Anna Z.


Anna Zaharakos, who founded Studio Z in 1988, started her career in industrial design at Steelcase Inc. After five years working in both industrial and materials design, she formed a partnership with German industrial designer, Wolfgang Mueller Deisig.

During her partnership with Wolfgang, Anna worked on a number of furniture developments, most notably the Hopper Chair Line for Kinetics, now owned by Haworth. She also began a textile aspect to her business, developing contract textiles for Woolrich, Mastercraft, Guilford of Maine, and Intek. Today Studio Z creates Jacquard contract textiles for a variety of customers, while also pursuing product, furniture, and interior design projects.

"While we are known for our beautiful classic contract textiles, we also want to be known for our innovative product development using textiles in different ways," says Anna. Inspired by everything from dance to photography, she continually explores new outlets for her own creativity and encourages her designers to do the same.

Anna is particularly proud of the groundbreaking Jacqform™ process she, the Studio, and her husband Michael (who also manages the business side of the studio) have developed. They are excited to see what direction this new avenue will take them.

More from Anna on her work:

"What inspires me the most is exploring new ideas and creating beauty in unique ways."

"The most satisfying part of my job is seeing our ideas come to fruition and having a customer who is very happy with the results."

"I try to maintain a good mix of independence and team collaboration. It seems to work well for us."

"The projects that are most enjoyable are those where we have a close working relationship with the end customer. As artists, we are all thankful we have found an avenue that uses our talents and passions, allowing us to create beauty and innovation."

"Its important to me that the Studio not only produces good work, but is also a great place to work. I want my designers to feel creatively satisfied and continually challenged. My goal overall is to have an environment that encourages creative exploration, and at the same time, maintains a disciplined focus."

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