Who is Paradigm

I have had a wild career since graduating from undergrad at Ohio University in 2008. I departed with a B.S. in Cartography (mapmaking, yep) and a Minor in Plant Biology (botany). My rule was always this: I would return to academia for a Masters or PhD, only if I could not continue to get paid, while continuing to learn with interesting work. Some 16 years later, I have not returned to the academy. And I am thinking that I will save my graduate work (probably in linguistics or philosophy) for after I retire, if I ever retire.

 

Here are a few highlights, which might encourage you to think of me as both a terrible specialist and a talented generalist. But what is undoubtable, is that I have a deep curiosity and an ability to establish trusted relationships with bright and powerful people. And it is this history that led me here, today, at the helm of Paradigm Publishing, where I am having a blast collaborating with the brilliant makers, making a future filled with more fun.

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• In high school, I studied a smattering of different domains: graphic design, glass blowing, cello, figure drawing, photography, dendrology, music theory, pottery, and oil painting.

• In college, I was an executive member of an environmental student organization. My role was fundraising and community engagement. With all those funds, we did a lot of good, including my creation, printing, and dissemination of an Athens, Ohio  'Green Map', highlighting businesses and organizations and public infrastructure that were contributing to a more sustainable schema, locally.

• After college, I rode my bicycle across the United States with a few friends: Ohio to Oregon. And we documented it here, bikists.blogspot.com

• My first, job-job after university was an internship (starting a few weeks before the 2008 crash) at National Geographic, which led to a 3-year tenure making maps and infographics. Look for my work in the 9th Edition of the World Atlas or in the yellow border,  National Geographic Magazine, issues of 2010.

• I started my own freelance graphic communicator agency that allowed me to work with various publications, organizations, and businesses. I worked with a complexity theorist in Santa Fe to better visualize geospatial data on an interactive-wildfire-planning tool. I worked with senior economists at the Congressional Budget Office to explain what the Fiscal Cliff of 2013 meant to general public. And I worked with an open source geospatial software company, which resided in a penthouse on the south edge of SOHO, to create custom base maps for their GIS tools. *Oh yeah, fun fact, this SOHO-planted company was part of a portfolio of other startups affecting change in NYC (including transportation planning, and local journalism focused on public NYC school system), all funded by the guy who created LimeWire (Mark Gorton), the peer-to-peer file sharing application of the early days of the World Wide Web.  **Funner fact, although he, I, and many others would disagree, is that the RIAA sued Mark [LimeWire] for $105 Million, for copyright infringement. After which time Mark's philanthropic efforts dried up considerably.

• I joined a small NYC startup as a consulting geospatial professional. We worked with some of the biggest water engineering companies working in New York state, creating media for to-be-bid-on projects, or progress monitoring in the construction phase. We eventually pivoted toward collecting drone data for 3D modeling of the New York region's critical infrastructure.

• I took an adjunct position in Kent State University's school of communication, teaching visual ethics. What? Yeah, wild. I thought with my background they would want me to teach Typography or Color Theory, but nope. Ethics. And I did it for a couple of years.

• After my experience creating 3D drone-derived models in my previous drone-data gig, I was close to some of the folks at the pioneering and top algorithmic-photogrammetry software company. They hired me to sell their software, allowing me to interact often VP or C-suite members of some big companies like Cargill and State Farm Insurance.

• In all this time, I had written hundreds of poems, but rarely shared my work. In 2023, I founded a continually successful poetry collective in Raleigh, NC called Paradigm Poetry.

• I created this company, Paradigm Publishing in spring of 2023. I saw my first opening when I met a great abstract expressionist here in Raleigh. I then learned that gallery representation was not working out for many artists. The gallery takes a large share of revenue generated, usually 50%. They had a deep collector rolodex and brick and mortar locations to showcase work and attract collectors, but they were weak on the storytelling, necessary for growing demand. So I built a model of representation that would provide more attention and value to the creator at much lower cost.

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I guess that gives you a taste of the diversity of my working career. Thanks for reading, the not-exhaustive list of my weird professional experiences; exhausting, nonetheless. Ha.

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And here are a few core competencies I can pull from all of these diverse work experiences.

-A communicative prowess. 

-An ability to understand complex ideas and communicate them clearly, in approachable and simple ways.

-A wild amount of curiosity.

-A jack of many trades.

-A good organizer, and leader.

-A novelty freak. 

-A confidence to always take the open seat at the table.

-A facilitator of other's best selves.

-A courage to ask for things, and a generosity to always return the favor.

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Much love,

Sam

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