Optica Piñile is a Spanish optical practice whose 1981 visual identity was created by the Oviedo-based graphic designer José Santamarina. The mark dates from the period when Santamarina worked in the studio Elías+Santamarina, which he founded in 1969 with partner Elías García Benavides.[1]
Design and History
José Santamarina Laviada (born in Oviedo, 1941) began his career as a graphic designer and illustrator in 1962, after teaching at the School of Applied Arts and Artistic Crafts in Oviedo from 1961 to 1963.[1] In 1969, he co-founded the studio Elías+Santamarina with Elías García Benavides, a firm that produced logos, posters and corporate identity work for clients across Asturias.[2]
The Optica Piñile logo was designed in 1981 during this studio period. Santamarina’s approach to graphic design was characterized by geometric precision, with references to geometric abstraction, constructivism, kinetic art and op-art.[1] He described his method as seeking to “summarize the idea to the minimum expression” and to capture the observer’s attention through iconic graphics.[3]
Santamarina’s work from the 1960s and 1970s, including logos for the Asociación de Empresarios de Artes Gráficas de Asturias (1969) and the Asociación de Peluqueros de Asturias (1975), was selected for inclusion in the second volume of Taschen’s The History of Graphic Design, which placed him among 118 of the most important designers worldwide.[3] In 1997, he opened a new studio, Santamarina Diseñadores, with his son Miguel and daughter Carmen.[1]
In 2025, the Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias mounted “Gráfica pura,” the first exhibition dedicated to graphic design in the museum’s history, showcasing Santamarina’s logos, posters and corporate identity manuals as works of art in their own right.[2]
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