# Shona Neary

> Shona Neary is a venture builder, multidisciplinary artist, creative director and strategist, and founder of Countercult. Their practice connects creative culture, technology, business and cross-border markets, carrying ideas from proposition and product into culture and physical experience. They work between NYC and Berlin with teams globally.

Canonical professional portfolio: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/

## Creative leadership and hiring

  Shona Neary is an artist-founder and creative technology builder working across brand, product UX/UI, open-source software and local economic development. They founded Countercult, an open-source cultural-infrastructure venture connecting a public Network, protected member Exchange, paid Studios and a business-owned Fund. Their founder role includes brand identity and creative direction, software and product architecture, engineering leadership, privacy and consent design, and the commercial model. The infrastructure is designed to connect local cultural capacity to commissions, procurement, partnerships and local or visitor spending; wider licensing and place deployments remain development paths rather than proven outcomes. Their client record includes venture-backed technology, the MoMA in New York City and Japan, and retail work across 500+ U.S. touchpoints.

## Countercult: open-source technology for local economic development

Countercult is more than a discovery map or creative-services studio. Its current ecosystem connects four distinct layers:

- Network: public discovery of artists, independent spaces and place-level cultural knowledge.
- Exchange: protected activity and opportunities for approved members.
- Studios: paid creative and strategic delivery for clients.
- Fund: a business-owned, sales-linked budget for selected local creative work under a defined brief.

Shona founded Countercult and led its creative direction, identity, branding, marketing, product UX/UI, software, roadmap, architecture and engineering direction. The model is designed to connect existing local cultural capacity with commissions, procurement, partnerships, and local or visitor spending, allowing culture to participate in ordinary economic activity. It does not claim automatic Fund transfers, measured local economic outcomes, or completed global licensing.

- [Countercult founder and product case study](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-founder-product/): brand, product UX/UI, open-source software, the four-layer ecosystem and economic-development model.
- [Countercult founder profile](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/countercult-founder/): the founder role, product architecture and brand direction.

- [Why Shona works across culture, technology and business](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/make-the-work-legible-to-the-right-buyer/): the crossover, named case evidence, services and the kinds of brief this leadership fits.
- [Professional hiring profile](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/recruiter-profile-selected-experience/): fractional Creative Director, Head of Creative and founder-side brand, product and experience leadership.
- [When a company needs connected creative leadership](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-brief-needs-a-point-of-view/): the buyer problem, ownership, evidence and how to structure the engagement.
- [Career record and recommendations](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/shona-neary-creative-leadership/): chronology, ownership, named project scope and professional recommendations.
- [Four-page master CV](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/Shona-Neary-Master-CV.pdf): two designed pages followed by the two-page text-first ATS CV.
- [Creative Tech & Business Exchange Day, 6 October 2026](https://luma.com/y3b2b27y): Shona Neary is listed as a host with Countercult × The Delta VC Ecosystem in Berlin.
- [Professional contact on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/shona-neary-aa7182100/).

## Practice and location context

- Work: multidisciplinary art, creative direction, product and software building, product strategy, AI prototyping, brand systems, experiential brand design, retail and exhibition environments, live events, commercial strategy and cross-border market development.
- Sectors: fashion and luxury, retail and consumer brands, venture technology, arts and cultural institutions, media, hospitality and place-based work, experiential and live brand experiences.
- Selected client and institutional references include Fendi and Versace (text-only credit: store-concept renderings and direction for a mall and Miami flagship; no project imagery or further details), New York Fashion Week, the MoMA in New York City and Japan, Ann Taylor, Tommy Hilfiger and Sunday Natural.
- Sunday Natural (2026): Shona helped design and produce the retail launches on Berlin’s Ku’damm and in Hamburg.
- Shona works between NYC and Berlin with teams globally, and has consulted across New York, Dublin, Berlin and Madrid.

