Mints Design is a new interior Design studio in Ukraine, founded by two very young artists founders Volodymyr Mints and Anastasiia Shinkarenko. The studio is a team with its own design philosophy and brand awareness. They worked in the design field for a long time and decided to set up their own company in 2019.

Yinji：We admire your handling of materials. Can you tell us about your design concept?
Mints：For us, the main thing in design is the certain mood of the project, its original impression. That’ why, we try to create not the design, but the atmosphere.We adhere to the principle: work with clean forms and natural materials. Natural materials (such as: stone, metal, wood, clay, soil) are one of the main sources of our inspiration. These materials over time acquire a certain beauty and become only better. The design made of natural materials has its own original mood.

Yinji：What is your favorite material? why?
Mints：It is difficult to single out one material. We would point out two materials: soil and stone. Soil is a primitive material, real, eternal. It is very diverse in texture and shades. All possible shades of soil seem very harmonious and deep to us. In our work, we try to use just such color combinations.Stone is our other passion. The stone is a monumental and massive material which at the same time can be very elegant and sophisticated. The stone does not deteriorate and does not wear out over time, even if a fragment breaks away from it, it remains as beautiful as at the beginning.

Yinji：How long is your design cycle? What do you usually do?
Mints：Our work consists of the following stages:
a. Volumetric planning solution b. Development of visualizations of design or architecture c. Development of drawings d. Project supervision
Mints：Project development, before the start of construction work, usually takes from 2 to 3 months, depending on the complexity of the project. We always pay special attention to the development of a volume-spatial solution. The main design ideas are laid precisely at the planning stage. Therefore, we always devote enough time to the planning.

Yinji：How did you form your current design style? Are you influenced by design masters or architecture?
Mints：Our style was formed under the influence of things that inspire us: monumental megalithic architecture, archaeological artifacts, various manifestations of cults and religions, a variety of rough natural materials.Mints：Also we can distinguish such architectural studios as: MORQ Architecture studio, Vincenzo De Cotiis Architect, RCR Arquitectes, Anne Holtrop. We pay special attention to such a phenomenon as land art. Monumentality, power and scope of such masters as: Richard Serra, Michael Heizer, Richard Long.

Yinji：How do you keep the design excited, is there any way to share？
Mints：We try not to follow fast popular trends. We prefer to work with deep ideas and develop thoughtful projects.