Before he opened his New York office in 1972, John Saladino spent a year in Rome, but his approach to architecture and design owes as much to his abiding respect for Mies van der Rohe. Not surprisingly then, while his classical references might range from Pompeian antiquities to Palladian villas, his sensibility has broad applications. As he states: "I see furnishings firstly as geometry-as squares, cubes, drums, triangles, and rectangles, which also happen to be sofas, chairs, tables, lamps, and paintings."

It's a view to shape and form that lends itself equally to classicism as modernism, to his design for interiors and textiles, and just as surely to his furniture collections. Beyond styles and historic periods, Saladino views architecture most of all as an emotional experience. His tools are perspective and scale, a dynamic play with lights and mirrors, the sense of theater that can bring a room to life. Add to that the application of saturated color and engagement with texture-aworn, antiqued surfaces might be contrasted with the sheen of lacquer-and his interiors often resonate with an innate sense of drama. All of which may explain he is so often referred to as "the designer's designer."-Akiko Busch

John Saladino's website:
www.saladinostyle.com