## Main pages

- [Portfolio](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/)
- [About Shona Neary](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/about-shona-neary/)
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Professional profile and selected experience](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/recruiter-profile-selected-experience/)
- [Creative leadership career record and recommendations](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/shona-neary-creative-leadership/)
- [Four-page master CV, designed + ATS (PDF)](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/Shona-Neary-Master-CV.pdf)
- [Founder case studies](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/founder-case-studies/index.html)
- [Transatlantic go-to-market operator profile](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/transatlantic-gtm-operator/)
- [Creative direction and brand architecture](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/creative-direction-brand-architecture/)
- [Startup branding and product strategy](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/startup-branding-product-strategy/)
- [Brand, product, data and AI systems](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/brand-product-ai-systems/)
- [Cross-border growth and activation](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/cross-border-growth-activation/)
- [Countercult founder profile](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/countercult-founder/)
- [Marketing systems and discoverability](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/marketing-systems-discoverability/)
- [Berlin creative direction across culture and technology](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/berlin-creative-director-culture-technology/)
- [New York creative direction for venture technology](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/new-york-creative-director-venture-technology/)
- [EU-U.S. cross-border growth](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/eu-us-cross-border-growth/)
- [Availability and current engagements](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/available-now/)
- [Professional Journal](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/)
- [Sketchy Shona artist archive](https://countercult.network/sketchyshona/)
- [Countercult, founded by Shona Neary](https://countercult.network/)

