In an industry often defined by trends, Los Angeles–based interior designer and creative director Max Nobel, founder of NOBEL Design Studio, has built a global design firm that refuses to be boxed in. With projects spanning Los Angeles, Monaco, New York, and Dubai, Nobel is redefining modern luxury interiors through an approach rooted in emotion, storytelling, and architectural identity.
That belief has become the backbone of NOBEL, the Los Angeles–based design studio redefining the experience of working with an interior designer and known for creating one-of-a-kind spaces for each client. Founded by creative director Max Nobel, whose career in design informs a practice that is both hands-on and visionary, the studio reflects his commitment to blending artistry with storytelling. Since then, NOBEL has grown to attract a diverse clientele ranging from discerning residential patrons in Los Angeles to global luxury brands and leading names in hospitality, partners who seek not just design, but a deeper kind of storytelling. Nobel is less concerned with trends than with truth, focusing instead on spaces that breathe, behave, and, if he has done his job right, linger in memory.
Unlike studios that define themselves by traditional categories, NOBEL resists labels. Instead, the studio operates within a kind of emotional architecture, translating feeling into form. One striking example is the 40,000-square-foot mansion in Newport Beach. Perched above the ocean and golf course, the home is carved from stone and glass in a way that feels both monumental and intimate, grounding cinematic views with tactile, human-scale detail.
In New York, NOBEL was tapped for the Aman Residences, where Max brought a quiet, almost monastic sensibility to one of the city’s most coveted penthouses. From the Hollywood Hills Saint Ives residence to Monaco’s Mareterra, the newest and most expensive development in Europe, NOBEL’s projects span some of the world’s most sought-after addresses. And with new ventures already underway in Dubai, the studio continues to expand its international footprint.
It’s this refusal to dilute intention that has made Max a trusted collaborator to tastemakers, entrepreneurs, and cultural players who value discretion as much as design. For them, NOBEL is all about identity and designs that understand them.“It’s never about wowing someone right away,” Max says. “The real test is how a space feels after years, it should keep giving back.”
The approach is working. The studio’s projects have been profiled in Architectural Digest and other gatekeeping outlets, but Max himself prefers to keep the spotlight diffuse. “Hype burns fast, but legacy lasts longer.” That may explain the cult-like loyalty of his clients, who describe NOBEL spaces not in terms of style but in terms of feeling: grounded, expansive, alive.
And perhaps that’s the secret. At a time when design often gets flattened into Instagram moments, NOBEL insists on the opposite: depth. Spaces that seduce slowly, surprise often, and sustain endlessly. Architecture as memory. Interiors as identity. Design, not as decoration, but as soul.