Essential: A Design Guide for Life by acclaimed Spanish designer Miguel Milá (1931–2024) is a braided narrative weaving artist manifesto with family history with notes on living and living well. Originally published in Spanish as Lo esencial to much success in 2019 and translated into English by the award-winning Valerie Miles, Essential is the very first volume in our new series of reading books, focusing on the ideas and reflections of renowned creatives. While books in praise of his work abound, including Apartamento’s own Miguel Milá: A Life in Design, this unique volume is the first devoted to his design philosophy in his own words.

About Miguel Milá
Miguel Milá (1931–2024) first began designing his own furniture and lamps out of an organic necessity to create what he could not find at a time before ‘industrial design’ as we know it today even existed. Among his many honours, Milá was awarded the National Design Award (in its first edition, jointly with André Ricard), and the Compasso d’Oro International Award from the Italian Industrial Design Association. He was a six-time winner of Barcelona’s Association of Industrial Design ADI-FAD award and was bestowed the Gold Medal of the City of Barcelona posthumously in recognition of his unparalleled contributions to the world of design.