about me.

I’ve done a lot of stuff, sometimes successfully, sometimes less so. I’ve learned from most of it. Here’s a very incomplete list of lessons:

• always have an approach.

• measure twice then eyeball it.

• design hierarchies. not everything is important.

• practice on a scrap. then just start already.

• make the first mistake early and then fix it. it’s ok, ok?

• trust your eyes. and your hands. especially the fingertips.

• call your mom.

• use round numbers.

• make things like Hemingway writes sentences.

• don’t use labels. seek to describe the essence of things.

• you’re wrong too. I promise.

• sketch messily and often.

• tip well or cook for yourself.

• hydrate. pee outside when appropriate.

• listen to complete albums.

• collaborate but take ownership.

• actually listen, jerk.

• start your day tidying. end it with a good mess.

• look closely at the built world. there be cheap lessons.

• keep the overhead low and the ceilings high.

• be decent.

At any given point, I will be contravening any number of these guidelines. But if I squint at the above list, I can usually see myself in a totality I would struggle to describe directly.

CliffsNotes: I’m a designer and maker of things. Built things and digital things. Printed things and ephemeral things. I think I’m pretty thoughtful, but I have my shortcomings and blindspots. I therefore seek to never stop learning through doing, so as not to become a passive consumer.

PRXY PRKR.?

If it's not already clear, I can be more more than a little indulgent when it comes to wordplay. But I heard jokes are wayyyy funnier if you explain them. So here goes:

PRXY PRKR. originated as a response to what I saw as certain folks' self-serious Internet presences. As I understand it, we curate our Facebooks, Instagrams, Dribbbles, etc. to reflect our "best selves" online. I'm certainly not above it. But these profiles, sites and feeds serve as proxies (PRXYz) for our true identities. Studying these Internet avatars in lieu of meeting IRL can actually be uncomfortably revealing of a person's aspirations and values. Indeed, the person I desperately want to be is a much more precious secret than the person I actually am.

The fact that PRXY PRKR. is essentially a collection of the things I've made reflects the idea that those things that we put into the world speak as revealingly to our person as any Twitter bio or pitch statement ever could.

Also PR-XY P-RK-R? Because Flickr, Tumblr, Scribd, TRNK, SKRWT, ect.

TLDR: It obviously stands for "Prixey Purkur."