Participatory Narrative Systems

Dexter, Global Participatory Narrative Experience

Showtime / Modernista!

The Shift

The task was to connect Dexter fans across two seasons in a way that went beyond what a campaign could hold. The opportunity was to extend the universe itself and invite audiences to become part of the story.

The System Move

We built an original storyline inspired by the world of Dexter and turned it into an eight week immersive experience that unfolded across digital, physical, and real world locations. Launched at San Diego Comic-Con with a live murder scene installation, the experience drew players into a crowd-sourced crime narrative spanning microsites, social media, mobile, and physical spaces. The outcome of the game was determined by player participation. Elements from the experience carried forward into the show itself, blurring the line between audience and narrative.

The Outcome

Engagement shifted from viewership to authorship. Fan loyalty deepened, cultural reach expanded, and the work contributed to one of the network's strongest season premieres. It demonstrated that narrative brands scale when audiences are not just invited in but given a hand in shaping what happens next. The work was recognized with a Webby Award, People's Voice, and an Emmy nomination.

Interest-Based Community & Experiential Design

Zappos, The_ONES

Executive Advisory / Origami Advisory

The Shift

Zappos had built a powerful reputation around service and culture. The opportunity was to move beyond being a retailer organized around products and into something organized around shared identity and interest. The question was how to make that real, not just as a positioning statement but as something people could feel.

The System Move

Working directly with CEO Tony Hsieh and Head of Culture Tyler Williams, we reframed the brand around interest-based communities, identifying underdeveloped audience clusters through customer data, qualitative research, and iterative experimentation. The work led to The_ONES, a curated sneaker concept built around classics and the culture surrounding them.

The launch was designed to be felt, not just seen. I conceived the opening gift: a custom mixtape on a Walkman, vacuum packed, handed to guests as they arrived. Inside the activations, a sign painter customized shoes on the spot, putting words or initials directly onto people's sneakers. Every element was designed to pull people inside the world and expand the aperture of Zappos as a brand.

The Outcome

New audience creation, strengthened loyalty, and a 25% year-over-year increase in cooperative marketing investment from brand partners. Growth reframed from category-based marketing to interest-based participation.

Purpose as a Lived System

Product (RED) and TOMS

Modernista!

The Shift

Both Product (RED) and TOMS were built around mission. Purpose when embedded in a brand catalyzes how it behaves. The challenge was not defining purpose but making it impossible to separate from the act of participation itself.

The System Move

Supporting the launch of Product (RED) alongside Bono and Bobby Shriver, the work went beyond awareness into the architecture of participation. We produced multimedia content for the platform and conceived (RED)NIGHTS, a concert series that invited artists to turn one night of their existing tour red, with proceeds flowing directly to the Global Fund. The model was elegant: no new behavior required, just a reorientation of what was already happening. Twenty six shows. Katy Perry, Santigold, Fall Out Boy and others. Your ticket that night was an act of contribution.

With TOMS and founder Blake Mycoskie, the One for One model required the same discipline, making sure commerce, storytelling, and structure reinforced a single shared mission so that buying any TOMS product was not adjacent to impact but the mechanism of it.

The Outcome

Commerce and contribution became inseparable. The act of consumption became an act of contribution, creating tangible benefit beyond the buyer. Since launch, TOMS has given over 100 million pairs of shoes globally, impacting more than 106 million lives. Product (RED) has generated over 800 million dollars for the Global Fund, supporting HIV programs across more than ten countries and impacting over 345 million lives.

Enterprise Innovation as Daily Practice

eBay and Accenture Canada

The Shift

Inside large organizations innovation rarely fails because of ideas. It fails because of adoption. The challenge is not generating concepts but designing the structures that allow new thinking to take hold across teams, functions, and legacy systems, and then holding the line through implementation so that what gets built stays faithful to what was agreed.

The System Move

Working with eBay's CMO, the focus was on how emerging web3 protocols and digital culture were beginning to reshape organizational thinking and opportunity at scale. That inquiry into blockchain, digital currency, and what these shifts meant for large platforms led me to seek out one of the recognized leaders in the space, who was building an innovation hub at Accenture. What started as a single question became a position and then a body of work.

At Accenture Canada the work centered on enterprise transformation at the point where technology, brand, and customer experience meet. With Telus, one of Canada's largest telcos, that meant helping navigate transformation spanning network infrastructure, customer service, and emerging new divisions. Running innovation workshops with leadership and cross-functional teams, the focus was on aligning strategy and experience so that implementation became an expression of what had been agreed rather than a drift from it.

The Outcome

Innovation became less episodic and more embedded. Structured into how teams actually work rather than cordoned off in a lab. The entry point was curiosity. The outcome was organizational change at scale across some of Canada's most consequential industries.

Civic Infrastructure as Cultural System

Donald Judd's Chinati Foundation, Terrestrial Radio Station

Marfa, Texas

The Shift

Donald Judd established the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas as a place where art, architecture, and land could exist as a unified whole. The institution possessed an extraordinary collection and a singular location. But it was geographically isolated and historically high culture. The opportunity was to bridge the distance between the monumental, static nature of the work and the living community of Marfa, using the most democratic of mediums: sound and information traveling on electronic frequencies.

The System Move

I started alone, with a small transmitter in my studio, moving sound around and learning what the medium could hold. One of my favorite early moments was walking out to my car and hitting scan on the radio. There were no other stations on the airwave. The dial traveled all the way around and landed back on my frequency. That was the beginning. From there we designed a live participatory broadcast system that became connective tissue for the foundation and the town, transforming the station from an art project into civic infrastructure.

The Outcome

What began as a residency experiment became civic infrastructure. The station took root in the life of the town, grew beyond the foundation, and is today a fully operating NPR affiliate covering news, culture, and community across the region. The work outlasted its origin because the community was never just the audience. They were the reason it existed.

Marfa Public Radio