Over the past few years, we've had many designers cite the Russian Suprematist Kazimir Malevich as an influence — but never before did those designers actually hail from Malevich's hometown of Kiev, Ukraine. "When you live and work in the city where Malevich was born, studied art, and taught at the Art Academy, and when you even have a workshop on the street that bears his name, it’s only a matter of time until his presence starts to inspire your creation," say Arkady Vartanov and Kateryna Sokolova of NOOM, a new, Kiev-based studio launching its first collection of Malevich-inspired vases and lighting at this weekend's Maison & Objet.

Paola Vilas recently released a collection that takes Peggy Guggenheim and her extraordinary 20th-century art collection as its muse. But in general, Vilas mines a rich vein of Modernist art references, especially Surrealism, for the motifs and curving shapes of her pieces — named for artists like Arp, Brancusi, Gilot, Matisse, and Klee, to name just a few.

Growing up in the '90s in Switzerland, Nadja Stäubli always had an analog camera with her. "I ended up studying photography at the University of Arts in Switzerland, and, for my thesis project, I wanted to work with a different medium then simple photography," explains the founder of the cult-favorite rug company Schoenstaub. Stäubli dug around to find a high-density weaving machine that could translate the grain of her 35mm film into knots on a rug, and, through family connections, ended up finding the only one that could do it in the world. The idea was to produce a single carpet for a gallery; it was such a success, Stäubli decided to turn the enterprise into a full-fledged company.