About - Lara Kroeker Interactive

My mother was a travel host who planned niche tours around the world for senior citizen square dancers, and I’d leave school for weeks at a time to join the group.

It gave me a strange, sideways way of looking at things that never really went away, which is probably why, twenty years later, I still can’t sit still inside one job title. These days that shows up as design leadership, systems thinking, and hands-on technical execution, all under one name, because splitting those apart never made sense to me.

The platforms change. The fundamentals don’t.

I built my first sites in Flash, then Drupal, then a string of custom CMSes that don’t exist anymore. I watched the headless wave arrive and figured out what that actually meant for a project, not just for the pitch deck. Now it’s AI-native tools, and I’m doing the same thing again.

None of it mattered as much as I thought it would at the time. Every platform, no matter what was running underneath, needed the same things: clear Design Guidelines, information architecture that made sense, content that knew what job it was doing, a real answer to why the site existed in the first place. That’s still true. My job hasn’t fundamentally changed even with AI in the room, it’s still about those fundamentals. Learning whatever comes next has never been the hard part.

Flash Drupal Custom CMSes Squarespace WordPress The headless wave AI-native tools

HOW I WORK

Two tracks, depending on what fits the engagement.

I work closely with people, not just for them. Some projects need a focused burst of expertise, while others need a longer partnership. Either way, I aim for less back-and-forth, more clarity, and better work. I also offer guest lectures, workshops, and mentoring on design systems.

Day-rate work

For defined and repeatable scopes. Most engagements start here.

Design Guidelines
Online experience builds
Hosting migrations
Focused sessions of refinements

Solution engagements

Priced by the problem being solved, not the days required.

Larger custom builds
Systems redesigns
Tailored digital products

Lara leading a workshop, helping a participant at her laptop

OUTSIDE OF WORK

Where I get to be someone else for a while.

Music & Installations

I make music as Mel·lif·lu·ous, working with violin, voice, electronics, and whatever else seems useful to the idea. I perform and record live, building pieces through loops and layers rather than starting with a finished song in mind.

Sometimes the music becomes something more physical. I’ve made interactive installations where sound responds to objects and movement, including Wildroot & Amber, a piece built from glass jars that released voices, wind, and water. It was shown at Signals Creative Tech Expo in Vancouver.

I like the space between music, technology, and physical things. It gives me another way to play with ideas without having to make them useful.

Music Residencies

Residencies have become an important part of my music practice. They give me something I rarely get in regular life: time, space, and permission to follow an idea without knowing where it’s going.

I spent time in Iceland and Japan, both very different places and both important to how I make music now. Iceland, in particular, changed something in me. I went there thinking I needed to reinvent myself and came home wanting to be more myself. Some nights that meant playing violin to the wind, mountains, and rocks, with no audience and nowhere else to be.

Japan gave me a different kind of space to keep exploring. I’m interested in what happens when you step far enough outside your usual life that different parts of you have room to show up.

Berlin might be next.

Lara in Iceland, hood up against the cold

Lara outside Emily Carr University of Art and Design on graduation day

Emily Carr & Other Curiosities

This photo is from the day I graduated from Emily Carr with a degree in Communication Design. I almost skipped the ceremony and didn’t bother picking up the certificate. My dad was there. I remember asking, half joking, who was even going to care. He said, “I do.”

I went back to school while my daughter was still young, so it wasn’t the easiest path. Finishing mattered to me, and that moment has stayed with me. Maybe it’s part of why I’m still drawn to learning, making, and starting things that don’t necessarily have an obvious purpose at first.

I’m curious about almost everything. I have a soft spot for British Columbia, good food, good coffee, art, technology, and people who don’t quite fit anywhere else. The weirdos, eccentrics, obsessives, makers, and beautifully random. I’m one of them too.

I think a good life needs some room for things that have nothing to do with your job.

TESTIMONIALS

What clients say.

Lara has a fantastic sense of humor, unbounded creativity, and a can-do entrepreneurial spirit. She is always looking for ways to push the creative envelope and give her clients the very best work.

Vanessa Warheit

Climate Policy Strategist

Lara expertly and seamlessly remade two of our websites, migrating them off outdated platforms to WordPress. She adds creative and programming expertise to make them attractive and user-friendly.

Joan Prowse

Producer / Director / Writer

Lara has amazing creativity, knowledge of web technology, and understanding of audience needs, all integral to her approach. I highly recommend Lara if you are looking for a stunning interactive media product.

Barbara Hager

Metis-Cree Filmmaker & Writer

Lara approaches her work with methodical planning and detail, then injects her creativity into everything she does. I have worked with her on three websites and I am always really pleased.

Adam Greydon Reid

Director, Holiday Films / Nimble Content

I grew up trailing
square dancers.

The platforms change. The fundamentals don’t.

What I learned in Tanzania still shapes how I work.