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José María Cruz Novillo

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José María Cruz Novillo
Born(1936-05-21)21 May 1936
Cuenca, Spain
Died2 May 2026(2026-05-02) (aged 89)
MonumentsEscuela de Arte Cruz Novillo
Other nameCruz Novillo
OccupationDesigner
Known forlogos
WebsiteOfficial website

José María Cruz Novillo (21 May 1936 – 2 May 2026) was a Spanish sculptor, engraver, painter, and designer.[1] He was tasked with the re-branding of many entities and companies in post-Francoist Spain.[2][3]

Sculpture for Plaza de Picasso, Madrid (1989).

Life and career

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Cruz Novillo began painting in his native town in 1950 and in 1958 moved to Madrid. In 1964, he was hired to work for the Spain Pavilion at the New York's World Fair.[3]

He designed many logos. Among them, that of the newspaper El Mundo, the version of the fist and rose used by the PSOE, radiochain COPE, the Spanish post service, Endesa, Banco Pastor, Repsol, Fundación ONCE, Diario 16, Antena 3 Radio, the first logo of Antena 3 TV, El Economista, Renfe railways, Spanish police Cuerpo Nacional de Policía, and Tesoro Público. He designed a series of peseta bills. He also co-authored the coat of arms and the flag of the Comunidad de Madrid, with Santiago Amón Hortelano. His studio won the contest for the new institutional identity of the Government of Spain.[4]

Cruz Novillo also designed film posters for The Spirit of the Beehive, El Sur, Ana and the Wolves, La prima Angélica, Deprisa, deprisa, Pascual Duarte, Year of Enlightment, Mama Turns 100, Hay que matar a B., La escopeta nacional, Familia, Barrio, Mondays in the Sun, and others, mostly those produced by Elías Querejeta.[5][4]

He chaired[when?] the Spanish Association of Design Professionals (Asociación Española de Profesionales del Diseño, AEPD).[6] He was also an honorary fellow of the Madrid association di_mad.[7]

Façade of the main building of the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Madrid, 2008)

As a sculptor, he participated in the São Paulo Art Biennial, the 1964 World's Fair in New York City, and art fairs such as FIAC, Art Basel, Art Cologne, and from 1985 on in most editions of ARCO.[citation needed]

From the early 1990s, Cruz Novillo focused on the development of the "Diafragma" concept. Under this concept many of his works combine a variable number of monochrome, sound, photographic or tri-dimensional elements. In 2008 he finished the "Diafragma Decafónico de Dígitos" ("Decaphonic Diaphragm of Digits") for the façade of the main building of the National Institute of Statistics of Spain, in Madrid, after its redesign by Ruiz-Larrea y Asociados. This work adds sound to produce synesthesia.[8] In ARCO'10 he presented "Diafragma dodecafónico 8.916.100.448.256, opus 14", a "chronochromophonic" work that can be played for 3,392,732 years.

In 2007, Cruz Novillo founded the studio Cruz más Cruz with his son Pepe, a designer and architect.[9][10][11]

In November 2006 he joined the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.[8]

Cruz Novillo died on 2 May 2026, at the age of 89.[12]

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In 1977, Cruz Novillo designed the new logo of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), a redesign of the emblem created by Marc Bonnet for the French Socialist Party in 1969, and shared by a number of parties around the world as well as by the Socialist International. His work was inspired by an earlier redesign by the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA). Cruz Novillo's version was later picked up, without PSOE authorization, by the Socialist Party of Albania. The PSOE stated that it owned a copyright on the Spanish version, although it was not clear if its designer Cruz Novillo also maintained rights over it.[13][14][15]

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Logos

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Bank notes

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Prizes

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  • Premio Nacional de Diseño (1997)
  • LAUS Prize (1978)
  • AEPD Prize (1993, 1995, 1996 y 2001)
  • Premio Nacional de Pintura CCM (2002)
  • FAD Medal (2006)
  • Prize of the Society of News Design to the best designed masthead for his work for the newspaper El Economista (2006)
  • Premio Castilla-La Mancha de Diseño (2008)
  • Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes (2012)
  • Premio Gráffica (2017)

References

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  1. ↑ "Hay que ser especialistas en que las cosas sean lo menos feas posibles" (in Spanish). lavozdelsur.es. 12 March 2016. Archived from the original on 13 October 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  2. ↑ Sánchez, Inés (2 May 2026). "Muere a los 89 años José María Cruz Novillo, el diseñador de los logos más emblemáticos de España". El Periódico de Catalunya. Prensa Ibérica.
  3. 1 2 Marimon Molas, Sílvia (2 May 2026). "Mor José María Cruz Novillo, l'artista que va dissenyar l'Espanya postfranquista". Ara.
  4. 1 2 "J.Mª Cruz Novillo — eldiadigital.es". eldiadigital.es (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 22 March 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  5. ↑ "Muere Pepe Cruz Novillo, mítico diseñador de los grandes pósters del cine español". Cinemanía. 2 May 2026 – via 20minutos.es.
  6. ↑ "La Asociación Española de Profesionales del Diseño cesa su actividad". Gràffica.info (in Spanish). 19 November 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  7. ↑ "Homenaje Cruz Novillo". di_mad. 19 May 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  8. 1 2 Cruz Más Cruz. "Diafragma Tres". Domestika. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  9. ↑ "CRUZ MAS CRUZ SL". Infocif. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  10. ↑ Gràffica (14 June 2014). "Cruz más Cruz: "La sustancia básica que manejamos es siempre la misma"" (in European Spanish). Gràffica.info, cultura visual. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  11. ↑ Manuel Alvarez Junco. "El diseño institucional de José María Cruz Novillo" (PDF) (in Spanish). PhD thesis Universidad Complutense. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  12. ↑ "Muere José María Cruz Novillo, el hombre que diseñó la España democrática y la bola de EL MUNDO". El Mundo.
  13. ↑ "Cruz Novillo JR: «Sería bueno que el PSOE entendiera el valor de preservar el patrimonio de su logo»". Gràffica (in Spanish). 7 September 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  14. ↑ LLorente, Silvia (22 March 2017). "«Ojalá no vuelva a pasar, pero lo último es demandar a nadie», Pepe Cruz". Gràffica (in Spanish). Valencia. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  15. ↑ "El Partido Socialista de Albania plagia el logo del PSOE de Cruz Novillo". Gràffica (in Spanish). Valencia. 30 August 2022. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
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