José María Cruz Novillo facts for kids

José María Cruz Novillo was born in Cuenca in 1936. He is a very important Spanish artist. He is known for being a sculptor, engraver, painter, and especially a designer. He has created many famous logos and art pieces during his long career.

Cruz Novillo started painting in his hometown in 1950. In 1958, he moved to Madrid to continue his artistic journey.

A Master of Design

Sculpture for Plaza de Picasso, Madrid (1989).

José María Cruz Novillo is famous for designing many well-known logos. You might have seen some of them without even knowing he created them!

Famous Logos He Designed

He designed logos for many big companies and organizations in Spain. Some of his most famous designs include:

• The logo for the newspaper El Mundo.
• A special version of the fist and rose symbol for the PSOE.
• Logos for radio stations like COPE and Antena 3 Radio.
• The logo for the Spanish post service, Correos.
• Logos for energy companies like Endesa and Repsol.
• Designs for banks like Banco Pastor.
• The logo for Fundación ONCE, which helps blind people.
• Logos for newspapers like Diario 16 and El Economista.
• The logo for Renfe railways.
• The symbol for the Spanish police, Cuerpo Nacional de Policía.

He also designed some peseta banknotes. The peseta was the currency of Spain before the Euro.

Symbols for Madrid

Cruz Novillo also helped create important symbols for the Community of Madrid. He co-designed the coat of arms and the flag of the Community of Madrid. He worked with Santiago Amón Hortelano on these designs. His studio even won a competition to design the new look for the Government of Spain.

Film Posters

Besides logos, Cruz Novillo designed many movie posters. He created posters for films like Barrio, Los lunes al Sol, El Sur, and El Espíritu de la Colmena. Many of these were for films produced by Elías Querejeta.

Art and Sculpture

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

Cruz Novillo is also a talented sculptor. His sculptures have been shown in big art events around the world. These include the São Paulo Art Biennial and the World Fair of New York. He has also shown his work at famous art fairs like FIAC (art), Basel Art, Art Cologne, and ARCO.

Since the early 1990s, Cruz Novillo has worked on something he calls the "Diafragma" concept. In these artworks, he combines different elements like colors, sounds, or photos.

In 2008, he finished a huge work called "Diafragma Decafónico de Dígitos" (which means "Decaphonic Diaphragm of Digits"). This artwork is on the outside of the main building of the National Institute of Statistics in Madrid. It even adds sound to create a special experience called synesthesia, where you might "see" sounds or "hear" colors.

In 2010, he presented another "Diafragma" work at ARCO. It was so complex that it could play for over 3 million years!

In 2007, Cruz Novillo started a design studio called Cruz más Cruz with his son, Pepe, who is also a designer and architect. In 2006, he became a member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, which is a very important art academy in Spain.

PSOE Fist and Rose Logo

In 1977, Cruz Novillo designed a new logo for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). This was a new version of an emblem that had been used by other socialist parties around the world. His design was inspired by a similar logo used by the Dutch Labour Party.

Cruz Novillo's version of the PSOE logo was later used by the Socialist Party of Albania without permission. The PSOE stated that they owned the copyright to this Spanish version of the logo.

Gallery

Logos

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  COPE

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  The Renfe trains displayed this logo from 1972 until 1989.

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  The fist and rose logo of the PSOE, in the version used between 1977 and 1998.

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  This logo for the Banco Popular is no longer in use.

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  A Repsol logo like in this gas station could be found along the Spanish roads.

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  Diario 16 used this masthead from 1976 to 1984.

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  A letterbox in 2018 with the 1977 Correos logo.

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  Antena 3 used this logo starting from 1982.

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  Red Eléctrica de España, 1987.

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  TVE used this logo from 1982 until 1990.

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  Coat of arms of the Community of Madrid, 1984.

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  Flag of the Community of Madrid, 1984.

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  Cuerpo Nacional de Policía, 1986.

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  Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, 2012.

Prizes and Awards

José María Cruz Novillo has received many important awards for his work. Some of them include:

• Premio Nacional de Diseño (National Design Prize) in 1997.
• LAUS Prize in 1978.
• AEPD Prize multiple times (1993, 1995, 1996, 2001).
• Premio Nacional de Pintura CCM (National Painting Prize) in 2002.
• FAD Medal in 2006.
• Prize of the Society of News Design for his work on the newspaper El Economista (2006).
• Premio Castilla-La Mancha de Diseño (Castilla-La Mancha Design Prize) in 2008.
• Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes (Gold Medal of Merit in Fine Arts) in 2012.
• Premio Gráffica in 2017.

See also

In Spanish: José María Cruz Novillo para niños