Profile: Ivan Zakharov – Only Natural Design Competitions

Ivan Zakharov

Kingston School of Art

In 2013 I permanently left my home country to study abroad. Over the past thirteen years I have finished high school in the USA, done a year of university there, and finally moved to the UK in 2020. I have been interested in working with my hands my entire life. At first I tried mechanical engineering as my major, but soon realised that this was not the direction I wanted to move in, the engineering major lacked creativity and was mostly focused on 3D modeling software. After a year of mechanical engineering I decided to take a professional course in bespoke woodworking at Chippendale School of Furniture, this education has given me what I was looking for the entire time. The ability to physically express my ideas as well as utilise and hone my hand skills to produce objects that I myself designed. After one year in Chippendale I undertook a similar professional wood maker course at Rowden Atelier, and during that year applied for BA in product and furniture design at Kingston University. I have graduated from my BA course in 2025, and am currently finishing my MA product and furniture program at Kingston University. Creating through making is something I have been doing both as a hobby and as a study for the past several years, and I am striving to turn my education and skill set into a full time profession in the near future. In my projects I pay very high attention to the details, and aspire to create quality designs that last a lifetime.

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Shuffle-Shelf

Category: Furniture

Competitions: Home Competition 2026

I decided to come up with a minimalistic design of a small table shelf that can be used to organise a workspace. The materials that I chose are all natural solid timber. The shelf is assembled using wedges to attach legs to the board - this part of the design allows for the shelf unit to be flat packed to save cost of shipping, and to save space when moving. Legs of the shelf are cut at an angle for aesthetic purposes, and could be moved along the shelf board and fixed using wedges, this modularity allows users to set up the shelf in a way they want the most. There is a space underneath the shelf that could be used for storing additional items/organisers without dust piling in them. All of the finishing of the shelf was done using hand tools, which celebrates the woodworking craft and elevates the attention to the details of the final product. I personally enjoy utilizing hand tools over machinery as it gives me more control over the final outcome, as well as better understanding of the material. This product could be used either as a desk unit for better organisation or an interior piece to display smaller objects, such as plant pots or books. The whole unit is assembled without any nails or screws, only solid timber and glue is used, this way the design becomes even more natural and sustainable in comparison to mass produced units which often rely on cheaper materials and systems that require metal parts for assembly.