Pete Sans

Pete Sans began his career at the crossroads of art, craft, and communication. After working with architect Josep Pratsmarsó, he enrolled at the legendary Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm, but quickly realized his path was not academic—it was empirical. Back in Barcelona, he led the Nikon Photography School and founded Papel Especial, a visually daring art magazine that already hinted at his experimental mindset.

In 1979, his prototypes caught the attention of Snark Design, marking the start of his creative focus on furniture and lighting. With a bold yet understated formal language, his pieces embrace utility as a means of expression. Sans worked with publishers such as BD Ediciones de Diseño, Metalarte, and the Italian brand Pallucco. At Santa & Cole, we’ve had the privilege of helping bring his vision to life, producing lighting and structural pieces that strike a balance between the industrial and the sculptural.

Among his most celebrated works are the Lamparaprima lamp (1979), awarded the “Oscar of Lighting” in Paris (1983), and the Coqueta chair (1987), which received ADI-FAD‘s Golden Delta in 1988. Many of his creations are part of the permanent collection at the Design Museum of Barcelona (DHub), which also holds his personal archive.

Pete Sans has shown that design can be an act of synthesis without losing emotional depth. His work—rooted in formal honesty and a dogma-free sensibility—remains a vital contribution to the language of contemporary Spanish design.