Green Captain

Anja Zambelli Colak

Anja Zambelli Čolak, born in 1983. Graduated from most prestigious design universities in Milan, Italy - Istituto Europeo di Design and Domus Academy where she got her Master’s degree in Business Design. Anja’s work has been published in design books “Packaging Structure” (ArtPower), “Take me away please” (DesignerBooks) and “Logo lounge” edition 2018 and 2020. “My passion is to understand the hidden value and the very essence of each client so that we can communicate those messages through branding and design.” Her education comes from two prestige design institutions in Milan, Italy: Istituto Europeo di Design and Domus Academy. Right after she got an M.A. in business design, she started to work for enterprises such as Unilever, 3M and Pininfarina, where she researched new ways of entering a market. “While I was working on new, progressive design strategies for large enterprises, I started to think of ways to transform those design tactics into functional branding for small and mid-sized businesses. Zambelli Brand Design was the direct result of those analyses and branding techniques.” Short after moving back to Croatia, Anja established Zambelli Brand Design studio with focus on creating brand strategies, verbal and visual identities. In her carrier Anja created some of the most known and popular Croatian brands such as: Surf'n'fries, HNK Rijeka, Logista, Vistini, Valfresco, Own solutions, Piko, Kisha, JIST, Dentorium, Barbieri’s and many others. Branding for the restaurant industry is one of her passion. Other than creating the branding for Surf'n'fries, the most successful Croatian franchise brand, last year, her branding expertise went beyond the European market. With her team, she created Bora Bora - a franchise brand for the QSR market based in GCC countries and Leen’s a restaurant brand based Dubai and Abu Dhabi. In 2017. she was selected as one of the Croatian winners of a Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award that recognizes successful female entrepreneurs and in 2019. she received the Croatian Chamber of Commerce Award for product and brand design. In private life, Anja is married and has a seven-year-old daughter Emily.