I like ideas with
something at stake.
A place somebody remembers. Work somebody needs to do. A story that keeps asking for a different form.
The person behind the studio.
I’m Jacob, a writer and independent maker in Austin. I studied English, worked at camp, and became the father of six children. I’m interested in how people make meaning together—and what happens when you give them something they can take part in.
That interest turns up throughout this collection: Jewish community life, literary worlds you can walk into, and businesses whose everyday decisions become playable. There is also a fairly serious commitment to ridiculous ideas.
The form is part of the idea.
A game asks you to act. A film chooses what you see and when you see it. Software gives a recurring task a shape. Choosing between them changes the work itself.
My interest in media ecology and Jewish textual traditions lives here, in the making. I want the experience to help people notice something or do something they couldn’t quite do before.
A small studio with room to try things.
I use AI throughout production, including coding and visual development. It lets me explore a working version while an idea is still taking shape. I direct the project and take responsibility for what I publish.
With commissioned work, we agree on the purpose and scope, try an early version, and revise around what we learn. You work directly with me. Delivery and any ongoing support are part of the project agreement.
Explore studio services →A few ways into the collection.
Shtick City turns a particular time and place—West Campus in 2006—into somewhere you can wander.
StoryRuler gives writers a workspace for comparing what different narrative structures ask of a story.
The Medium Is the Midrash follows my interest in Jewish textual life and the forms that carry meaning.
For a business application, Salon Command shows how the same studio can approach the practical work of an operation.
Bring the part you know well.
You know your community, your audience or the problem inside your business. That knowledge is where a useful commission begins.
Brand New Colors is the studio for making the experience or tool. For broader work on how a company operates, my consulting practice has its own home.