I design and build systems.
I also write books.
I build small, independent systems and teach design and entrepreneurship at university. Twenty years across Europe and Asia, seven of them running a consultancy in Hong Kong.
Institutes
Independent research institutes, each holding one subject and naming its borders with the others. Standards, not shops — they publish method and sources, and never sell. Listed at 618 · the register.
Cantonese culture first, language second — from the Pearl River to the world.
Livesymbolic.instituteHow humans compress meaning into symbols — a sourced atlas of marks, systems and visual grammar.
Livehanzi.designThe cosmology of Chinese characters. Not letters — visual decisions that carry meaning.
Liveinterfaces.instituteInteraction intelligence — the field guide between the hand and the machine.
Livewritten.instituteThe world’s writing systems, read as artefacts — scripts, letterforms and type.
Livecorpus.instituteA cross-civilisational reading library, organised as a building you move through.
LiveData & intelligence
Public holidays, market closures and deadlines for 241 jurisdictions — every date with its source.
Liveplaceintel.proProperty intelligence for Greece. You find the property; we tell you about the place.
LiveProducts
Planners generated to order for e-ink tablets. Your device, your dates, your language.
Liveathens.taipeiThe Atlas of City Experiences. Every city is good at something; none is best at everything.
LiveNaisu PressAn independent press for digital editions. Stated method, immutable editions.
LiveOther things I'm building
Cross-border relocation intelligence
In buildLocation intelligence for property and place
In buildCorporate records, made legible
In buildA museum of written systems
In buildA language-learning corpus
In build