Convergent Design Research

I am a designer, educator, and researcher whose work bridges professional practice, immersive experiences, digital innovation, and teaching. Through my consultancy, Design Axl, I have partnered with leading organizations across the country—from Bain Capital Ventures in San Francisco and Dell Technologies Capital in Palo Alto to Alexandria Real Estate Equities in Pasadena and NextView Ventures in New York. This work has been nationally recognized, including multiple Graphic Design USA awards for excellence in packaging and digital design, and the Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award for North America for Polyplexus, a platform funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Virginia, designed to advance scientific collaboration.

My research extends beyond traditional design outputs into immersive tools such as Random Actor, honored with an American Digital Design Award, which expands access to interactive media for artists, curators, and educators. At Boston University, I guide students in the Spark! Innovation Fellowship, where they tackle real-world challenges at the intersection of design, technology, and entrepreneurship. Whether with Fortune 500 companies, startups, or students, my focus is always on using design to connect people, tell stories, and create meaningful change.

📺 TALK (24:08): FAU — Interdisciplinary Design Research ↗︎

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1. Professional Practice: Design Axl

Through my consultancy, Design Axl, I partner with organizations that influence global markets and drive innovation across finance, technology, real estate, and venture capital. My work spans the country, with clients including Bain Capital Ventures in San Francisco, Dell Technologies Capital in Palo Alto, Alexandria Real Estate Equities in Pasadena, Companyon Ventures in Boston, Jump Capital in Chicago, and NextView Ventures in New York. These collaborations—ranging from multi-billion-dollar companies to early-stage startups—share a common thread: using design to clarify identity, communicate vision, and support innovation.

This work has been nationally recognized with multiple Graphic Design USA awards, including honors for the NextView Ventures and Jump Capital websites in 2024 and the Bubble Works™ can design in 2025, celebrated for its bold visual identity and standout shelf presence. Together, these projects reflect both the quality of the design solutions and their broader impact on industries shaping the future of innovation.

🧰 VISIT: axl.design ↗︎

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Polyplexus
Service: Digital Platform
Industry: Science

2. Immersive Experiences: Random Actor

My research extends beyond traditional graphic design outputs to explore how immersive spaces and interactive technologies can transform storytelling and human experience. One of my most significant projects, Random Actor, is a tool I co-created with Clay Hopper at Boston University that enables users to create interactive and dynamic media without requiring technical expertise. By integrating projection mapping, computational vision, and generative algorithms into an intuitive interface, Random Actor opens new creative possibilities and makes immersive design accessible to artists, curators, educators, and performers.

The tool has already been used in theaters and performance spaces, but its potential extends far beyond that—into museums, classrooms, and public art installations. In 2024, Random Actor was recognized with a national American Digital Design Award, underscoring both the innovation behind the software and its ability to unlock creativity across disciplines. This project reflects my broader commitment to bridging technology and human expression, expanding the reach of design as a medium for connection, learning, and engagement. 

VISIT: random-actor.com ↗︎

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📺  TALK (8:01): Design + Performance ↗︎

3. Digital Product Innovation: BU Spark! 

At Boston University, I co-created the Spark! Technology Innovation Fellowship with Ziba Cranmer as part of the Cross-College Challenge (XCC) and the BU Hub. This program has become one of the university’s premier offerings in interdisciplinary innovation. Students design and build digital products from end to end—conducting user research, creating user experiences and interfaces, and delivering fully developed and deployed solutions. Unlike speculative classroom exercises, these projects are fully functional, created in collaboration with real partners, and launched into use. This emphasis on complete, working systems prepares students for the realities of professional practice at the highest level.

The fellowship is distinguished not only by its interdisciplinary nature—bringing together students from design, computer science, business, and engineering—but also by its deep connections to industry. Spark! has been supported by mentors from leading organizations such as Facebook, Google, Red Hat, and Microsoft, who provide expert guidance and connect students to professional standards and practices. My role is to help students navigate this process, guiding them to iterate, refine, and adapt while keeping their focus on the people who will use their solutions and the impact those solutions will have. Watching students launch innovative, fully realized projects through Spark! demonstrates the powerful role design plays as a catalyst for entrepreneurship, collaboration, and meaningful change.

🤖 VISIT: BU Spark! ↗︎

4. Pedagogical Process: MFA Thesis

My approach to teaching is rooted in exploration and experimentation, shaped by my MFA studies at the Rhode Island School of Design. In my courses, I encourage students to move beyond obvious solutions and to approach problems from fresh perspectives. The emphasis is not only on producing strong visual outcomes but also on understanding the purpose of design and its potential to address real-world challenges.

I continue to reference my MFA thesis as a north star for project prompts and student guidance. The thesis provides a foundation rooted in process and inquiry, while remaining flexible and adaptive in an evolving world of design—a flexibility that I view as its greatest strength. This approach allows me to help students develop confidence in experimentation, technical skill in execution, and awareness of how their work connects to larger contexts. Teaching, for me, is about creating space for new ideas to flourish while preparing students to lead in the future of design.

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0.0 | Abstract
Shift, in concept and method, is a view on empirically based graphic design. Inviting constant shifts of perspective-from one place, position...

0.1 – 0.2 | Point of View When I was fourteen, my family went on a trip to Kona, Hawaii, and I brought my first video camera with me, a Sony HI8 HandyCam; I was rarely...

0.7 | Interview with Vaughan OliverVaughan Oliver is an award-winning, legendary graphic designer, artist and author of several books, including...

1.0–1.1 | Input: Accumulate InspirationComing back to school after eleven years in the professional field was daunting and uncomfortable...

1.2–1.3 | Ephemera Collection
Any one of the ninety-five previous objects could be a piece of trash or a spark of inspiration. Each object has the ability to be examined, studied...

1.6–1.7 | Wabi-Sabi
Wabi-Sabi can be called a comprehensive aesthetic system. The more systematic and clearly defined the components of an aesthetic system are, the...

1.9 | Interview with Daniel Paluska
Dan Paluska is an artist, engineer and educator who works with kinetic, robotic, and cultural systems…

2.0–2.2 | Output: Transform AwarenessThere is a gap that drives awareness in my work. It’s the phase in my process where I transform my awareness…

2.3 | Commute
Spark Sometimes the most obvious spark of inspiration is in front of our eyes. Commute was the first studio project I worked on in the Fall, 2010...

2.5 | fail sail
Uncovering an Archive fail sail begins with an investigation in the Lownes Science Collection within the John Hay Library at Brown…

2.6 | Twenty-Four Hour TouristHeterotopia In an essay by novelist Alan Lightman, he describes one of Einstein’s dreams as “a place where time stands still: the place where...

2.7 | Everyday Observations: Light
Embrace Limitations With access to the camera on my iPhone in my pocket at all times, I’m able to collect a visual archive of my…

2.10 | Blink
There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis. — Malcolm Gladwell Subconscious Intuition Every year during the first…

2.11 | Incarceration VacationEnjoying the Ride Michel de Certeau’s The Practice of Everyday Life explores the everyday operating in society. He describes strategies an...

2.12 | Burroughs Time-Lapse
Process of Observation In my interview with Daniel Paluska, he said, “…time-lapse makes me think about the pace of life and how I interact with the…

2.14 | HITE ScreenMake something which cannot ‘perform’ without the assistance of its environment. Make something which the ‘spectator’ handles, with which he…

2.15 | Panopticon of JoyFalse Security In Discipline and Punish, philosopher Michel Foucault builds on philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s conceptualization of...

2.16 | Interview (excerpt)
with Ben Fry
Ben Fry is principal of Fathom Information Design, a design and software consultancy located in Boston. He received his…