- Product Designer for playful and educational experiences

Tag: willkrause

Padded Columns for L’Oréal

Posted: January 13, 2013-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Museum/Exhibit Design, Abunch LLC-Tags: foam, Props, willkrause

I made these padded columns for a L'Oréal event so that they would fit around existing columns at the event site. Jessie Voris and I worked together on the upholstery - there were 200 buttons to sew!

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Heilmaier Messedesign – 3D Modeling & Graphics

Posted: October 5, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Museum/Exhibit Design, Heilmaier Messedesign-Tags: willkrause, 3d, graphics

I worked on some graphics for Kennemetal's parking signs, 3D modeling for a cow milking machine, and planning for the stripe graphics at the BayWa exhibit at this year's ZLF agricultural trade show in Munich.

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BayWa ZLF Trade Show – Demonstration Walls

Posted: October 5, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Museum/Exhibit Design, Heilmaier Messedesign-Tags: willkrause, graphics, FIT

BayWa requested a display that would demonstrate some of the money-saving qualities of their building materials. I worked in Illustrator to design multiple graphic layout concepts, and then Vectorworks to further refine details of the designs. Max Schmidt Von Braun was in charge of this project, and the final three images show the finished result [...]

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BayWa ZLF Trade Show – Tractor Unveiling

Posted: October 5, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Museum/Exhibit Design, Heilmaier Messedesign-Tags: FIT, exhibit, willkrause

A new model of tractor was scheduled to be introduced by BayWa at this year's ZLF trade show, and I worked on some initial concepts for the placeholder to stand in the new tractor's spot until the new tractor arrived on site, sketch ideas for how the curtain could be pulled away from the tractor, [...]

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BayWa ZLF Trade Show – Gift Shop

Posted: October 5, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Museum/Exhibit Design, Heilmaier Messedesign-Tags: willkrause, FIT, exhibit

At Heilmaier Messedesign, I used Vectorworks to plan out shelving for the gift shop at BayWa's exhibit at the ZLF agricultural trade show. I also used Photoshop to add details to these early renderings. The final image is of the exterior of the main BayWa trade show structure, which contained the gift shop.

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BayWa ZLF Trade Show – Rotating Columns

Posted: October 5, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Museum/Exhibit Design, Heilmaier Messedesign-Tags: willkrause, graphics, FIT

I worked with Max Pollner on the design, modeling, and graphics of two columns of rectangular forms that visitors could rotate to create different combinations. The first two images are my Vectorworks renderings, and the third image is a later, more finished rendering by another designer.

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Cereal Boxes for Hooper’s Store

Posted: October 5, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 1-Categories: Sesame Street, Illustration-Tags: willkrause, sesame, hooper

I made two new cereal boxes to place on the shelves of Hooper's Store. When I was pasting new labels onto the old cereal boxes, I discovered that the cereal in the box had expired in 1999! We're at work right now preparing for Season 44 - there are so many details that need to [...]

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Halloween Monster – 2011

Posted: February 3, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 2-Categories: Propmaking, Miscellaneous Props-Tags: willkrause, critters, costumes

I needed to make a last-minute Halloween costume, so I glued together this mask from an old cardboard box, feathers leftover from a stork puppet I made a while back, and some felt, pipe cleaners, and - of course - a handful of plastic googly eyes.

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Hamish and Andy – Giant Baby Carriage

Posted: January 30, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Hamish and Andy-Tags: willkrause, Hamish and Andy, Props

I made this giant baby carriage so that a grownup could fit inside. It uses heavyweight plywood, BMX wheels, and welded steel to support a big person. Katie Akana and Jessie Voris handled the fabric and upholstery, And Katie also served as test pilot for a race down the hallway of the woodshop. This prop [...]

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Rainbow Lamp – Brooklyn Childrens’ Museum

Posted: January 29, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Museum/Exhibit Design, FIT Exhibit Graduate Program-Tags: FIT, lighting, exhibit

I designed this lamp for a weather-themed lighting scheme for a FIT project set in the Brooklyn Childrens' Museum. The idea of the lighting scheme is that lighting would be used to show weather changes - projectors would show animated clouds, and lightning would be simulated with strobe lights, among other effects. After the thunder [...]

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Rubin Museum of Art

Posted: January 26, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: FIT Exhibit Graduate Program-Tags: willkrause, FIT, exhibit

I was part of a group of FIT students to redesign the lobby and second floor gallery at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art. One of the big challenges was that the Introduction to Himalayan Art exhibit on the second floor has two different entrances, each with two ways to start going through the exhibit. [...]

