StudioPepe’s Bright Future

Arianna Lelli Mami and Chiara Di Pinto approach design as if it were a blank canvas: All of the objects, interiors, and sets they create under the umbrella of Studiopepe, their Milan firm, are influenced by the art world. “We’re inspired by the study of shapes and colors, and how details of certain paintings can become a starting point for a collection or interior,” says Lelli Mami. A recent window they designed for the Milanese furniture store Spotti, for example, took its cues from the artists Dan Flavin and John McCracken; some of their editorial shoots have borrowed from the geometries of Sol LeWitt and the surrealist tropes of Giorgio de Chirico. Yet ultimately those references are just a way of feeding their appetite for visual storytelling—good design, Lelli Mami says, is “having a strong idea behind your work. When you have that, you have everything.”