We love seeing family bonding in the workplace. The Johnson brothers grew up in Colorado together with three other siblings and about 30 cousins. Years later the boys decided to form a band, toured the country and after that, realized, ‘we can do anything together.’ Knowing they were all interested in design/architecture/illustration they formed Made Shop in 2006 and have been designing buildings, furniture, books and films ever since. As brother Zachary Johnson explains, “ It’s a design company, obviously, but it also sort of functions as an umbrella for the various projects we all work on — the idea was to provide a one-stop shop with specialists in a range of fields.”
Zachary went to acting school in New York but spent most of his time drawing and painting while waiting for calls and realized that was the direction he wanted to go. His first gig was illustrating posters for a cousin’s films Brick, The Brothers Bloom and Looper and now is working on 150 illustrations of New York for a book that Made Shop naturally designed (publish date TBD!)
We caught up with Zach to hear more about his style or as he called it, ‘Hipster Meat & Potatoes’.
By this point I have kind of a uniform. When options are limited it reduces the stress is how I see it. I like jackets in many variations and I wear them over a basic tee usually from American Apparel. Levis are my go-to jean of choice. I spent lots of cash on Diesel and others in high school but came back to the classics.
I love my Lucchese cowboy boots and wear them daily.
I like Zara for a suit or if I need something nicer. It is a bit better quality than H&M and a bit better fit too. I’m always looking for a slim cut and Zara always has a great fit for me. I love a pocket square but I can never fold one crisply! Even if I iron them. I have to look into that.
I wear like a longer peacoat a lot in New York and I have a rust leather bomber from Zara too that is great for the fall with a toboggan hat I found at my parents house. God knows where it came from!
Embarrassing fact: When I moved to New York when I was 18 I used to wear spurs every day, even though I have never been on a horse. I had to walk down the subway steps sideways! But today I am more of a simple man.
