The Yarza Twins share a vision of Spain in its identity for the village of Oia

Twin sisters Marta and Eva Yarza have gained quite the following for their graphic design capabilities and vision. Known as The Yarza Twins, with a studio of the same name based in London, the pair took to the Nicer Tuesdays stage to tell us about their identity for Oia Council, a Spanish municipality in Galicia.

Beginning by taking the audience through the misconceptions around Spain from flamenco dancing to paella, and how British people tend to think of Malaguf as a Spanish holiday, The Yarza Twins’ identity for the village of Oia uses a very different design language to other tourist boards in the country. The identity does this primarily through typography, using a bold sans serif, the opposite of a curling serif that is “super popular in Galicia so much that nearly all the businesses use it nowadays,” they explain.

Parting from the old school identity to a modern one, the campaign reflects Oia’s personality in a unique way. For instance it uses green to reflect the natural beauty of the village, particularly as there was no budget to commission photography and so “we thought we should make a graphic system that is really, really in brand,” using a typeface by Elias Hanzer. The result is an identity that embodies the place, through a customisable logo and their contemporary outlook was surprisingly “very well received by the village, on the first week they made some t-shirts and they sold out, and now the village has an identity it didn’t have before”.