La Muerte Tiene Permiso
La Muerte Tiene Permiso is a small independent brand that arose from a desire to share the Mexican heritage of artisans through a contemporary lens.
Omar Ortiz Franco created La Muerte Tiene Permiso* to celebrate the unique materials and historic traditions of his country with a contemporary finish. His design inspiration comes from the vernacular materials and craft traditions from around Mexican histories, folk stories, cinema and photography. The collection is equally informed by Omar’s architectural design aesthetic, which focuses on clean lines and attention to materials, and his desire to explore what it means to dwell in a home.
The studio works in partnership with traditional workshops around the country, many of which have been running for generations, with some dating more than 160 years. Faced with the global environmental crisis, the team has taken solace in the ways in which communities across Mexico have created useful objects from the natural materials found around them, and degrade them back into the earth at the end of the item’s life. The studio is proud to contribute back to this tradition and believes that an object made with love, thought and knowledge of technique can change our ways of consumption.
EXPERIENCE
Currently: La Muerte Tiene Permiso*; previously: co-founder and head architect at Cos & Cus Arquitectura; product design development
EDUCATION
Architecture at Escuela Superior de Arquitectura (ESARQ) at Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico (2012)
Nightlights of Mexico City is a collection of classic glasses inspired by the nightlife of Mexico’s cultural golden age in the 1950s: sequined dresses, mambo dancers, salsa, cumbia rhythms.
+ Hand blown sturdy glasses made 100% from recycled glass. Each glass is made individually and produced collaboratively across a team of six people.
+ The glasses come in two sizes, tumblers and beer glasses, and in four colours: clear, smoke, green and pink.
+ The glasses can be purchased in sets of 4, 6 or 8 pieces and will include at least one of each colour.
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Year: 2022
Size: Tumblers: 8.5cm x 9cm (400ml); Beer Glasses: 8.5cm x 12cm (600ml)
Materials: Hand blown 100% recycled glass
Credits: Design by Omar Ortiz Franco; production made in Tonalá, Jalisco México by Oscar Preciado
In the Náhuatl language, Xopan means “time of green” which in turn refers to spring. Xopan is a variation of Manantial (spring) and has been scratched to generate the grooves for seeds to germinate. The vase transforms from a black, solid element to a living, breathing element for seeds to grow. Xopan represents Spring, and the cycle of nature: water flows from the mud to become stone, which then gives life to plants.
Made of black Oaxacan clay, the vase was carefully baked at a low temperature with wood, not glaze, and filters light humidity through its walls. The vase itself resists fire below 950 degrees so it can be used to burn charcoal inside, as an incense holder, or simply to contain water for flowers and other plants.
The vase is held off the ground by a hand-carved stone base made of volcanic stone known as recinto. The shape of the base is inspired by the legs of a molcajete - the traditional Mexican version of the mortar and pestle used to grind spices and chilli peppers - while the arches refer to the basic shape of a cave entrance, thus creating an empty space between the ground and the black clay vase.
+ Limited stock available, after which Xopan will be made to order and has a lead time of two months for production.
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Year: 2022
Size: 10cm x 21cm
Weight: 1.5kg
Materials: Volcanic stone, black clay
Credits: Design by Omar Ortiz Franco; black clay vase made by Cesia Tonantzin; volcanic stone manufactured by Marmoles Covarruvias.