that shape our identity. Each of his creations becomes a bridge between past and present, between what is personal and what is shared.

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