Gifts from museums around the world are made in Barcelona

BarcelonaMNAC, Picasso, Thyssen, Reina Sofía, Guggenheim, Tate, MoMA, Van Gogh, Munch… All these museums have in common that the gifts they sell are designed in Barcelona. With a history spanning more than 30 years, Ming Productions is the company that designs many of the notebooks, magnets, stuffed animals, and mugs found in their stores. With factories in Badalona, ​​Montgat, and Dallas (United States), the company is the result of all the ideas that Benjamín Villa, its CEO and founder, could have.

It all started with a meeting in a bar with Joan Miró's grandson, David Fernández Miró. Over drinks, the idea of ​​making T-shirts to sell at the Fundació Miró came up. At that time, museums hadn't become as popular spaces as they are today, nor had issues like the sale of souvenirs been as institutionalized. And copyright wasn't yet heavily regulated. As Villa recalls, it was the janitors who could sell some souvenirs, which were nothing more than postcards and slides like the ones in the old days.

Thus was born Ming Productions, in the hands of a student who didn't take his business studies seriously—he still had some first-year subjects left—but who had no doubt he had an artistic streak. "The problem is that I'm too clumsy," he admits. After the Fundació Miró, came the Picasso Museum, the Dalí Museum, and the Prado Museum. Two years later, Spain had become too small for him, and he expanded into France and the United Kingdom, and made a name for himself at the Louvre, the Pompidou, and the Royal Academy of Arts. Currently, the company has a presence in a thousand museums throughout Europe, the United States, Mexico, Japan, China, and Australia. Without forgetting his origins, he has prepared some details for the 50th anniversary celebrated by the Fundació Miró and also for the exhibition it has taken to Tokyo.

But it wasn't all checkered T-shirts. The Catalan company accompanied them with pencils and erasers.The scream by Munch, a glass snow globe with The son of man Magritte's work or Frida Kahlo's sleep masks. "Let's make a tailor-made suit," emphasizes an entrepreneur who has adapted to the new demands of quality and sustainability. He has even worked with film director Pedro Almodóvar and handled the film's merchandising. Tie me up! If he had to choose the odd thing he'd never done, he wouldn't hesitate to pick the souvenirs he created for the Museum of Sex in New York.

For Villa, the souvenirs he designs and makes, or "the nonsense", as he says, are "luxury souvenirs." "Those who buy on the Rambla, you can find them in any city in the world. The difference is in the museum shops," he argues. Times have changed since he started selling them. Now, going to a museum is a must on any trip, whether someone loves art or not. "And the visitor can't take a painting home, but they can take a postcard," he points out. It doesn't matter that they don't visit any museums in the city. shop and don't visit the exhibitions

For someone who takes planes to see exhibitions wherever they are and for whom Black paintings Goya's works are his Sistine Chapel, the crowd of heads that can gather around a work these days—and the sea of cell phones fighting to get a blurry snapshot of the painting—is somewhat uncomfortable, but he recognizes that this is how things are now. Obviously, shops are no longer in the hands of caretakers and have become one of the most important parts of museums, also in terms of income, in addition to the various restaurants and cafes they usually have.

Finding out which works can be turned into merchandising is not easy, and the company's offices, next to the CaixaForum—where they also sell their products—are full of art books. The employees recognize that some artists are easier than others to capture on souvenirs, but they prefer not to mention them so as not to cause any conflict. Of course, it is clear that conceptual art is much more difficult to translate onto a T-shirt, and also that there are painters who may seem very accessible, but whose works are impossible to make commercially.

Expand factories in Barcelona and the US.

Once the souvenir is designed, it needs to be produced. "We take care of everything, from start to finish," says Villa. They have a factory in Montgat where the porcelain products are made, while notebooks, magnets, and pencils are created in Badalona. Further afield, there's the Dallas plant, dedicated to serving the 400 museums in the United States. They also manufacture through third parties in countries such as Germany, China, India, and South Korea. In a tariff war scenario, Ming Productions plans to expand its plants in Barcelona and Dallas to reduce its dependence on Asia, although they acknowledge that some products are only found there.

With a workforce of 80, the company had a turnover of seven million euros in 2024 and expects to grow this year. With the latest economic crisis, more competition began to emerge, and the global shutdown due to COVID was one of the toughest moments the company experienced. They were on the verge of closing.

The pandemic now seems far away, but the company is diversifying its portfolio just in case. With all the experience they've accumulated in artistic souvenirs, they've detected a new market niche with a lot of room to expand: corporate gifts. Everyone accumulates pens that don't work or memory sticks that get in the way. This is where the Barcelona-based company wants to introduce personalized products that leave a good taste in the mouth and, if possible, are beautiful.