DANIEL FONG

What is your background in?

I have absolutely no background in design. I have always been able to draw or sketch at a very young age. I love to paint but never in any meaningful ways. I love art and am always learning about art appreciation. So I guess one can say my influence in design comes from continuous learning, buying and surrounding myself with great design objects, and thinking about how those designs can be applied to other types of products.

What Prompted You To Design The Vetro Crib?

I am interested to find new materials besides using conventional wood to make beautiful stylish baby cribs. I like the modern and futuristic look of clear acrylic which can offer a minimalistic design that focuses all the attention to the baby yet creating a wow sensation to anyone around the baby. At the ICFF show 2 years ago where we launched the Vetro, I was sitting across our booth just to observe and noticed that everyone that saw the Vetro exclaimed "wow". And when a baby was put inside the Vetro at the show, she felt so at peace because she did not notice the invisible barrier and was relating to all the surrounding visitors as if she was not in a crib. That's when I know this is a game changing and history changing crib.

What Do You Find Inspirational?

I found inspiration in anything thoughtful and with excellence as the basis of motivation. That's why I love the Japanese culture of craftsmanship and the French restaurants in meticulous food preparation and attentive services.

What Is Your Personal Style?

I love Japanese fashion in terms of clothing, italian for shoes, eclectic in terms of home furniture mixing various styles and eras. I think I like to be current but also appropriate for my age.

What Do You Like To Do For Fun?

Where should I start? Let's start with eating, cooking, drinking and traveling all over the world in search of excellent authentic local foods. Traveling also gives me the chance to look at new architectures and new retail store designs. As far as sports is concern, I love to ski, golf, hike, scuba dive, and bike and am willing to participate in all kinds of other activities too. I just don't have that much time to do everything. I am a ferocious reader and would love to have more photo trips. I look forward to our next safari in Africa. I do have a green thumb so gardening is also fun for me. But one really time consuming hobby is building scaled plastic model sail ships and boats like the USS constitution which I haven't been able to tackle for quite a long time now.