Amy Azzarito
Managing Editor
Amy Azzarito is the managing editor of Design*Sponge. She graduated from the Parsons/Cooper-Hewitt with a Master's in the History of Decorative Arts and Design. She's published on diverse topics such as the evolution of French cuisine for Paris-New York: Design Fashion Culture, 1925-1940 and an essay about hand built homes in late 1960s as part of the countercultural movement for West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in American Art, 1965-1977. She recently finished her first book, Past and Present, a book that translates topics of design history into a present-day craft projects and is based on her Design*Sponge column. The book will be published by Stewart, Tabori, and Chang in Spring 2013. When not researching design history, she practices yoga, rides her bike or skateboard and tends to her bees, who live on a Brooklyn rooftop, and to her two cats, Loki and Freya, who allow her to live in their Williamsburg apartment. Portrait by Lisa Waringer
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Maxwell Tielman
Associate Editor
Maxwell Tielman is the Associate Editor at Design*Sponge. He was born and raised in the beautiful city of Buffalo, New York. In 2006, he moved to Brooklyn to attend art school. He currently holds a BFA from Pratt Institute in Theory, Criticism, and History of Art, Design, and Architecture (it's quite a mouthful!). Maxwell's many interests include photography, painting, crafting, graphic design, trashy reality television, Britney Spears, and puppies. He currently resides in Brooklyn with his boyfriend and two insane dogs, Mekko and Linus.
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Kate Pruitt
Senior DIY Editor
Kate Pruitt is a senior editor for D*S. Originally an east-coaster, she moved west to earn a degree in Art and Art History from Stanford University. After working as a retail display artist for several years, she joined the D*S team as a weekly DIY contributor in 2009. In addition to managing the DIY and Before & After columns, she writes DIY 101, a monthly column that covers basic DIY tools and techniques; and Treasure Hunting, a column dedicated to finding new and inventive ways to bring value to everyday objects within the home. Her work has been featured in various print publications, including ReadyMade, New York Magazine, Country Living and The San Francisco Chronicle. She currently resides in California with her boyfriend and their inadvertently diabolical cat, JFK.
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Kristina Gill
Food Editor
Kristina Gill joined Design*Sponge as the editor of In the Kitchen With in October, 2007. Every Friday, she brings us an original, easy to make, seasonal recipe contributed by food and creative professionals, as well as by our readers, and the first Friday of every month she presents a cocktail recipe on the Behind the Bar column. She is also the photographer and stylist for many of the recipes which appear on the column. Kristina has a degree in political science from Stanford University, and a Master's in international economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS. Although she often entertains the idea of moving back to her hometown, Nashville, Tennessee, she currently lives in Italy, with her husband and her dog Zizou.
Recent Posts
- in the kitchen with: valerie rice’s fava bean and arugula pesto orecchiette
- in the kitchen with: jennifer chong’s fruit and nut bars
- in the kitchen with: faith durand’s tropical banana pudding
- in the kitchen with: gaby dalkin’s avocado coconut ice cream
- behind the bar: anton nocito’s sarsaparilla strawberry float
Anne Ditmeyer
Contributing Editor
Anne Ditmeyer is a contributing editor, having started as D*S’s first intern in 2008. Through her blog, Prêt à Voyager ('ready to travel'), this Paris-based graphic designer and travel maven looks at the intersection between the tourist and the local, and creative ways to explore the every day world. Anne contributes to the weekly sneak peek column, and over the years has gone behind the scenes of Mad Men, cooked with David Lebovitz, and looked for the latest designers in unexpected places. Additionally, Anne is the author of the D*S’s Paris and Baltimore Design Guides.
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Erica Nikolaidis
Copyeditor
Erica Nikolaidis has worked in the independent publishing industry since earning her master's in 2004. She has produced a wide range of trade, academic, business, education, and technical books. In 2010, she founded Virgo Editorial Services, a freelance editorial business, thus achieving the American dream of working from home in her underwear. Erica spends her weeknights copyediting D*S posts, her weekends watching movies with her husband, and her spare time toddler wrangling. She blogs at Mommy Needs a Minute.
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Stephanie Todaro
Contributing Editor
Stephanie Todaro has joined the Design*Sponge team to work on special projects and oversee our weekly Biz Ladies and City Guides columns. Although born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles, Stephanie has been lucky enough to live all over the US, including DC and New York, and continues to travel the world with hopes to one day settle down somewhere in Europe. She earned her master’s degree in journalism from New York University in 2008 and now lives in LA where she works as an online content editor for several celebrity websites and dabbles in freelance web-design projects. She has a slight (actually, major) obsession with all things stationery-related and likes to collect garden gnomes. To see more of Stephanie’s work, check out her website.
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Ashley English
Contributing Writer
Ashley English is the author of the "Homemade Living" (Lark Books) book series, which showcases topics related to sustainable small-scale homesteading. Ashley, her husband and their young son Huxley, along with a menagerie of chickens, dogs, cats, and bees live in Candler, NC, where they are converting their land into a thriving homestead. You can find her detailing those adventures in homesteading on her blog, small measure. She also hosts a quarterly column, "Homemade Living", in Where Women Cook magazine. When not clicking away on her laptop, working on her property or tending to her animals, Ashley can be found sipping stout beer, feeding her wood stove, whisking something while balancing her son on her hip, or listening to Radiohead (or Billy Idol, depending on the day).
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Brett Bara
DIY Contributor
Brett Bara is a Brooklyn-based writer and designer who's obsessed with all things crafty and DIY. She is the author of the book Sewing in a Straight Line (Potter Craft, 2011) and host of the PBS television series Knit and Crochet Now. Brett works as a consultant and spokesperson for a variety of companies in the craft industry, writes and edits crafts books, and designs DIY projects. When she's not crafting, Brett's an avid cake-decorator and Jello-mold-maker; she blogs about all her creative pursuits.
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Sarah Brysk Cohen
Contributing Writer
Sarah Brysk Cohen, owner of Blossom and Branch, is obsessed with flowers. She has been working in flower shops on the cutting edge of floral design, from New York to California, for 17 years. Always eager to explore new ideas and articulate her own, distinctive style, she opened the Blossom and Branch studio in Brooklyn, New York in 2009. Her designs have been featured in various online and print publications, including 100 Layer Cake, Brooklyn Bride, Brides Magazine and The New York Times, as well as in the San Diego Museum of Art. Before launching her design career, she obtained an MSW and worked as a licensed clinical social worker in two states (the two craziest ones). This really comes in handy when a bride is having a rough go of it. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY with her writer/pundit husband and irascible English Bulldogs, Molly and Ruby.
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Amanda Brown
DIY Contributor
In 2007, Amanda Brown left her non-profit day job to create Spruce, a furniture redesign studio in Austin, TX. With her professional training and eye for design, she has transformed countless pieces headed for the dump into one-of-a-kind showstoppers. Her fresh approach to upholstery has spurred international interest and received acclaim from publications such as The New York Times, Metropolitan Home, and Southern Living. Amanda’s Upholstery Basics column welcomes upholstery enthusiasts to share her knowledge and recreate their own hand-me-downs and roadside rescues. When she’s not working with clients, upholstering, teaching classes, or working on her next instructional DVD, she can be found beating the Texas heat with an ice cold brewsky, hubby and toy poodle, Pixie, in tow.
