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Actively looking for freelance and full-time work as a Senior Designer / Art Director. If you know of anything, please keep me in mind ! You can reach me at hello@timzarras.com. Thanks !
About
Originally trained in furniture design at the Rhode Island School of Design, I apply a background of detail-oriented craft and technology to a broad range of disciplines.
The projects below are a selection of work showcasing my interests and skill-set:
Projects
At first only as a printed publication, "Al Fresco: Resilience in New York City" was conceived by Standard Issue in the spring of 2021, after the city had enacted its Open Streets policy. This editorial website served to translate the book into a website that could be more easily shared.
The website was built statically in HTML and CSS with more elaborate jQuery functions for some "automation" of the overall data-entry and dynamic "branded" animations, like on the homepage. Designed with Vanya Padmanabhan.
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In 2021, I was approached by Warp & Weft to a create a series of renderings for their sub-brand, Loops & Knots. These renderings were to be used on their website to showcase the range of their premium rugs.
Their inventory covers four categories, "Flatweave", "Modern", "Traditional", and "Vintage"— the scenes depict a curated selection of rugs from each category in-situ.
Based in hypothetical locations, these scenes were styled to exist somewhere between still-life compositions and more decorated in-situ environments. Through the furniture selection, color / material palettes and lighting, considerations were made to retain a contemporary and "fresh" quality throughout the series.
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Japan Society is a non-profit organization formed in 1907 located in New York City near the United Nations.
In 2020, they held an exhibition that contained physical artworks and performances that were simultaneously exhibited online.
"'From Here to There' is an online project by Japan Society featuring three contemporary artists. Initiated as an alternative platform within the extraordinary context of 2020, this site reveals new commissions over time. Materials accumulate monthly to present disciplinary encounters that span drawing, film, performance, and photography."
For this project, I worked with a team at Japan Society to devise how the online exhibition could be conceived, and ultimately designed and developed a custom website showcasing the exhibition, event calendar and most importantly, web-oriented versions of each artist's exhibited series of works.
Extensive "creative coding" was required to translate the artist's physical and auditory ideas to something that felt tactile and to-scale online— like creating a contact-sheet-like view of experimentally developed films to extensive lists of text and the ability to sort through collected trash-like "ephemera".
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I designed the Segment Seating Series with / for Tariq Dixon while working as the only designer at TRNK in 2019-2020. The upholstered collection features a sofa, chaise, daybed, armchair, and dining chair.
With TRNK's aim of being a resource for interior designers, TRNK Collection pieces are often designed to be very versatile and usable across different types of spaces often resulting in reserved, but bold forms that are able to adopt different materials.
The series expanded upon the Rietveld-ian language of the already popular Angle Chaise. Similar to existing TRNK Collection pieces, depending on their chosen material, the series can take on a range of personalities allowing them to become anything from the reserved foundation of a room to a sculptural focal point.
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As part of the expansion into new product categories at TRNK, I designed a collection of tables, which are sourced and produced in collaboration with skilled craftsmen in Portugal.
These initial versions of the travertine tables featured brushed brass rods for both added structure and elevated materiality, allowing the design to take on a variety of CMF executions in different stones and metals. The tables use planar stone slabs to create architectural compositions, allowing for interesting plays with both light, and the object's visual weight.
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A selection of footwear models I worked on while working at Nike in the Nike SB category in 2018.
Working between a team of Footwear and Color Designers, I served as the only Material Designer. I developed material direction / concepts to seasonally curate, source and develop performance-driven footwear materials across hundreds of SKUs. I worked closely with a broad range of vendors overseas and internal footwear & material development teams to bring on-trend and cost-effective concepts to market.
This selection shows a range of "energy" projects / collaborations to more cost-effective models, as well as a range of responsibilities in material direction and development to material curation and blocking.
Both the "Dogwalker" Dunk and Frog Skateboards Blazer Mid were selected as 'Editors’ Picks: Best Sneakers of 2019 So Far' on Hypebeast.
See more at the link to my website.
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While working at ASH, I worked with an interior designer to design and develop a suite of bespoke furniture and architectural components for Sweetgreen stores. This collection is currently used at many locations nationwide.
The collection consisted of cafe tables of various sizes, a modular banquette, a cafe chair, and a communal table. All of the pieces were designed to take-on various CMF executions.
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Side Projects
With an ongoing interest in soft-goods and materials, I designed a puffy quilt inspired by polygon mesh — the collection of vertices, edges, and faces that often create complex 3D models. This product intends to be a self-referential object, almost a visual pun— like digital mesh, when draped over a body or chair, the quilt articulates the form it's wrapped around.
The zig-zag stitch throughout the quilt adds an expressive, yet durable quality.
The pattern was developed and simulated in Marvelous Designer.
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"proximity" is an online gallery space founded in 2019. "proximity" seeks to be an accessible platform and space for artists and designers, independent of a specific location, or scene.
In an abstract sense, proximity began as an optimistic reaction to the ever-changing relationship of three dimensional design with a world now nearly dominated by two-dimensional imagery. If images have become a near primary source for so many, "proximity" aims to explore this new model for sharing art and design.
If you have a computer and any kind of digital file, you can participate.
The name plays on the idea of a place with no physical location, while always being in reach.
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Work Experience
Standard Issue is a New York-based design consultancy working in the fields of graphic design, marketing, materials sampling, interactive design, industrial design, interior design and architecture.
- As the only designer, I worked directly with the company's founder on all facets of design and product development of new and existing furniture and tableware collections, interior design projects, an apothecary collection, as well as ongoing company catalogs
- Traveled internationally to trade fairs to speak with prospective vendors about potential designs and development
- Managed and produced company’s 3D assets via Solidworks, Rhino and Keyshot, including 3D models, production drawings / tech packs and consumer facing renderings
- Only material designer serving in the Nike SB category
- Assess trends and develop material direction / concepts to seasonally curate, source and develop performance-driven footwear materials
- Work closely with vendors overseas and internal product development to bring on-trend and cost-effective concepts to market
- Assisted in developing innovative materials used on Olympic models for skateboarding's debut in the 2020 Olympics
- Designed a collection of furniture, architectural dividers and additional architectural lighting to be implemented in Sweetgreen stores nationwide within the coming year (2017-2018)
- Assisted to further develop both design and production methods of the 'ASH Basics' collection
- Designed furniture and lighting for other office space projects
- Created extensive CAD models, CMF renderings and construction drawings using Solidworks and Keyshot