UNDERCONSTRUCTION

SCOPE
Brand Identity, Product Design, E-Commerce, Systems Design

INDUSTRY
Independent Retail / Product

STAGE
Self-Initiated

What is an object actually worth? Not what the maker says or what the market pays for it, but when it's sitting in your hands.

The DCV is a handmade steel charm shop that runs like a black market. 
Everything's for sale... Well, except THAT one.

Prices move on their own. A live tracker raises certain items when more eyes are on them and drops them when they aren't. Nothing about the object changes, only what the market will pay for it. It's late stage capitalism at two inches (The standard charm size), but the vendor may have other ways of getting a charm into your hands...

Self-initiated and shipped: I designed the brand, the charms, the storefront, took it to market through BiNK, and exhibited the work at Detroit Month of Design 2026.

The DCV Site

 + Premise +

Nobody commits to a mystery. They commit to objects, to people, to things they can show their friends. The game has to be the reward for showing up, not the price of admission. How do we convice people to take the leap?

- Execution -

A handmade steel charm is something you can hold, photograph, wear. By the time someone notices charm #037 was earned not purchased, they're already in. The store opens the door. The game is what's waiting on the other side.

+ CORE +

GUERRILLA - SACRED - RAW

We move the way our audience moves. Always looking, always shifting. Unexpected channels, no announcement until it's already happening. What surfaces isn't for everyone, and it isn't around long. Hand-cut steel, small enough to carry, meant to be kept. They'll rust. That's the deal. Cherished, not preserved.

Guerrilla is the strategy. Sacred is what it's meant to teach. Raw is what it looks and feels like.

+ VOICE +

Meet BiNK.

Every storefront needs a clerk. BiNK is ours; a repurposed bot running the register at DCV. 

But BiNK has ulterior motives. Buried in its responses are fragments that don't quite fit the transaction...

+ EXECUTION +

Something the market can't price.

The charms are the point, hand-made, small enough to carry, made to be kept on you.

The tracker prices them right up until you buy one. Demand moves it, but you give it meaning. Whatever it's worth now is a question about you.

They corrode. You can slow it down, but you can't stop it. The wear is a record. What it ends up meaning depends on you, and the time you have with it. No ticker can read that.

+ DEPTH +

Some charms can be earned. 

Beneath the charms, side quests unfolds through digital and real-world storytelling (Node System). Clues, ciphers, and puzzles are designed to reward those who go deeper. Building retention, dwell time, and a feeling of accomplishment.

>> New Charm earned !

..See you soon?

Outcome

Ad fatigue isn't a trend, it's a wall. The DCV was built around the idea that the best way to get someone's attention is to give them something worth finding. No funnel. No push. Just a system deep enough that people choose how far they want to go and get rewarded for their efforts.

Some people buy a charm and move on. Others notice the site doesn't add up. A few go all the way in. Every level is intentional. The community that forms around that is different from anything a media buy can build, it's made of people who chose to be there. The DCV hard launches May 2026.

Shelf Space Earned. A technical reference guide, not an impulse buy — placed in 90 stores because retailers believed growers would pay for depth.

30+ 
States

National Reach. From a single book to a national footprint, with no distribution deal and no publisher behind it.

Detroit Month of Design

Three thousand growers paid for a 330-page manual. The market decided the respect was worth it.