Rethinking storytelling.
my name is Connor, and I am a Story Engineer. Welcome to this little corner of the internet! I'm glad you're here.
Let me tell you a story. Once, a long time ago I was an engineer. I loved stories, but I thought there wasn't a career to be made in them. So I built helicopters and made car parts.
I got bored and frustrated that I was working as part of the system and not helping to change it.
Then I went back to school, met some seriously cool people, and never looked back.
Hello there,
Tattoos are fake.
Beard is real.
Now I create tools that help people tell their stories.
Before you go any further, there's a few things you should know.
I am a bit strange.
Okay. Probably more than a bit.
I have a super power.
I can read and type very fast.
I listen to all sorts of eccentric music.
I believe in scientific method...and magic.
I love stickers, good food, and really sour beer.
I like to work late at night and sleep in when I can.
I eschew convention & am constantly experimenting with new ideas.
I have an ever-expanding board game collection and sometimes write poetry on Instagram.
I am very passionate about my work and take it very seriously.
Sometimes that passion blinds my judgement.
I meditate a lot to try and fix that.
I want a better world.
Now.
About Me
Seriously, ask me about it!
I cannot stress the sour part enough.
That is why I work with stories.
Conceptual
About My Work
Sometimes the tools and processes we use are just ideas, with little to no physical or digital guides. My most exciting work is usually here, where we can just think together about what could be and then making it happen. Every project starts here with research,
I do a lot of very different things, so I think it's helpful to sort them into so rough buckets! My storytelling is pretty different from all of this, so I have collected that on my other website.
Digital
The newest additions to my portfolio are primarily digital (with large doses of conceptual elements naturally included). I work primarily in Python, Twine, and HTML/CSS. I'm not the best but I make it work, somehow. Usually here I like to partner with true experts who can put things together much faster and cleaner than I could.
Physical
I used to work mostly with wood, metals, plastics, & composites. These days, it's mostly paper & cardboard. I've learned you can do a lot with a sheet of paper, and have cannibalised my fair share of old board games to test my own designs. I want to do more of this work in the future.
My brain runs at two speeds: off and 110%. I am constantly thinking about something. Lately I've been doing a lot of meditation, which helps me to find speeds in between my two usual setting, but when I am working, my mind is always churning.
I like to play with new ideas and think out loud with new people. I try to take inspiration from everything, and often make connections between seemingly very different things. Momentum is very important in my work, so I am constantly trying to stay up-to-date in several different fields at once, knowing that there are lessons we can learn form all of them if we just look at things from the right angle.
When I do this, I tend to ask lots of deep, sometimes annoyingly deep, questions. This is something I learned as an engineer, that the key to many of the issues we face lays in the foundations upon which our work stands. New ideas come when we start to play with these foundations, and open our minds to what could be if we'd just let go of the past for a moment.
My strongest assets are my ideas.
Let's get a tea.
Or a beer!