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Kikkerland Trade Show Counters

Posted: January 25, 2012-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Museum/Exhibit Design, Abunch LLC-Tags: Props, willkrause, Furniture

I fabricated these two counters for Kikkerland's 2012 trade shows. They both have lightbox faces made out of acrylic covered with adhesive vinyl. The client wanted the acrylic to go all the way to the edge of the counter, so the plastic was applied before the laminate, and then the laminate was applied over the [...]

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Silent Library – Nipple Robot

Posted: September 19, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Silent Library-Tags: robot, puppets, puppet

Someday many years from now, my grandkids will ask me "Grandpa, were you ever a television robot star?" And I will be able to honestly tell them "Yes children, I was an EVIL television robot star. I built this robot out of all sorts of odds-and-ends. A funnel, bucket, two mini plasma spheres to make [...]

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Silent Library – Toe Snap

Posted: September 17, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Silent Library-Tags: willkrause, silent library, mechanisms

I built this machine to sequentially shoot a contestant in the toes with rubber bands. The mechanism works with screws which are placed around the barrel of a crank-operated winch every few degrees. As the crank is turned, the rubber bands fire off one-by-one.

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Silent Library – Pedal Pop

Posted: September 16, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Propmaking, Silent Library-Tags: Props, willkrause, silent library

I built this five-passenger bike by cutting apart and welding together the parts from three tandem bikes, and adding a bit of black gas piping where I needed straight tubing. It actually worked too, and I was able to take it for some wobbly rides in the studio! (Though the rear seat was responsible for [...]

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Silent Library – Rear Squeeze

Posted: May 2, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Silent Library-Tags: willkrause, silent library, Props

I welded together a pair of steel hands to squeeze contestants' behinds. The hands were pulled shut by bicycle brake cables which were tightened by spinning a crank. I covered the hands with liquid latex coated foam. The arms wear sleeves stitched together by Jessie Voris, and the lower support was re-used from a catapult [...]

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Silent Library – Spanking Chair

Posted: April 28, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 2-Categories: Silent Library-Tags: Props, willkrause, foam

This one was fun to make! I traced my hand, scaled it up 200% and then made a foam hand with acrylic nails from the pattern. The arm is made out of 2x4's glued together and swung with the aid of pneumatics. I scaled up a normal wooden chair 150% and built it out of [...]

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Silent Library – Creature in a Jar

Posted: April 27, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 2-Categories: Silent Library-Tags: foam, aliens, silent library

This one was a challenge! I made this creature out of all sorts of materials: lobster claws, doll parts, shells from the beach, latex gloves, ping-pong balls, dust masks, shark jaws, lots of latex, and a toy octopus... a real potpourri of stuff. Katie Akana thought of the pneumatic mechanism to suddenly open the creatures' [...]

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Fake Pies for Sesame Street

Posted: April 26, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Sesame Street-Tags: Props, sesame street, willkrause

I made these two pies for a cooking segment on Sesame Street. One pie needed to be made out of eight complete baked apples, and the other out of eight sliced apples, with a pair of eyeglasses hidden inside. I made the crusts out of sculpey, and the apples were standard fake styrofoam fruit... I [...]

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Junk Mail for Big Bird

Posted: April 25, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 3-Categories: Sesame Street-Tags: sesame, Props, sesame street

I needed to make a few junk mail flyers that were going to arrive in Big Bird's mailbox. I stayed late one day to make sure that the "birds in slacks" flyer was done in time.

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Candy Television

Posted: March 28, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 0-Categories: Silent Library-Tags: Props, willkrause, candyland

At first I tried making this breakaway glass TV screen out of expensive plastic casting materials, but to keep things within our budget I switched to a sugar-glass recipe. I made a silicone rubber mold of the actual TV screen, so that the mold could be carefully flexed away from the screen without cracking. The [...]

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Greeking Garbage for Grouches

Posted: March 9, 2011-Likes: 0-Comments: 2-Categories: Sesame Street, Propmaking-Tags: Props, sesame street, willkrause

"Greeking" is when logos are obscured, or fake product names are made for labels that will appear on television. These are some cans I made for Oscar the Grouch. I used globs of hot glue to simulate goop on the cans... the best part of making things for the grouch is that it is okay [...]

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Silent Library – Indian Burn Machine

Posted: June 30, 2010-Likes: 0-Comments: 1-Categories: Propmaking, Silent Library-Tags: Props, willkrause, silent library

Designing and building this machine was one of my biggest challenges on Silent Library. Figuring out a way for the hands to rotate around a point where I could place no pivots was tricky - so I made a semicircular track for a set of rollerskate wheels, and attached a pair of silicone hands to [...]

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