Mentor Profile
15579
Bobby Snell
Mentor ID:
App Date:
Start Date:
Career Status:
Education:
Jan 7, 2026
Jan 10, 2026
Employed Full Time
Bachelor's
Meeting Platform:
Google Meet
Capacity:
Avail. Capacity:
2
1
Bio
I have been working as a design professional for approximately 6 years now. I graduated from the Product Design program at WMU in the first ever graduating class. During my time at Western I worked as an intern at Wahl Clippers between my Sophomore and Junior year, where my first designs made it to market. Upon graduation I accepted a job at Barkbox as a dog toy designer, which required me to move to NYC. I worked for Bark for almost 3 years before I was laid off. My experience designing for both dogs and their humans opened up a great opportunity for me to accept a new role at Gunner Kennels in Nashville, where I currently work. I've been at Gunner for almost three years now and have seen two major products through start to finish so far. I am the first and only industrial designer at Gunner and have learned how to establish design principles into a rapidly growing company.
Prior Experience
At Western, being in the first class of design students, I had no mentors or upperclassmen to show me a lot of the things that go into being a designer. I wanted to make sure the classes below me never had that issue, which if when I went out and started the IDSA chapter at WMU. I used this as more of an afterschool collaboration and mentoring program to connect the upper and lower classes together. We would hold project reviews, sketching sessions, and more general Q&As for the younger classes to really connect with the students who went through exactly what they currently were.
Why Mentor?
My eventual goal as a designer is to teach, I love design, but I loved TEACHING students how to love design even more. I took a lot of pride in the help I was able to give students in the IDSA program while I was a student, and since then I've has a few chances to help with student projects and portfolio reviews. It feels very natural and I feel I have been through a path in my design career so far that by sharing with students, can greatly help them on their career journey. Overall I just love connecting with passionate students, sharing my knowledge, and seeing them succeed. Being a Sparks mentor seems like a great place to starting bringing the aspect of teaching into my design career even more.
