🎢 Two Months at Universal Creative

Two months ago I started a new chapter, joining Universal Creative as Assistant Director, Immersive & Interactive Experiences. And while I'm still very much in the "drinking from a firehose" phase, I wanted to take a moment to share some early impressions. It's been a whirlwind with a trip to Japan already under my belt and more travel to come.

The scale is extraordinary. I've spent the better part of two decades building immersive work in theaters, warehouses, parking lots, and everything in between. The creative curiosities are the same:

• How do you make someone feel something?

• How do you place them inside the story?

• What is the way they are a participant?

However, the canvas here is unlike anything I've worked with before and I feel like most days I've entered the Wonka Factory.

The tools, the talent, the ambition. It's staggering in the best possible way.

What's struck me most is how much the work still comes down to the fundamentals. Story. Emotion. The guest's journey through a space. No amount of technology replaces the question of why does this moment matter? That's been true in every experience I've ever built and it's still true here. The conversations I'm having every day are about craft and intention and how to make something that lands, and that's deeply exciting to me.

I can't say much (ok anything really) about what I'm working on (well you know how it goes), but I can say this: the people here are extraordinary. The level of care, creativity, and sheer inventiveness I'm surrounded by every day makes me want to be better at what I do and inspires me.

That's the highest compliment I can give any creative environment — and it exists here in exuberant abundance.

More dispatches soon.