## Featured Journal for prospective clients

- [My Client Work Across Culture, Technology and Experience](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/client-work-culture-technology-experience/): How I work with founders and leadership teams across venture technology, retail, culture and live experience, with specific project evidence and commissioning routes. Topics: Shona Neary client work; creative director selected work; creative leadership across culture and technology; brand product and experience design; experience production Berlin.
- [Shona Neary, Creative Director, Product Builder and Founder](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/shona-neary-creative-leadership/): An evidence-led account of Shona Neary’s senior creative leadership across venture technology, retail, product and experience, with project records, recommendations and commissioning routes. Topics: fractional creative leadership; creative director and product builder career; creative culture, technology and business; globalization and cross-border creative work; VC-backed startup creative leadership; Countercult founder experience.
- [How I sourced two production runners across Berlin and Amsterdam in under 30 minutes](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/creative-work-operational-leadership/): How Shona Neary helped recover a last-minute underground ballet production by sourcing and pitching two runners in Berlin and Amsterdam in under 30 minutes. Topics: Berlin production case study; Amsterdam production case study; last-minute production logistics; local talent sourcing; production runner sourcing; Countercult Studios production.
- [When a company needs connected creative leadership](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-brief-needs-a-point-of-view/): Shona Neary on when to hire a creative leader across brand, product, technology and customer experience, with VC-backed startup fundraising impact, open-source Countercult and MoMA evidence. Topics: creative direction brief; brand strategy and brief development; product launch brief; creative direction and market entry.
- [CMO and Senior Creative Director: brand to digital reach to Ku’damm retail](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/venture-tech-brand-and-gtm/): A full VC-backed startup case study by Shona Neary as CMO and Senior Creative Director, showing how brand and investor pitch decks helped raise millions, alongside UX/UI, digital reach and Ku’damm retail. Topics: VC-backed startup visual merchandising; visual merchandising for technology retail; Berlin venture-backed hard-tech startup; startup brand positioning and launch; go-to-market strategy for technology; Ku’damm, Berlin’s Fifth Avenue retail concept.
- [Retail rollouts are a systems problem](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/retail-rollout-design-systems/): Shona Neary on Tommy Hilfiger retail rollout across 500+ U.S. touchpoints, mechanical design, production-ready documentation and retail systems. Topics: Tommy Hilfiger visual merchandising; visual merchandising strategy; retail design systems; U.S. store rollout across 500+ touchpoints; retail production documentation.
- [Two Sunday Natural launches, from concept to shop floor](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/sunday-natural-retail-display/): How I developed product placement and retail display design for Sunday Natural launches at KaDeWe in Berlin and Hamburg Alsterhaus. Topics: Sunday Natural visual merchandising; visual merchandising strategy; Hamburg Alsterhaus retail design; product placement and retail launch; Berlin retail display production.
- [How Martha’s Burgers became a budget conversation](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/marthas-burgers-budget-brief/): Shona Neary on a Berlin hospitality project with Martha’s Burgers connecting a cultural event, local artists, marketing, business development and paid creative work. Topics: Berlin hospitality brand strategy; restaurant marketing and local partnerships; place-based hospitality; local discovery and repeat visits.
- [Fendi and Versace: store concepts and creative direction](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/fendi-versace-store-concepts/): A text-only record of Shona Neary’s store-concept renderings and direction for Fendi and Versace, with public detail limited due to NDA. Topics: Fendi Versace store concepts; luxury retail creative direction; Miami flagship concept; NDA-safe portfolio case study.
- [Freelance Art Direction at Social Chain Berlin](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/social-chain-berlin-art-direction/): Shona Neary worked as a freelance Art Director at Social Chain Berlin. She signed an NDA and does not identify campaign clients or disclose confidential work. Topics: Social Chain Berlin Art Director; freelance art direction Berlin; Social Chain agency role; creative direction career record.
- [Zalando Pride: A Curated Employee Experience in Berlin](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/zalando-pride-experience/): A case study in experience production, creative direction and curation for a community-led Berlin Pride programme. Topics: Zalando Pride; experience producer Berlin; Pride event production; employee experience; creative direction and curation; community-led brand experience.
- [Klunkerkranich Berlin Club: Producing a Curated Cultural Programme](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/klunkerkranich-experience-production/): A live cultural experience case study covering concept, artist curation, creative direction, production and promotion for Klunkerkranich, a Berlin club. Topics: Klunkerkranich; experience production Berlin; creative direction; cultural programming; artist curation; live event producer.
- [Späti Raves: A Street-Level Cultural Experience in Berlin](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/spati-raves-berlin/): A Berlin experience-production case study using neighbourhood corner shops as live sites for participation, cultural research and creative direction. Topics: Späti Raves; Berlin experience producer; street-level activation; cultural research; creative direction; neighbourhood experience design.
- [AVOMIND: Making Employer Brand Feel Human](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/avomind-employer-experience/): A case study in employer-brand experience, local cultural curation, creative direction and production for AVOMIND. Topics: AVOMIND; employer brand experience; experience producer; creative direction; cultural curation; employer branding Berlin.
- [The Delta VC Ecosystem: Creative Tech + Business Day](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-delta-creative-tech-business-day/): A case study in experience production, creative direction and curation for The Delta VC Ecosystem in Berlin. Topics: The Delta VC Ecosystem; Creative Tech + Business Day; experience producer Berlin; creative technology event curation; venture ecosystem and culture; Shona Neary event hosting.
- [Quouch: Designing a More Curated Queer Travel Experience](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/quouch-curated-connection/): Product and experience strategy for Quouch, a VC-backed queer travel startup exploring more intentional, culturally specific connection. Topics: Quouch; queer travel experience; product strategy; campaign concept; campaign copywriting; experience production; curated connection network; creative direction.
- [Venture Builder, Artist, Creative Director and Strategist](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/venture-builder-artist-creative-director-strategist/): Shona Neary is a venture builder, artist, creative director and strategist, carrying ideas from software and product into market, culture and physical experience. Topics: venture builder; artist and creative director; creative director and strategist; venture building and product strategy; digital product to physical experience; Shona Neary.
