Richard was raised in Paris but born to design. His initial influences were his father, an architect, and his Great Aunt, an art dealer. Nowadays, most of his inspiration comes from the worlds of Architecture and Industrial Design: Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Richard Meier, Starck, Eames and Mies van de Rohre. Minimalism is his aesthetic doctrine in the inspired and powerful design work he brings to his SME work, but not in his office nicknames: Richard is Rich and Richou, Ricardi and Ricardito and always, of course, “Frenchy”.