Part of our Women in Design series, this interview spotlights Anna Pia Slothower, co-founder of Deap Design, a Sausalito-based studio known for shaping innovative, user-driven products across industries.

With an international career spanning Europe and the United States, Slothower brings a thoughtful balance of creativity and technical precision to her work.

Her designs—including the Drumm Bar Stool and the Pill Desk—have been recognized with the Prize Designs Award for Modern Furniture + Lighting, reflecting a deep commitment to material exploration, sustainability, and meaningful everyday experiences.

GDN: You’ve built an international career from Sweden to Paris to co-founding Deap Design—can you share how your journey into design began, and what led you to where you are today?

Anna Pia Slothower: Growing up in Gothenburg, Sweden, I was impressed by my creative parents, a home filled with furniture by design masters like Bellini and Castiglioni, an engineer brother and many of his creative friends.

My mother was a pattern making teacher at a textile design school and my father a professor in marketing.

He had a strong interest in sailing which led him to work with yacht designers and develop several boat designs.

There were always drawings, prototypes and scaled models around the house. I was fascinated by this creativity and became a good sketcher and creative thinker at an early age.

After high-school I moved to Paris to learn French. After a year, decided to attend a four-year program at Ecole Supérieure de Design Industriel in the Marais district, which after I graduated became CréaPol, and moved to Rue de Rivoli.

I got a job with a French company called Jacob Delafon, which had just been acquired by the US based Kohler Company. After five years, I moved to Kohler, Wisconsin, to take on larger projects and work within a larger team.

 This is where I met my husband, Erich, also a designer, and with whom I moved to California in 2000.

We moved to the Bay Area where I worked in the technology industry for a few years, designing handheld devices at Palm Inc.

Then moving to Gingko Design, a small design studio in SF, and learning valuable design and business skills from the veteran owners as we designed printers and other devices for HP, TDK and Western Digital.

With a lull in the business, I was forced to leave the Gingko studio, but soon found a growing number of clients on my own. I called my studio ‘a-p design’. This was a very exciting time and I learned a lot from having to run my own business and being the final voice of each design project.

After two years, my business was doing really well. My husband decided to leave his job as a dinnerware designer at Williams Sonoma and together we co-founded Deap Design.

 From the beginning we were lucky to get many clients and we worked on anything that came our way – which ranged from kitchen tools and melamine dinnerware to faucet collections, bidet seats and concrete bath tubs.

After a few years, the studio grew to 9 ppl and we were buzzing with work both with projects to support a growing global business for Kohler Co, as well as with many new west coast clients, such as Glowforge Inc in Seattle, for whom we have designed their first product which broke fundraising records, and then every new product in their line-up.

We have recently reduced our studio size and are currently operating with more flexibility bringing in collaborators as needed by projects.

My passion for furniture design has finally made its way into our work.

In recent years we have initiated and been involved in several furniture projects and have exhibited at WestEdge in Santa Monica.

We are currently working on a brand-new lounge chair – the Luna chair – which will be shown at ICFF in May this year.

GDN: How would you describe your approach to design, and what influences your creative direction?

Anna Pia Slothower: I start by asking a lot of questions. If it’s for a client, I want to understand as much as possible about their background, the company values and their aspirations for the new product.

What is the feeling we are hoping to generate with the new product or piece of furniture? What are their business goals?

My goal is an exciting first impression and a connection with the user.

I think a lot about the perception of a design, and the experience after interacting and using it over time. I also want the product, or piece of furniture, to be exciting and attractive in a way that feels natural.

That sensation should be the same or even stronger as the product gets used over time. Ideally it becomes a cherished part of life.

We have a motto which is: Imagine what’s better – then make it happen! I imagine scenarios: What is the experience using current products of this kind, and what would be an improvement to what’s already existing?

What would make someone love the new product? And all along, I think about how it can be made, be sustainable, and long lasting. That’s the make-it-happen part.

When developing my ideas, I first design in my head, ‘daydreaming’ solutions to the experiences I’m looking for. I sketch by hand, usually with a ballpoint pen or thin markers. I sometimes start by building small models in paper or to help visualize and develop my concepts.

I’m a big believer in quick, early mock-ups, so if an idea works on paper or as a small model, I like to quickly build a full-scale foam-core version to refine and develop it further. If the design is small enough, we print 3d models or cut parts on our laser cutter.

GDN: Sustainability is embedded in many of your projects—how do you balance ecological responsibility with commercial realities?

Anna Pia Slothower: As designers I think we have both the opportunity and responsibility to steer projects towards sustainable choices of materials and manufacturing processes.

Most companies these days are very keen to have a strong sustainability story so the subject and effort is always welcome.

It comes down to being informed and curious about materials and manufacturing efficiencies.

One way we have achieved good results is by understanding waste in the production cycle. If a new design can reduce the amount of waste, this is a win both for the manufacturer and the environment.

In the production of ceramic for example, curved shapes and soft edges contribute to higher yield when glazing, so coming up with designs that are visually exciting while making them easy to manufacture is a good way to be both sustainable and business minded.

GDN: What emerging technologies or materials are you most excited about right now?

Anna Pia Slothower: AI related tools are of course a new addition that’s very helpful in many parts of what we do, mostly in speed of doing research and material searches, and to make situational short videos based on our renderings.

But so far it doesn’t change our creative conceptual work or the way we refine concepts.

In terms of interesting technologies – I recently saw a demonstration with two people sending texts to each other without typing or speaking, only “thinking” their messages.

I’d love to design a device using this new brain-interface technology as a tool to aid communication for individuals with loss of speech.

My 88-year-old mother suffers from loss of speech due to Parkinsons and this would be a life changer for her.

Through our furniture projects we continuously look for sustainable materials and processes. Recently I have been excited about a Swedish material called PaperShell.

It’s made with layers of craft paper, impregnated with a bio-binder, and can be pressed into load-bearing components; for industrial use, or for furniture seating, replacing injection molded plastic parts.

GDN: What has your experience as a woman in industrial design taught you, both professionally and creatively?

Anna Pia Slothower: I have never felt very hindered by being a woman in the field of design. On the contrary, it’s often an advantage since people are usually not aggressive towards you.

I like being the one who brings the nurturing and caring view-point, if that’s missing from a team.

I think it’s a matter of being good at your craft, know your materials and technologies, and having a point of view.

If it comes from your heart and from a strong sense of style, people will listen. I’m not afraid of asking questions – I see it as curiosity rather than a sign of weakness. Curiosity is an indispensable tool!

It’s also very important to listen to others, including everyone on your team as well as anyone around you who might have comments or input. And I definitely don’t mind negative input – it’s all constructive to me!

GDN: What projects or ideas are you most excited to explore next?

Anna Pia Slothower: We are excited about a new furniture design we are bringing to ICFF in May this year. The Luna chair.

It’s a lounge chair made for day dreaming and creative moments. A large surrounding armrest creates a comfortable space around you and is also stable enough to work as a side table for sketching, magazines or a glass of wine… The interior structure is made of aluminum for strength while keeping the silhouette thin.

It has a padding of wool felt and the cover is made in a recycled cotton fabric. We have a few additional cover versions in mind; an oversized, wrinkled canvas, or a combination of recycled sail materials – cotton and Dacron, which can add some graphic elements to the cover design.

Another project we are working on is an aluminum bench for public seating. It’s a minimal and playful version of a classic 2-plank bench, constructed like origami to form the outlines of the planks and supporting blocks.

We are in talks with a City Council for a project to replace a row of old and worn-out benches along the waterfront with our new bench, which would be fantastic!