We don't just make art. We make a statement — that beauty is resistance, that style is a language, and that the walls of your home deserve stories that have never been told in a gallery before.
The Movement Behind the Art
Long before streetwear, before fashion weeks, before the word "hype" existed — there were the Sapeurs.
In the Congo, where colonial rule had stripped away so much, a community of men and women decided to fight back with the most unexpected weapon imaginable: impeccable style. They called themselves Les Sapeurs — members of La SAPE, the Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (the Society of Ambiance-Makers and Elegant People). In neighborhoods with unpaved roads and corrugated iron roofs, they dressed in tailored suits, fedoras, and two-tone loafers. They walked with a slow, deliberate strut called la démarche. They posed. They performed. They declared, without a single word, that their dignity was non-negotiable.
La Sape was not fashion. It was philosophy. It said: I exist beautifully, therefore I resist.
That spirit — of audacity, of cultural pride, of elegance as a radical act — is the heartbeat of everything we make at maybe.
Our Story
maybe™ was founded in 2023 by a group of designers and creatives who looked at the gallery walls and design spaces of the Pacific Northwest and saw a gap. Not a gap in quality, but in perspective. The stories being told on those walls were incomplete.
We started maybe as our answer to that silence.
But the real answer had been building for years before that — in airports and street markets, in design museums and back-alley workshops, in the bazaars of Tehran and the galleries of Tokyo, in the tile work of Marrakech and the signage of Havana. Mark and Alma are, above almost everything else, students of the world. They travel not as tourists but as designers — always watching how a culture expresses itself through the objects it makes, the spaces it builds, the colors it chooses, the way beauty gets embedded into everyday life.
That obsession — with graphic design, industrial design, architecture, craft, and the visual languages that different cultures have developed across centuries — is the real engine behind maybe. Every collection is a distillation of what we've seen and felt and carried home. Not copied, but absorbed. Remixed. Made new.
Inspired by La Sape's unapologetic celebration of self, we set out to create art that reflects the full breadth and beauty of the African diaspora — and the wider world it has always been in conversation with. Art rooted in cultural history, filtered through contemporary design, and made to live in real homes, real spaces, real lives.
Every piece we make carries that Sapeur energy: crafted with intention, worn with pride, impossible to ignore.
The People
Mark Wayne (Monsieur Petit) — Chief Creative Officer
Brooklyn's streets shaped Monsieur Petit long before the galleries came calling. He came up through New York's graffiti scene at a time when the city's walls were the most honest gallery in the world — and that fluency, the kind formal training alone can't teach, runs through everything he makes. His visual language draws equally from hip-hop's golden era and classical design: Renaissance composition folded into the album art that defined a generation, street-level directness brought into spaces that typically expect reverence.
His stylized digital work carries all of it forward — rich, saturated palettes that channel NYC grit alongside Jamaican warmth, figures rendered with the sharp elegance of African dandyism. He treats historical references not as something precious to preserve but as raw material to remix. When you look at a Monsieur Petit piece, you're seeing Brooklyn and Kingston and Kinshasa in the same frame — and it holds together because it was always the same story.
Alma Emadi — Principal & Creative Director
Alma was born in Iran to an anthropologist mother who studied Middle Eastern folklore and a father immersed in dramatic arts. She grew up between worlds — post-revolution Persian resistance culture and Western indie rock — and both live in her work. Her design eye was sharpened further by years of travel: studying how different cultures encode meaning into objects, spaces, and surfaces, from the intricate geometry of Persian architecture to the brutalist grace of mid-century European industrial design to the hand-painted typography of West African storefronts. She moves through the world like her mother did — as an observer, a collector of visual intelligence. Her design approach is rooted in the belief that art is never apolitical, that every visual choice is a kind of declaration. She brings maybe its depth, its cultural rigor, and its refusal to be decorative for decoration's sake.
La SAPE stands for Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes — the Society of Ambiance-Makers and Elegant People. It is a cultural movement that originated in the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, in which practitioners known as Sapeurs use extravagant, meticulously assembled clothing as a form of self-expression, cultural pride, and resistance. Born in part as a response to colonial oppression, La Sape transforms elegance into a political act — a declaration that dignity cannot be taken away. maybe™ draws its name, spirit, and visual philosophy from this movement.
