Open to the right creative roleIndependent worldbuilding project / In progress
TheShorelightProject
A new world.
All the human parts.
We’re packing for Mars. The music, the memories, and the questionable ideas are coming too.
Step inside the project
01 / The idea that keeps growing
What would make
another planet
feel like home?
That’s the question behind The Shorelight Project. It’s an ongoing science-fiction mission journal about leaving Earth and building a community on Mars—with all the decisions, small victories, and ridiculous conversations that come with it.
I get to pull together the things I love: design, figuring out how things work, telling stories, and bringing people into an idea. One day it’s a helmet. Another, a video store. Sometimes it’s a very serious debate about which game deserves the last slot in a cargo case.
The audience gets to play along. Their answers help shape the possibilities for what we bring and what we build.
- My role
- Creator, creative direction & AI workflow design
- The work
- Brand, storytelling & social strategy
- The format
- Chapters, field notes & community questions
- The approach
- Creative direction with an AI partner
The Instagram journey
One mission.
Many small stories.
The world grows through the journal. Each entry gives people a moment to step into, a question to answer, and a reason to come back.
- Chapter 01 / Preparing to leave
What comes with us?
Packing cases, personal mementos, unofficial cargo, and the food we refuse to leave behind. The mission starts with the things that make us human.
- Chapter 02 / Making a home
What do we build?
City plans, helmets, movie nights, an arcade, and Saturday-morning cartoons. Earth-side workshops and shared rituals test the kind of community we want to take to Mars.
- In development / The next collection
What do we wear?
A studio-to-runway story is taking shape: swatches, sketches, fittings, and the decisions behind the Shorelight wardrobe. This next part is still in development.
From a comment to a story
Pizza made
the manifest.
I asked what people would bring to Mars. Someone said pizza. Someone else got very specific about the toppings. That became a whole journal entry, with a test kitchen, a distracted crew, and some strong opinions about pineapple.
The published caption credits the people who sparked it, then asks what belongs on the Mars menu. That’s the kind of back-and-forth I want: people seeing a little of themselves become part of the world.
Read the pizza entry on Instagram ↗02 / Social strategy + AI workflow design
I built the program.
AI helps run it.
Shorelight is also a social media program I designed: the brand, the content plan, the production process, and the way we build community. I use ChatGPT—who I call Nova—as a tool and a creative partner to help operate that program, with my direction built into the way we work.
Inside the build
From direction
to ongoing work.
Open the three foundations to see what gives the program its context.
The vision, taste, and decisions.
I define the world, set the standards, and choose how much of the process to delegate.
01Brand + voice
The creative guardrails
The standing brief defines a hopeful, playful mission journal. Brand and character references keep the seal, people, wardrobe, and world recognizable as the story grows.
02The post playbook
A repeatable way to publish
Three story images, a fourth question card, a numbered Mission Journal caption, and a feed-to-Story publishing sequence. The format is established; each entry brings a new idea.
03Project memory
Context that carries forward
Saved references, decisions, post status, and community notes let a new work session pick up where the last one ended. Drafts, approvals, and published work stay distinct.
Nova / AI-assisted execution- 01
Plan
Choose the next story beat and audience question.
- 02
Create
Develop visuals, write the caption, and refine the post.
- 03
Publish
Carry approved work into the feed and Stories.
- 04
Listen
Review replies, respond, and collect useful ideas.
Comments become possibilities.
Questions, suggestions, and returning contributors help shape the next chapter.
into the next brief
Building the project behind the posts
First, we built
the brief.
We shaped the Shorelight project chat around the brand: what this world stands for, how it looks, how it sounds, and how much fun we want to have with it. Hopeful, curious, a little cheeky. Big ideas, with room for pizza arguments and the things we’d miss from home.
That became the foundation for an ongoing workflow: a standing brief, brand and character references, visual rules, a content plan, and a record of story decisions. Saved project files carry that context between chats. Each new post starts with the direction we’ve already established.
The reusable carousel template
Three story images.
One open question.
- 01
Set the scene
Give people a moment to step into.
- 02
Move the story
Show the idea, activity, or small complication.
- 03
Make it feel human
Bring the details and personality closer.
- 04
Hand it to the audience
A branded question card invites the next idea.
