BUILD SOMETHING MEANINGFUL
It doesn’t have to change the World, start small. What can you make today? I’m not referring to things — Stop saying “we should really grab a drink sometime” and make plans with a new friend you’ve wanted to hangout with. Make a playlist that tells the world about you at the moment. Host a dinner with a people you know that share a passion, but may not know each other. Make a hot bath for yourself and spend some precious time in your own head.
WHATEVER IT IS, MAKE IT MEAN SOMETHING.
We’ve never had so much access to inspiration, resources, and cool shit to buy, yet we feel so burnt out as a society. Current lifestyle brands operate on an inspiration breeds consumption model, and consumers (from here on out let’s call them “Humans”… much better) are starting to wake up. I’m excited about a world where brands become human as well, making an emotional connection to theirselves, the communities they build, and why that matters. Creating our surroundings as a place for our passions to thrive and motivate the humans that help support doing something meaningful is the way I feel brands will find success in business and a place of inspired work in the the future.
That said — here’s a few things I’ve made that I’ve been proud of. Some are client projects that I felt provided an interesting solution to a tangible or abstract problem, while most are a thing I made in my studio workshop that taught me something important about myself or something I was thinking about. I really need to update these projects so they speak clearer to the ongoing story that is my career, but I really would rather get back to a project I’m very excited about at the moment.
In addition to my knowledge-set, I've taken a lifetime's passion racing and wrenching on bicycles to enable an ongoing pet-project in the form of a successful boutique community-focused bicycle shop in Bozeman, Montana.
A curious first-hand step across the conference table into the concerns and struggles of boot-strapped startup entrepreneurs and a conceptual approach to the local bike shop co-existing alongside internet discounts through community and customer focused, (sometimes) disruptive strategies.
Come have a local brew on the house and talk the future of community and business every Friday at 5pm.
Above is a fun short film (1min) I shot and edited entirely on my iPhone on Alter's 4th birthday. It's my first time experimenting with film, so cut me some slack.
I'm very serious about not taking myself seriously, and I try way too hard to illustrate that through a horribly inaccurate, shiny representation of my random daily monotony.
Music has always been an incredibly important component in both my creative process and my life.
Listen to what's likely playing in my studio (unless of course I'm listening to KEXP or The Current).
