What is the bear?
The bear is everything standing between you and the life you're trying to build. It's the diagnosis that changes your plans. The injury that sidelines you. The rejection. The deadline. The day your body doesn't cooperate. The year the whole world stops.
The bear isn't one thing. It's every obstacle, in sequence, forever. And it doesn't stop because you had a hard week.
"vs Tia" is the other half of the equation. Not the part where everything goes right — the part where you suit up anyway.
Who is Tia?
Industrial designer and design strategist with 13+ years in retail display and point-of-purchase design. I build things that live in real stores, under fluorescent lights, handled by real people — not just things that look good in a presentation deck.
I also hike. A lot. And I build apps — because the tools I wanted didn't exist, so I made them.
This site is where those threads come together. The work. The wilderness. The health journey that didn't have a clean narrative arc. The ongoing argument with the bear.
What does fighting the bear look like?
- Hiking the same trail 12 times until you don't have to stop at the top.
- Building a meal tracking app because every existing one missed the point.
- Taking 360° panoramas so you can go back to places that made you feel alive.
- Shipping work you're proud of, even when the brief was impossible.
- Getting up the next day.