Michael Zito has always been obsessed with the spirit of nostalgia. As a child he would spend hours rifling through his parents’ photo albums to pages of Polaroids and sepia toned snaps of life in Australia during the 1960s and ‘70s. Michael’s passion for the past has since become the central focus and inspiration behind his first rug collection, ‘reSurface’, created by his design business Studio MiZi.
‘The collection explores this quintessentially Australian aesthetic that is still found around Melbourne to this day, from the orange brick of my Nonna’s house to the mismatched lino floor of my local laundromat’ explains Michael. With a background in graphic design, Michael has applied surfaces extracted from his Melbourne life into a collection of four signature rugs.
After working full-time for a while, Michael found he missed the creative freedom of designing for himself. Around the same time, he was furnishing his own apartment, and found the options for good quality, affordable rugs and floor surfaces was limited. He decided to design his own.
The initial idea took six months to get off the ground, followed by the prototyping and production process. Michael plans to release two rug collections a year, and is presently working on his second range. ‘I want to experiment with different techniques, expand into other homewares, and collaborate with like-minded designers and artists,’ he says.
Studio MiZi’s ‘reSurface’ rug series retail at $495.00 and are available here. The range will be launching this Thursday 12th May from 7.00pm – 9.00pm at East Elevation at 351 Lygon St, Brunswick East, VIC.
