I shape experiences felt, not merely observed
CURIOSITY OVER CERTAINTY
- I don't start with answers. I start with questions.
- Every project is an investigation, commercial or experimental, where the process of discovery shapes the outcome.
MATERIAL HONESTY
- Whether designing a brand or growing a photograph with bacteria,
- I prioritize materials that tell the truth. No artifice.
- No pretense. Just what is, made visible.
COLLABORATION WITH TIME
- The best work can't be rushed. I design systems that respect
- process, iteration, and the natural rhythms of both living
- materials and human attention.
ITERATION OVER PERFECTION
- The first solution is rarely the true one. I generate 20-60 variations of anything important, testing, failing, refining.
- Excellence emerges from repetition, not inspiration alone.
DEPTH OVER BREADTH
- I'd rather understand one material deeply than touch fifty superficially.
- Mastery comes from sustained attention, returning to the same question, process, or medium until it reveals truths you couldn't see at first glance.
Design is not about control. It's about collaboration.
ON MATERIALS AS COLLABORATORS
ON TIME AS MEDIUM
In a culture obsessed with speed, I’m interested in slowness, not as nostalgia, but as methodology. A cyanotype takes 20 minutes of sunlight exposure. A kombucha photograph takes 10-20 days to grow. A brand identity should live for years. Good work respects the natural rhythms of attention, metabolism, and meaning.
ON NEUROAESTHETICS
Design isn’t subjective taste. It’s neurology. The brain responds to certain forms, colors, rhythms, and patterns in measurable ways. Understanding how perception works, how the visual cortex processes information, how the amygdala responds to emotion, and how memory consolidates makes design more effective, more human, more true.
1. RESEARCH
2. CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT
3. ITERATIVE EXPERIMENTATION
4. REFINEMENT
5. DOCUMENTATION
Before designing anything, I need to understand:
→ What problem are we actually solving?
→ What does the material/medium want to do?
→ What has been tried before? What failed? Why?
For commercial work: client interviews, competitive analysis, audience research, constraints mapping.
For experimental work: material studies, historical research, technical feasibility tests, conversations with experts.
I don't start with aesthetics. I start with concepts. What is the core idea? What should this feel like?
Tools:
→ Sketching (rough, fast, iterative)
→ Mood boards (visual references, not templates)
→ Mind mapping (connecting disparate ideas)
→ Writing (clarifying thinking through language)
Output: A clear conceptual thesis that guides all decisions.
This is where most of the work happens. I generate 20-60 variations of anything important.
For brand design: 30+ logo concepts, refined to 5, tested, refined to 2.
For cyanotype: 15+ exposure tests, analyzing what works, what doesn't.
For AI workflows: 50+ generated variations, brutal curation to 3-5 finalists.
The first "good" result is rarely the true result.
Once direction is clear, I refine obsessively. Every detail matters. Every choice has a reason.
Typographic spacing. Color relationships. Material texture.
The way light hits a surface. The weight of a word.
This phase separates "looks nice" from "feels true."
I document process as carefully as final output. Why? Because:
→ Process teaches. Sharing it helps others.
→ Clients value transparency. Documentation builds trust.
→ Experiments require replication. I need to know what I did.
Every project produces:
→ Final deliverables
→ Process documentation (photos, notes, iterations)
→ Learnings (what worked, what didn't, what's next)