Our family’s story told through design

This past February 7th, Magacín, El Nuevo Día’s Sunday magazine asked my father to write about one of the most important design traditions in our family: the design of wedding anniversary commemorative bracelets.

It all started twenty-one years ago, on occasion of my parents 10-year wedding anniversary. Emulating renaissance designers who explored multiple mediums, my father conceptualized a bracelet that, as designed [see #1 in above image], commemorated the initial years of the couple. In the piece, both my father and mother are recognized as the important elements who bring the family together (the two big bands), while the offspring are three tiny specs who are begin to grow.

Ten years later, his original gesture was by then a precedent. A conceptual look at twenty years of marriage [see #2 in above image] now recognized the offspring as the primary actors in the family history. The parents were now second staged, helping as guides and unifying elements.

Alberto Rigau and Jorge Rigau, FAIA.

On the 25th celebration my father felt the urge to mark the important moment, but he found himself in a conceptual dilemma. He had established himself a tradition of designing a piece for the 10 year markers, so how to achieve his goal without breaking the rules he had established for himself? I was brought into the tradition and was asked to design the special quarter century landmark piece. Graphically, the silver bracelet tells the story of the years it commemorates through a weaved pattern of 25 positives and negatives [see #3 in above image]. These can also read typographically as a 2 or a 5. The two parents now grant continuity to the union while the offspring are embedded into the history that can now be told.

This past year, the couple reached 30 years of marriage. The now solid relationship inspired a solid creation[see #4 in above image], a 1 piece cast bracelet where all of the components and personalities, still evident, are fused into one piece.

As the family history moves on, we need to wait 9 years for the next instance in which our family’s story will be told through a piece of design…

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These bracelets were done in collaboration with jeweler Antonio Colón, who through the years has guided us in the manipulation of gold, silver, and other materials that are not present in the tool box of an architect or a graphic designer.