We’re united by a love for books. Discover how literature nurtures technology and the other way around, as well as some of the books our team chose for this year ahead.
At Z1, we master the cleanest code and ride at the forefront of design. We craft our content with a writer’s lens and get excited about coming up with the freshest marketing campaigns. We know the best technologies for developing each of our products, we take pride in building strong teams with our clients… and we know a whole lot about deadlines.
We understand our market inside and out, and we love staying up to date with its latest trends. With equal enthusiasm, we keep an eye on our competitors and draw inspiration from apps we didn’t design ourselves. As a team, we share a deep curiosity and remain unwavering when it comes to upholding ethics as the cornerstone of our app development.
These are qualities and tools that are expected in a top-tier studio, right? Of course. But beyond our work, we’ve noticed that, at Z1, we’re also united by a love for books. And that might not be so common nowadays—not in a design studio, nor, unfortunately, in the world at large.
“Technology should not just to coexist with culture but to enhance it. At Z1, we’re proof of that”
In his famous Harper’s article, Perchance to Dream: In an Age of Images, a Reason to Write Novels, the visionary and masterful writer novelist Jonathan Franzen spoke with dread about the rise of technology and its impact on the waning relevance of the novel.
Good old Franzen couldn’t possibly have imagined, in the heyday of television, what was yet to come with the internet. While his essay became a seminal text in pointing out how new media was changing cultural consumption, today we believe he overlooked a crucial point: the power of technology not just to coexist with culture but to enhance it. At Z1, we’re proof of that.
Our passion for books doesn’t clash with our love for code and design; on the contrary, we firmly believe that both fields feed into each other. We understand that narrative isn’t confined to novels. Stories—that magical connection that has united humanity since time immemorial, because really, aren’t we all here just to share them?—now have new formats and possibilities. From a flawless interface to a user experience designed to evoke emotion, we’re convinced that culture and technology must go hand in hand.
“From a flawless interface to a user experience designed to evoke emotion, we’re convinced that culture and technology must go hand in hand.”
At our studio, culture plays a key role in attracting talent, and it shows. On Slack, the platform we use to communicate, we have a channel for sharing books and another focused on comics. We take pride in having a small but well-curated library at our headquarters in Seville, and our newsletter always includes a feminist reading recommendation chosen by one of our team members.
Indeed, as Bea Guitiérrez, our Head of People says: "Culture, along with the curiosity to enrich it, are highly valuable skills among the profiles we seek at Z1. Working with well-read individuals not only makes the work environment more engaging but also drives creativity, fosters empathy, and helps us adapt better to change and embrace other perspectives."
According to Fran Naranjo, Frontend Lead, reading allows us to achieve a level of depth that other media can’t match. “Books are essential for improving the areas we work on every day. And I’m not just talking about coding books, but others that take us out of the project and refresh our ideas. I’ll go even further—sometimes, they’re a direct inspiration for the work itself. A book can help you get out of a jam, open your mind to solve a technical challenge, or offer a fresh perspective on the project you’re working on.”
Our top 10 books for 2025: An insightful reading list
In a world where soft skills are increasingly crucial for professional success and artificial intelligence is advancing by leaps and bounds, our emotional intelligence and our ability to understand people will be more critical than ever. That's why Bea Gutiérrez has chosen The Art of People (Penguin, 2017), by Dave Kerpen. "I'm looking forward to reading this book because I want to continue developing my interpersonal skills and apply them to people management," she argues. She is clearly excited to continue learning about the complexity of people and thinks that this book will help her "to achieve more profound and more effective connections in the development of my professional and personal life".
Our Head of Marketing, Clarisa Guerra, pick is the marketing classic Building a Story Brand (Harper Collins Leadership, 2017), a practical guide in which Donald Miller helps entrepreneurs and marketing professionals clarify their messages and create engaging stories that captivate customers and help businesses thrive. After all, what’s the point of a fancy website if we haven’t used language effectively?
Switching gears entirely and turning to a classic of 20th-century Latin American literature, our dev Jesús Chacón will dive into the family saga of The House of the Spirits (Atria Books, 2015), the debut novel by Chilean author Isabel Allende, published in 1982. Framed in magical realism, the best-seller traces the history of the Trueba family across four generations, addressing themes like love, death, social struggles, and the supernatural. For Jesús, the book “weaves complex narratives, highlighting resilience, legacy, and learning from the past to shape a better future.”