A numbered Mission Journal caption carries the story and repeats the question. The publishing process pairs the feed post with a Story share.
Built for delegated execution
The idea is: I can say
“run with it.”
With a clear brief and permission to proceed, Nova can carry the workflow forward: develop the next entry, prepare the assets and caption, publish, review responses, and bring useful ideas back into the plan. I set the direction and the boundaries, including what can move ahead and what needs my review.
A repeatable workflow.
The post template connects the idea to the finished carousel, caption, feed post, and Story share. Nova can work through those steps with authorization and track what’s drafted, approved, and published. I art-direct and refine the work across my design tools.
Keep the loop going.
The community side is part of the program too: reviewing posts and comments, keeping replies short and fun, and collecting ideas we can build on. The planned rhythm is a check-in every other day, with promising suggestions saved and credited when they become part of a post.
Readers can become crew.
As people keep showing up with ideas, I want to invite them further into the story—potentially even as a character. It’s a way to recognize the people helping build this world and give them a reason to keep playing along.
The ambition / Where I want to take it
50 comments.
One next chapter.
That’s the kind of community I want to grow: fifty comments on a post, full of ideas that help shape what happens next. Remember those choose-your-own-adventure books? That’s the feeling I’m chasing, with an entire community turning the page together.
Someone suggests what we pack. Someone else changes what we build. Then they come back and see a piece of their idea in the next chapter. That’s when the account starts to feel like something we’re all part of.
The measure of success: people coming back, contributing, and seeing their ideas come to life.03 / Making the world hold together
Big imagination.
Consistent details.
A world feels real when its parts belong together. The identity, materials, clothing, and everyday objects all build on the same visual language.
A familiar light. A new horizon.The identity
A signal people
can recognize.
The lighthouse, sailboat, and orbit form the project’s seal. Antique gold and silver sit against near-black, with fine lines and clear typography carrying the mission-journal feel into the social graphics.
Design the system.
Repeatable materials, silhouettes, identifiers, and colorways give new scenes something to build from.
Put it to work.
Equipment appears in workshops, packing routines, and everyday moments so it becomes part of the story.
Leave room for people.
Humor, personal interests, and audience questions make the world feel lived in—and worth coming back to.
The creative toolkit
Tools behind the work.
I set the direction, make the design decisions, and refine the work across these tools.
Adobe Photoshop
Image retouching, cleanup & finishing
Adobe Illustrator
Vector graphics & design refinements
Higgsfield
AI video generation & motion studies
ChatGPT
Creative partnership, project memory, writing, imagery & community review
Goodnotes
Ideation, sketches & handwritten notes
CapCut
Video editing & social cuts
Instagram
Publishing, storytelling & community engagement
04 / The growing collection
Explore the work.
From the first visual rules to the little rituals that make a community. Choose a collection, scroll either row, and open anything that catches your eye.
Two rows. Follow your curiosity. Swipe or use the arrows.
Fictional scenes and concept visualizations, developed with AI-assisted image creation and iterative art direction. Equipment shown here is worldbuilding artwork.
The Shorelight picture show
A little movement.
A bigger world.
A wall of little windows into Shorelight. From the first packing days to the latest studio experiments and field tests, these Higgsfield clips put the world in motion.
Pick a screen. Stay a while.
Packing for departure
Inside the studio
Finding the palette
One seam at a time
Off the rack. Off the grid.
05 / The story keeps going
An open channel.
Recent entries unfold across three story images and a fourth question card. The caption adds the journal voice; the closing question invites the next conversation. Here are a few entries from the ongoing story.
Chapter 02 / Sec 15Saturday Morning, Preserved
Chapter 02 / Sec 14The Last Slot
Chapter 02 / Sec 13Some Assembly Required
Follow the mission
What would you
bring with you?
The latest posts, questions, and small detours, straight from @theshorelightproject.
Join the conversation on Instagram ↗Scroll the profile inside the display, or open Instagram for the full journal.
An old-school way to say hello
Leave it after
the beep.
A question about the work? A slightly wild idea? Just want to say hey? Leave me a little message. I’ll get back to you.
Your voice. Your face, if you like. A real conversation.
Press the red button to leave a message.