80 I.D. May 2009 www.id-mag.com 81Surtido Invitational

Furniture and graphic designer Jose Alberto González Ruiz updated Spanish playing cards to reflect the country’s contemporary social heirarchies: Banks and shareholders supplant emperors and kings as symbols of power, while swords and other military references are replaced with hammers and workers. The cards are the perfect catalyst for after-dinner political discussions. www.joseacreative.es

Jose Alberto Gonzàlez Ruiz

Spanish Cards Now!

Tea tree’s fine for health nuts, but hard-living types will prefer Sol y Sombra (“Sun and Shadow”), a toothpick flavored like its namesake: the classic anise and brandy drink served in nearly every Spanish watering hole. “The Spanish habit of chewing a toothpick has never been so pleasant,” write Obj.’s Javier Taberner Gómez-Ferrer and Nacho Poveda Lorenzo.www.obj.es

Obj. Studio

Sol y Sombra

Though “it can still be found in small towns and the occasional beach bar,” says Xavier Mañosa, the traditional Spanish botijo jug—a once-ubiquitous water chiller and purifier made from fired, untreated clay—has been rendered mostly obsolete by modern appliances. Mañosa found a new use for the vessel by coating it in enamel and transforming it into a table lamp. www.apparatu.com

Dominguera