Zoe was our intern almost 10 years ago so I was really happy she wanted to be part of the series. I was especially happy she wrote me such a comprehensive answer to the email I sent out as I was struggling to remember that many details from her time here except she was great to have around.

So over to you, Zoe…

“ I had an internship with Prime Studio in the Spring/Summer 2001 when I was a junior at Pratt Institute.  Since interning I have worked up and down the East coast for different companies.  I started my professional career in the watch industry with E. Gluck, Ecclissi, and Timex.  I worked in the watch industry for about 3 ½ years.  The creative director there at the time enjoyed working with me at Timex, and so he offered me some freelance work which turned into a full time position.  Together we worked for MNA Creative, an in house design team for Office Depot.  We developed all the private brand products for: Ativa, Office Depot, Foray, and Tug.  I had great opportunities working with the merchants and developing products one-on-one  for back to school products: notebooks, furniture, office essentials, pens, anything and everything in an office supply store.  I also gave trend presentations to 25-35 people every season, which was exciting work on key colors, materials, key themes for the upcoming seasons.  Working at Office Depot exposed to me to a lot, especially in; working with different factories worldwide (South America, Europe, and China).  I was also able to travel to all of these global locations.  One of my biggest achievements at Office Depot was working for Back-To-School Spring/Summer 2008 collection.  Every product that I designed or tweaked generated $7.5 million dollars in profit for Office Depot in one quarter. Read more…

So back in the long, hot summer of 1998 just after we opened our doors, Dave Turner was Prime Studio’s very first intern. He came over from England where he was studying at Central St. Martins having never been to New York before. I’d only spoken to him on the phone once or twice so it was a bit like a blind date.

Luckily we got along really well and Dave made a big contribution to some of our initial projects. I remember him drawing a big complex exploded view of this product we designed called the FoodTool – all by hand ! After the break read what Dave’s been up to since then and check out some of his work in the slideshow above…. Read more…

I’m sure Eric won’t mind me saying that he was one of our most mature interns. He’d already run his own business, a design and construction consultancy in San Francisco, for a few years before he decided to enroll in the Master’s degree course in ID at Pratt.

It was during his time at Pratt that he interned at Prime and he was a real boon to have in the office. He’ll be the first to tell you he was still honing his ID skills at that point but his past experience and desire to learn made him invaluable. He’s had an interesting career path since he graduated from Pratt – along with procreating on a regular basis. After the break read what he’s been up to. Read more…

Katrin was the intern who stayed with us the longest, mainly because she was such a pleasure to have in the office no-one wanted her to leave. She would enthusiastically try her hand at anything we asked her to – including sewing up 50 or so Axe detailer prototypes by hand one time. On top of that she has such a sunny disposition that she puts everyone around her in a good mood. The only thing that concerned us about Katrin was the massive amounts of caffeine she used to consume !

Katrin is half Brazilian & half Swedish so I guess it’s a good job Sweden didn’t qualify for the World Cup or she would have divided loyalties at the moment. After the break read what she she’s been up to since she left Prime and her thoughts about her time here… Read more…

Erik was a such a great intern to have around, he spent the Summer of 2004 with us, in between his MFA studies at Cranbrook. Erik was one of those people who had a huge appetite for learning and a real passion for design. I think an internship in New York suited him really well (in fact it must of because he ended up moving here) but I do remember him spending a Summer in a very small space with very limited AC. That sums Erik up – he’s really prepared to sacrifice and work hard for what he believes in.

I wasn’t really sure where he would end up – he could have moved into either the art or design field so I’ll pass it over to Erik to fill in the gaps…

“What have I been doing since I left Prime Studio?”

“After leaving Prime, I went back to Detroit to finish my MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 3D. After graduating, I headed back to New York City were I started working under the mentorship of Ted Lawson fabricating sculptures for artists such as Mariko Mori, Ghada Amer, and Keith Tyson. I then moved to my current place of work, Raison Pure Groupe, doing product design. Here I have been able to combine art, design, and strategy on a very diverse range of projects for clients such as Pepsi, Dove, Diageo, Armani, and Evian. Outside of Raison Pure, I keep a steady pace working on projects for clients such as Marc Jacobs, JLo, and Vera Wang, all the while staying dedicated to my own work which has been shown in Detroit, New York, and Toronto. Currently I run a blog that consists of my daily observations at http://urbanpatrol.tumblr.com/”

More about Erik’s time at Prime after the break Read more…

Lindsay is someone who holds a very dear place in our hearts here at Prime Studio. She started as an intern back in 2005 just when we got our first big kitchen gadgets project – The Joy of Cooking tools. It turned out that cooking is one of Lindsay’s big passions (she even has her own culinary blog), as it is mine, so we soon bonded whilst designing the line. She fit into our office so well that we ended up hiring her full time (note for those students out there reading this – see, it does happen sometimes !). She was with us for 4 years and was an huge asset for our office before she left to explore new adventures. We still miss her.

After the break see what Lindsay had to say about her time at Prime Read more…

Viera originally studied industrial design in Bratislava before moving to the USA and and pursuing a Master’s in Industrial Design at Pratt Institute. It was during her final year at Pratt in 2000 that she interned at Prime Studio. Since she graduated she has remained in the New York area working at first for David Howell & Company designing and manufacturing products for museum stores and retailers. She then had a period as a freelance designer working on tabletop, decorative home products, jewelry and package before taking her current position as a Eye Studio where she designs and develops eyewear. A pretty diverse career path and body of work – some of which can be seen on her website. Read more…

For this weeks post I thought we’d feature Sharon Myoung who was an intern at Prime Studio in the Summer of 2008. She graduated from Pratt Institute in May 2009 and the kitchen utensils she designed as her major project are shown above. She spent some time freelancing in the New York area before recently moving to her home town of Seattle to join the Design department at Progressive International where I’m sure she’ll be a great addition to the team. Read more…

Yoanna was only with us for a month back in the Summer of 2007. Her internship wasn’t planned – she just happened to call up on a day when a new opportunity had opened up. Even so, she was a great person to have in the studio – she’s French but has lived in Austria, Switzerland, Israel and Australia so she brought a real multi-cultural perspective to her work (she also left us with a kicking Euro-pop playlist on the server).

After her time at Prime she finished her Bachelor diploma at ECAL in Switzerland and won 2nd prize with it at the Biennale de St. Etienne. She moved to Paris last year and worked as a freelance designer specializing in perfumes and cosmetics (Kenzo, Nina Ricci etc..). Currently she’s a designer at the agency CarréBasset which specializes in luxury products such as perfumes, cosmetics and liquors.

Yoanna also writes a blog, About Foood, about, what else ?! – food and design. Some of her well considered design work can also be seen on her personal site.