Did you know that design is found in many more aspects of our daily lives than we are used to? This resides on the website or in the interior design of the restaurant; but also is visible in the facade sign such as that of the mythical Bodega de la Ardosa or Casa Macareno in Madrid, in the typography of the physical letter and even in the rough napkins of a lifetime that rest patiently in the napkin holder, waiting for the diner to clean their hands or mouth.
The latter are the ones that we are going to focus on in the following lines, how our love-hate story for each of them goes back to the sharpest memories of our childhood and how we miss them when temporarily disappeared during the pandemic. Remember? how rough they are and how much we have missed on some occasions in the bar, local or restaurant on duty.
And this is when the photographer Felipe Hernández comes into play and decides to pay them this tribute in project form. A photographic sample that already has 400 napkins shot from a total of 1200 collected throughout a lifetime and an Instagram account (@servilletas_) opened in 2017 that he already has 282 posts and almost 3,000 followers at the time these lines are being written.
Napkins for cafeterias, ice cream parlors, pizzerias, chocolate shops, bars, wineries, taverns… Come and see!
Pyramids cafeteria napkin.
FELIPE HERNÁNDEZ'S MOST PERSONAL PROJECT
Behind this nostalgic initiative we find Felipe Hernández (1985), a creative resident in Madrid whose professional career has focused over the last decades on do all kinds of reports and editorial portraits in publications of the stature of El País Semanal, GQ, VICE, Esquire, AD, Glamour, among others; commissions for Netflix, the Madrid City Council, Warner Bros, Cadena Ser or Microsoft and travel guides for Anaya.
And of course, also other personal projects where we find Ecstasy & Wine; Arenal, El Carmen, Sol, Montera, Ópera and –of course– Napkins.
"The first is a six year night tour photographing subcultures (mods, punks, goths, skins, jevis) by cities in Spain that has just been published in book format with the Colectivo Bruxista publishing house; the second translates into a publication about the last castiza generation of the center of Madrid before a new generation of grandchildren and tourists turn them into anecdotes from the past; Y the last of Napkins, a sample where through the different fonts, colors, illustrations or slogans identities have been created giving rise to a common scene that is part of our culture”, tells Traveler.es Felipe Hernández.
Cover of Ecstasy & Wine.
It is on the latter that we will focus all our attention. After working on the collection for as long as he can conscience for the attraction and curiosity I felt towards them, It was not until May 2014 when he decided to carry out this idea in a tangible way.
“I was coming back from working at a festival in Bilbao and in the cafeteria where we had breakfast they had the personalized napkin and I saw clearly that it would be good to start collecting them. The first was a phase of collection until early 2018, when I already had about 200, I photographed them individually on a marble and meanwhile I made the Instagram account”, he adds.
El Molino napkin.
COMMON SCENE OF OUR CULTURE
Your way of working? The protagonist of this exhibition he collects napkins from all the places he visits in the capital or when he travels to other cities or towns in Spain, adding copies to his collection. "Also I have several people who from time to time give me and send me napkins of places they have been, is what I find interesting about the project, that people collaborate and can encompass more”, he adds.
For now he has 400 photographed napkins out of a total of 1,200 saved. His initial purpose was to reach a thousand in order to carry out a book with the sample and even an exhibition. The main objective of this initiative? In the words of its founder: "is to value the gastronomy that we have in Spain and see that in each zone or region there are different things”.
Among his favorites there are also those that – when he goes out there and does not have anything to store them – fold it up and put it in your wallet or cell phone case, discovering them the next day with wrinkles. “The ideal is to have them perfect but sometimes I like that they come with those wrinkles and a life of their own”, judgment.
Use of typography as a design element.
This is how we come across the different fonts and designs of Mesón Planeta and its specialty in food from the north, with the Charing Cross Pub in Pintor Rosales -Hernandez's favourite-, the Nino Cafeteria, with the La Paloma Cafeteria, with the El Molino Bar or the Angel Bar on the iconic Laurel street in Logroño. An endless number of napkins that tell the history and the most traditional origins of Spanish gastronomy. The one of all life, the one that we refuse to disappear just like their napkins.
“The importance of this exhibition and why I think it should last over time is for remind us that the magic of gastronomy lies in diversity. There is an increasing tendency for everything to be similar and for there are no differences in places like Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin or London”, says Felipe Hernandez. This reminds us that another type of offer is possible and, furthermore, it is equally attractive.
“It is logical that this paper format for napkins will tend to disappear over time for a more sustainable and recycled model. But the napkin as something publicity I want to believe that it will not be lost at least for now, ”he adds.
He also collects napkins from other places.
THE FUTURE OF NAPKINS
And all that is to come? After this first initial phase that has already been seven years behind, among the short-term goals of the creative Hernández we find keep collecting napkins and photograph them to continue uploading material to the Instagram account so that it has that frequency again. But the project is more alive than ever.
“In the medium and long term I would love to be able to make a book with 1,000 napkins and an exhibition that could be itinerant through various cities”, states the creator of Servilletas.
In the absence of this day, we can do nothing but continue your account on Instagram and that every time we enter a bar we look at its napkin holder , who knows if they hide in their napkins some of the quirkier designer jewelry of Spanish culture.