Rachel is a strategist, designer, and narrative director, leveraging the affordances of emerging mediums and formats to create at the convergence of content (data, information, narrative) and product experience (brands, businesses, worlds). She designs for the breadth of the new content life cycle: from identity, tools, and platforms to narratives, spaces, and cities.
Rachel draws from a degree in computational neuroscience and a worldbuilding perspective to align emergent systems and human behavior. She creates work informed by explorations of the near future, where literally everything is an content experience.
Rachel works independently as a consultant, and runs The Apollo, a story and design studio.
narrative director: creating narratives for interactive and immersive mediums across formats, informed by worldbuilding and user agency. narrative direction can often include content strategy, aligning narrative decisions with experimental formats, changing consumer behavior, and new distribution and monetization patterns.
Selected Clients and Partners: Disney, HBO, Fox, Technicolor, Worldbuilding Media Lab, Universal, Warner Bros, Annenberg Innovation Lab,
Keywords: content strategy, content development, brand identity, fan engagement, participatory culture, transmedia storytelling, narrative IP and franchises
Contact me for:
_writing and editing traditional and interactive narratives across formats
_designing social interactions that aligns with narrative and brand
_creative directing the visual look and engagement of worlds
_creating content strategy models that incorporate fan engagement, participatory culture, and user-generated content
_directing emergent narratives at the intersection of persistent worlds and agent’s interaction in nonlinear, spatial storyworlds
_designing transmedia storyworlds, narrative IP, and branded content strategy, accounting for the affordances and engagement patterns of various mediums and formats
Keywords: content strategy, content development, brand identity, fan engagement, participatory culture, transmedia storytelling, narrative IP and franchises
Contact me for:
_writing and editing traditional and interactive narratives across formats
_designing social interactions that aligns with narrative and brand
_creative directing the visual look and engagement of worlds
_creating content strategy models that incorporate fan engagement, participatory culture, and user-generated content
_directing emergent narratives at the intersection of persistent worlds and agent’s interaction in nonlinear, spatial storyworlds
_designing transmedia storyworlds, narrative IP, and branded content strategy, accounting for the affordances and engagement patterns of various mediums and formats
designer: using research and the intersection of systems and human perspectives to inform product and experience design for immersive, spatial and ambient mediums and interactive tools and platforms.
Selected Clients and Partners: Magnopus, Secretmap, AppliedVR, Experimental Design, Praxis Labs
Keywords: extended reality, virtual reality, augmented reality, virtual worlds, virtual production, virtual beings, immersive theater, live events, architecture, social media, games, interactive media, products, creative tools, hci and body-environment interfaces, cognitive architecture, connected fashion
Contact me for:
_information architecture and designing models of complex systems and worlds
_modeling spatial syntax to inform spatial design and flow
_wireframing interactive mechanics for a variety of points and modalities of interaction
_designing for emergent social dynamics
_product feature definition and scoping
_defining user personas and journeys for product and content with multiple touchpoints
_designing frameworks for emergent user persona architectures based on engagement
_designing cognitive architectures / human points of interaction with technology, technology that builds on human behavior
_writing design docs
_leading interdisciplinary design teams and designing workflows for integrating technical and creative development
Keywords: extended reality, virtual reality, augmented reality, virtual worlds, virtual production, virtual beings, immersive theater, live events, architecture, social media, games, interactive media, products, creative tools, hci and body-environment interfaces, cognitive architecture, connected fashion
Contact me for:
_information architecture and designing models of complex systems and worlds
_modeling spatial syntax to inform spatial design and flow
_wireframing interactive mechanics for a variety of points and modalities of interaction
_designing for emergent social dynamics
_product feature definition and scoping
_defining user personas and journeys for product and content with multiple touchpoints
_designing frameworks for emergent user persona architectures based on engagement
_designing cognitive architectures / human points of interaction with technology, technology that builds on human behavior
_writing design docs
_leading interdisciplinary design teams and designing workflows for integrating technical and creative development
strategist: using research and analysis to inform strategic innovation within the convergence of product, brand, and content.
Selected Clients and Partners: Ford, JPL, VF, Art Center College of Design, Collective Future, Experimental Design, AI LA, USC Lloyd Greif Center, Blackstone Launchpad
Keywords: speculative futures, strategic innovation, creative ecosystems, partnerships, product development
Contact me for:
_using trend analysis, cultural research, and user interviews to map out infrastructural and social changes at the intersection of systemic and human perspectives
_using expert interviews and emerging technology research to map the current ecosystem of convergent industries
_ analyzing market drivers and business models that could define an opening for new product offerings
_mapping research on complex environments, world states, and ecosystems
_designing product, business, and ventures, including monetization and distribution strategy and partnerships
_defining product positioning for broad brands within emergent industries
_writing and designing deliverables and presentations
_sharing information with stakeholders to build internal consensus around shared vision
_sharing research through industry white papers and conference presentations
_designing workshops for collaborative design and collective sensemaking
Keywords: speculative futures, strategic innovation, creative ecosystems, partnerships, product development
Contact me for:
_using trend analysis, cultural research, and user interviews to map out infrastructural and social changes at the intersection of systemic and human perspectives
_using expert interviews and emerging technology research to map the current ecosystem of convergent industries
_ analyzing market drivers and business models that could define an opening for new product offerings
_mapping research on complex environments, world states, and ecosystems
_designing product, business, and ventures, including monetization and distribution strategy and partnerships
_defining product positioning for broad brands within emergent industries
_writing and designing deliverables and presentations
_sharing information with stakeholders to build internal consensus around shared vision
_sharing research through industry white papers and conference presentations
_designing workshops for collaborative design and collective sensemaking