BECCA KROLL Industrial | Interactive | Graphic
DESIGN bekroll@gmail.com | 352.262.0756 ADDRESS | 261 14th St Apt 2E | Brooklyn, NY, 11215
BECCA KROLL Industrial | Interactive | Graphic
PROFILE
ADDRESS
bekroll@gmail.com | 352.262.0756 | 261 14th Street Apartment 2E | Brooklyn, NY, 11215
DESIGN
Energetic, curious and hardworking individual looking for creative design opportunities. Good communicator and quick learner with specialized interests in industrial, graphic and interactive design.
EDUCATION
Syracuse University | Syracuse, NY Bachelors of Industrial Design | May 2012 GPA 3.66, Graduated Magna Cum Laude Dean’s List Fall 2007-Spring 2012 Study Abroad | SU Abroad Florence, Italy | May 2009-July 2009 Phi Sigma Pi National Honors Fraternity | Fall 2009-Spring 2012
EXPERIENCE
Hook&Loop/Infor | Associate Designer of Product Experience | October 2013-Present | Design interfaces and interactions for a variety of enterprise software programs and apps. Work with products through entire process from initial concept to information architecture to developement. EK Success Brands | Industrial Designer | October 2012-October 2013 | Collaborate with IDE team and brand managers to create a variety of arts and crafts tools for brands including Perler, Martha Stewart and EK Tools. Focus on user perspective and interactive qualities of each product throughout design process. Co-manage punch testing process. Syracuse University | Industrial Design Interface Undergraduate Teaching Assistant | Fall 2011 | Created Adobe Flash demos. Taught students strategies of interaction design alongside professor. Florida Museum of Natural History | Interactive Design Intern | Summer 2011 | Designed and produced interactive activities to enhance children’s museum learning experience using Flash Catalyst, currently in use in museum exhibits. Solyd Solutions | Creative Director | Fall 2010-Summer 2011 | Created logos and marketing materials for Solyd Solutions and their affiliates. neutral7 | Graphic Design Intern | Summer 2010 | Created identity and marketing materials for Rocket for the Arts, a non-profit organization for the support of the arts in Gainesville, FL.
SKILLS
Collaborative skills | Strong communicator | Works well with others | Dependable | Hardworking | Flexible | Productive | Efficient | Takes pride in work Creative skills | Open to new ideas | Strong brainstorming | Curious and ready to learn Software skills | Adobe Photoshop | Illustrator | InDesign | Flash Catalyst | Flash | Mac OSX | SolidWorks Hobbies | Building IKEA Furniture | Crafts | Baking | Loves dogs
CHALK
EK Success Brands A chalk holder created for EK Tools’ current line of products. This simple and ergonomic chalk holder is the perfect tool for teachers, students, and artists. This exciting new medium tool fits into the EK Tools family of products with their consistent design aesthetics and colors. The EK Tools Chalk Holder comes in two sizes for both large and small chalk.
CHALK
EK Success Brands Exploratory sketches and renderings
BEAD SNIPPER EK Success Brands
A safe and fun tool to help kids create Perler beads of any and all sizes. For Perler’s new “Stems and Rods” program, we needed an easy and safe way for kids to cut their own Perler Bead Stems into rods of any length. This tool provides the leverage necessary to make these cuts incredibly easy, and an audible “snap” when the bead is cut all the way through. The Bead Snipper is completely safe with an unreachable blade and non-slip feet, and has a printed easy-to-read ruler for consistent lengths.
BEAD PEN EK Success Brands
A fun tool that helps crafters of all ages enjoy Perler beads in a fun, new, and efficient way. The Perler Bead Dispenser makes Perler projects fun and exciting. The top knob spins open and allows kids to scoop in beads from their bucket or drop in their favorite colors. Pushing the button on the side simultaneously spins a disc at the top, which shakes beads into queue, and turns the bead basket 180 degrees, dropping out one bead at a time. The clear body allows the user to see the excitement happening inside, and a slot down the middle gives a peek of what beads are next in line. This is a completely kid-driven design, assisted by user groups of kids from a range of ages throughout the design process.
