CONTACT ME

Grace Koerber

grace@gracekoerber.com

828.553.6333

 

DOWNLOAD CV

DOWNLOAD PORTFOLIO

 

 

 

 

 

I’m an experimenter, a maker and a realist. I design through multiple disciplines to create meaningful relationships between people, experience, object and place.

 

I’ve recently completed my Masters in Interior Design from Pratt Institute, where I graduated with highest honors and received the Convocation Award for Outstanding Merit. While in graduate school, I worked professionally designing interiors and furniture both independently and for firms like AvroKO, Thornton Tomasetti and Rock Paper Robot.

 

Although I’m primarily an interior designer, my skills and experience reach beyond.  I excel at conceptual thinking, design iteration and full-scale prototyping. Before graduate school I worked professionally as an editorial and interaction designer at The Washington Post honing my graphic, editing and presentation skills.

 

From a very young age  I was exposed to the word of architecture and construction. My dad is a contractor and I basically grew up on a job site.  I was obsessed with looking at his blueprints and imaging the life and activity that would take place within those walls. I would switch from this “left brain” mode of thinking to “right brain” — playing art shop, sketching and painting, making and imagining. This is still a mentality I practice daily, as I traverse fluently from conceptual to pragmatic, and from artistic to mathematical. 

 

When I'm not designing, I can be found climbing rocks, biking around the city and experimenting in the kitchen.

 

 

SKILLS

Design | Concept generation, storytelling, presentation design, diagramming, space planning, parametrics, kinetics, rapid prototyping, model making, hand rendering, electronics and robotics, furniture and wood-working, casting, graphics, painting, photography

Software | Rhino, Grasshopper, Revit, AutoCad, Creative Suite, Maya, SketchUp

Linguistics | HTML5, JQuery, JS, CSS, Arduino, Processing, Node

EDUCATION

Pratt Institute  2015

M.S. Interior Design, GPA 3.95

Convocation Award for Outstanding Merit

Graduated with Highest Honors

 

University of North Carolina  2009

B.A. Visual Communications 

Outside Concentration, Studio Art

Distinguished Recognition

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Facades+ | Responsive Facade Prototypes Workshop, 2015

Naomi Leff Scholarship of Excellence | 2013 & 2014

Award of Excellence SND | Postcards from Occupy D.C.

Award of Excellence SND | Dance of Life

Award of Excellence SND | Best of the Post 2012

Award of Excellence SND | Liberty through the lens 

Webby Nominee | Laughs for Islam, 2012

Silver Medal SND | A Facebook Story, 2010

EXPERIENCE

CORE Studios, Thornton Tomasetti | Jan 2015 - Present               

Designer

Parametric modeling and kinetic design of folding origami structures; Research of perceived interior comfort vs. environmental data through sensors and graphic visualization

 

Freelance | Sept 2012 - Present     

Interior, Exhibition, Editorial Design

Facade consulting and interior design for $1M spec home in Asheville, NC; Designed and fabricated exhibit at NY NOW and Philadelphia Museum of Art Contemporary Craft Show; Editorial design for ProPublica: Segregation Now

 

AvroKO | Interior Design Intern 

June 2014 - Sept 2014               

Prepared client presentations, developed concept, space planning and mood boards; Sourced materials and furniture; Executed art features and styling moments; Organized and maintained material library 

 

Rock Paper Robot | Jan 2014 - May 2014

Fabrication and Design Intern

Fabricated and prototyped Float Table; Hands on experience with materials, shop machines and kinetic design; Prepared client decks; Direct experience with 3D modeling and printing; Participated in strategy and marketing meetings

 

The Washington Post | Nov 2010 - July 2012 

Digital Editorial Designer

Collaborated with the newsroom to create elegant, interactive storytelling experiences; Conceptualized, designed and coded special projects; Designed templates on a project-specific basis; Designed logos and branding for blogs and special projects

 

Tag Worldwide | Aug 2009 - Nov 2010

Designer and Developer

Designed in-house collateral; Led production team for Land Rover and Virgin; Developed internal flex applications with OOP design patterns; Coded AS2.0 / 3.0 rich media

 

TIME.com | June 2009 - Aug 2009  

Graphics and Interactive Intern