CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER, SECOND STORY
PORTLAND OR | ATLANTA GA | NEW YORK NY
Second Story is a design studio focused on the emerging category of responsive environments. Working across both cultural and brand landscapes — they seek to create new kinds of places that defy labels. By immersing audiences in participatory, multi-sensory experience, they aim to elicit emotion and spark meaningful action. As Chief Creative Officer, Joel is responsible for steering the creative, business and technology vision across studios in Portland, Atlanta, and New York. His work explores “new methods of making” that merge the fields of visual design, experience design, visual effects and programming with industrial design and architecture. Endlessly fascinated by what can be accomplished through collaboration — his practice orchestrates deliberate collisions between radically different ideas and people. His work has been recognized for design excellence by the likes of SEGD, FastCo Design, The Webby Awards, IxDA, CA, HOW, and The American Alliance of Museums. He is a regular speaker at forums such as the Experiential Marketing Summit, Museum Next, and AIGA. Joel also serves on the advisory board of The Ocean Experience Project, an immersive entertainment attraction focused on ocean conservation and activism.
THE FUTURE OF THE GRAPHIC DESIGN BUSINESS?
As digital spills over into the built environment, we must embrace new canvases for emergent forms of design. These complex experiences require multiple disciplines to crosspollinate. The most significant work will arise not from solo visual designers, but from cohesive interdisciplinary teams of creative practitioners that hail from wildly different backgrounds. Everywhere you look, the boundaries between silos are breaking down. The opportunity lies in how graphic design weaves itself into this multifaceted design organism. And, how readily we incorporate new technologies and processes into our practice.
WHERE WERE YOU BORN AND WHERE DO YOU LIVE NOW?
Atlanta born and living there now
A DESIGN HERO?
Neri Oxman designs new materials that emulate nature
FAVORITE SOCIAL MEDIA?
The original social medium: gatherings in public spaces
FAVORITE TELEVISION BINGE WATCH?
Abstract: The Art of Design
FAVORITE PODCAST?
Future Thinkers
FAVORITE BOOK?
The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible by Charles Eisenstein
FAVORITE MOVIE?
Captain Fantastic — a bold example of alternative “ways of being” outside the status quo system
FAVORITE FINE ARTIST?
James Turrell
FAVORITE CAUSE/CHARITY?
World Wildlife Fund
FAVORITE FREE TIME ACTIVITY?
Fatherhood
IF YOU WERE NOT A DESIGNER?
An anthropologist/wilderness guide/environmental activist
