Ignacio Cadena

Founder & Creative Director | CADENA CONCEPT DESIGN

Academic studies in fine arts in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Later, he studied Architecture in California where he graduated and received his Master's Degree in Architectural Design at Sci-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture). His work explores the contact frontiers between art and science, and at the same time, represents visual concepts taken from his sociocultural roots, urban environments and modern communication media.  Ignacio believes that development, personal enhancement and an understanding of individual cultures is achieved through their relationships and interactions with one another, otherwise they would be doomed to perish due to isolation. He firmly believes in collaboration and cultural and intellectual exchange. 

He works methodically but in a nimble and intuitive manner to liberate himself from premature judgments and thus focus his sensitivity. In this process, randomness – and staged accidents – play a fundamental role in his creations.  He has designed brands, hospitality and culinary concepts, communication strategies, advertising campaigns, spaces, architectural projects, real estate concepts, publishing designs, fashion, furniture and decorative objects among other things.  His professional practice is based in a pin-pointed a methodology that has evolved and matured over his more than 25 years of professional experience.  His work is a an on-going multidisciplinary exploration that began when he founded Yspania ® in Los Angeles, California in 1992, a visual research laboratory which would later move to the city of Monterrey, Mexico and which has now been renamed C+A ® CADENA  CONCEPT DESIGN, and has evolved to become a workshop developing holistic concepts where different disciplines such as architecture, interiors, industrial design, marketing, graphic design, illustration, animation, visual and fine arts, multimedia, and photography are involved.  In 2009, he co-founds E+C ® ESRAWE + CADENA, together with renowned industrial designer Hector Esrawe, a workshop where comprehensive multidisciplinary projects are gestated and developed for both Mexico and the world.

The work of  C+A ® and its strategic partners has been studied by different global firms, and has been exhibited and published in numerous magazines, books and electronic media around the world: Frame, Monocle, Surface, Dezeen, Yatzer, Fast Company, Arquine, Domus, Coolhunter, Spot, Architectural Digest, Fahrenheit, Gatopardo, Travesías, Delicate Design, 192, Conde Nast, La Tempestad, Folio, A Diseño, Fuzed Magazine–Egipto, Design, CasaViva, Space Magazine–China, Entrepeneur, Boxed & labeled, Grupo Expansión, Maison Decoration, Summa+, Glocal, Weheart, Notcut, La Repubblica–Italia, Case da Abitare, Vogue Living, Entremuros, Wohnrevue-Alemania, Grupo Televisa, Maison & Object, Elle Decoration, Living & Design, Wallpaper, Design Boom, Air France Madame, Images Publishing-Shanghai, SendPoints, Travel + Leisure, Big Issue–Taiwan, Acquired Taste, Interni–Rusia, Hi-Design International Publishing, Dolce Vita-República Checa, CW Interiors–India, CENTRAS–Lituania, Artravel Magazine–Francia, Wood Planet, Gestalten, AIT–Alemania, Hightone Books, Chois Gallery, Fast Co. Design, CNN, Forbes life, Archdaily, Código, Dwell, Fibula, Conde, Sandu, WGSN, Taschen, LÓfficiel, Vogue, Phaidon and Interior Design among others.

He is a member of the Advisory Board of Universities and other Educational Institutions as well as a consultant for multiple brands, museums and other organizations both in Mexico and abroad.  His professional practice spans North America, the United States, Central and South America.  He has lectured at international meetings and his work has been exhibited internationally where it has merited awards and honorary mentions such as:  Architizer 2016, Interior Design / BOY Awards 2016, Pentawards 2016, BID 2016, Restaurant & Bar Design Awards in London 2016, Noldi Shreck Award 2016, Best of the Year Award 2015, 2014 & 2012 from Interior Design Magazine in New York, RED DOT Award, The BID (Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño) in Madrid, Global Fashion Awards in London, World Interior Awards in Barcelona, A.R.E. Design Awards, Retail Environments, Iconic Award in England, Restaurant & Bar Design Awards London 2015, Deco Magazine–Taiwan, FRAME Awards “The Great Indoors” in Holland, Practice of the Year USA, Annual Restaurant Space Award of Modern Decoration Magazine , Building Awards 2015, Quorum Award in Mexico, BOY Awards in New York, World Interior News in England, The National Graphic Arts Prize in Mexico, IDAA Awards 2015 Best Interiors of the Americas and the Caribbean, El Abierto Mexicano de Diseño, Design Week Mexico, MACO (México Arte Contemporaneo), World Architecture Fair and Pentawards in Paris, France, among others.