Wilderness of Wish

In 2010 I opened Wilderness of Wish®, a boutique retail shop and the material culture arm of my research & insights consultancy. The Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and online shops featured storied tools, ornaments and provisions from the artisan communities I’d collaborated with as a researcher.

I led all business and creative aspects of the shop: domestic and international sourcing, wholesale accounts, merchandising, marketing, customer and vendor communications and shipping. Shinji Horimura created the environmental design of the physical shop and Lebanese Art Director Cynthia Merhej worked on the online shop. Caitlin Van Dusen was the copywriter for many of our beloved narrative product labels.

As a result of the shop’s success, I was selected by the Smithsonian Institution to advise on design and procurement of goods for the Folklife Festival Marketplace on the National Mall. I was also featured in Uppercase design magazine.