Architecture and Design

The Team

​Information about our talented designers.

​image of Zach

Zachary Smith, AIA - Founder

Zachary (Zach) is the principal designer and founder of ZESstudio. Zach is an architect, graphic artist, web designer, photographer, and anything else he can get his hands on design wise. Zach holds his masters degree in architecture and has spent several years studying in other design fields like graphic design and sculpture before founding ZESstudio in May of 2008.   As once put "helplessly creative" Zach has a hard time not trying to solve any problem with a little bit of creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit keeping him at the forefront of many happenings on the seacoast. 

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Tobias Bernecker, M.arch. - OCD-Obsessively Creative Designer

Tobias (Tobe) is an integral piece to any project serving as creative inspiration, art proofer, or mixed media specialist. Tobe's international background brings a unique European design aesthetic to any project. Tobe has studied art and architecture across Europe from TU-Berlin (Germany) to the University of Liverpool (UK) finally finishing his his formal education with a masters degree in architecture. Tobe specializes in print, web and any kind of graphic design, as well as illustrations and personalized, professional graphics and has extensive experience with remodeling and small scale design-build projects. See some of his work here: http://tobern.com/

image of Charlotte​

Charlotte Chaffee - Intern Designer Extraordinaire

Charlotte, a current student at MECA (Maine College of Art), describes her style as: "working class design that not only looks good but communicates what a client wants. I am honestly inspired by achieving a goal through design. I like things that are clean. I like to think I'm a growing source of inspiration and therefore styles." Charlotte has a long lists of tasks and duties but mainly she is our font selection and configuration guru.