James Risberg

I'm a designer, engineer and facilitator of spaces and experiences.

🪴 Space Design 🛋️

I design beautiful, functional spaces, permanent and temporary, residential and commercial.

In all settings, my process is rooted in understanding the patterns of life in a place, and working with the energy and rhythms of those patterns to design a place perfectly suited to what happens there and easily evolved as things change, very much in the lineage of Christopher Alexander whom I've studied with the Building Beauty network.

Recently, I brought the outside inside for the 🌞 Daylight Showroom 🌱

And got to turn the Baukunst office into a Center with Toby Shorin for his 🧘‍♂️ Forms of Life exhibit ⛪️

In the home, my favorite recent client came to me simply with "My husband can't sleep, can you help?" And I did!

🤖 Software 💻

I develop software, preferring simple, purpose-built tools that replace cumbersome processes for people on the ground.

I work across the web stack and with native iOS, have a precise feel for design and the user's experience, and get great results fast by front-loading clarity and understanding to then inform an AI-accelerated development process. I'm available for contract work, and would love to audit your existing application or hand over a great MVP for you to go raise with.

My own projects right now:

Desktop Detox, an always-present file organization dock for macOS

Easy Expo, a coordination tool for large-scale dinner service in catering and event contexts

Wormhole, an experiment in interface design wrapping my favorite file-transfer CLI, magic-wormhole

(to see personal projects and digidoodads go to /play)

🛸 SciFi Consulting 🎭

I help teams and individuals working on complex systems and planetary-scale infrastructure clarify and direct their visions and energy, using storytelling and world-building techniques from science fiction writing to make sense of the present and illustrate the futures they want to manifest.