Born in London to a Catalan father and an English mother, Gabriel Ordeig Cole moved to Barcelona with his family in 1960. He began studying Philosophy at university, but soon changed tack to pursue a BA at East Ham College (1974) and Cardiff Arts School (1975-1978), in the UK. A regular writer on design issues, his passion is clearly evidenced by the following quote: "What remains impalpable, mysterious and intangible is not the electricity, but the light." In February 2005, to mark Santa & Cole's 20th anniversary, the monograph Gabriel Ordeig Cole was published as part of the Contemporary Design Collection by Santa & Cole and the ETSAB (Barcelona School of Architecture), as a tribute to Ordeig.