Short Story:

I’m a furniture designer based at the foot of the Cascade mountains in Bend, Oregon.

I built my first furniture piece in 2010. Ten years later, notebooks full of ideas and creative energy ready to unleash, I decided it was finally time to bring my ideas off of the page—it was time to build!

Long Story:

For the past 10+ years I have been working as a graphic designer, while at the same time sketching, sometimes building, always dreaming of one day bringing my furniture pieces into the world.

Pandemic Reflection

In 2020, partly as a product of lockdowns in response to the pandemic, but mostly spurred on by the birth of our daughter and the self-reflection that I suppose comes with becoming a parent, I realized it was time to move past my perfectionism and fear that my work isn’t good enough—to open up and actually show my work.

The Beginning

I grew up in a small mountain town of around 1400 people amongst the ponderosa pine, douglas fir, and granite boulders of western Montana. I couldn’t have imagined a better place to explore and let my imagination run free. The forts I built during these years, and the endless hours playing with Legos laid the groundwork for my future design aspirations.

Formal Education

At 18, I went to Los Angeles for college where I studied engineering for 3 years before realizing I didn’t want to design bridges, roads, dams, or sewer systems and switched over to graphic design. It was during this time that I began exploring form in the 3-dimensional space, and in 2010 built my first furniture piece: the Piixel Corner Shelf. This was a major moment of self-discovery for me. Up until then, I hadn’t even considered furniture as something I could care about. The only furniture I experienced up until that point was–in my opinion–strictly utilitarian. With the Piixel, I wanted to make functional art. I had no idea what a big world it would open my eyes to.

After graduating in 2010, I worked a lot of odd jobs; everything from door to door sales to working on PowerPoint presentations for fast food chains. For the most part I was focused on graphic design, but I continued to fill my notebooks with furniture ideas, and occasionally would be commissioned by friends to build one-off pieces, like the Crate.

A Peek Into The Retail Side of Furniture

In 2014, I took another step into the furniture world when I was hired by A+R, a new modern furnishings, lighting and décor retailer based in LA. Here I worked as the Digital Design Manager, a role that solidified my love for furniture, as I was exposed to so many unique pieces from all over the world.

Bend, Oregon

In 2016, I married the love of my life, and we moved out of LA and up to beautiful Bend, Oregon. That brings us up to the present, where I spend my workdays managing the website and graphic design content for the City of Bend and at night and on weekends—while our daughter is asleep—I work on my furniture.

SaloneSatellite

In June of 2022, I brought three of my pieces: the Piixel Media Console, Truuss Bed Frame, and Sllat Patio Chair to Milan, Italy for SaloneSatellite, a showcase for emerging young designers, part of the Salone del Mobile.Milano (Milan Furniture Fair). It was an unforgettable experience.