Anais Díaz plans to dedicate part of her time to continuing her education as a marketing specialist, which is why she’ll be reading Creativity, Inc. (Penguin, 2023) by Ed Catmull, none other than the president of Pixar. "It offers an inside perspective on fostering and managing creativity in high-pressure environments," she says. Long before he held that title, Catmull was a young man who dreamed of creating the first computer-animated film. If anyone knows how to build and nurture creative culture, it’s him. In his own words, this book represents “the ideas that make the best in us possible.”
Our well-read Frontend developer, María Simó, who also takes pride in being a great content creator and designer, will return to a classic of critical North American intellectualism, Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger (Penguin, 2024). María explains that the book is “a reflection on how narratives are distorted and twisted in the age of social media and post-truth, losing their original meaning.” When Naomi Klein discovered a woman on social media who shared her first name but held radically different, harmful opinions and who was constantly mistaken for her, it seemed too absurd to be taken seriously—until it wasn’t. This book works as a dark comedy, a mirror of contemporary politics, and a sobering look at the uncertain realities of the digital universe.
When we asked Lucía Guillén, Lead Product Designer, about her reading plans for 2025, she sent us a list of over 20 titles, including essays on topics such as gentrification, tourism, politics, and music, as well as novels spanning all kinds of genres and authors—from classics like Dostoevsky to masters of contemporary literary humor in Spain, such as Santiago Lorenzo. With her permission, we selected one of her recommendations: the stunning Gratitude (Bloomsbury, 2021) by Delphine de Vigan, a beautiful and moving portrait that dwells on the beauty of small things and the importance of saying “thank you” to those who share the essential moments of life with us.
In these times of relentless AI advancement and paranoia, Jonathan Borg, Invoicing Manager at Z1, turns to dystopia with Code Beast (Wantom Sun, 2024), by Australian author Simon Sellars, who, with just two titles, has established himself as one of the most intriguing voices in this kind of fiction. “Code Beast is a near-future novel that explores fascinating themes like AI and its impact on individuals and society.”
Product Designer at Z1 but a musician and dancer in his free time—and a fantastic human being overall—Pablo Funcia may laugh at being described this way, but he’s a true humanist. His 2025 reading will kick off with an optimistic title by Dutch historian Rutger Bregman. In Humankind (Bloomsbury, 2021), Bregman deliberately chooses to trust in humanity—or at least argues that our good side outweighs the bad. According to Pablo, it’s “a refreshing take on history, arguing that altruism, rather than selfishness, has been our evolutionary driving force.”
And speaking of bookish colleagues, we can’t forget our CEO, Héctor Giner, who, as a true digital product guru, spends much of his time reading all kinds of essays. He already has another Bregman title in hand: Moral Ambition (Bloomsbury, 2025), which Héctor describes as “a guidebook to finding that path for ourselves, reminding us that the real measure of success lies not in what we accumulate.”
Héctor also plans to tackle another good handful of titles in 2025. For instance, the poignant classic The World of Yesterday (Pushkin Press, 2024), a seminal work written by Stefan Zweig shortly before his suicide, steeped in the harrowing nostalgia of a vanishing world. A fundamental reading for understanding the follies of the past century and the world we live in today.
Our CEO will likewise indulge in the pleasure of Benjamin Labatut’s literature. Following his brilliant When We Cease to Understand the World, Labatut returns to the realm of science with The Maniac (Pushkin Press, 2023). This Chilean author, one of the most acclaimed voices in Latin America, is truly a master at approaching science from a humanistic perspective, and this time he weaves a kaleidoscopic narrative about the destructive chaos lurking in the history of computing and AI.
Finally, Marta Caballero, who has been writing content at Z1 for some time now, will reconnect with her journalistic background with The Paris Review Interviews (1953-2012). This titanic anthology is something of a Bible “for anyone interested in the art of asking insightful and meaningful questions.”, Marta says it gathers a hundred literary interviews from the golden age of 20th-century world literature, featuring names like Hemingway, Faulkner, Eliot, Pound, Dinesen, Pasternak, Céline, Borges, Kerouac, Yourcenar, Márquez, Atwood, Gordimer, Sontag, and many more. Beyond offering unparalleled masterclasses in literature, it provides life lessons from the greatest minds of our time.
