Creative direction & spatial installation

Think Big

A Martēn Design showcase transforming a retail showroom into an immersive expression of the studio’s creative universe.

MasayaCo showroom, Escazú 2024

Think Big living installation layered with art, furniture and plants — 03
A showroom takeover exploring how furniture, art and honest materials can shape the way we live.

Boundless possibilities. Endless stories.

Think Big was a temporary Martēn Design exhibition, conceived, curated and produced by Majo Martén inside MasayaCo’s San José showroom. The studio transformed the borrowed retail floor to make its creative universe tangible—using the space to introduce its work, point of view and capabilities through an immersive installation. The takeover explored the versatility of furniture through material, texture and function, composing a sequence of urban residential settings rather than a conventional product display. Together, the rooms revealed the studio’s approach to interiors, styling, art direction and product development as one creative practice.

Inspired by 1960s New York—the rise of advertising’s creative culture, Pop Art and social movements that challenged inherited ways of seeing—the takeover treated the showroom as a testing ground. Honest materials, collectible furniture, lighting, art and everyday objects were pushed into unfamiliar relationships. The final bedroom introduced Travesía, Martēn Design’s first limited edition.

At its core, the exhibition asked how we propose, create and consume in a world where originality and authenticity are no longer optional. It was an invitation to choose materials and processes that endure, mature and take possession of a space over time—and a declaration of the studio’s commitment to making culture through the practice of design.

Soundtrack 01Listen to Think Big on Spotify

Photography — Roberto D’Ambrosio
Art direction and production — Martēn Design

Think Big dining installation and custom graphic rug

Dining table still life against the showroom garden

Custom black and white rug beneath the dining table

Dining chairs arranged over the custom graphic rug

Vintage bar staged against a reclaimed wood wall

Bar, art and botanical styling within Think Big

Blue and yellow sculptural artwork detail

Sculptural artwork and lounge chair composition

Lounge chair, sculptural art and bar composition

Plant-filled shelving used as a spatial divider

Layered plants, furniture and objects in the living installation

Listening corner with collected art and plants

Art and sound system composition within Think Big

Moody living vignette with art, lighting and textiles

Layered lounge seating and objects viewed from above

Living installation framed through a timber lounge chair

Wide view of the Think Big bedroom installation

Bedroom installation with Travesía and collected art

Bedroom revealed through layered textiles and timber furniture

Bedroom dressing table styled with art and lighting

Think Big bedroom with Travesía as a graphic headboard

Gold-leaf geometry and bedside objects beside the bed

Tea service and layered objects in the bedroom installation

The evolving showroom

Retail space, rewritten in chapters.

Following Think Big, MasayaCo invited Martēn Design into a year-long creative collaboration: an evolving showroom developed through three distinct stagings. Each chapter reimagined the retail floor as a complete spatial narrative, connecting interiors, styling, art direction and campaign content. The final two—At Home with MasayaCo and The Rituals of Gathering—are documented below.

Staging I · The private life

At Home with MasayaCo

Sorry, I’m staying in.

A staged refusal to go out. Inspired by the layered, deeply personal apartments of mid-century creatives, the showroom was recast as a home worth canceling plans for—part retreat, part studio and entirely lived in.

Iconic pieces were presented as companions rather than commodities: adaptable, collectible and made to move between work, rest and the table. The result positioned staying home not as withdrawal, but as a luxury measured in how a space makes everyday life feel.

Soundtrack 02Stay in with the playlist

Scroll through the staging

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At Home with MasayaCo living room framed by the garden

Layered seating and timber furniture open toward the garden

Collected seating, books and art in the living room

Sculptural lounge chair and side table by the window

A reader at rest in the layered living room

A reader held within a complete composition of furniture, textiles and art

A quiet reading moment within the staging

Home office composed with art, lighting and plants

Dressing table vignette in deep green and timber

Books, objects and sunlight on a living room table

Trailing plants and books layered on timber shelving

Patterned bedside lamp and timber headboard in the At Home staging

Dining room staged beneath the white stair

A table being set as the staging moves toward gathering

Staging II · The shared table

The Rituals of Gathering

Furniture frames the gathering. People give it meaning.

Hospitality was explored as a sequence of gestures rather than a perfectly set table. The concept drew from Japanese omotenashi, Mediterranean abundance, Scandinavian hygge and Costa Rican pura vida—distinct traditions connected by the instinct to make others feel held.

The showroom unfolded through four acts: welcoming, coming together, serving and lingering. Each setting placed “forever furniture” inside the small rituals that turn objects into witnesses of a life shared.

Soundtrack 03Listen to The Art of Hosting

Scroll through the staging

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