A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
SAIC faculty member Zachary Manuel.

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Zachary Manuel

Lecturer

Contact

Professional Site

Bio

Zach Manuel (they/them) is a multi-disciplinary designer that brings expertise from a range of large and small corporations, taking products from concept to reality in every environment. Zach has lead the development of award-winning furniture designs that were recognized through Best of Year, Best of NeoCon and HiP awards.

Zach's love of constructing with his hands, both growing up and in school established the foundation for who he is as a designer. He is a design enthusiast and furniture aficionado, inspired by all things creative, expressive and joyful. With each new project he strives to challenge assumptions, apply his knowledge in surprising ways, create unique experiences and stay curious.

Zach has a Master's degree in Interior Architecture and Product Design from Kansas State University. He has worked in-house at corporate leaders including IKEA and Target. In addition to designing in-house products for Martin Brattrud, he has developed products with industry leaders; Google, Facebook, Kaiser Permanente and Populous to name a few.

Personal Statement

My intersectional identity has been the guide to my journey in design and research. I am a Midwesterner, I have lived all over the country, I am a Filipino, I am non-binary, I am a parent, I am a partner. Each of these elements of self contribute to my unique sense of empathy I bring to the design process. Empathy not only for the 99 percent user we identify to inform our design decisions but more importantly for the 1 percent that is marginalized. Empathy also for the team making the design decisions, that they too are representative of the people we are designing for. My role as a parent has led me to, most importantly, empathize with users outside of the 100 percent, the future generations these products and byproducts will be passed down to. By creating a compassionate ecosystem of design, I believe we elevate the industry, empower other designers to embrace their full identities, and design for all.

Awards

Djembe Collection, 2022 Best of Year Award; Djembe Collection, 2022 HiP Winner; Heceta, 2022 Best of Neocon Silver; Trikaya Lounge, 2016 IWF Design Emphasis Seating Division Winner; Allen Hastings Outstanding Product Design Award; IDSA Student Merit Award Recipient; Tot Bot, Kansas State Launch Winner.

Publications

Amplifying Design Through Sustainability, Innovation Magazine, 2024; Passion for Woodworking Magazine Publication, Trikaya Lounge, 2016.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

Furniture shapes how we sit, gather, work, and inhabit space. This studio introduces furniture as both a design category and a fabrication discipline, grounding students in form, proportion, structural logic, material behavior, and full-scale making.

Working primarily in wood, with selective use of light metals, students develop fluency in essential shop processes including joinery, machine operation, lathe turning, and iterative full-scale prototyping. Emphasis is placed on human scale and performance: how the body informs dimension, how materials carry load, and how construction decisions shape both function and meaning.

Projects progress from focused material and joinery studies to resolved furniture pieces. Making is treated as a mode of thinking, with mockups and prototypes used to test, refine, and evaluate ideas through direct engagement with materials.

A primary objective of the course is to build sustained confidence working in the Sullivan Fabrication Center, integrating shop practice into the design process and establishing fabrication as a core component of work at SAIC.

This course is for students seeking foundational experience in furniture design and full-scale fabrication, including Designed Objects students preparing for advanced studios such as Chair Studio and Advanced Furniture, as well as students from Sculpture, Fiber, Fashion, Architecture, and related disciplines. It is typically taken in the second year as a gateway to advanced furniture coursework and pairs well with CNC, with no prior furniture experience required.

Class Number

1282

Credits

3