Founded in 2002 by Diego Quiroga, the Catalan company – with offices in the USA and China, and recently expanded to Madrid – is responsible for some of the most awarded industrial designs nationally and internationally.
Pablo Picasso and Steve Jobs were two geniuses who saw things others did not. While for the former “design is intelligence having fun,” for the latter it “is the way something works”… two complementary visions that together seem to form the mantra of Ánima Design, the Barcelona-based company behind some of the most cutting-edge yet functional designs of recent years (100 national and international awards, including 11 at the European Design Awards 2025, confirm this) in fields as diverse as mobility, energy sustainability, healthcare, or everyday objects like a pen, a vacuum, and motorcycles.
Founded in 2002 by Diego Quiroga with headquarters in Barcelona (and branches in the USA and China), the industrial design agency expanded to Madrid in May, opening an office in the capital under Julio Castrillo, their ‘Business Strategy Developer’, with the goal of “identifying new business opportunities” as well as consolidating its position “as a benchmark in creativity and cutting-edge industrial design,” according to their own words.
Last year, Ánima Design, which has a team of 31 professionals, achieved a turnover of 2.2 million euros (100,000 euros more than in 2023) and received 300,000 euros in grants from the European Union. The bulk of its revenue, 70%, comes from the medical, pharmaceutical, and aesthetic sectors, through its Ánima Medical division and clients such as Almirall, Roche, Grifols, and Indiba, collaborating with leading hospitals like Sant Joan de Déu and the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona on innovative projects in obstetrics and pediatrics.
In fact, among its recent developments is a liquid incubator or artificial placenta for extremely premature babies, a world first designed to improve survival and well-being and reduce possible complications. A “risky, disruptive, and multi-award-winning” product still in its early stages and pending hospital approval, “is a major advance in pediatric medicine and design,” according to Diego Quiroga, founder and CEO of Ánima, adding that the Madrid office is already “working to establish partnerships with hospitals and medical sector companies.” For Diego Quiroga, the move to Madrid “is a natural step” in Ánima Design’s growth strategy.
The Madrid opening is already bearing fruit
Although active for only a few weeks, the Madrid office has already closed new agreements with Ibex companies, worth nearly a quarter of a million euros, and is actively participating in industry ecosystem events (Ánima holds ISO 14006 certification in eco-design), such as the Madrid Design Festival 2025, which rewards projects with positive urban impact, where its OSSBY Geo electric bike won the V Edition of the MINI Design Award.
The OSSBY Geo was designed by Ánima for OSSBY BIKES and is fully manufactured in Spain with maximum sustainability standards: it is the first foldable electric bike made with a biocomposite from vegetable oil and recycled fibers, in this case from Spanish wind turbine blades. “From one turbine blade, 100 bicycles can be made,” says Diego Quiroga. The Ossby Geo also won the Good Design Green Award 2025, recognizing sustainable design initiatives that improve people’s lives and the environment.
Other major designs, starting with Rieju’s eTango
Ánima Design can boast designs across almost all industrial sectors, and also has a subsidiary company, Protobox, a prototype, mold, tooling, and industrial engineering firm that goes beyond product prototyping, providing full consultancy to clients to improve designs and reduce costs.
Among Ánima Design’s most notable projects is the eTango (€4,186.60) by Rieju (they have also collaborated with Barcelona-based Volta, the French brand Peugeot Motocycles on their e-Metropolis, and even with the Bottpower racing team to design the bodywork and aerodynamic elements of their M210 competing in the Spanish Moto2 championship), a 100% electric motorcycle representing a milestone in the Spanish brand’s diversification strategy, in which they invested over 1 million euros.
Another of the Barcelona company’s latest major designs is the OnFlowUs exoskeleton aimed at recovery and injury prevention in elite athletes. This project, which in its initial phase was developed in collaboration with the Valencia Institute of Biomechanics (IBV) and its team of health, rehabilitation, and biomechanics experts, was created for Onerzia, a company specialized in exoskeletons for professional sports using aerospace-grade aluminum and carbon fiber. It is the first passive exoskeleton (requiring no batteries or external power) in Europe designed for athletes performing hip-flexion-intensive sports like soccer, cycling, running, mountaineering, and more. Developed over a year and a half in Barcelona, it has won three major design awards: Red Dot Design Award, IF Design Award, and European Awards.
Beyond cutting-edge sectors, Ánima Design has designed a connected V16 beacon, the FlashLED SOS, to replace road emergency triangles for the Catalan company FlashLED in collaboration with Telefónica Tech, earning so far three prestigious international design awards: IF Design Award, Good Design, and European Product Design Award; as well as one national award, the Delta ADI Awards.
