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Funny enough, Dan was not a coffee drinker until he exactly like how I imagined them”, she said. A happy ending at
met his father-in-law, a true Italian. In love with espressos since, 10pm, before delivering it the next day.
he owns an Lamarzocco GS3 at home, which was also his first
customization project. When it came to Dan’s first commercial
project, it was a much bigger machine than the GS3, which was
the very first three group-head Slayer machine, ordered by St.
Ali Coffee Roasters in Melbourne. The project took Dan two
months to finish, including copper and leather work, and the
most difficult part build? The paddles. The seemingly small parts
were a work of 40 hours.

The steam wand handle on the VA388 Black Eagle for Veneziano
Coffee Roasters shows the personal touch, also an collaboration
between Dan and his wife Adriana.

Dan is neither a “pen and paper” person nor a “digital
drawing” person; when it comes to designs, he is very much
“hands-on”. He likes to push boundaries for his customers,
however when asked if he plans to start working with other
materials than timber, he still believes that he would follow the
rule - “stick to what you know”.

The first Slayer project, for St. Ali in Melbourne. Unfortunately,
the machine is no longer in store. Photo credit: Specht Design.

A “muted” style (a word borrowed from Dan’s wife
Adriana) is what Dan has developed over the year. While in
Melbourne, every now and then you would hear people asking
in a café “is this Specht Design’s work?”. His wife Adriana has
gradually become a part of Dan’s one-man team, supporting him
to do what he loves, and giving him advices with a fresh per-
spective. When finishing up Veneziano Coffee Roasters’ VA388 Dan’s very own customized Lamarzocco GS3 espresso machine.
Black Eagle Espresso Machine for the Melbourne International Photo Credit: Specht Design.
Coffee Expo 2016, Dan wanted to do something different with
the milk steam wand handles, but was not happy with his origi-
nal ideas. Adriana came in, described how she envisioned the Dan can be contacted via dan@spechtdesign.com.au, or
design, 15 minutes later, Dan made the handles “pretty much simply follow his Instagram @specht_design.
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