My Desk: I seem to be very organized. Well, you’ll see in other pictures that I’m not.

Studio: An outlook of the studio. I share it with a friend, graphic designer, Juanjo López.  We moved some weeks ago and we are still organizing everything.

Table: This is the table where I cut, draw, prepare orders… (and where I eat at the moment!) The books are a present from my studio mate. He found them in the garbage near of the studio. They have some really nice illustrations in the interior. (Both coffee cups are mine).

Types: I couldn’t resist to take a picture of the topographer in his natural enviroment.

The Wall: I stole the handwritten sign from the door of an old stationery store (to apologize, I will say there was another identical sing in the door). It reads: “Today we close at 11.30. Sorry for the inconveniences.” After spending long hours working at home, I though this would be a good reminder to have in the new studio. I plan to send a picture of the framed sign to the stationery shop.

Views: The light and the views are two of the best things of the new place.

Blanca Gómez lives and works in Madrid, Spain. She is an illustrator and graphic designer.  Her website is called “cosas mínimas,” which means “tiny things” in Spanish.  Simple things inspire her and her work, which has been described as “colourful” and “whimsical” She works on projects ranging from editorial commissions, interior design, stationery, books and advertising.

FROM YOUR DESKS: Do you miss your old space?  

BLANCA GOMEZ: Before having an studio I worked at my own house, so I don’t miss at all having my home full of boxes, tubes, papers around.

FYD: Where are you in Madrid? 

BG: I live and work in Chamberí, a 19th century district in the center of Madrid. My studio is fifteen minutes walking from home.

FYD: How do you work? 

BG: When I worked at home I didn’t have a routine at all. However, I’m trying to keep a routine in the new studio, although I don’t always succeed. The main problem is that I don’t like waking up early in the morning…but I don’t like working until late at night either.

I  live and work in Chamberí, a 19th century district in the center of Madrid.

FYD: Your work reminds me of Alexander Girard. Do you have older influences, masters of the mid-century movement you like?  

BG: I love Alexander Girard, and others designers from mid-century. Olle Eksell is another of my favorites.

FYD: I’ve been enjoying your illustrations in Monocle. How did you get those assignments?

BG: Monocle came across my work on Grain Edit. They wrote an email asking if I wanted to collaborate with them and I agreed. And this is how it started.

FYD: How did your Cosas Mínimas come about? 

BG: Cosas Minimas began as a way to escape from the routine of my old daily job as graphic designer in a studio. No big plans behind it, it was just a simple name under which I began to publish my drawings. What was initially meant to be a personal project gradually and naturally turned into a professional project.

FYD: Your work seems to gravitate to circles. Your balloons, bubbles, trees, bike wheels.  Even your characters heads contain perfect circle shapes.  

BG: I guess you are right, there are circles everywhere. I need to give it a thought! I don’t know why, but you have reminded me of a game that I used to play when I was a kid. I would make a doodle out of a simple shape, and then I had to complete the figure. Maybe sometimes I still do the same, who knows…

A personal project gradually and naturally turned into a professional project.

FYD: Your series of illustrated cities; have you always been attracted to London, Paris and New York? 

BG: I’ve been in the three cities. I usually make these kind of decisions while I’m working on the illustrations. In this case, I first worked on London and knew I wanted a man walking under the rain (for obvious reasons!). In the beginning, the character in Paris was a waiter, but I realized at certain point that it would be better to have as characters three different passer-bys that simply do daily things that go well with the setting: walking under an umbrella in London, smoking in Paris, walking the dog in Central Park in New York. Very typical you could say.

FYD: Travel inspires me to see the world and find new inspiration. For you? 

BG: Yes, escape from the routine always inspire you. I try to spend one month every year or two years far of my home (last spring I spent a month working in Berlin). Still, no plans at the moment for this year, yet. Sigh! Well, maybe I’ll make a trip to Italia (le Cinque Terre) next month.

“Goodbye Blue Monday,” a print based upon ‪the famous sentence of Kurt Vonnegut. The collaboration is between Juan and Blanca. Your print via Etsy is here. Blanca’s blog here.