i craft unexpected experiences that leverage wonder, play and radical collective imagination to provoke systemic change.

oh, hiiiiiii!
i’m sparks (they/them).
lovely to meet you!

I’m a queer, solarpunk experience designer using wonder as a tool to provoke collective change. Based in Portland, OR (USA).

I design experiences that help humans connect—with themselves, with our planet, with each other—in unexpected and delightful ways.

I get fired up about building strange and enchanted worlds that provoke new perspectives, elicit behavioral shifts and imagine better futures.

I also like to experiment.

focus + expertise: experience design + creative direction + qualitative research + ideation + design thinking + UX strategy + service design + facilitation 

[sparks, as described by friends, clients and collaborators, circa 2023]

focal projects for 2025

SPLITWEATHER

In collaboration with Bonnie Gregory

Originally concepted in response to a design brief to create an experiential adaptation of a complex climate problem, SPLITWEATHER is a climate adventure series, encased in narrative. With each event, we dive deep into the real issues facing our planet while immersed in the real environments they are impacting.

Bonnie and I have BIG plans for SPLITWEATHER and intend to use 2025 to reimagine our original idea and bring it to liiiiiiife! Does this deck and/or Miro board peek your interest? Do you also find the intersection of climate activism and adventure tantalizing? Want to help us make it happen? Send me an online correspondence.

[Future] Citizens’ Assembly

You’re invited to step inside a moment of wonder, to linger in uncertainty and dance with possibility. In this assembly, nothing is what you expect. This experience will ask you to be vulnerable with strangers, bold with your imagining and playful in your pursuit. But if you can accept these risks and wander curiously into the unknown together, change is possible.

I want experiencers to leave [Future] Citizens’ Assembly empowered by the breadth and depth of their imaginations. I want them to linger in the correlation between questioning and change. I want the assembly to hold experiencers in a gentle embrace and offer them a safe space to shed the weight they’ve been carrying, float up into their imaginaries and root down into a hopeful, tangible reality. [Future] Citizens’ Assembly grants experiencers the time and space and permission to practice joyfully and unapologetically imagining a different future, with the hope that they may see themselves as catalysts for that future.

A proof of concept for [Future] Citizens’ Assembly premiered in Brooklyn, NY in November 2024. In 2025, I plan to build out a variety of new iterations of this experience and run them at schools, community centers and workplaces in the Portland, OR area. Are you a fellow solarpunk? Have you experienced the power of collective imagination? Do you want to help me bring this experience to Portland? Eeeeeeeeemail me and let’s grab coffee!

Wonder as a Catalyst for Change

This year I plan to revisit and continue building off all of the j u i c y insights that came out of a body of research I conducted last summer on how to design with wonder in immersive experiences to potentiate collective change.

Does this odd combination of words strike your fancy? Are you more enthused than overwhelmed by my Miro? Does my deck make you think we should be friends? Send me an electronic mail and let’s bump brains.

hire me.

Design Research + UX Strategy

• Generative Research: What problem might we solve? (interviews, focus groups, field studies, affinity mapping, diary studies, card sorting, surveys)

• Evaluative Research: How well is our solution working? (interviews, usability tests, A/B testing, journey mapping)

• Synthesis: What does this data mean and what should we do with it? (decks, readouts, research reports, journey maps, personas/archetypes, client presentations)

• UX Strategy: What do our consumers need and how might we design an experience that serves them? (ideation activities, heuristic evaluations, creative direction, prototyping, wireframes, information architecture)

• Workshop Design + Facilitation: How do we bring everyone to the table and get them excited about what we’re building? (virtual or in-person, for teams, leadership, stakeholders, potential or existing customers)

• Project Management: How do we stay on track and ensure the work gets done? (client management, project coordination, agile methodology/sprints)

Immersive Experience Design

Immersive experiences pull us into new worlds and create permission structures that allow us to grapple with everyday problems in new and unexpected ways. They are multisensory, powerful and memorable. They create opportunities for us to connect—with ourselves, with our planet, and with each other. And most importantly, they give us an opportunity to imagine better futures. 

I craft unexpected experiences that leverage wonder, play and radical collective imagination to provoke systemic change.

The experiences I design are:

• accessible + rebellious

• playful + provocative

• sustainable + solarpunk

• queer + substance-free

• imaginative + full of wonder

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