Building Groovy Lights
On the Market: Motorworks
This spring students in associate professor Abimbola Asojo’s Lighting Design and Life Safety Issues course participated in the “Connecting Education with Industry” challenge sponsored by Groovystuff. They were challenged to create a lamp using reclaimed material found in Groovystuff’s product line. Miniature models of their lamps debuted at the Spring High Point Market in North Carolina, April 20–25. Interior design student Bethany DeLine received the Gold Winner award, along with a $250 prize and lifetime royalties.
Adam Poetter (B.D.A. ’11) was a teaching assistant for the
See all of the lamps at design .umn.edu/groovylight.
There’s a new toy on the market–and it started in Rapson Hall. inaugural Toy Product Design course taught by assistant professor Barry Kudrowitz in spring 2011. “I think all of the TAs felt like we were getting into something bigger than ourselves,” said Poetter, who also received a B.S. in bioproducts and biosystems engineering. “[It was] a new way of doing things and a new way to approach engineering and design.” The class introduces the product design process with a focus on designing for play, from initial brainstorms to testing to a final event for the public every spring called PLAYsentations.
PLAYsentations 2013
At the end of the semester Manhattan Toy sponsored Poetter and his classmates Colin Nelson and Andrew Maxwell-Parish to continue prototyping their ideas. The result, Motorworks, went on sale in spring 2013, with customizable wooden toy vehicles, accessories, and play sets.
A magic wand, a deck of cards, a marker that draws with fog, what else do you need? Toy Product Design students entertained a packed auditorium of kids, parents, and students with their toy prototypes during PLAYsentations 2013. Watch all of their ideas in action at
“Every day I think I apply my multilingual abilities that I learned in Toy Product Design,” said Poetter, who now works at Protolabs, a rapid prototyping and manufacturing company near the Twin Cities. “Thinking like a child is something designers and engineers don’t do enough of.” More design.umn.edu/toys
design.umn.edu /playsentations.
Last summer our students interned with companies from the Twin Cities to Taiwan. We asked three undergraduates who interned with Kohl’s about their experiences.
6 EMERGING FALL 2013
NAME
HOMETOWN
DEGREE
ROLE AT KOHL’S
BIG LESSON LEARNED
Carissa Prieve
Lino Lakes, MN
Apparel Design
Technical Design Intern
Be confident in yourself, be willing to take risks and go outside of your comfort zone.
A full time position with Kohl’s after graduation.
FUTURE GOALS
Sarah Kendzior
Mukwonago, WI
Retail Merchandising Product Development Intern
Never be afraid to ask questions
To continue working in product development after graduation.
Kristine Kirchhoff
Hutchinson, MN
Retail Merchandising Merchandise Analyst
Soak up everything people talk about at school and at work. You may have use for it someday.
Get a job at Kohl’s!
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