PORTFOLIO 

In 2023 I attended the Next Stage Conference for immersive experience design. What stood out to me most is how diverse and emergent this category of design feels, right now. It shows up in art and marketing, theme parks and consulting, live events and digital environments.

To me, creativity is building worlds, mixing media, and attempting to take people on an emotional journey. When I co-wrote a play, we wanted the audience to feel like they time traveled. When we created a hackathon series, we turned it into a circus. Even when I’ve had to deliver design insights to a client, I tried to craft an entire experience, not just a collection of information.

Nothing matters more to me now in my career. Powerful forces (and people) are pulling us apart in order to serve us more ads. Real experiences and shared emotions have the power to build new connections and help us feel into our humanity.

These are my favorite examples of designing a shared experience.

Comedy Hack Day: Developers Play & Comedians Turn Jokes Into Functional Tech

Audio Walking Tours & Immersive Exhibits: An Atypical Approach to Corporate Strategy

Life Plan: Transporting an Audience into a Dystopian Sales Presentation

Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Story: Building Empathy for Virtual Onboarding Using Only Google Slides

Google’s Personality: Infusing Delight Into Our Conversation with Machines

Disabilities ERG: Creating a “Little Pocket of Chill” at IDEO for People Experiencing Disabilities

All of this started because I wrote a goofy column about my classmates’ janky cars in high school and it made people laugh. I got addicted to the practice of imagining shit with my friends and turning it into something real we could share with the world. That practice has carried me from printed newspapers to digital media to live events to television to Google’s AI.

Wherever I go, whatever I do, I’m always starting from the approach of a writer. I’m looking and listening for story, and initially playing with language as the way I define the core of an idea. So every project in this portfolio is, technically, an example of my writing, but these few standout as places where story lives at the center.

The Onion: Managing Process at America’s Finest News Source

“This Work Can’t Wait”: Creative Directing IDEO’s Identity Refresh

Google’s Personality: Playing with AI Voice Before It Felt Scary

Life Plan: An Immersive Satirical Sci-Fi Play

The Onion Encyclopedia: A Satirical Take on Everything Ever

Transgender Law Center: Composing Beauty & Meaning From Other Voices

TED Wrap: Twice Tying a Humorous Bow on the TED Conference

Cities United & Orbia: Brands With Story at Their Core

There are 1,000 different ways to dissect a brand, and 10,000 agencies willing to pick up the scalpel. To me, even the word “brand” can feel like a loaded, corporate-sounding thing, and I’ve learned there’s a fine line between genuine change and design theater.

Brand is most interesting to me when there’s a real story at the center, so I’ve tried to be selective with the branding projects I take on. There are three examples that best show my approach.

• “This Work Can’t Wait”: IDEO Adapts its Identity for a New Era of Design

• Orbia: A “Living Logo” Bakes Accountability Into Their Brand

• Cities United: Beauty, Boldness, & Clarity for an Already Established Voice

I believe good strategy provides an inspiring spark and accessible guidance. I also believe most brand and organizational strategy is made far more complex than it needs to be, so the people behind it can appear smart and worth their very expensive consulting fees. (Real talk.)

I designed strategies on more than half my projects in five years at IDEO, and I always wanted to turn the strategy into an experience. 100+ slides in a deck are… a lot to process. Instead, I tried to use the tools of experience design and storytelling to ensure a new strategy is tangible and emotionally accessible.

You can’t think your way to behavior change. You’ve gotta feel something.

Several of my best examples of this work are not publicly shareable, but I can provide more details upon request.

Real Estate Client: Designing a 50-Year Strategy into Environments & Experiences

Tech Giant: Reimagining Onboarding as a Workforce Goes Fully Remote

Well Known Nonprofit: Rebuilding Trust Through Transparency & Human Stories