PORTFOLIO
The work here was selected to share the range of experience I have in designing, creating and implementing solutions in 5 core areas of experience. Some areas, like Web, App & Business Systems, may not represent depth as accurately since work is often internal, proprietary or protected under non-disclosure. Deeper discussions about projects, solutions and experience are always on the table.
Also, projects often require skills and experience from all of the areas. For example, shared online team or venture workspaces will be created to contain project plans or well designed, visual project documentation to make integration and hand off to client or support teams easier when the project is done.
Finally, the areas and examples offered make the things I do easier and more readily understandable as completed projects. They don't always start from neatly defined spaces of contexts. What this also belies is how some projects have originally walked in the door - pieces everywhere, some of them burning in the corner, but with a smile on their face. Those projects have often come back for their Special Projects Operator much earlier for the next step or effort, at the beginning.
Which is to say, from wherever you and your project are, the first step to getting everything put neatly in a box (sometimes literally) is for us to have a conversation.
VENTURE CREATION & DEVELOPMENT
Current Ventures
I have created or co-founded several teams and ventures to explore and extend discoveries as well as product and service market gaps. The multi-value model commercial ventures are still in the research & development stages. It's All Made Up is a year-round and cyclical creation team you can learn more about in My Platforms.
HomeWorlding
The systemic, social and environmental stresses of the world, compounded and brought to light by COVID, have caused many to take a new look at how we can live full, expressed lives, regeneratively and equitably.
HomeWorlding is a creation, development and connection agency for a growing realm of independent, creative and transformational communities. We facilitate the flow of knowledge, experience, tools, solutions and resources that enable such communities to thrive.
It's all Made Up
It’s All Made Up (IAMU) is a collaborative collective and community of creators, problem solvers, and space makers, among many other things. Originally (and still) a Burning Man camp we are a home, platform and connecting place to be present and connected, to express and create, with and for one another. Our culture is based on the idea that once you have done something, it’s hard to convince yourself that you can’t.
Client Ventures
Not infrequently, and especially with small businesses or start ups, I will work with owners or co-founders to take care of a specific project or implementation. While these scoped efforts can often be done quickly, they are often connected to several other parts of the business that could benefit from development or improvements. As outside, drop in talent that can design and implement across several areas, my clients become free to focus on opportunities or tasks they haven't been able to get to while handling everything else.
Sweet Crimes Gluten-free Bakery & Test Kitchen
Keri, a friend and IAMU camp alumni, needed some help picking up some commercial kitchen appliances from an auction. The mission was simple, but her situation was not. Construction was delayed on her new facility and storefront, her website and delivery apps created more work than they handled, she needed to hire and train staff, set up inventory. And she was expecting her first child. I jumped in to help and connect everything. Except deliver the baby.
Within
Within is the spiritual counseling and healing studio of Bernard Mason in Washington DC. He is a natural and talented healer and counselor, as well as a former accountant, and needed help creating a website as he launched and expanded his services.
Our website work has expanded into other efforts to help Bernard identify ideal clients, better hone and leverage his natural talents and service offerings, integrated booking & payment systems, and brand identity and integrity work.
WEB, APP & BUSINESS SYSTEMS
Business Process System Design & Development
Sweet Crimes Gluten-free Bakery & Test Kitchen
Keri had been using Shopify as her web front end for live and advanced orders. It was not delivering on its promises, and 3rd party delivery apps were wrecking her data. She was also going to be moving into her new baking facility and cafe storefront, which meant integrated POS and inventory management systems. We moved Keri to Square with a custom implementation that would solve her current needs and make space for what would come as she scaled up operations.
Websites
Global Christian Cross
With turnkey manufacturing and fulfillment in place, Global Christian Cross needed a compelling website to communicate the uniqueness of their offering to as broad a range of customers as possible. The site needed to convey history, culture and quality to close the gap on buying decisions.
Sweet Crimes Gluten-free Bakery & Test Kitchen
Keri had been using Shopify as her web front end for online orders. It was not delivering on its promises, and 3rd party delivery apps were wrecking her data. She was also going to be moving into her new baking facility and cafe storefront, which meant integrated POS and inventory management systems. We moved Keri to Square with a custom implementation that would solve her current needs and what was next.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, MEDIA
Graphic & Visual Design
Marketing & retail materials close the gap
Global Christian Cross needed to distinguish itself in a crowded market. To help prospective retailers understand how unique The Cross for All Christians was, and to directly support the retailers’ own abilities to move the product, I created a small set of provisioned or self-service materials to help make everyone's job easier.
Repurposed lighting & photos become album art
I compose, produce and publish ambient and deep house tracks through my creative handle, Charles Actual. Since much of the sound is an aural version of forms and themes I work with in lighting and photography, I was able to reimagine and reuse themes from prior work to create connections for the brand visual identity.
Information Architecture
Enterprise Security Directory Integration Meta-key
Across 50+ years, 40 offices, 23 countries and 3 large mergers, a multi-national needed to integrate all their incompatible enterprise security and directory systems into one. I realized that every person's security access could be defined by the same 3 terms. Happily, each different system accommodated my simple formation, allowing a consistent meta-key across everything, even paper files.
PROTOTYPING, DEVELOPMENT & BUILD
3D Modeling & Printing
Global Christian Cross
.05mm material tolerances mean a lot in precious metals, and how a dream is made real. To Global Christian Cross, it meant everything.
Mobile Infrastructure Systems
Mobile Village Base Station
IAMU was looking to reduce our monthly storage costs. We were presented with a great deal on a custom insulated 48' intermodal tractor trailer. This now meant we could also save hundreds of person hours and additional thousands of dollars annually... and deploy anywhere we could get to by rail, highway, or cargo ship - with electrical, water and a kitchen. 'The Anything Box.' v.1.0 arriving in 2022.
Space Making
It's all Made Up
IAMU's late cofounder, Matt Blakey was an architect. He invited me to understand the craft as the design conversation of how people sense and do things in a space, such that they feel free to be who they are. The collaborative creation, operation and leaving no trace of the shared home, platform and hearth of our dreams is what really makes this so. Every year.
Lighting a new hearth with a pop-up unconference
The HomeWorlding team helped convert a newly acquired but unused 19th century printing office into a pop-up, multi-function, COVID-aware, communal gathering and unconference space. The building soon going to be renovated so the gathering needed to convey and create a sense of everyone lighting a new hearth together. Indirect lighting, fabrics and pillows created a comfortable, bedouin feel, where everyone felt home.
Designing a day and night natural birthing portal
My partner at the time was about to give birth to her daughter. She had chosen to do a natural birth but needed an outdoor space that would be close to the birthing pool and could be made comfortable for everyone supporting what could be a long process. Her mother and I decided to clean up and convert the gazebo in the back yard. Materials and lighting (in case of a night birth) would need to be safe in case of big rains. Simple materials and found objects came together perfectly.
Special Logistics
Ichiro, Magic Beings
Some days you wake up not even knowing you are going to move a 30' magical dinosaur up a 13 story building. Or across the country. Or that magic dinosaurs sometimes need contingently sequenced custom structural reinforcement work on two coasts to comply with wind shear and earthquake civil engineering codes. Such is the life of magic dinosaurs.
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