What does jazz, writing, and design have in common? The undeniable joy in blending process with exploration, intuition with introspection, and the willingness to take a leap into the unfamiliar. I enjoy breaking small things down into their unique components and substituting parts to see what happens. I enjoy building stories that spread in the world and take on new narratives and authors of their own. I believe at heart that all design is fiction that has not yet become fact, and that our utmost responsibility is designing the fictional future in a way that is ethical to an audience, and helps make the unfamiliar familiar for them.
I enjoy playing barwalking saxophone, blasting out honking low notes to the delight and horror of bar patrons. I enjoy making comic books and music on GarageBand with my 6-year old son, Fletch. How do I stay inspired? It’s all him.
When I'm not working or playing my saxophone, I'm likely helping to rescue African Penguins via SANCCOB. African Penguins are likely to be extinct in the next 20 years without help. If you've ever laughed while watching a video of one doing its goofy waddle, you owe it to the species to donate a few bucks.
DESIGN TALKS
I've given talks at the following events/venues as part of my work around the intersection of design, storytelling, and connected cities.
Carnegie Mellon University | Behavior Design Bootcamp (a 12 week mini course)
IxDA Pittsburgh 2019 | “The Shortest Path to the Milk — A Bootcamp on Behavior Design”
South By Southwest 2017 | "Close Enough to Touch -- Designing Immersive Storyworlds"
UX Week 2016 | "We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat: a 3-Hour Workshop on Story Telling for Designers"
SJSU IxDA 2014 | "Designers on Designing" panel talk on autonomous driving, future UI and how the fictional world of cinema UI has informed the factual world of UX.”
Mobile World Congress 2013 (Barcelona) | "Collective Dreaming, Connected Cities, Technosocial Futures"
Computer Electronics Show 2013 (Las Vegas) | "Collective Dreaming, Connected Cities, Technosocial Futures"
CHI 2013 (Paris) | "Design-Driven Narrative: Using Stories to Prototype and Build Immersive Design Worlds" with Haakon Faste
Musician
From 2014 to present, I have been the in-house tenor/bari saxophonist at Greaseland Studios, led by the inimitable Kid Anderson. In the last few years, I have played on the following records among many others:
Wee Willie Walker - If Nothing Ever Changes (2015)
Mark Hummel - West Coast / Lone Star Review (2015)
Wee Willie Walker - Live in Norway (2016)
Joe Arnold - At Greaseland (2017)
Aki Kumar - Aki Goes to Bollywood (2016)
Aireene Espiritu - Back Where I Belong (2016)
Andy Santana & The West Coast Playboys - Watch Your Step (2016)
Jimmy Adler - Grease Alley (2015)
Miss Freddye Stover - Lady of the Blues (2017)
John Blues Boyd — The Blues is Calling (2017)
Billy Price — Dog Eat Dog (2019)
John Blues Boyd — The Real Deal (2019)
Frank Bey — All My Dues are Paid (2019) (GRAMMY NOMINATED!)
Diunna Greenleaf — I Ain’t Playin’ (2022)
Monster Mike Welch — Nothing But Time (2023)