Meet the Wizards of OZ Design
OZ Design has put together a panel of their top experts – the Wizards of OZ. Featuring our best people in design, fabrics, sofas, leather, homewares, timber and more, they’ll offer expert advice to keep you up to date with the latest furniture trends and help make home decorating easy.
Maritoni Salvador – Fabric Wizard
Our fabric wizards search the world to find new textile designs to complement our stunning range of designer sofas, chairs and ottomans. We love working with natural fibres, such as cottons and linens, and developing textiles for luxurious comfort and longevity.
Maritoni is a buyer at OZ Design who looks after our fabric ranges and also our homewares ranges. She regularly meets with all the fabric houses to ensure that we are completely up to date with our fabric choices instore – this include on our floorstock models and also in our Designer Collection which is our alacarte fabric range.
Maritoni decides the colour palettes for the season and meets with all of our homewares suppliers to source the gorgeous new looks and designs to be presented in store.
She has been working with fabric since she left university, previously working for fashion retail giant, Sussan’s Group for over 5 years.
Darren King – Leather Wizard
Durable, desirable, beautiful. At OZ Design, we work with genuine cowhide leathers to provide a range of sofas that are family friendly and suitable for the demands of everyday life. We do not sell “bi-cast” or “bonded” leather – we work only with cow leathers, including cowhide, semi-aniline, pull-up aniline, natural and thick grain cowhide to ensure you’ll enjoy superior comfort and durability from your leather sofa.
Darren has been working with a leather sofa supplier of OZ Design Furniture for over 10 years. He travels overseas often to our offshore factories to ensure that our leather products are to the highest quality available in the market. Darren also stays on top of the latest leather trends in terms of leather types and colours. Having worked with leather for so long, he is now an expert in identifying the best leathers and brining them to the Australian market via his wholesale business.
George Fotopoulos - Sofa Wizard
At OZ Design, creating innovative sofa designs is a passion. Our sofa wizards search the world for inspiration and produce a stylish range of sofas that are luxuriously comfortable.
George is the owner of one of our main Australian fabric sofa manufacturers. Located down in Melbourne, they have been making sofas since 1974 , and have been supplying OZ Design for the past 6 years. Using only the best materials being quality foams from Dunlop, zigzag springs from Shann and textiles sourced from all over the world, George works closely with our buyers to develop sofas exclusively for OZ Design at great value prices.
Nick Loveday - Design Wizard
At OZ Design, we design furniture for the the Australian way of life. We work with craftspeople in Australia and overseas to develop sturdy and stylish furniture. We only use quality materials and the best workmanship available to ensure every piece will last.
Nick has been a buyer for OZ Design for 5 years. He specialises in the design of our furniture, using CAD software to create his visions on paper and brief them to our manufacturers. Casegood designs have been his main forte but he has recently starting dabbling in sofa design also with some great results in the last 2 seasons.
Nick constantly travels the world, looking for inspiration in overseas markets and interpreting them for Australian customers. This, teamed with his great sense of style are reflected in his unique contemporary designs.
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Geoff Laffan – Timber Wizard
Natural beauty is a big part of OZ Design’s range, including Australian hardwood timbers that are sourced from managed forests. Renowned for their natural beauty, strength and durability, our timber wizards work with craftspeople in Australia and overseas to design and develop outstanding furniture pieces. These classic pieces are designed to last a lifetime or more, and will become the antiques of tomorrow.
Geoff is the owner of one of the Australian timber manufacturers that OZ Design buys from. Having supplied OZ Design with timber products for the last 26 years, he has seen our product trend from colonial inspired pieces back in the late 80’s through to the sleek contemporary timber designs of today, in various timber types and stains. Geoff has been making furniture for so long in his factory in Melbourne that he is a true Wizard of the craft, constantly updating his manufacturing techniques and machinery so that we are able to offer our customers excellent quality up to date timber furniture at fantastic prices.
Wilma Ciacia – Homewares Wizard
At OZ Design, we’re wizards with homewares. We’ll take a plain room, add a few homeware pieces and completely transform its appearance. We make home decorating easy. Our homeware wizards search the world for the latest trends – from decorator lamps, to stand-out mirrors, to cushions in the latest fabrics, we’ve got all you need to make any room a masterpiece.
Wilma works for Bruno Basile, one of our franchisees in Melbourne, and our Value Wizard. She is a trained interior decorator and has been merchandising for OZ Design for 21 years. Her skills at putting together a gorgeous creative roomsetting using the latest looks in homewares are reflected in the beauty of the store that she styles. She purchases all the new furniture and homewares ranges for the store each season and ensures that the roomsettings reflect all the new season colour palettes. Wilma also offers her skills with an in home interior decorating service.
Alex Hinchcliffe – Ideas Wizard
Looking for something to spice up your living room? Need something to fill that empty corner? How big a dining table should you get? Our ideas wizards are full of suggestions and helpful advice – simply come instore and ask.
Alex is a retail specialist at OZ Design, having financial involvement in 2 NSW stores and performing her role as Operations Manager of another 6 OZ Design stores in NSW and QLD. She has formal qualifications in interior decorating meaning that she is also a wiz at putting together looks for her less confident customers. Alex has been with the OZ Design group for 6 years.
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Jason Kerr – Transformation Wizard
Transforming a room can be a huge and difficult task – especially if you don’t know where to start. Nobody wants to waste their precious dollars on something that turns out to be a mistake! Our transformation wizards instore will guide you through any questions you may have and will help ensure you get it right the first time.
Jason is the franchisee for our Essendon and Geelong stores in Melbourne. He has worked in furniture retail management for most of his working life, including 6 years at a previous furniture retailer and 10 years now at OZ Design. This has enabled him a solid understanding of how to meet our customers needs. With years of previous merchandising experience under his belt, whether it’s a one off piece our customers are looking for, or a complete room transformation, Jason is always available to give advice.
Bruno Basile – Value Wizard
Though we never compromise on service or quality, we also provide great value for money furniture pieces. There is no need to pay overly inflated prices. We work hard to ensure our range of furniture and homewares are still highly affordable.
Bruno is the franchisee for our Northland, Moorabbin and Hoppers Crossing stores in Melbourne. Having been part of the OZ Design Group for a whopping 23 years, he has seen the business and the product range move through many stages. With involvement in other retail stores also, he knows what value means to a customer. That is finding the right quality product at the right price and being able to deliver it within an appropriate lead time.
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