Electric motorcycles, exoskeletons, defibrillators, tools of all kinds, spoke-less bicycles, an electric violin, and even an incubator for extreme premature babies. These are products from very different brands, fields, and functions, but they have a common origin: Anima Design. The Barcelona-based industrial design studio is responsible for sketching the product, both from an engineering and aesthetic point of view. Its projects find their way into the catalogs of large multinationals such as Bosch, Tefal, Jata, Siemens, Teka, and Motorola, among a long list of leading firms.
The studio was founded by Diego Quiroga in 2002. "We started working with several clients, especially with a Catalan company that manufactured tools. We did the industrial design, aesthetics, and manufacturing," explains Quiroga more than 20 years later. In these two decades, Anima Design has evolved to place its revenues at around 2.5 million euros, with an EBITDA of 33%: "We have a lot of profit because, ultimately, we don't sell products, we sell ideas."
The company's trajectory has been marked by taking advantage of opportunities it has detected along the way. "Two years after starting to work with this client, one of their manufacturers became interested in one of our designs." The company was not operating precisely close by, nor was it just any company: "It's a Chinese manufacturer that is the world's number one, it manufactures for all the big players. Through them, we started working with the most well-known companies in the world."
Anima Design began to grow, and ended up designing between 50 and a hundred machines a year for this Chinese company. Here, however, a "paradox" began to emerge, which is that "large European companies hired this manufacturer in China, and they hired us. Instead of Europeans hiring Europeans, we went through China." And so it began to gain renown especially in Asia, although little known in Catalonia.
Aside from inconsistencies and cross-border relationships, the Barcelona studio expanded rapidly: "We grew so much that there came a point where we couldn't grow anymore. We worked for all the big players in the sector, and we decided to open up to other sectors." It then focused on mobility: bicycles, motorcycles, and other vehicles began to gain strength in Anima Design's portfolio.
Among them, they designed pioneering products with international resonance, and others that also had local resonance, such as the Volta BCN electric motorcycle, "one of the first Catalan electric motorcycles," which the Urban Guard still uses. "This led us to become better known here, because back then we were still very well known in Asia and parts of Europe, but not at home." Gaining visibility catapulted them to work on unique projects, such as OohBike's first spoke-less bicycle.
And suddenly, the pandemic arrived. And with it, unforeseen opportunities. "They came looking for us for the design of medical products, such as serum pumps, drug dispensers, and defibrillators, and we entered the sector." Anima Design thus discovered the sector that now represents 65% of its turnover, through large pharmaceutical companies such as Almirall, Grifols, and Roche.
"The incubator before the incubator"
The studio does not stop at the medical field here. Anima Design is a key part of the development of a liquid incubator for extremely premature babies. The project, hand in handof Dr. Eduard Gratacóswith the Clínic andSant Joan de Déu, replicates the conditions of the uterus, with a simulation of an umbilical cord attached to a life support system, for premature babies less than 28 weeks."It's the incubator before the incubator." For now, clinical trials have been conducted with animal fetuses. "The forecast is to start designing the model for humans this year, and to be able to do the first test in 2026," details Quiroga. Anima Design contributes to this project with its knowledge about materials, mechanics, and closing systems, "applied to a highly innovative product."
The company has opened a manufacturing and prototyping space for its own designs and for third-party productsAnima Design's foray into the medical world goes further, and now has a particular protagonist:the exoskeletons"In two years, we have made three types of exoskeletons", from those that allow children with motor problems to walk from Marsi Bionics to one designed for athletes that allows them to move faster and lighter, passing through one that allows people affected by a stroke to walk using an electrostimulator that mimics the movement of the healthy leg.
In addition, the company has transcended its usual activity to open a new division: a manufacturing and prototyping space. With an investment of half a million euros between equipment and software, Anima Design has opened a space in its Barcelona offices where they can manufacture prototypes for both the company and third parties. "This possibility greatly accelerates processes: we prototype a robotic arm in the morning, and in the afternoon we already have it, we see what needs to be improved and the next day we go for the second version. We can shorten the time as much as possible."
International expansion
Anima Design's growth has led it to open offices in China —where it also has a mechanized manufacturing laboratory— and, for two years, in Miami. With US tariffs, they are now refocusing the Miami office to boost their presence in Latin America and, in parallel, have recently opened an office in Madrid. Distributed across its various locations, the studio has a team of about 30 people, with more than twenty in Barcelona.Now, the company seeks to diversify into new sectors and strengthen its presence in other markets, especially in Central Europe, with its sights set on Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, "a very powerful production area". And the studio is clear: "Designers have to be where the industry is."