Friday, September 09, 2011

Welcome Alena + Morgan!

With two new interns starting today, it officially feels like fall here at Grain. Alena Adler is a recent Pratt graduate who just relocated to Seattle and Morgan Conley is starting his senior year at Cornish. To get to know each other better, below is an interview they conducted of one another this afternoon.

Alena's questions for Morgan:

AA: If you were stranded on a deserted island and allowed one Grain product in an attempt to survive, what would it be? Why?

MC: I’d take the Spool modular building kit so I can build myself a raft to escape on.

AA: What is the one thing that has most influenced you?

MC: Japanese animation has definitely influenced me a lot, but I’ve been getting into American comic books a lot more lately.

AA: What is your most prized possession?

MC: I’d have to say that it’s this little roughly carved monk statue that I got from a temple tucked away in the mountain’s of Japan. It reminds me of how calm and mystical the atmosphere felt.

AA: What do you hope to gain/leave behind at Grain?

MC: I’m hoping to gain new skills and basic structure of how a business works and leave behind ideas and better understanding of how to structure their work.

AA: So who are you? (in your words, and as described by another)

MC: I’m that dork who dresses funny, likes Japanese animation, and is stubborn about any project I set my mind to. For better or worse.

Morgan's questions for Alena:

MC: At what school did you study and what was your focus?

AA: I studied Urban Design at Pratt. I guess you could call the focus experimental. There is a lot of theory, and the anticipation of what life could be, or should be like.

MC: What was it about Grain that caught your attention and made you take their internship program? Any specific skills you wanted to learn?

AA: The products. I just get a good feeling about them. They have an element of being clean and relaxed at the same time. They are comfortable. I want to learn more about how things are put together---objects by themselves, but also in relation to something else. Is that a skill?

MC: What do you do in your free time when you’re not designing/being an architect?

AA: I really like spending time with my family and friends. Who doesn’t have a crazy family? It is always an adventure.

MC: What are some of the things that inspire your work?

AA: I try to have an open mind when it comes to inspiration. Pretty much anything can inspire if you have the eyes to see it in a new light.

MC: If you could transform into any mythical creature at any given moment what would you be and in what situation?

AA: Ok I might have to google this one; my knowledge of mythical creatures is not that extensive. Probably something that can time travel. I am probably trying to escape something, like Micheal J. Fox in Back to the Future---where he is in the JCPenney Parking lot trying to escape some terrorists.

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