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the art of designFurniture and Design throughthe Magni-fying GlassIn a city that’s constantly moving, designerJames Magni strives to stay fresh By Steve BasiloneThere is a faction of fashionable Angelenos out there who can proudly saythey’ve had their homes “Magni-fied”. Behind this wave of “Magni-fication”is none other than interior designer extraordinaire, James Magni.Born and raised by Italian parents in the Midwest, Magni attended the Universityof Nebraska, Lincoln. Though his initial plan was to study sculpture, the ambitionquickly went by the wayside when a professor told him early on that he didn’t havewhat it took to be a professional sculptor. He changed gears and began to studyarchitecture, at the time thinking that it would be the most logical second choice.Despite having some self-proclaimed difficulties with the math, he graduated,quickly got out of the Midwest, and went to work for HMBH in Dallas,Texas. It wasthere that he quickly developed a love for interior design. He did a few homes andThe face behind MAGNI, James Magni. Photo by David D’Angelo.began developing elaborate client personality profiles and questionnaires as long astwenty pages in order to really, as he puts it, “get into their heads.” He wanted tolearn everything about his clients—how they lived, what their hobbies were, evenhow they stored their underwear. “You have to know every single thing about ahuman being right away to be effective as an interior designer,” he says.“I guess I always wanted to be a psychologist,” he adds with a generous laugh.“And I realized once I got into interior design that furniture design is really just a formof sculpture, so I kind of went full circle. And the furniture is what initially drove a lotof clients—they would see the furniture and hire me on as an interior designer.”He found some investors in Frito-Lay and the Hunt Family and in 1990 setup shop in the City of Angels. Since then, he’s been bringing his furniture andPlaza. Lounge chair upholstered in MAGNI classic white.own brand of sensual interior design to Southern California and beyond.“I think100 2006 Issue 4