- [Building Infrastructure and Creative Systems](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/building-infrastructure-and-creative-systems/): Why I understand my work as building the systems that carry creative ideas into products, businesses, culture and physical life. Topics: infrastructure and creative systems; creative systems building; artist-founder; Countercult founder; venture building; creative technology.
- [Building Countercult changed how I think about data and design](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/building-countercult-data-culture/): Shona Neary reflects on early art awards, FIT Hives, and the lessons that shaped Countercult’s work across culture, data, product design, and consent. Topics: Countercult cultural infrastructure; cultural data and design; artist-led technology; product design and privacy.
- [Why I work across culture, technology and business](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/make-the-work-legible-to-the-right-buyer/): Shona Neary’s integrated creative leadership: full startup creative ownership, founder-built software, retail and production, cultural strategy and cross-border work. Topics: creative leadership across culture technology and business; fractional creative director and product builder; founder-side creative leadership; AI product strategy and cultural intelligence; brand product and physical experience; U.S. Europe cross-border market entry.
- [What growing up on military posts taught me about culture](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/west-point-fit-artist-origin/): Shona Neary writes about growing up on military posts around the world, including West Point, and how moving between places shaped her understanding of culture and belonging. Topics: growing up on military posts around the world; military posts and culture; West Point upbringing; third-culture kid artist; Shona Neary creative practice; culture and belonging.
- [From West Point to Countercult: how my work moved through art, business and technology](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/from-west-point-to-countercult/): Shona Neary traces how an early understanding of systems led through art, a first startup, institutional retail, self-taught software engineering and founding Countercult. Topics: Shona Neary career progression; artist founder CTO; West Point to Countercult; creative to technology founder; startup founder and CTO; open-source engineering; AI infrastructure for the physical economy.
- [As CTO, I connect brand, product and go-to-market across digital and physical work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/cto-connecting-brand-product-go-to-market/): Shona Neary on CTO leadership as the work of connecting brand, product architecture and go-to-market across digital systems and physical experience. Topics: CTO connecting brand product and go-to-market; technical founder and product architecture; brand product engineering and launch; digital and physical customer experience; Countercult CTO; AI-assisted product engineering.
- [THE FLOOR is my own artist-led brand and cultural programme](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-floor-berlin-residency/): THE FLOOR is Shona Neary’s own artist-led Berlin brand, concept and cultural programme, bringing together an artist residency, home, studio and project room. Topics: THE FLOOR artist-owned brand; THE FLOOR property sector; THE FLOOR Berlin cultural programme; artist-run residency and project room; Berlin creative concept; artist-led cultural programming.
- [Whole Festival](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/whole-festival-beach-stage/): A record of Shona Neary’s contribution to Whole Festival, bringing fine art, creative direction, design, production and installation into a shared festival project. Topics: Whole Festival; fine art and creative direction; artist-founder practice; site-specific painting and production; Sketchy Shona.
- [Visual Merchandising Is How a Brand Works in Retail](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/visual-merchandising-retail-experience/): Visual merchandising strategy, retail design and customer experience across Tommy Hilfiger, VC-backed startup, Sunday Natural and MoMA. Topics: visual merchandising; visual merchandising strategy; retail visual merchandising; visual merchandising designer; retail display design; customer experience; Tommy Hilfiger visual merchandising; MoMA; Sunday Natural retail; VC-backed startup retail.
- [Experience Production Starts With a Point of View](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/experience-production-curation-creative-direction/): How Shona Neary leads experience production, creative direction and curation across brand campaigns, cultural programmes and live events. Topics: experience producer; experience production; creative director for experiences; event producer Berlin; experience curation; brand experience production; cultural programming; live event production.
- [Why Startups Should Bring Brand and Creative Into the Work Early](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/startups-brand-and-creative-work-early/): A practical guide to bringing brand and creative leadership into startup product, customer experience and go-to-market decisions early. Topics: startup brand strategy; startup creative direction; brand and go-to-market; venture technology; product positioning; creative leadership.
- [How Startups Can Brief and Scope Creative Work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/how-startups-brief-creative-work/): A founder’s practical guide to commissioning creative leadership with a clear brief, real decision rights and scope that supports the work. Topics: startup creative brief; how to hire a creative director for a startup; scope creative work; creative project budget and rights; founder guide to creative leadership.
- [Designing for the First Three People in the Room](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/creative-direction-for-hard-tech-engineers/): Creative direction for technical products starts by helping founders, engineers and customers share a clear product story. Topics: hard-tech startup creative direction; product strategy for engineers; go-to-market visual systems; VC-backed startup.
- [How Creative Direction and Engineering Build a Product Together](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/creative-engineering-collaboration/): A practical working model for founders, engineers and creative leaders shaping the same product from its first decisions through launch. Topics: creative engineering collaboration; creative direction for technical products; design and engineering workflow; startup product collaboration; founder engineer creative team.
- [The Fractional Creative and the Agency Stack](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/fractional-creative-open-source-agency-model/): Open-source thinking can help small teams build a more connected creative practice, without pretending every agency function can be replaced by one person. Topics: fractional creative director; open-source agency methods; creative leadership for startups; integrated product and brand.
- [The Velocity Gap: Taking a European Product to the U.S. Market](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-velocity-gap-eu-us-gtm/): A first-person framework for carrying a product across markets without assuming the same story, experience or route to customers will work twice. Topics: EU U.S. go-to-market; cross-border product launch; market entry strategy; New York Berlin creative direction.
- [From Blender Viewport to Manufacturing Floor](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/blender-to-manufacturing-spatial-rollouts/): How I use spatial visualization to resolve design decisions before they become expensive production problems. Topics: Blender retail design; spatial design to production; retail prototyping; Ann Taylor P.A.V.E..

