HOMO FABER FELLOWSHIP
Daniel Santamaria
©Marcin Chrusciel
Daniel Santamaria
©Mika Lin
Daniel Santamaria
©Mika Lin
Daniel Santamaria
©Marcin Chrusciel
Daniel Santamaria
©All rights reserved

Daniel Santamaria

Flower designing

Barcelona, Spain

Creating contrasts

  • Daniel has been working with flowers for over 32 years
  • He draws inspiration from architecture and nature
  • He’s the creative director of the prestigious Barcelona floral art school

They say you never forget your first: that’s certainly true for Daniel Santamaría, well-known floral artisan from Spain and creative director at the Escola Disseny Floral I Paisatgisme de Barcelona, the floral art and landscaping school of the city. He started working with flowers aged 14 as an errand boy in a florist’s shop where he helped selling Christmas trees. But he still remembers the turning points of his career: "My first course as a teacher, my first competition, my first demonstration, my first international trip, my first book, my first shop, especially my silver medal in the 2003 European Cup. And of course my first arrangement: it was a bouquet of 35 red tulips and it looked really... bad!"

Daniel Santamaria is a master artisan: he began his career in 1992 and he started teaching in 1997.

Discover his work

INTERVIEW

My vocation for floristry dates back to my childhood, when I used to help my grandmother to tend her garden. At 16, I entered the Escuela de Diseño Floral for three years, then I attended several courses with Spanish and international teachers – which I still do nowadays, from time to time.

It’s my passion. I love transmitting my knowledge, explaining about my creative process and giving the students the necessary tools to solve the problems they may encounter when creating a piece. Teaching also gives me motivation to develop my floral design.

I have many, the most important is architecture, followed by nature, art history, interior design, cinema and fashion. Knowledge across different fields is crucial. On the other hand, floristry is also emotional. That’s why, even if I have favourite flowers and materials, I choose them day by day.

Being influenced by all the cultures I’ve been fortunate enough to know, I work with contrasts: I bring together architectural forms with a lot of visual strength and very elegant, light, romantic and ethereal elements. The fusion of these worlds results in unique floral pieces.