In this special edition, we're thrilled to share a conversation with Molly and Safiye from SM Studio, a design duo whose playful, tactile approach to print, design, and creative direction resonates deeply with the heart and soul of Sandralexandra.

We’ve been fans of their work for ages, and after sitting down to chat, we were excited to discover the striking parallels between their organic design processes and our own studio's approach. We share their creative journey, the influences that inspire them, and snaps of them rocking our Heart of Glass necklaces in their East-London Studio! 

Enjoy the read and follow SM Studio - these chicas are going places! 

Friendship seems to be at the heart of your duo. How did SM Studio come together, and what sparked the idea to create collectively?

We met when we were 18 at Kingston Art Foundation, and our friendship grew from working at the same table studying visual communication – we would use each other as soundboards and were instinctively drawn to each other's visual language. We carried on studying together, collaborating on projects here and there, but more importantly we became best friends. This is now our tenth year of living together and prioritising our friendship every day! Post graduating, it made sense to continue working together (where we could) and it was sort of like SM had grown without us even realising. After all that time of knowing each and growing together, all the elements that we needed to collaborate were already there.

I’ve found that certain rituals or practices really help set the tone for a project. Do you have any particular research routines or habits that help spark creativity when you’re starting something new?

Ooh this question made us think we should get some rituals in place, as we’re often being quite responsive to given circumstances rather than ritualistic. But when we’re stuck starting a project and the routes seem endless, we’ll have a day together in the studio to draw and place out ideas and talk to each other. We’ll pitch our thoughts to each other, ditch the bad ones and test the good ones.

Your work feels very tactile, almost like it has a certain physicality to it. Is that something that’s important in your process? Do you ever physically lay things out or experiment with materials before moving to the final stage?

Yes, tactility is so important to us. Physically laying things out, test printing, creating dummys or sketching happens at every stage of a project. Funnily enough, we often feel it’s our dummys that have the most life + magic in them and we always save these for future inspiration. As we both have a background in print, illustration and book arts, our approach to design work is led by image, material, print and paper decisions. We do the majority of our own production (printing, making and finishing) so these processes are constantly informing how we conceive of our designs.

There’s a real artistry to layering and combining different elements in your work—whether it's colour, texture, or type. I’ve always been drawn to how jewellery can tell a story through detail and layering. How do you find a balance between these elements in your designs to tell your client's story?

Layering and collage have been integral to our practice since we met, we enjoyed the collage cut and paste elements of our illustration education the most. Collage is like a collaboration with what is already there, bits of scrap you find or might otherwise be throw-away can take on a new aesthetic and semantic whole. It also takes away this idea of perfection and control which we can find quite stifling when designing; you are directed by how shapes and textures reveal themselves to you. It’s a really fun and rich way to work with clients because people’s vision for how they want to be represented is always multi-faceted and nuanced, and referential layering allows for a fully-formed visual concept to be developed that feels human and purposefully includes and celebrates all those facets.

We love that you made that comparison with jewellery too as we often feel the same with accessorising; your body becomes a site where different materials and textures can interact in surprising and beautiful ways.

It’s always interesting to hear about the influences that shape a designer's approach. Who or what has had the most impact on your work?

One of the best things about being a designer is being happily influenced! For us designing is absorbing and referencing and research and our influences get to change and evolve with each project. Some of the people and things that have impacted our practice the most recently are:

Etel Adnan, eggs, rice, yoghurt, our new haircuts, our best friend Caitlin McLoughlin, Sister Corita Kent, Anita Rée, Asana workflow software (remains to be seen if this impact will be lasting), Johanna Maierski, Florian Emden, Circle Press, wearing warm boots, Irma Boom, Martine Syms’ ‘TOTAL’ exhibition, the restaurants we’ve worked in, Picasso's pottery, Reitlanden Women’s Office, Kathy Acker & McKenzie Wark’s email correspondences, Vinted wishlists....

Looking ahead in 2025, are there any exciting projects or collaborations you're particularly eager to explore? How do you approach new ideas while keeping your identity as a studio fresh and innovative?

2025 is the year of making SM Studio our main focus so we are looking to work with and collaborate with new people in as many ways as possible! We want to play to our multi-disciplinary strengths, we have so much fire and excitement behind us for the question of ‘what might we do?!’. We hope our evolving identity as creative service providers allows space for as many new ideas as possible! So! If you are looking to work with a design studio this year then you should email us hello@smstudioforever.com!