The Oaxaca Design Center (Centro de Diseño de Oaxaca) was the first public institution in Mexico to apply design in policy areas such as sustainable development, social innovation, civic infrastructure, and non-formal education. “Binomios” was a year-long project stemming from this effort. Its main objective consisted in fostering knowledge exchange and participatory learning through long-term collaborations between designers and local makers. Luis Vega teamed up with craftspeople from two indigenous villages, Santa Cecilia Jalieza and San Marcos Tlapazola, utilizing product design as a means to unearth social and technological issues faced by their communities.

Designing and fabricating new products allowed for the identification of critical problems related to illegal logging, irresponsible timber management practices, and structural bottlenecks threatening the sustainability of natural resources.

All products were exhibited internationally and sold as limited edition series under Fair Trade standards. The project benefited from the deliberate participation of the Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca and the Mexican Rainforest Alliance. Additional funding was granted by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).