We have a story and a set of goals to go along with it...but I don't know how to bring people in it. How do I bring this story to life in a way that our audience can interact with it?

A memory palace is an old trick: you remember a story by walking it, room by room. My process works the same way. I build participatory rituals around a single story, then carry it through every room: installations, events, editorial, products, community.

Walk with the arrows, swipe, or tap a room on the floor plan.

Stories and cities have a lot in common. There are underlying beliefs and values, there's a demography, there are sets of rules for what you can or cannot do. By the end of this tour, you'll have the city layout. 

Ah! so first we figure out who lives in the city. We know our audience on paper, and we know what we want the story to do: reach a new audience, strengthen loyalty with the one we have, change how people see us.

Every tour starts among the shelves. I come from quantitative data analysis and ethnography, meaning the study of people in their own habitat. So I read your numbers closely, then go and stand where your people stand.

Your audience isn't a number. They're participants in a culture, and the ones shaping it.

You know your numbers and your goals. Now let's meet your city's residents where they are. What do you mean to them? What matters to them? aWhere could you play a role in that?

Okay, we've met the residents. Now...how do we build interactive structures around our story, so they can step inside it instead of just reading about it on their feed?

What we found in the library becomes a first activation proposal. I borrow from game design (stories that spill out of the screen into real life) and behaviour design (the study of why people actually do things).

Together they set the rules of play: how you join, what you do, which small brave acts get rewarded. Then I bring in visual artists for renders and one cohesive visual identity.

That's what this desk is for. We draw up the city's rules: how you get in, what you're allowed to do, what gets rewarded. A ritual, a few simple rules, and reward incentives.

Cool! So we've got the rules of play to animate our story and invite people in. Where does this all live?

Past the gate, the palace spills into different mediums (interactive websites, digital maps, analog scavenger hunts, urban installations, projects, etc). What I love most: interactive public installations and narrative-driven IRL (in real life) experiences that meet people where they are.

Analog rituals, participatory art, and a meaningful disruption of public space.

The possibilities are endless! You can think of different mediums (website, digital maps, urban installations) as offering different design possibilities for your story to live in. Whichever you choose will change the way people engage. 

What I really want is for people to DO something. Not just stand along the wall holding a drink, nodding their heads at a rager. 

The biggest room in the house. I design participatory experiences and installations that turn audiences into active contributors — from the first concept to on-site execution. For brand activations, cultural institutions, awareness campaigns and public spaces that want engagement, not passive attendance.

Then we plan the room around them. Where they come in, where they pause, who hands them the pen. Nobody ACTUALLY wants to be the head-nodder, But often, they need a nudge to know where to start. 

This is rad. I love seeing our story exist in space. But once the night's over, does anyone outside the room ever see it?

From the city to the feed. I translate IRL moments into user-generated content (the photos, videos and words participants make and share themselves) shaped for long-form or short-form.

In-person stories already carry. I carry them further, through social media, web design and earned media.

Yah! What people make in the room becomes the post they share with friends, and the post becomes the story a journalist wants to tell. Nobody's fake-smiling their veneers for the camera. Its real canines baby. 

I worry that people will come, have a blast and then disappear into the existential ether, never to be seen again. 

The long table is where a crowd becomes a community. I build storytelling frameworks that run from digital UX  (user experience design, like interactive maps and unsent letter portals) to temporary installations and in-person storytelling nights. Every container is an invitation to share, listen and connect, and it keeps people coming back.

I get that. I also have abandonment issues :/ But people come back if they feel like they have a real stake in what they leave something behind. That might be a friend they made, a personal note or artifact they left at the event, a community forum they are now a part of. 

Our board members are asking whether it worked. What should I say?

Tangible, quantifiable goals set by you (the client) are kept at the center of design. You keep full control over how to quantify success. I make sure those numbers are tracked in a transparent way. 

We circle back to our first conversation. What we the goals you laid out for the campaign or activation? Those are the main stats we will report back on to quantify success and keep your board happy :)

Wow. I never knew a story could go in so many different directions. I feel like I get it when people say that we live in a tiny blue and wet dot, spinning around outer space. 

Oh yeah it can get existential real quick. Let's sit down, the kettle's on. I'll keep it simple every step of the way and we'll build the first room together.