To discover the best colour combos, you need to play around. Or somehow jump into the creative minds of the Kapitza sisters. (Too much to ask?) Petra and Nicole Kapitza are the artist sisters behind their namesake, UK-based design studio. They work together in cutting-edge East London, combining colour, mathematics, and patterns. Their art feels modern and timeless, clean and colourful, all at the same time—it's fun, fresh beauty. And yes, we also use all of that language to describe our Clinique Pop colour range. In fact, it’s why we collaborated with Kapitza to design a Bonus Time bag exclusive to Clinique that embrace the joy of possibilities when it comes to colour combinations. It’s a very happy way to look forward to Spring.  Here, Petra and Nicole tell us all about working together and living a colour-filled life.

The Wink: Working with your sister must be a blessing and a curse at the same time, right? What are some of the pros and cons?
Nicole Kapitza: We’ve been creative and business partners for 10 years now. The pro is that we can be quite honest with each other. We know each other’s strengths and can work with them. The cons are probably the social part. As soon as you meet up, you speak about work.
Petra Kapitza: Agreed. Unfortunately, we don’t meet up as much as you normally would on the weekend, because even if you try to not talk about work, it’s inevitable. On the other hand, not seeing each other for a day or two gives us new stuff to tell each other and more inspirations to bring in.
NK: We are also quite honest with each other. I don’t know if you could be as honest with someone who isn’t your sibling. But we always respect each other’s work. Any criticism is always meant well, it’s never trying to hurt. I think that’s why we can work together—we both want to create the best possible work.

TW: So what’s the artistic process like, working together?
NK: We’ve got two kinds of lines. One is geometrics, which starts on the computer. The other is organic. We start separately, then we give each other feedback.
PK: Yes, we bounce back and forth.

TW: What inspired the print on the exclusive Clinique bag?
NK: Our inspiration was a print that can be seen in our book Geometric Two. We developed a bold circular pattern with colours from the Clinique Pop Lip Colour + Primer range. The black and white print on the other side of the bag—that’s very Kapitza, to juxtapose the black with the bold colours.

TW: Why did you decide to do this particular pattern?
NK: We love this pattern because it‘s two-dimensional and three-dimensional. You can look into the spheres or through the spheres from different angles. It’s simple and complex at the same time.

TW: Do you like to wear colouful makeup as well?.
NK: I like the idea of wearing really bright lipstick with not much other makeup—just a bit of lash colour, blush, or lip gloss.

TW: Are your homes as colourful as your art?
NK: I’ve got colourful furniture: a red sofa, pink sideboards. A bit of colour here and there is great.
PK: I don’t have any white at home, at all. That’s boring!

TW: Why are you so drawn to working with colour?
PK: Colour brings joy to everyone, doesn’t it? It’s grey enough when you live in a city!

*This bag is no longer available but be sure to keep an eye out for our future collaborations!

Photos courtesy of: Kapitza | As told to: Rachel Hayes