MAISON KREW + PLAYBOY
Maison Krew Becomes the Official Luxury Streetwear Brand of Playboy
Dec 5, 2024 – Kickoff party at Hyde Beach, SLS South Beach: featured DJ Themba, a live performance called Heartbondage by artists Mitya Staev and Marion Crampe, art installations curated by Evoken Global, and Playboy Bunnies. Sponsors included Lucky Energy Drinks and the Pure Dating App. HuffmagElite Luxury News
Dec 6, 2024 – Follow-up event at Villa Asur, Miami Beach, a joint activation with Playboy Mexico spotlighting mixed-media artist Max Jamali's work using diamond dust and 24K gold. Huffmag
Background:
The push tied into the relaunch of Playboy Magazine, planned for February 2025, with the new issue set to feature the Playboy Interview and spotlight the 2024 Playmate of the Year. HuffmagHuffmag
Playboy also emphasized supporting local artists and cultural institutions as part of the activation, including art scholarships and workshops. Elite Luxury News
“..none hold a candle to the Art Basel Playboy Art Party, which also featured stylish streetwear from Maison Krew.”https://www.playboy.com/read/playboy-events/art-basel-playboy-party
Role: Founder & Creative Director, Maison Krew
NXOS + WEST COAST CUSTOMS
10K + PARTICIPANTS. 2.5MM + Shares & Views with 6%+ engagement.
Background:
Ryan Friedlinghaus (CEO of West Coast Customs) and the team reached out to help launch a digital + physical collectible of die cast cars that had digital twins.
The collection was limited per design of the die cast car and sold out within minutes generating over $500,000 USD in revenue for West Coast Customs.
NXOS handled the minting and sales of each collectible while West Coast Custom’s digital team worked alongside me to generate 3D digital twins for each die cast car.
Role: Co-Founder, CEO & Head of Creative for NXOS
NVTIVE + FRIENDSWITHYOU
Background:
In December 2021 (bidding Dec 4–7), FriendsWithYou participated in Christie's first on-chain NFT auction, a collaboration with OpenSea.
This was part of events tied to Art Basel Miami Beach, where works were exhibited in "The Gateway" experience. It marked Christie's early push into on-chain (Ethereum/OpenSea-based) NFT auctions, with bidding, payment, and transfer handled directly on the blockchain.
Key Stats for the Auction and FriendsWithYou's Lot:
Overall auction total: 843 ETH, equivalent to about $3.6 million at the time.
FriendsWithYou's highlight lot — fRiENDSiES 00001 (a 1/1 animated cloud sculpture NFT with AR capabilities; described as the first bronze sculpture on the blockchain): Sold for 96.9 ETH (~$415,600). It was one of the top lots in the sale.
Role: Founder & Creative Director, NVTIVE - Creative Strategy Consulting for FriendsWithYou (Sam & Tury).
NXOS + SUPERPLASTIC
Background:
Superplastic: The Janky Heist was a July 2021 NFT collaboration between Superplastic (creators of virtual artists/characters Janky & Guggimon), Christie's, and other artists. It was themed around a playful "heist" narrative (with a short film) where Janky & Guggimon try to steal art from Christie's, leading to exploded/mashed-up digital pieces.
This was part of events tied to Art Basel Miami Beach, where works were exhibited in "The Gateway" experience. It marked Christie's early push into on-chain (Ethereum/OpenSea-based) NFT auctions, with bidding, payment, and transfer handled directly on the blockchain.
Key Structure and Stats:
Two-part event (July 9–22, 2021, online):
Christie's portion (part of the broader Trespassing online sale): Featured 8 unique artist-edition Cryptojanky NFTs. These were collaborations with artists like Gucci Ghost, OG Slick, Shantell Martin, Alex Pardee, Stickymonger, Alexandar Todorovic, plus special pieces by Janky & Guggimon themselves.
Sale total: USD 197,500 (hammer price; excludes buyer's premium).
Superplastic's Janky Heist drop (launched July 13 on jankyheist.com): A large-scale release of 9,240 unique 1/1 Cryptojanky NFTs (generated from recombined fragments of 22 original Janky figures). It used a Japanese-style reverse auction mechanic (prices decreased over time to encourage quicker buys).
Role: Co-Founder, CEO & Head of Creative, NXOS - Creative Brand IP Strategy & Digital Community Management for Superplastic and Paul Budnitz
REOLINK
Background:
Reolink hired me on as Creative Director for the newly formed North America Marketing team.
Led North American brand expression for a global intelligent home security technology company, translating headquarters brand strategy into culturally attuned creative frameworks for the local market.
Served as the voice of the North American audience in global brand discussions, advocating for bold, locally resonant creative approaches.
Produced, edited, and provided on-set creative direction for our North American video production shoots.
Implemented ElevenLabs for commercial voiceover production, replacing a $3,000 external vendor cost with an in-house same-session deliverable.
Partnerships: World Wildlife Federations, Conversation Science Global, and Rocket Chimp Creative Agency.
Role: North America Creative Director, Reolink
Nexus origin system
*Current Project*
Background:
Background:
Founded NXOS (Nexus Origin System), a physical-artifact authentication platform that establishes the origin record for premium collectibles at the moment of manufacture — cryptographic identity, edition number, and a publicly published issuance ceiling all fixed at production, rather than reconstructed years later by third-party graders.
Architected and shipped QF-TAG, the platform's authentication layer, built on NXP NTAG 424 DNA secure NFC silicon — AES-128 CMAC signatures computed inside the chip on every tap, a monotonic counter defeating replay of captured scans, and per-item diversified keys derived from an HSM-held master, validated against NXP's published cryptographic test vectors.
Served as founder, creative director, and lead engineer — owning brand identity, the editorial design system, and product direction alongside the backend registry, cryptographic verification, and deployment infrastructure, translating an anti-counterfeiting problem into a product collectors actually want to use.
Designed and deployed the production platform end-to-end on Google Cloud Run — persistent registry, secret management, custom domain, and a partner console through which studios mint editions, declare issuance limits, and track fulfillment — live at demo.nxos.com.
Built a multi-tenant white-label architecture enabling category sub-brands to operate independently branded storefronts and scoped marketplaces on shared registry infrastructure, first deployed as Origin Prüf for the whiskey and bourbon collectibles market.
Developed the consumer registry: cross-property collections, verified ownership transfer, permanently bound membership tiers, evidence-based pre-order fulfillment, and a public audit surface where any issuance claim can be independently checked by anyone — the architectural answer to why a maker who authenticates its own work can be trusted.
Partnerships / Tech Stack: NXP (NTAG 424 DNA / DNA TT secure NFC), Google Cloud Platform (Cloud Run, Cloud Storage, Secret Manager, Artifact Registry), Node.js / Express, custom AES-CMAC SUN verification, Resend, in-house design system.
Role: Founder, CEO & Creative Director, NXOS (Nexus Origin System)