BEAD PEN
EK Success Brands Renderings, model, user testing, and packaging
PEG Thesis
A system of furniture using universal joinery to create collapsible and interchangeable pieces. My thesis is focussing on the idea that active engagement in creating an object will lead to a strong bond with that object. I believe that, to heighten the value of objects around us, there is value in the “making,” and that’s where we should play a stronger role. I am looking specifically at furniture, something that we all need, use, display, connect with (to varying degrees), and replace.
PEG It was very early in life, with my dad’s Stickley armchair, that I first began to see the deep connection that a person can have with a piece of furniture. Contrastingly, when I came to college, I was looking for furniture that was described as “good enough” and would “do its job” and then be sold or tossed. The Industrial Revolution changed the game for the furniture industry. When making a desk begins with cutting down a tree with one’s own hands, as it used to, the value of the wood amplifies extensively. The Industrial Revolution made things fast, easy and disposable. Planned obsolescence also plays a roll in the way we see the objects around us, as we always know that the next thing to come out is planned to be faster, newer and better. We need to start making objects with long-term value and stop surrounding ourselves with things that we see as replaceable. Through an exploration of customizeablility and DIY objects, I found that there is value in the “making.” When someone has a good experience making an object, they are more likely to have a deeper connection with said object.
With this in mind, I designed Peg. The furniture is puzzle-like, with “ah-hah!� moments throughout its assembly. If put together incorrectly at first, it can easily be undone without losing any integrity of the piece (unlike a screw, which weakens the wood each time it’s removed.) Most importantly, Peg is interchangeable. The tabletop can be placed on the stool legs for a large coffee table, and the stool top placed on the table legs for a side table. As for maintenance, if one part of the bench wears over time, only that one part must be replaced, instead of the entire piece. Peg is easy to collapse, easy to assemble, easy to store, easy to move, and easy to change.
PEG These two pages showcase some of the process work that was done for Peg. Across top left is an image of a classmate and I testing the sizes of the table, bench and stool. Across are images of quarter-scale mock-ups that I made to test the form. Above are images of the final stool being cut by the CNC machine, the byproduct of the cutting, and a leg glued and clamped together.
PEG Peg includes a small mallet in one leg of each piece to help bang in and out the pegs for simple assembly and deconstruction. Peg is made of threequarter inch furniture-grade birch plywood and the mallet and pegs are made of red oak. Each leg is four layers of the plywood, the sides are two, and the tops are a single layer. The varying thickness and consistent sturdiness of the pieces alter our perception of plywood furniture and add value to collapsible pieces.
PEG One key aspect to Peg is its interchangeability. Just as, seen before, the final pieces are in a dining set arrangement, the same pieces can be changed to a coffee table, side table and sofa table.
PEG Using these small color-coordinated models, one can see the unlimited possibilities of the Peg system. The tops of the legs of each piece are the same, allowing any top to go on any set of legs, whether you want a work bench, side table, coffee table or stool. This also helps with maintenance—if one part wears over time, only that one part needs to be replaced. These models were on display (and played with) on the Peg table at our thesis shows in Syracuse Storefront (Syracuse, NY) and Dumbo Gallery (Brooklyn, NY).
SALT An ergonomic, palm-sized grinder to manually grind salt and seasonings. The salt industry has a long history in Syracuse, New York. Now taken for granted, this salt grinder is to remind us to celebrate our seasoning, and can be used for sea salt, rock salt or other seasonings. The grinder is made of zamak, a zinc aluminum alloy, and eventually could be made of cast iron. The weight and texture of the material lends itself to grinding to any size. Salt can be used for single servings or sit elegantly on the table as a pinch bowl.
SALT For this manual grinder, concave and convex hemispheres are used to evenly disperse the salt inside. The mold for this object is in two halves with draft angles kept in mind. Once the mold has been made, sand is packed on either side, the mold removed and melted metal poured in.
