Writing · from the studio

Field notes from the studio.

Everything we've written and built, in one place — the ideas, the rooms, and the live software, from a small workshop in Frederick. Filter by topic, or just search.

30 pieces

Visual Quiz

Multiple-choice answered by signing A, B, C, or D to the camera — embeddable anywhere, no clicked button to copy.

6 min read Gameroom

Gameroom

Open a room, share a code, and the whole table plays from their own screens — self-seeding brackets, a live leaderboard.

7 min read ThinkASL

ThinkASL

The grammar of fingerspelling, practiced against your own laptop camera. (Coming soon — here's what we've built.)

6 min read Meetings

Meetings

The meeting run from the room you're in — agenda, captions on by default, a clean record, no Robert's Rules required.

6 min read Arena

Arena

One tournament engine, every sport — brackets, live scoring, and a recap pipeline, starting with pickleball and bowling.

8 min read Tree

The pile of paper

What happens when five generations of family paper become a private website the family can actually use. (Tree)

6 min read Tree

Tree

Send the pile of paper; get back a private family website — relationships, sources, edit-as-you-go. Not DNA, not public.

7 min read Dinner Table

Pull up a chair

What Dinner Table Syndrome is, and the product that builds the family table back into one conversation.

5 min read Dinner Table

Dinner Table

Live captions on every screen at the table, consent-gated — the build that answers Dinner Table Syndrome.

6 min read Gisele's Princess Closet

The closet, mailed ahead

Princess dresses, sized to fit and mailed to the resort — the small joy we're building for traveling families.

4 min read Gisele's Princess Closet

Gisele's Princess Closet

Princess dresses sized to fit and mailed to the resort. (Coming soon — here's what we're building.)

4 min read Teleprompter

A prompter for signers

Why every teleprompter ever built assumes a speaking voice — and what a prompter for signers looks like instead.

5 min read Teleprompter

Teleprompter

The first teleprompter that scrolls to signing, with a voice mode for hearing co-hosts off the same script.

6 min read Homestead Keys

Keys to the homestead

Feeding family and neighbors off the land since 1891 — and the local marketplace that carries it forward. (Homestead Keys)

5 min read Homestead Keys

Homestead Keys

A small marketplace of permitted local vendors — eggs, produce, honey — met and picked up in person.

6 min read Game Lab

Game Lab

Two dozen-plus games where signing is how you win — free to play, with a teacher dashboard for classrooms.

7 min read Heart Space

Heart Space

Four quiet pieces that answer a sign with warmth — installed for hospital wings and counselor rooms. No score, nothing saved.

6 min read Imagination Town

Imagination Town

A browser-tab city of everyday places a kid runs by signing — installed for real in museums and civic spaces.

7 min read Interpreter

Interpreter

The toolkit interpreter agencies run their day on — scheduling, the interpreter app, and billing in one. Free for Deaf-owned agencies.

8 min read Universal design

The case for a touchless, signless world.

Why voice-first design quietly excludes millions — and the camera-and-hands alternative that's already in the room.

6 min read Universal design

Where the numbers come from.

Every statistic and legal claim we cite, with its source — checkable, one by one.

Reference Universal design

What we build, and what we don't.

Why 1891 is an interactive-experience company, not a sign-language AI lab — and the line that lets us ship today.

4 min read Universal design

What we tell every client up front.

The limits we name before any contract: signing isn't universal, recognition fails, the room itself is part of the build.

4 min read Universal design

Six principles that shape every install.

The six rules behind every 1891 install, from 'inclusion never replacement' to 'the kindest interface is the truest one.'

5 min read Interpreter

Touchless-world demo

Sign a four-digit PIN to a camera — 36 handshapes, in-browser, no install. The touchless thesis you can poke at now.

5 min read Organizations

MSDPSA

How a Deaf-led parents-and-staff association runs every meeting, dues period, and broadcast on 1891 Organizations.

10 min read Sports & play

Clerc Classic

Livestream production and on-screen graphics for Gallaudet football's classic — Deaf-first broadcast, hearing crowd kept.

6 min read Parliamentarian

Parliamentarian

Robert's Rules in software: motions on the front TV, votes from every hand, signed minutes before the chair sits.

9 min read Travel

Fairytale Dreamers Travel

A Deaf-led travel agency's public site, CRM, and email pipeline — one stack, one admin, no SaaS rent. (Travel)

8 min read Arena

Blast'D! Arena

Sensor fobs, firmware, a game engine, and a marshal dashboard — a laser-tag arena 1891 built end to end.

See also

Every essay here was prompted by something we built. The work itself lives next door, on the portfolio. Read the case studies →