I believe in design.  I believe in music.  I believe in bagels.

I don't expect my clients to be single-minded, and I'd be doing both them and myself a disservice by pretending that I am.  The truth is, I don't know when I wake up the morning what I'll be fascinated by that day.  Take a look around if you’d like to stay in the loop.

Design

Yeah, I get it, this is most likely why you’re here. Throughout my academic career at Florida State, and now as a practicing designer, I've had the opportunity to work on a wide range of different projects, each with their own unique set of problems, and I like to think I've managed to find holistic, elegant solutions to each one. If you want to see more, scroll down to my featured projects.

Music

I play a little guitar.  And some mandolin.  And some banjo, bass, harmonica, melodica, synthisizer, whatever.  I’ve been in a band or two, and I co-founded a record label with my roommate back in Tallahassee.  As cliched as it is to say, music is a huge part of my life, and making it myself deepens both my appriciation and understanding of it.  Plus, it makes me look way cooler than I really am.

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Food

Interior design might be my chosen career, but I’ll always carry a torch for food and cooking. All my life, I've seen the incredible power of food to bring people together around a table, and this sociopetal phenomenon has always influenced my designs.  I cook and design for the same reason, to do what I can to add joy to the lives of others.

Shaping spaces, enhancing lives.

 

My process begins and ends with careful consideration of the problem and its context. I’m not a “shoot from the hip” designer, I want my solution to be a correct one. This isn’t to say that I don’t believe in an iterative process, but that’s what it is: a process. Bad ideas can lead to good ones, but it’s important to make sure that only the good ideas are carried forward and applied to the problem at hand. 

 

 

"You know how to get to Carnegie Hall, don't ya?"

 

Practice.  The old adage rings true, practice really does make perfect.  But as much as I enjoy playing music, I don't intend to make a career out of it.  I think of my music as an ongoing lesson in history and appreciation.  I've been lucky enough to play with some incredibly talented musicians, some of whom I have the privilege of calling friends, and every time we make music together, I'm struck by the serendipitous nature of that shared act of creation. Whether it's a improvised jam, or teaching someone else a song I've played hundreds of times, it never fails to bring joy to the room.  Music is not just an outlet, it's an avenue for self-improvement, and a way I can share a little piece of myself with the world at large.

 

 

Food is love.

 

I cook because I care.  I really, really enjoy food, and cooking it myself is a great way to further develop my tastes.  But cooking isn't just about me.  I cook to share something I love with people I care about.  Food is a common ground that everyone can access, and it's a great way to meaningfully share ideas.  Food encompasses history, culture, sustainability, memory, community, ecology, chemistry, thermodynamics, aesthetics, and countless other fields, and presents them in a way that anyone can understand.  Good food teaches us about the world, and if we listen carefully to what it's telling us, it has the power to change it too.