Over the years I’ve struggled to accurately define who I am and what it is I do with a single word or sentence. I always thought that I needed a traditional, formal and impressive title to be capable of accomplishing the things required to live a meaningful life.
Boy was I wrong.
It’s been a long but informative road and now I know that “making cool stuff doesn’t always come wrapped in a neat job title that your … mother will understand.” I still struggle to accurately and succinctly explain what it is exactly that I do to people I meet for the first time because it isn’t that easy.
Perhaps I’m still partially ashamed that I’ve been unable to fit into a traditional mould all my life, or maybe it’s that I’m so comfortable with both my work and life that I’m not interested in being able to define it for others in terms they have in their ‘professional vernacular’.
I’ve taught urban planning at the post-secondary level, lead a non-profit organization, was a professional photographer, conducted children’s health research, have played the role of community developer, lead more people than I can count in various situations, became a closet-entrepreneur and have created enough things to fill a haberdashery.
Trying to find a single title that encapsulates all of these things+ is a lost cause. I’ve tried.
I’ve referred to myself as a renaissance man, amateur, community maverick, technician, educator, flâneur, civic hacker, intrepreneur, developer, associate, manager, designer, urbanist, entrepreneur, starter and creator of things.
None of the titles I’ve been given or that I’ve given myself ever seemed appropriate or enough. None of them fit just right.
What I’ve learned and come to welcome is that while I may be given a job title from time to time, trying to accurately sum up what it is I do day-to-day, in a few words, is hard because what it is that I do hasn’t been invented or defined just yet.
I’m OK with this. I’m more than OK with this.
About Me
I’m a designer, proprietor, generalist and creator of things.
With a focus on innovation and creativity, I enjoy helping good people and organizations transform very simple ideas into new opportunities and successful ventures. I believe that change in any organization is a positive thing and that it needn’t always cost a lot or take eons to implement.
I’m constantly working towards living a more intentional life and having this influence the work I choose to complete. I’m continually trying to improve the places I call home and the communities I am a part of. Using my locality as a tool, I experiment with traditional and ‘new-age’ notions of community development.
Away from my desk I try to lead a very simple life. I can be found cycling city streets, reading, frequenting art galleries, people watching, spending time with neighbours and enjoying craft beer.
Form & Foundry
Established as a catalyst, excuse and permission granting body for the continual re-consideration of the world we live in, I co-founded Form & Foundry; a design studio that specializes in the rapid re-definition of tired & forgotten ideas.
We work on our own thought-provoking and self-interest projects in addition to helping startups and established companies re-imagine existing products, services and ideas; or build entirely new and sometimes novel thingamabobs, whatchamacallits, doohickies and doodads.