Tools · May 2026 · Los Angeles
The hardware, software, and analog things that show up across everything I make. This list will grow.
The tool you reach for shapes the work you make. This is the kit I keep coming back to: hardware, software, and analog things that show up across everything I build. I'll add to it as the workshop changes.
Twenty-five years in and I'm still finding things in it. It's the one tool I've never not had open. I'm currently writing a shadow plugin for it because the built-in shadow generator doesn't think the way I think.
Right now I'm using it to build an interactive projection wall, a circular display that responds when people dance in front of it. It's the rare tool that lets you sketch in motion. Most software wants you to plan; this one wants you to play.
The fastest way I know to take an idea from screen to physical object. Acrylic, plywood, leather, paper. The moment when a vector file becomes a thing you can hold is still the moment.
For prototyping mounts, brackets, and structural components on the mutant vehicle build, plus small experimental forms. Faster and quieter than I expected. I've started designing parts that wouldn't be possible to make any other way.
On-site documentation, behind-the-scenes for the build, location work. The combination of low-light performance and lens versatility means I take it places I wouldn't take anything bigger.
The unsexy pair of objects that catch every idea before it hits a screen. I sketch through every project. Most of the sketches are bad. The point isn't the sketches; it's that the act of sketching is how I think.
The first computer where I learned design happens. I had it as a kid in Miami. I don't have it anymore, but everything I make traces back to building HyperCard stacks on its 9-inch screen. Tools change. The wonder doesn't.