Senior Success: Interior Designer Haylee Merola Ready to Take Her NJIT Teachings to Kimmerle
During her four years at NJIT, Haylee Merola has used her imagination and visualization to create different types of work in her interior design studios. Whether the project was a sci-fi movie, a retail store, an airport lounge or designing clothing for a fashion show, Merola always made sure to add her style.
“I think I'm definitely one of those students that each one of her projects looks different,” said the interior design senior. “Everything I do is really catered to the purpose of the project, I won't force anything, just to make it fit. So all my projects end up looking really different for really different programs, but in the end, my professors have kind of told me I have a unique style, and they can look at a project and just say like, ‘Oh, that's Haylee's.’”
At the Hillier College of Architecture and Design, the Hazleton, Pennsylvania native has won many individual awards, most recently at this year’s Design Showcase, but it was the team award achieved in the recent IIDA Fashion Meets Finish 2023 held at NJIT.
Merola’s team won the Best Interpretation of a Concept award. The team’s theme was of the Divine Creator, the creator that's in all of us, the maker of all space. Their concept showed the importance of neutrality, being human and what joins all of us.
“That's the first one that I've been part of a team that has won an award,” said Merola. “I've had my own work rewarded before, but that was something that truly was collaborative. It was something that was a little out of our scope, we don't usually make clothing.
“It's great to have our interior projects rewarded, but just the abstraction of our creativity to kind of come through like that was great. The whole night was just wonderful to be a part of, we were there from 9:30 in the morning. We had a long day of getting everything ready, doing some testing on the runway, getting hair, makeup and everything done,” she added. “It's definitely up there as one of my favorite nights and probably one of my favorite awards too.”
Merola, who modeled the team’s creation on the runway, described that night’s events as, “one last cherry on top before graduation.”
During her time at HCAD, many professors have had an important role in Merola’s education, but in her sophomore year, professor Glenn Goldman shared many insights with Merola that allowed her to get on the right path. “With Glenn Goldman, I've had two studios. He's been a huge influence on a lot of my work.
She is unafraid as a designer
“During sophomore year, he kind of flipped how I thought about things. I had a really tough time with one project in his class, and I just couldn't get past a certain point, a certain roadblock, and he had to just talk to me,” she said. “It was when we were online due to COVID. It was really hard, being home, being away and feeling motivated. He had to talk with me many times outside of class to sort of help me get on the right path, and once everything clicked I kind of just took off from there.”
Professor Goldman praised Merola’s availability in acting as an extra critic and mentor to freshmen in a foundation year class that he taught in the Fall. “She is unafraid as a designer, willing to step out of her comfort zone and tackle design projects that even included environments and spaceships for science fiction entertainment,” noted professor Goldman. “She consistently produces superior design work in all of the studios she takes. Haylee is an outstanding representative of the School of Art + Design and I am sure we will hear of her multiple achievements in the years to come.”
In her last year, Merola served as NJIT IIDA co-president. “They've given us a lot of opportunities to kind of branch out a little bit more and really get involved with the industry, and that's really helped with my networking and just how to be a professional in this field.”
There’s going to be something a little bit different and that's what I'm really looking forward to
After graduation, the Albert Dorman scholar will work for Kimmerle. She will join a team of 30 designers/architects, which she says is smaller to the team of a 100 that she was part of when she interned with Gensler last summer. Gensler is a global architecture, design, and planning firm with 53 locations and more than 7,000 professionals networked across the Americas, Europe, Greater China, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.
“Since it is both design and architecture, I'll be able to kind of work in a more integrated process with the architects, which is something I don't really get to do in school,” she said. “So I'll be able to broaden my understanding of the design to the overall building, that will be really cool. I'm going to be working on a variety of different projects, on all different scales. They do commercial, they do some health care labs and a little bit of residential.
“Everything you could think of they will take on, so I'm excited to see exactly which projects they'll be putting me on but everyday there’s going to be something a little bit different and that's what I'm really looking forward to.”
Merola, who will also graduate with a minor in business, believes those studies will be useful in case one day she wants to start her own firm, having that foundation in business could be really helpful.
“There's something identifiable about me and my style, and I can't quite put the words to what that is yet, but I know it's there. Just based on the critiques I've received and the awards I've been given, I think it's a good thing, whatever it is,” said Merola as she described how she sees her creations as an NJIT student and will take with her to Kimmerle. “I’m fortunate to have been able to refine that over the past few years here.
“Everything is a different challenge, and I really love doing puzzles, I love making things fit and making them work. So I think that kind of undercurrent in all my work comes through.”
