When you think of Scandinavian design the look of a colorless winter day comes to mind - think pale grey, white and perhaps washed out blue. But this is a modern-day invention. Dagny Thurmann-Moe, the founder of Koi Colour & Design Studio designs exteriors, interiors, products, and CMF strategies for brands seeking a stronger identity through color, materials, and finishes. Dagny is known for challenging the idea of “timeless” design — instead creating time-bound and aesthetically sustainable environments that reflect culture, history, and human needs. She is the fearless proponent of bringing color back into Norwegian interiors and exteriors and is leading the campaign to add pinks, terracottas, greens and yellows back onto the urban cityscape like it was 400 years ago. Check out her TedX talk on the topic and tune in to hear a true polymath talk about using color.

"Mexico is not beige!" is a defining quote from one of Mexico's hottest new designers. Maye Ruiz is an interior designer, creative director of Maye Estudio, and one of the designers selected for the AD100 México & Latin America list, which recognizes the most influential designers and architects in the region. Her work stands out for its bold exploration of color, materiality, and visual storytelling, creating spaces that blend tradition, modernity, and a unique chromatic palette.
Maye has built a career spanning residential, commercial, and hospitality design, always embracing color as a powerful tool for spatial transformation. Her design process is deeply influenced by color psychology, craftsmanship, and cultural context, resulting in interiors that tell stories and evoke identity. Based in San Miguel de Allende, that colorful and unique city, Maye's home, a Unesco Historic site, is the perfect backdrop for the ground breaking work she is doing. Check out her work on https://www.letstalkpaintcolor.com

If you've never walked into an interior which caused your jaw to drop then you haven't witnessed the overwhelming effect a built environment can have. There are few of these places extant and even fewer here in the United States. I'm lucky to live just a few miles from one - the hilltop home of the Hudson River School painter Frederic Church, Olana. Perched on a mountaintop overlooking the Hudson River, it's sited facing southwest to take in the views of the Catskill Mountains to the west and the winding path of the river down towards NYC. Olana is a sight to behold. Church was the most famous painter in America in the late 19th century. His massive paintings of the natural world wooed critics and the masses alike. Olana was his masterpiece. 250 acres of woodlands, lakes and carriage roads with a house unlike any built before. Its design was wrested from his imagination after trips to the Middle East. Exotic doesn't even begin to describe it. Its architecture and interior colors are unique. You've never seen a home as colorful as this. It shouldn't work, yet it does. Until you get the opportunity to visit Olana listen in. It's the next best thing.