- Art & Design
We are always happy when we have the opportunity to introduce our readers to young, dynamic brands that fully suit our own style. Simone & Marcel is such a name that immediately caught our attention. Get inspired by their beautiful products, that undoubtedly bring any interior to a higher level.
Simone & Marcel was founded by the French Charlotte and the Spanish Javier, who met during their exchange in California. The couple develops lighting and beautiful homeware and tableware. Expect natural, warm colours combined with the best materials and extraordinary forms. We are showing you their impressive lighting collection and asked Charlotte some questions about the brand and their design process. 
When was your brand founded?
‘The brand was officially launched in November 2020. However, the project of Simone & Marcel was born in early 2018, when we had our first chat mentioning the idea of starting a business together.’
How did that happen?
‘I guess the trigger was when Javier and I moved to an unfurnished apartment in London and we could not find any furniture and lighting that we liked, so we decided to make our own. We realised we loved working together and our skills perfectly complemented each other. I enjoyed the designing part, and Javier loved manufacturing the products. We started sketching lamps on 3D software and started to talk about a potential business together. It was only one year after these first talks that we decided to quit our jobs and return to Spain to set up our workshop. That was in September 2019. Because of the pandemic, the set-up work took over a year and in November 2020, one year and two months from our last day in our respective corporate offices, Simone & Marcel was launched. It is also important to mention that the fabrication expertise in lighting comes from Javier’s engineer background. He had been working in the industry for several years before we created our brand.’ 
‘We design, manufacture, and sell on our own, meaning we have full control of the entire process. All materials come from Western Europe, mostly from the Iberian Peninsula. When possible, we work with local suppliers. We then fabricate and assemble our lamps in our workshop, located in Toledo’s province, in a small village called Consuegra. Until now, we do everything ourselves, just the two of us. We ship everywhere in Europe.’
'We design, manufacture, and sell on our own, meaning we have full control of the entire process’
Where does the inspiration for your designs come from?
‘Inspiration comes from anything such as an object, a piece of art, a pastry, a piece of jewellery, a landscape, or a person. We are very curious and hyper-observant. This being said, we have a design philosophy which is focused on minimalism and naturality. We work with clean and geometric lines we associate materials with, always keeping their natural colours, such as stone, wood, ceramic, and metal.’ 
Images courtesy of Simone & Marcel