Design Duo DECERES Launches Spellbinding Credo Collection With Obakki

Home furnishings are made sacral and the austere more approachable for daily rituals with the enchanting Credo Collection by DECERES for Obakki – a purpose-led lifestyle brand that connects artisans, designers, and conscious consumers – in a celebration of contemporary Mexican design fused with craft heritage. The monolithic objects comprising the series, which include the Gotha Bookcase, Olter Dining Table, and the Juddas Chair and Stool, speak a shared visual language bewitching to those in their presence.

Thematically, Credo is an elixir of architectural devices – seemingly immovable forms, severe lines, and narrow voids – with religiosity all distilled through the lens of reductionism, each ingredient bringing something potent to the solution. The Gotha bookcase boasts a towering mass and visual gravity created by its structural surfaces suspended in tension on the cusp of connection. Opposite in approach yet equal in impact, the Olter Dining Table grounds itself in a wide stance commanding respect while the trayed tabletop beckons for an audience. And the complementary, multi-use Juddas Chair and Stool flirt with multiple functions as seating and storage. Each piece of furniture is a composition of proportion and plane to evoke the juxtaposition between stark forms and delicate humanness, a narrative informed by DECERES’ personal introspection.

The story behind Credo’s visual narrative begins with the designers’ Catholic upbringing on the border between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California. Founded on a shared ethos by Denise Martinez and Jorge Arturo Ibarra in 2020 – both with roots in Baja – the two met in Southern California where a decade later DECERES came to be. The duality of having lived between those worlds informs their outlook and approach to design, and the very physical manifestations of their musings.

The fresh offerings recontextualize traditional items often found in storied places of worship. Though neither designer is practicing religion, the impact of communion is undeniable. “The decadent architecture and ornate interiors in contrast with the austere furnishings made a lasting impact in our approach to design,” the duo says. “We aim to create pieces that have a purposeful functionality that stand out, but do not distract or compete with their surroundings.”

An appreciation for the built environment builds onto the art of furniture making. “My parents are engineers and my mother studied architecture, so I grew up with blueprints in my house,” Martinez says. “And while Jorge’s family is in the gastronomy world, his grandfather, a baker by trade who always loved architecture, designed two of their family homes and their bakeries.” Influences from Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute echo through their work. “That is how we approach our own pieces, viewing our furnishings like small-scale architecture. They could all be components of a building. And if you put them all together, you can create these different shapes and structures,” Ibarra adds.

Aspects of minimalism from artist Donald Judd also see themselves translated into the scheme of various pieces like the Juddas series. “While an homage, it also is designed with people in mind, the evolution of a person throughout their life, the starting point, and how throughout it, you carry elements from your past and add components, emotions, and perspectives as you grow, which are represented in the seatings’ evolution,” Ibarra says.

It is this depth that makes partnering with Obakki the perfect union. The brand works with masters of their craft, the artisans that help bring designs to fruition and imbue each artifact with its unique presence. “One of my tenets is to make sure that no matter what you produce, that you’re being valued for who you are and what you’re making, not less because of the region of the world where you’re working,” Obakki’s founder Treana Peake says. “So for me, working with Deceres was just another extension of that.”

Every purchase funds the Obakki Foundation, the brand’s philanthropic counterpart, which is focused on providing sustainable change in Africa and Mexico through clean water access and livelihood initiatives, to date the foundation has helped over 4 million people. For more information visit Obakki.com.

Source: design-milk