About Erik Christopher DeMelo : Erik Christopher DeMelo is an American Industrial Designer best known for his work in the leather craft industry. Erik was born in New York City on February 4, 1984, he worked in the kitchenware industry at Lifetime Brands before joining the family business with his wife, Hao-Wen Chen in Taiwan. The brand, Ivan Leathercraft, is an industry recognized company that provides leather, craft kits, hand tools, buckles, conchos, hardware, leather dyes and machinery to leather crafters worldwide. Erik Christopher DeMelo was born in Queens, New York, on February 4, 1984, the first of three siblings. His parents Brenda and Gabriel DeMelo are Russian-German and Portuguese decedents. At the age of 16, Erik attended Cooper Union Pre-College Mechanical Engineering program to seek after his dream of becoming an engineer. Erik is known for his engineering sense, finding inspiration in “universal man"and artists like Leonardo da Vinci, while having a passion for both utility and modern designs. He went on to attend Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied Industrial design for four years. After graduating in 2006, he took a design job at Nemo Equipment. In 2005, while working for AgaMatrix, Erik received his first utility patent for “Blood Glucose Monitor Vial For Test Strips”. In 2015, Erik was awarded a design patent for his work in “Cutting Press” design. Following this recognition, he received a Taiwan patent for the same design. Then in 2016, Erik received design patents for “Leather Imprinting Machine” from the USA, Taiwan and China. This design focused on combining tasks like cutting leather, stamp designs and setting hardware into one simple, elegant machine. This design became the Silver Award winner in A’ Design Award and Competition Prosumer Products, Tools, and Machinery Design Category in 2016-2017.