In January 2009, Zachary Feltoon launched David Zachary with David Wright, a fellow Industrial Design classmate at Pratt. Based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the duo specializes in domestic interior products. Meanwhile, Zachary also designs for Domestic Aesthetic and is an active participant in Project H, NYC chapter, while serving as a TA for Abstract 3D design at Pratt Institute. We had the pleasure of hearing Zachary speak at this month’s IDNY meetup at Heller.

Zachary Feltoon at the IDNY meetup. January 14, 2010 at the Heller Showroom.

Through a brief anecdote, he explained what motivates him to design – and what he strives for when doing so.

When I was fourteen years old I had a ritual. Every morning I would wake up…have a bowl of cereal and use the exact same spoon that I had for my entire life. This one morning I wake up and I’m going through this same ritual – but I happen to pick out a different one and up until this point I hadn’t realized. But when I put the spoon into my mouth to take the first bite – something incredible happened. This was a better bite of cereal than I’ve ever had in my entire life.

What it made me realize, is that when you’re designing you can change the rituals that you go through every day. This is something that I really strive to think about in all of the projects that I do.

His Dual Height bench is no exception. Sure, it still provides the same primary function as a standard bench, but makes slight alterations to its form to improve upon the experience one has when using it. DHB “allows two sitters of different heights to sit comfortably and interact with each another,” Zachary explained. The design consists of 15 unique profiles in maple (beautifully produced using wood-joinery techniques) separated by mahogany spacers.

Fore more of his work, check out the video of Zachary’s short-but-sweet presentation from IDNY – and pay attention to his explanation of the TiZ Bed: Energy Reclamation System.

Photography by Holly Haffner.