Rosanna Inc.
Industrial Design Lead
1yr. 8mo.
August 2015 - March 2017
Travel 25% of Year for product and international factory management
Sourcing, ideation, prototyping, product pitch
Technical documentation for ceramic and glass manufacturing
Worked directly under CEO, collaborated with COO, Operations Manager, Warehouse Manager, Creative Lead, and VP of Sales, managed one employee
Clients: Starbucks, Teavana, Smithsonian, Nordstrom, Guggenheim, Met Museum, White House Historical Association, 9/11 Memorial, Francescas
Key Skills: Industrial Design, Machine Repair/Maintenance, Sourcing, Patience and Availability After Hours for Troubleshooting, Visual Communication Across Language Barriers, 3D Rendering: KeyShot, 3D Modeling: Solidworks, 3D Printing: Ultimaker 2, Cura Slicer, General: Project Proposal and Pitch, Writing, Client Relations, Follow-up, Industry Trend and Mass Production Processes Research, Ceramics Machine Processes Innovation, Employee Training, Microsoft Office: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Sales and Design Representative at Trade Shows
STAKEHOLDERS & COMMUNICATIONS
Our Team
Rosanna Bowles (President, Art Director)
London Dewey (Creative Lead)
Rebekah Webb (Creative Lead)
Bridget Gahagan (Sr. Graphic Designer)
Karly Krause (Production Designer)
Katie Utgaard (Industrial Designer)
Design Constraints
Dependent on client constraints: time, budget, volume, market.
Ceramics Innovation Residency
Dongguan, China
Fall 2017
Innovation Residency, (machine & production processes study, innovation ideation) 1 week at factory, Fall 2016
Exclusive Clients
Metropolitan Museum of Art
MET Facade Ornament (Ideation, Prototyping, Sample Management, Packaging), Holiday 2017
White House Historical Association
White House Ornament (Ideation, Prototyping, Sample Management, Packaging), Holiday 2017
Starbucks
Double Wall Ceramic Travel Mug, 12oz (Ideation, Prototyping, Sample Management), Estimated Release Fall 2018
Enamelware Style Mug (Ideation, Glaze Development), Holiday 2017
Holiday Village (Ideation, Prototyping, Sample Management, Packaging, QA), Holiday 2016
Nesting Cups (Ideation, Prototyping, Sample Management, Packaging, QA), Holiday 2016
Icon Ornaments (Ideation, Prototyping, Sample Management, Packaging, QA), Holiday 2016
Classic Demi (Sample Management, Packaging, QA), Holiday 2016
Winter Ornaments (Sample Management, Packaging, QA), Holiday 2016
Home Collection (Sample Management, Packaging, QA), Holiday 2016
Teavana
Bergen Tea Set (Ideation, Prototyping, Sample Management, Packaging, QA), Holiday 2016
Poinsettia Glassware, (Sample Management, Packaging, QA), Holiday 2016
Hexagon Trays, (Sample Management, Packaging, QA), Holiday 2016
Tea Charms & Infusers, (Sample Management, Packaging, QA), Holiday 2016
GUGGENHEIM Museum
On the Ramps Collection, (Ideation, Sample Management), Fall 2016
Rosanna Brand
Fall 2017
Spring 2017
Fall 2016
Additional experience
Canton Import and Export Fair
Sourcing (Glass, Ceramics, and Fabrics) Fall 2016
New York Now Trade Show
Company Representative (Set-up, Sales, and Trend Research) Winter 2016 and 2017
Modeling
Product Photoshoots Holiday 2016 and Spring 2017
Featured In
Key Learnings
1) Project planning and management is incredibly important for product success.
Below is a 6 month consolidated, master project epic with phases, key decision points (yellow), and daily tasks for in-house, clients, and five types of production processes. This planning document functioned as a working project record, established standard procedures, held stakeholders accountable, and enabled team leads to quickly pick up various tasks among up to 10 client projects that our small office consistently juggled.
2) Coordinated efforts between business functions is challenging but possible if leadership seeks to learn, acts on change, and maintains accountability.
Our creative team maintained a long-running project to organize files, archives, transition creative assets from physical to digital formats, streamline client communications, and create templates to standardize business processes.
3) I enjoyed the independence and responsibility of building out an Industrial Design program but missed working with technical teams.
My background in entrepreneurship and tech led to some innovative product concepts and a capacity to understand manufacturing processes, which granted me the outstanding opportunity to travel to implement these ideas. However, there were limits to the types of products the business produced and markets we had the capacity to enter - I missed working with engineers and pivoted my career to re-enter the tech industry.