Engineering? Manufacturing? Isn’t Anatoly — a creative type? Actually, “building things” predates my film, photography, and design work. And it started in childhood, shaped by a rare combination of nature and necessity:
A naval architect for a grandmother — instead of reading children’s books, she taught me the mechanics of materials and assembly methods. She would draft the pros and cons of stringers and beams in various vessel locations. It felt like magic.
A gearhead grandfather with golden hands — a collector of tools, a physics tinkerer, and a man who taught me full-scale, full-stakes construction. Together, we welded bicycles, built the second floor of our Moscow dacha, and replaced a car’s exhaust system — without a lift. We even spun helicopters out of tin cans. Buying toys or hiring a carpenter was never an option. We built.
A crumbling Soviet economy — If you wanted something, you made it. There were no “Daddy, buy me this toy” moments. I argued for a hand saw. Nope. Borrowing, scavenging, repurposing, and making do.
Soviet education’s hands-on approach — Труд (literally “work”) classes meant industrial lathes, milling and drilling stations straight from the factory, and mandatory GD&T technical drawing lessons. Making nuts and bolts from a blueprint seemed normal.
A physics- and math-heavy high school curriculum — eventually followed by design studies at Stroganov Academy in Moscow.
Then I met people who struggled to drill a hole or hang a painting. Suddenly, I realized — I was the abnormal one.
CONSTRUCTION, MEET ART & DESIGN
Before I picked up a professional paintbrush, I picked up a welding stick. My first serious painting came after metalwork — at age 14. That idea-to-manufacturing mindset stuck with me.
It became mission-critical when I realized no off-the-shelf solutions existed for what I needed to film my first feature in 2011. By then, I was back in Geneva, with access to the industrial base I needed to produce my own gear:
Camera rigs, display hoods, microphone mounts.
Custom-sewn ultralight bags for discreet airport transport of equipment.
On set, my gear attracted so much interest that I co-founded Idelekka, a cinema equipment prototyping and manufacturing company.
MACHINES AND THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE THEM
Once I left Russia for the “civilized world” at age 17, I learned the “never enough tools” truism:
CNC laser cutters, lathes, mills, and bending presses — become easier to use with each iteration, but I still mentally factor in material removal rates, heat dissipation, and tooling longevity.
I’m a proponent of subtractive-additive, hybrid workflows integrating SLA, SLS, and FDM 3D printing with CNC machining.
CAM and programming expertise — I optimize G-Code(intermediate / 14 years) toolpaths for efficiency and material conservation.
Material-first thinking — Selecting cutting, fastening, and joining strategies at the design stage.
I maintain direct, human relationships with suppliers — High-precision CNC brands, metal fabrication leaders, welding/joining specialists, the likes of Hermle, Mikron, Brother, Haas, Trumpf, Amada, Nargesa, Lincoln Electric, Miller, ESAB, Fronius, Juki, Dürkopp… the numerous fixtures’ and rigs’ innovators such as Bosch Rexroth, Festo, Siegmund… HVAC gear like Fieldpiece and Testo, electrics/electronics tool manufacturers like Fluke, JBC, Ersa, Hakko… regulated gas suppliers like Air Liquide, Air Products, Linde, GeneralGas… consumables’ specialists 3M, Pferd, Sika, Henkel, Prysmian, Wago, Amann, Coats and many, many more. Should I also mention the manual and metrology tools like Facom, Wera, Knipex and Starrett and risk going on forever?
I keep track of emerging trends — At Global Industrie, EMO, Chillventa, Fabtech…
VARIABLE MATERIALS
You may notice me stopping during my daily 10-15K run to examine some new material and later applying my chemistry knowledge to explore a polymer before I take a shower:
Woods, high-performance alloys, carbon fiber, reinforced concrete, tile, glass, synthetic and rubber foam, elastomers, Dyneema (UHMWPE), Gore-Tex, Cordura, silnylon, basalt insulation… and a huge variety of plastics.
Engineering for tensile strength, thermal expansion, heat accumulation, and impact absorption.
PROTOTYPING & RAPID ITERATION
CAD and simulation using either meso-scale parametric software:
I develop and enforce a strict naming schema to avoid the vague “Filet 32” elements in the Feature Tree and 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse overuse (did you notice one in The Expanse?)
Virtual Final Element Analysis (FEA for thickness choice, stress accumulation determination, stress testing), but real-world validation remains essential.
HYBRID MANUFACTURING WORKFLOWS
Automation isn’t always the best solution — sometimes, manual craftsmanship and robotics work best together. Latest KUKA and ABB developments agree to free the ever-patient helping hands from their cages.
Fixtures, jigs, and modular setups — accelerating production, reducing errors.
LEAN AND AGILE MANUFACTURING
Reducing waste and inefficiencies: even in small-batch or bespoke production.
First-principles problem-solving — my unlikely combination of Soviet practicality, Swiss precision and an absence of “traditional” career path keeps my mind open to unorthodox solutions. A composite glass-and-fabric stack weighs half the military-spec Pelican case? Convection cooling puts a smile on a sound engineer’s face? A hack of plasma physics to improve weld penetration with minimum crystalline re-arrangement? Let’s go!
High-risk, high-tolerance, custom work — I welcome projects where failure is not an option — Think Tom Cruise getting smashed by a 20 kg camera — and no one has attempted anything like it before.
Business-savvy engineering — I leverage my ESCP Europe education to negotiate win-win supplier deals instead of penny-pinching. 27 years of experience with UPS, FedEx / TNT, DPD, DHL, GLS, Kuehne+Nagel, DB Schenker, Geodis, national postal and customs services also help.
Some people build things. Some optimize. Some design. I do all 3.