Who are Les Sapeurs?
Les Sapeurs are the practitioners of La Sape. They are men and women — most famously from Brazzaville and Kinshasa — who dedicate themselves to the art of dress as a way of life. A Sapeur doesn't simply wear clothes; they perform them. Every color combination, every gesture, every carefully chosen accessory is intentional. The movement has been documented by photographers, filmmakers, and journalists worldwide, and has influenced fashion, art, and design globally. maybe™'s collections are a direct homage to that tradition of fearless, joyful self-presentation.
What makes maybe™ prints different from other art prints?
Every piece we produce is rooted in a specific cultural story — drawn from the African diaspora, the Sapeur movement, and the broader history of Black creativity and resistance. We don't make decorative art. We make art with a point of view. Beyond the concept, our prints are produced on fine art archival paper with archival inks, meaning they're built to last and maintain color fidelity for decades. You're not buying a poster. You're buying a piece of work.
What sizes and framing options do you offer?
Our prints are available in three sizes: 8×10, 12×16, and 18×24 inches. Each size can be ordered unframed or framed in your choice of Natural Oak, Black Oak, or White Oak. Our frames are solid oak — not MDF or composite — and are designed to complement the work without overpowering it. If you're building a gallery wall, we recommend mixing sizes and keeping a consistent frame finish.
How do I choose the right size for my wall?
A good rule of thumb: measure the wall space you're working with and choose a print that fills roughly two-thirds of the width. For a standard sofa or console table (around 60 inches wide), an 18×24 or a pair of 12×16 prints works well. For a smaller accent wall, bedroom corner, or shelf display, an 8×10 is ideal. If you're building a gallery wall with multiple pieces, mixing our 8×10 and 12×16 sizes creates a dynamic, layered look. Still unsure? Email us at support@lessapeur.com and we'll help you figure it out.
What materials are your prints made on?
We print on premium fine art paper using archival-quality pigment inks. Archival means UV-resistant and acid-free — your print won't yellow, fade, or deteriorate over time the way standard inkjet prints do. We want these pieces to be on your walls for years, not seasons.
Do you ship internationally?
Yes. We ship worldwide. Shipping times and rates vary by destination and are calculated at checkout. All orders are carefully packaged to protect the print during transit — unframed prints ship in rigid flat mailers, framed prints ship in reinforced boxes with corner protection.
How do I choose the right size for my wall?
A good rule of thumb: measure the wall space you're working with and choose a print that fills roughly two-thirds of the width. For a standard sofa or console table (around 60 inches wide), an 18×24 or a pair of 12×16 prints works well. For a smaller accent wall, bedroom corner, or shelf display, an 8×10 is ideal. If you're building a gallery wall with multiple pieces, mixing our 8×10 and 12×16 sizes creates a dynamic, layered look. Still unsure? Email us at support@lessapeur.com and we'll help you figure it out.
Can I return or exchange my order?
Yes — we want you to love what you put on your walls. Please visit our Returns & Exchanges page for full details on our policy.
What is the story behind the name maybe™?
The name starts with a habit. Ask Mark almost anything, and the first word out of his mouth is maybe™ — not from indecision, but from an unwillingness to perform certainty he doesn't have. He takes his time. He does the research. He sits with a question until the answer earns its place. That instinct shapes everything maybe™ makes: nothing here was decided quickly, and nothing here is decorative for decoration's sake.
The .nyc is the domain. But New York is more than a URL. Mark is a first-generation New Yorker — born to Jamaican parents, shaped by Brooklyn, by the city's particular way of making you sharp. Coming back to New York in the name was coming back to the source.
Maybe. Deliberate. Rooted. Never in a hurry to be something it isn't.
Where are you based?
maybe™ is a project of Symbol Design, based in New York and Spain. Our creative roots stretch from Brooklyn to Tehran — and our art is made for walls everywhere.
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