Here, we ask designers to take a selfie and give us an inside look at their life.
Age: 51
Occupation: Designer
Instagram: @rafaeldecardenas.ltd
Hometown: New York City
Studio Location: New York City and Paris
Describe what you make: I oversee my studio Rafael de Cárdenas, Ltd. where we work across residential and commercial interiors, architecture, furniture design, art advisory, and brand development.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: My amazing team, it blows my mind that all of these people have wanted to work with me these past 19 years.
Describe the problem your work solves: Interior design and architecture suggest how we might behave in different kinds of spaces—how we move, pause, connect, or retreat. They guide our gestures and shape our moods.
Share the project you are working on now: We completed the Skims NYC flagship on Fifth Avenue late last year and Skims L.A. on Sunset this past Spring. Skims Chicago is next! Recently we also completed a home in Long Island on the ocean just outside Montauk and HommeGirls’ new NYC store in Chinatown.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: We’re finishing install on The 74, a new high-rise on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. We designed the 41 residences and the amenity spaces in the building. We aimed to mirror the timelessness of the Upper East Side with the interior direction—designing the spaces to feel airy and light, with romantic lush touches, to create a sense of calm within the urban environment. I’m certain it will be the most stylish address in the neighborhood.
What you absolutely have to have in your studio: Music that regulates our nervous systems…typically soft and lyrical in the morning and a little dancier in the afternoon.
What you do when you’re not working: I try to spend as much time as possible outside in the countryside. And lately I’m on a new quest to make friends with my neighbors.
Sources of creative envy (dead or alive): Anouska Hempel, Peter Saville, John Baldessari, Madonna…My life-long friends still inspire me a great deal.
The distraction you want to eliminate: Social media has helped me speak some of my personal interests, but, in general, social media as currently designed seems like a distraction. I limit my time on it to 10 minutes per day.
Concrete or marble? Both
High-Rise Or Townhouse? High-Rise
Remember Or Forget? Remember for the most part
Aliens Or Ghosts? Aliens, please come fix us
Dark Or Light? Both