Across top are ideation sketches of the design. Across bottom are wood form studies leading to the final design. Above top are different stages of the casting process: packing the mold, melting the metal, pouring the metal, the casting, and finishing the piece. Above is a cross-section view of the mold before being packed.
SALT Beside are images of before and after sea salt is ground. After a quick turn back and forth, with assistance of the weight and texture of the material, the salt is ground to a fine texture. Across is an image of Salt sitting on a set table as a pinch bowl.
ARC Created out of e2e material, three repeating arcs create the overall shape for this sustainable rocking chair. e2e is a soy-based particle board produced in Ithaca, New York. The material is completely “green,� from the fibers to the glue that holds it, and it takes much less energy to produce than comparable wood or particle board products. At the beginning of this project, the creators of e2e were marketing the material as a replacement for MDF, and wanted some more exploration on the products’ possibilities.
ARC One major problem with fibrous e2e is there are very few glues that can hold it together. A few kinds of epoxy work, but of course are not “green.� It is counterproductive to join a sustainable material with unsafe glue, so the Arc uses a simpler and cleaner form of joinery: holes, threaded rods and nuts. This type of joinery also lends itself to collapsibility, as the chair can be taken apart and put back together.
Below left is an image of small mockups of the chair with chit board and toothpicks that I lasercut, trying to find the perfect center of gravity and ergonomic angle. Below center is a photo of the cut e2e materials. Below right is a photo of me sitting in the final chair, showing off the silhouette. Across are two images of the final piece, including a front view to show off the simple and minimalist quality of the chair.
EGGARDEN An elegant in-home gardening system for vegetable plants and herbs of all varieties and climates. This project was initially for an Electrolux design competition. The prompt was to “create a product that will assist prepare and store food, wash clothes or do dishes in the homes of 2050, when 74% of the global population are predicted to live in an urban environment.� I looked at Florence, Italy, where dedication to local produce drives the local economy and dinner menus.
EGGARDEN When studying abroad in Florence, Italy, I visited many neighborhood open-air markets, where most Florentines buy their food. Meals are a time to be together: friends and family come for many hours and multiple courses for lunch and dinner. If any city were to be affected by the depletion of farmland, Florence would be at the top of the list.
Topmost is a vector drawing of the Eggarden. Above is a rendering that shows the grow lights and water vents that sit in the top of each drawer.
Above is the Eggarden complete with plants that grow in an organic growing foam with little mess. Each drawer can be programmed with the type of plant and then replicates its ideal climate. The Eggarden informs the user when the plant is ready for pruning and eating.
PEAR A simple and elegant paring knife with overmolded grips to allow chefs to cut, carve, slice and dice with confidence and accuracy. The Pear has many options for hand placement, allowing the knife to be used in a variety of ways. The angles and grips on the handle allow the chef to work with control. Identifiers embossed on the back of each handle make the Pear even more unique and efficient, as each knife is identifiable even when stored in the knife block. The Pear, with its simple design, elegant shape and full tang blade is a useful and universal paring knife.
PEAR Below are ideation sketches of the design. Across top are the measurements for the design. Across middle are the different hand placements used with the angled handle. Across bottom are renderings of the side and top view of the knife as well as the embossed identifiers.
Angles allow chefs to use the Pear in many ways with different hand positions. The classic grip allows the chef to use the Pear as a regular chef’s knife, cutting, slicing and dicing. The pressure grip allows the chef to cut with a little more direction and pressure, made possible by the angles on the handle that create a space for the index finger. The hold grip creates a peeler and carving tool, truly exemplifying the abilities of paring knives by allowing the chef to do controlled and intricate work.
PEAR Identifiers are embossed on the end of each handle, allowing chefs to quickly identify which knife they should retrieve from the knife block according to what and how they are cutting. The fish symbolizes a blade perfect for filets, the jalapeno a blade perfect for intricate and small work, and the chef’s hat a blade that acts as a universal, small chef’s knife.
Below are detailed measurements of the blade, grip and Identifiers.