We started ZAM by slinging t-shirts out of our Jeep because we had something important to say: Do something good. Be global.
Our first collection of tees said Love in different languages and they served as the foundation of Zamforia. As we've grew and expanded over the past decade, so has our collection of art. Positive, bold, and with purpose reflect our attitude and perspective; limited edition and original, our medium.
/zamˈfôrēə/
noun
use: "zamforia hits you when the music drops or when that climax of the movie occurs."
synonyms: soul, connection, happiness, euphoria
Our Love Symbol is an ambigram: a word that can be read both right side up and upside down. When Jonathan first drew it, he include a hidden “Z” for Zamforia: rotate the logo 90 degrees, you'll see it in the middle.
The Love Symbol is reflective of the entire company- adapt to constant change; see with a different perspective.
Olivia drew a picture of the family on a napkin to give to her brother Jonathan. In need for a Christmas present, Jonathan drew the same picture back to her but added color and the word 'love' in different languages to the empty space. Olivia loved it and told him to make a logo for their new "t-shirt company that was going to say Love in different languages." The seed was planted.
To create our first shirt, we went to a Tibetan restaurant in Boston and asked the waitresses how to say “love” in Tibetan. Before we knew it, the waitstaff was surrounding the chef scribbling a beautiful script onto a back of a reciept, explaining in detail each symbol and how to properly write it. We proceed to an Indian, Ethiopian, and Chinese restaurants, slowly collecting languages top be used in our artwork.
We grew with zero money and zero experience. We only had silly idea, creativity and drive and our message has spread across the world. Our first first successful idea came when we started packing thousands of our t-shirts into potato chip bags. Since we've used all kinds of creative packaging and marketing techniques.
We’ve also hosted myriad events from art shows, mural parties, galas, fake surfing competitions on beaches with zero waves, and even a festival on the beach called ZAMfest. We've raised tens of thousands of dollars to donate and we continue to bring a positive light to everything we touch.
Our sticker campaign has reached all areas of the world.
Visit to look back at past Limited Edition designs and products.
We'd hustled our shirts all around New England and the East Coast when it came time to get a homebase. Until then, we stacked boxes on top of boxes at our family's living room and basement. Jonathan had graduated college, we started to grow, and we decided to open a store and studio in our home town of Quincy, Massachusetts.
Zamforia is a family affair: the owners Jonathan and Olivia are brother and sister. Friends and family make up the rest of the company- even customers aren't customers, they're family.
In 2013, we decided to paint the wall outside our store. Jonathan and our summer intern Kristian (still in high school at the time) designed the wall and we painted it will the help of some friends- some of whom were just walking by. With the help of 50 donors in the span of 4 hours, we were able to raise more than $1500 to not only help pay for building permits but to also help our efforts in updating a local law preventing any type of type of mural to be painted without thousands of dollars.
At some point, flash mobs were the "in" thing. Everyday people would come into the store and try to convince us to host one but we always declined. The more time that went by without us hosting a mob, the more we felt we were disappointing. So, one day we said "yes". We told the first people to keep it a secret but to tell people. No social media postings, no marketing. Just a time and place: Faneuil Hall at noon. This video tells you the rest:
