USEFUL ONLY

Design, like music, is something that does not need to be explained in words. Human beings are designed to appreciate it without any prior explanation. Of course, the form-function debate is arbitrary and cultural. Already the eight-month-old has decided that the blue sphere serves his purpose of testing his gums better than the yellow cube. Without explanation.

Utilitario Mexicano products confront us with another innate certainty: the things that serve us the most are the simple ones. The simplest things reveal their usefulness more clearly. A candid look at the UM catalog. It recreates a feeling of familiarity with shapes, colors and materials that we know very well even if we have not been very aware of it. These products together also suggest thoughts to us that the advertising noise does not allow us to see: there is no need to buy something we do not need. We can live with few things, as long as they are necessary. Things can fulfill several functions and that is their nobility. Buying intelligently is also an appreciation of beauty. Which is, in the end, the nature of design.

What is Mexican Utility Vehicle? It is an alphabet in construction of simple, useful and beautiful objects that have traditionally been part of Mexican life. It is an endless search for utensils in danger of extinction that make up a collection of mestizo artifacts somewhere between industrial and artisanal. It is a brand that portrays our country, its homes and its stories.

About objects. The Utilitarian has more than 1,500 objects, each with its uses and history, chosen for a particular reason, whose common characteristic is its usefulness. Products that were not made to be forgotten or replaced at a given moment, but made with the firm intention of lasting. Created in blacksmithing, carpentry, lathe and ceramic workshops, these objects survive with the imprint of uniqueness that makes each one different, and implicitly beautiful and valuable, due to their serial artisanal production. They are low-tech artifacts rescued from markets and peculiar places, which in some cases are reproduced exclusively for UM.

They are classified by material, by use, by color, by chronology or by subjective harmony. They are all simple and useful. The catalog includes: funnels, jugs and pewter earthenware, aluminum juicers, tortilla press, copper teapots, weights, metal fruit bowls, various light bulbs, desk bells, serving spoons, baskets, bottles, water dispenser, mortars, scratchers, stove sanders, bottle openers, mills, nutcrackers, extension cords and plug-in light bulbs, among many others. There is also a line of “mixed” objects that assembles in an apparently obvious way objects A and B not seen before as one in terms of their functionality.

About us? Utilitario Mexicano are a couple dedicated to searching, choosing and selecting Mexican objects: how many there are, who makes them, who are their intermediate and small merchants. A tireless work of street curation to dust off artifacts from yesteryear and always.

UM. Mexican utility vehicle. 3a Marseille Street. Colonia Juarez. CDMX +52 (55) 5035 8164 Map
Contact: info@utilitariomexicano.com Billing: invoices@utilitariomexicano.com
Wholesale Sales: wholesale@utilitariomexicano.com