I am most interested in more-than-human, solarpunk, magical, and enchanted near futures, where we reconnect with the wild current, choose animate intelligence over the dismal digital urge, and use our imaginations for collective good.
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I work in the space of design + imagination at UW-Madison, leading the creative development for the MS Design + Innovation (MD+I) graduate program. I teach in both of the core capstone classes: the second Design Horizon studio with a teaching colleague, and I established and lead the MD+I Summer Futures Studio, an 8-week deep dive into hopeful futures in Wisconsin. My practice and process includes writing, design, illustration, oracles and otherworlds, deep collaboration, slow thinking, imagining otherwise — and with — an increasing number of analog methods.
Before my work in the university, I led multi-channel advertising campaigns at agencies across the country, made TV commercials, wrote jingles, built in-house agencies, told stories, and gave more than twenty-five years serving at the altar of the brand gods.
MORE ABOUT ME
Speaking / Workshops—
A talk and workshop on imagining housing futures for everyone.
2025 WISCONSIN HOUSING & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY CONFERENCE — HOW HOUSING HAPPENS, NOVEMBER 12th, 2025
futures, hopepunk, and why imagination is more important than ever.
2025 DESIGN LEADERSHIP SYMPOSIUM TALKS — UW MADISON
SCHOOL OF HUMAN ECOLOGY | DESIGN STUDIES
Collaborative Mythmaking and Engaged Rituals for the City
THE IMAGINATION, NOVEMBER 16-18, 2022
Recent Projects—
SEMESTER ZERO BOOK PROJECT
Semester Zero was created as a primer — a kind of semester before the first semester — for new students in our one-year immersive MS Design + Innovation graduate program.
The book shares our perspective on design and innovation, imagination, futures, our guiding principles, and a selection of readings, videos, short exercises, an one required exercise new students can engage in as they prepare to join our program.
MESOPALOOZA ZINE: POSSIBLE WORLDS
Born in the HONORS 380: Honors Seminar in the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the MESOPALOOZA Zine represents the final project for the class Possible Worlds: Design Fictions and Fabulations for Imagining Otherwise.
Students wrote stories, made ads, proposed possible futures and wild new realities like Corvid language lessons, subterranean fashion shows, and the first ever HearthPunk festival.
PORTAIT SOCIETY : ON THE WING
On The Wing is a Sketchbook Project from Portrait Society Gallery in Milwaukee. The books are then displayed and bid on with proceeds going local non profit organizations.
I created a pataphysical grimoire — of sorts — called La Langue des Oiseaux (The Language of the Birds), complete with spells and sigils, tarot cards, exercises and instructions for seeing into the in-between.
THE UNKNOWN WONDERS ORACLE
A 52 card oracle deck conceptualized and designed using the amazing art work of Jean Roberts Guequierre. The deck is a year-long deep dive into archetypal themes and strange otherworlds. The deck can be used for oracular work, creative activation, or as a tool for inner exploration.