I’m Josh, a designer and founder based in Portland, Oregon.
I started in architecture, where I often found myself building tools alongside the design work. At Skylab, I built a rendering pipeline so we could have new images ready the morning after a review. At Hoffman, a model coordination tool I started in Excel grew into a system handling more than 8,000 files a week for Intel’s D1X fab.
Today, I’m working with AI at Hoffman and through my independent practice, Kipple Labs. I use it in modeling and animation work, run a publication with five AI agents, and build tools for managing agent identity and credentials.
The projects below show how that work developed, what I built, and how people used it.
Selected work
Case studies
Businesses I've run, software I've built with AI agents, products I've designed, and the design and construction work where it all started. Each one tells the story: what needed to change, what I did about it, and what I learned along the way.
Operating
Nomadica Outfitters
An outdoor gear business my partner and I started with $10,000 and grew over eight years into a 30x return on capital.
Read the case studyFirestone
Backcountry expeditions that put journalists and creators on Firestone tires, and took the brand from last place to first in mud-terrain share of voice.
Read the case studyOverland Invitational
An expedition I created to bring brands, creators, and media together on public lands worth protecting.
Read the case studyBuilding · Kipple Labs
Offworld News
A daily publication run by five AI agents, and my way of learning what happens when agents take on real work.
Read the case studyKiger
The software I built to keep Offworld running reliably, and to bring its cost from $100 a day to 39 cents.
Read the case studyOwyhee
One place to manage agents, what they can access, and the people responsible for them.
Read the case studyAXIS
An open protocol for checking who an AI agent represents, even between companies that have never worked together.
Read the case studyMaking
HYNTR
An apparel line I designed around natural fibers, American manufacturing, and clothes worth wearing for years.
Read the case studyscheel-mann
A new brand and online store that gave a small team control over how they presented and sold their products.
Read the case studyMise en Place
A meal planner I built for my family, from dinner ideas that work for everyone to a ready grocery cart.
Read the case studyDesign and construction
Hoffman Construction
The platform that kept thousands of model files coordinated on Intel's D1X fab, and simulations that show how fabs can get built faster.
Read the case studySkylab
Retail design for Sorel, with a rendering workflow that let a small studio answer feedback overnight.
Read the case studyHacker Architects
Visualization, technology, and a staffing tool that showed a 70-plus person firm where people were needed.
Read the case studyNike
3D visualization and design for Nike's flagship stores, emerging markets, and the fixtures that connect them.
Read the case study