My name is Haven DeAnglis and I am currently a sophomore Fibers major. This summer I was a design intern at an up cycling company based in Trenton, New Jersey called Terracycle. I had previous knowledge about the company and its internships while I was in high school because my school participated in their recycling programs, and I attended an environmental awareness event with students from high schools where Terracycle advertised the company and its mission. While at this program, I immediately wanted to intern for this company because everything at the office was up cycled and there was art everywhere. I had forgotten about this dream of working at Terracycle, but while I was looking online for internships in New Jersey, I stumbled upon an ad for internships at Terracycle. After reading the description of a design team internship, I knew I had to apply. I emailed by resume, cover letter and my portfolio of up cycled and found object artwork, and received a responds the next day requesting I come into the office for an interview. The interview went well and a few months later I had the internship.
My internship at Terracycle lasted about 3 months and I worked 3 times a week. Each day I would work on and complete various projects that involved up cycling. Terracycle is an up cycling company, in that the company’s mission is to give a new life to products that cannot be normally recycled. Overall, Terracycle collects items that are deemed garbage and will break down the products into recycled plastic pellets, compost, scrap metal, etc. Terracycle is a company with many offices around the world and different departments. I was a part of the design team, which creates marketable products made out of non-recyclable material, designs the office spaces, and creates products designed to encourage recycling. The design team, which consists of three employees and multiple interns throughout the year, works in a large studio with tons of machinery and tools. My direct supervisor was Kelsey Moffitt, a Design Junkie, who oversaw all the interns’ work, while also designing products for the company and attending many meetings with other departments. The head of the design team, Tiffany Threadgould, and Darshan Alatar, another Design Junkie, would also assign projects for me to complete.
While at Terracycle, I completed many projects that involved sewing plastic packaging to create new products that were more valuable. I made tote bags from juice pouches, bibs from baby food packaging, gift bows from maps, and folders from toothpaste tubes. All of these products were given to the companies that had originally created the plastic packaging to be used as a promotional item. The tote bags, however, were a prototype for bags that will eventually be produced and sold to the public. I am most proud of this project because not only was the company pleased with the design, but the object that I created will someday be bought by consumers and will be promoting sustainability. I was also involved in renovating an office space known as the “courtroom” which had to be decorated with courtroom-themed furniture and objects. I was in charge of designing and sewing together a Terracycle logo flag, as well as creating a gold frame for the whiteboard. Sewing the flag was the longest project I worked on, having to start over and create several designs until I finally made a well-crafted patchwork flag. My biggest takeaway from the internship was that designing products takes time and that the first design is probably not the best design. I learned how to become more precise and accurate in creating art, which will definitely help me in the future when designing and sketching. My artwork tends to look free-handed and “messy”, so working at Terracycle taught me the importance of measurements and accuracy, even though it was a struggle at some points.
While many of my projects involved me using a sewing machine, I was able to learn how to use new machines, which will strengthen my work in sculpture and how I would create it. Some of the machines I learned to use were the miter saw, industrial serger, nail gun and welding. I have also become more precise in sewing as well as faster because of the amount of work I had to complete each day. I also learned how other department interact with each other. Many of my projects were photographed and documented by the graphic design team, or we would work together with the R&D team to create a container suitable for collecting a certain waste stream. Even though this internship was a great experience, it helped me narrow down a career path that I would want in the future and it would not be working as a product designer. While my artistic skills and sewing skills were valued at the company, I would not like to work as a designer creating products that are specific to what a company wants to buy. I enjoy the freedom of creating while not being bound to recreating a product that exists in the world in a different variation. After working at Terracycle I do feel inspired to create artwork and fashion out of sustainable and reusable materials because waste is a huge environmental problem in our world and so many of our resources go to waste because they are easily disposable. With my remaining years at MICA, I will definitely continue to create eco-friendly artwork, and hopefully a fashion collection out of up cycled materials.
