I integrate
creative systems.
Most of the time, that means walking into someone else's room and helping them ship the thing they're trying to build.
Design, product, engineering, story — as one practice, run by one person who can talk to every part of your team without losing the thread. Twenty-five years of doing this in rooms ranging from a kitchen table to a NBC Sports partnership.
Walk into your room
Embedded partner · long engagement
Who it's for
You're a founder or a small team that's past the prototype and tired of handoffs. You don't want a vendor. You want one person who can be in the design review, the engineering standup, and the investor deck — and connect them.
What you get
- ▹Fractional CTO / CCO / co-founding-design partner
- ▹Inside the room: strategy, product, brand, engineering, fundraising
- ▹Usually 3–18 months. Often longer. (ThriveSports was 8 years and counting.)
Unstuck the bottleneck
Short, focused intervention
Who it's for
Something specific is jammed — a launch that won't land, a product that's not legible to customers, a brand that doesn't match the bottle. You want it solved in weeks, not quarters.
What you get
- ▹4–8 week focused engagement
- ▹I get to the root, ship the fix, and leave you with a working system + a plan
- ▹Usually combines design, copy, product, and a small build
Build the thing
Design + product + front-end as one practice
Who it's for
You need the actual artifact made. A site, an app, a launch surface, a campaign. You don't have time for three vendors arguing about a Figma file. You want someone who can ship.
What you get
- ▹Identity, product design, and front-end engineering shipped as one practice
- ▹Next.js / React / TypeScript / Tailwind / Three.js — what this site is built in
- ▹Comes with the brand, the story, and the launch — not just the pixels
Run the brand work
Identity · voice · packaging · story
Who it's for
You have a great product and a brand that doesn't match it. Or no brand at all. You want craft, not template — but you also need it to ship and live in the wild.
What you get
- ▹Identity systems that work in a Figma file and on a real shelf
- ▹Voice, copy, naming, packaging, photography direction
- ▹Built for small teams who actually have to run it
Be the second brain
Advisor · fractional creative direction · sounding board
Who it's for
You don't need a contractor. You need someone who's seen the room before and can tell you what's about to break. One conversation a week. Honest, specific, useful.
What you get
- ▹Weekly or biweekly working sessions
- ▹Reviews of design, product direction, hiring, brand decisions
- ▹Sometimes a Slack channel. Sometimes a walk.
I push back early.
Then I shut up and make the thing. Quietly. On time.
Senior at the table.
Not a deck. A working partnership. I open conversations by asking a question you weren't going to answer in your kickoff doc.
Idea-stage to scalable.
The last four years have been almost entirely about moving companies from prototype-on-vibes to a system that survives a real Monday.
Worth matters more than worthlessness.
We are all just people trying to matter to each other. The craft is in service of that part.
It gets weird.
But we don't make things weird. The work is allowed to be specific, opinionated, and yours.
Real, usable, and human.
Three things. In that order. If a design doesn't survive contact with a real human, it isn't done.
How to start
Tell me what wants out.
I'll write back.
Two-line email. Tell me what you're building and which mode looks closest. I'll respond inside a day with whether I can be useful, and how I'd want to start if I can.