Andrés Mier y Terán and Regina Galván Duque of the Mexican architecture firm MYT+GLVDK, developed the identity and design of the MYS brand. Regina Galván tells us what is behind the creation of a brand's DNA and the process of creating our MYS brand.
Tell us about yourself... what did you study? How did you get here? What brought you to this moment?
I have been in the hospitality industry for 20 years now. My career began studying Industrial Design and Product Design. From there I went to New York – thanks to a scholarship I obtained – and my concern for scale and space, having previously studied industrial, was what brought me closer to architecture.
I was in that city for 12 years, during which I had the opportunity to work in one of the strongest and most complicated places in the world, and, in general, in hospitality. From the beginning I focused on making restaurants, hotels or spaces that had soul, on creating the DNA from scratch . This part of each project has always been one of the most important for me, as well as the sensory part in which each of the client's senses are involved to take them to live an experience.
I take many years to reach the work methodology we have today, and form a firm in Mexico that distinguishes itself by doing comprehensive design. We mix the three disciplines and the three scales that design involves. Within the office we do graphic design, branding , industrial design, product design, real estate and architecture . Why is this good for a client? When the three disciplines collaborate at the same time, the result is faster and much better. And also having been in these areas, it was easier and it is easier for me today to lead a fair team, governed by these disciplines.
What step is the most important in the process of creating a brand's DNA?
In the process of creating a brand, first you work on searching for a name, you do all the naming of the product, and then a very important and specific part of research begins to materialize what you have in mind.
And what's behind MYS?
MYS was a very special and interesting project. Helle gave us a lot of content from the beginning to find a suitable name and the essence of the brand, such as the color palette, the shapes of the products and the materials among a thousand other things.
The focus was on transmitting the soul of Helle , the founder of this brand: a Nordic woman, married to a Mexican, with two daughters with a mixture of these two cultures.
What we were clear about was that we had to create this fusion between the Nordic countries and Mexico . What exists in the nature of these extreme countries, which are apparently so opposite?
Looking for those parallels between both cultures, we saw that there are enough to precisely generate the baby, which is this MYS brand, apapacho in Mexican, which is really born from the combination of both cultures.
We worked with Izaskun Díaz, the only Mexican nose, to create the four aromas representing the four seasons of the year, which are the four current collections. The idea was to bring that Nordic comfort to Mexico, applying those aromas to home and wellness products so representative of the Nordic culture.
Also, the current Helle massage company called Scape , had the needs for MYS products (aromatherapy, body oil, aromatizing candles, aromatizing roomspray...), to use them in their services, in order for the massages to be become more sensory and poetic experiences. That through the nostalgia of the aroma, the client can decide if they want a more floral massage that is spring, watery that is summer, wood that is autumn, or spices that is winter.
What would you say is the most important thing a brand should have in its DNA?
In the end, within the office, in the creation of DNA and brands, what we look for is a sensory theme and we focus on the experience , because, in the end, that is what stays in your memory and generates a special link .
I think it was achieved very well. It really is everyone's project and I think it has been the longest and, without a doubt, one of the most important on which we worked and we will continue to collaborate.
By: Carla Díaz Katsicas