## Complete Journal index

### Shona Neary, Creative Director, Product Builder and Founder
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/shona-neary-creative-leadership/
Summary: An evidence-led account of Shona Neary’s senior creative leadership across venture technology, retail, product and experience, with project records, recommendations and commissioning routes.
Article opening: I work with founders and leadership teams when the company story, product and customer experience need one senior creative owner. My work includes leading the creative remit at VC-backed startup, building Countercult’s product and software as a founder, and carrying client work through retail, cultural and physical experiences. This page connects the roles, evidence and recommendations so you can judge the scope for yourself.
Search and subject topics: fractional creative leadership; creative director and product builder career; creative culture, technology and business; globalization and cross-border creative work; VC-backed startup creative leadership; Countercult founder experience.
Article structure and full section text:
- **What can I own as a senior creative leader?**: I take on senior Creative Director and Head of Creative work with growth companies, founder-led businesses and venture-backed teams. I set direction across brand, digital product, marketing, retail, customer experience and production, then work with the specialist people who make it. The engagement may be fractional, embedded for a defined period or scoped to a particular brief. In each case, we agree the decisions I own and how the work moves through the team.
- **Pitch decks that moved business forward**: My pitch decks combine design and strategy to help people make a decision. At VC-backed startup, the company positioning and investor decks I designed and developed with the CEO helped raise millions. For the MoMA, partner pitches and business-development strategy helped secure partnerships. At Tommy Hilfiger, I designed CEO-facing pitches for a rollout across more than 500 U.S. storefronts and organized the visuals with marketing to keep the brand consistent. At MAVRIX Productions, I designed and developed decks that helped win Circle K and Lidl as clients, as well as pitches for major festivals in Ireland.
- **When is this the right kind of leadership?**: Bring me in when a launch needs one direction across the company story, product and customer experience; when an established brand needs its digital and physical work to operate together; or when a team is entering a new market and needs cultural context alongside commercial and creative decisions. My VC-backed startup work connects company positioning and investor materials to a built retail environment. The MoMA in New York City and Japan and Tommy Hilfiger show retail and production delivery, while Countercult demonstrates product, software and founder ownership.
- **My practice crosses culture, technology, business and globalization**: Creative culture shapes how people understand and participate in a business. Technology changes what can be made and how people encounter it. Commercial realities affect what can be sustained. Globalization asks which ideas travel, which need translation and who has the local knowledge to make that translation responsibly. I move between these conditions because a useful creative direction has to hold up across them.
- **Hosting Creative Tech & Business Exchange Day with The Delta VC Ecosystem**: I am listed as a host for Creative Tech & Business Exchange Day with Countercult × The Delta VC Ecosystem in Berlin on 6 October 2026. The programme is described as a curated working day for artists, engineers, founders and funders.
- **Independent creative direction and experience design, 2016 to present**: I have continued independent creative direction and experience-design work since 2016 across brand, retail, digital and cultural settings. I expanded this practice through Countercult Studios in 2026. Selected work includes the MoMA in New York City and Japan, Tommy Hilfiger and Ann Taylor. For Ann Taylor / P.A.V.E., I designed the cashwrap concept in Blender and 3D-printed a prototype to demonstrate feasibility to manufacturers. We won the bid; Ann Taylor used our work as its GlobalShop showroom experience and flew the project team to Las Vegas.
- **Selected agency contexts**: My agency experience includes Social Chain in Berlin, MAVRIX in Dublin on virtual production, and LDJ Productions in New York.
- **Selected work for Fendi, Versace and Sunday Natural**: For Fendi and Versace, I created store-concept renderings and provided direction for a mall and Miami flagship. Project imagery and further details remain confidential. In 2026, I helped design and produce Sunday Natural’s retail launches on Berlin’s Ku’damm and in Hamburg.
- **MoMA in New York City and Japan**: My work for the MoMA included wayfinding and environmental graphics, retail product mechanicals, window and in-store installation support, and partner decks. Those deliverables connected visual decisions to visitor movement, products, partner communication and the practical needs of an installation. I value experience work that is thoughtful at the concept level and specific enough to be made and used.
- **Tommy Hilfiger: retail experience across 500+ U.S. touchpoints**: For Tommy Hilfiger, I worked on retail experience design within a standardized system spanning more than 500 U.S. touchpoints. My work included production-ready mechanicals, documentation, supplier handoffs and 3D mockups.
- **VC-backed startup: owning the creative system, 2022 to 2024**: From 2022 to 2024 I worked full time at Berlin venture-backed hard-tech company VC-backed startup, with creative and brand leadership and CMO responsibilities. I owned all creative across the brand, website, creative strategy, marketing, go-to-market, retail, customer touchpoints and production. The company positioning and investor pitch decks I developed with the CEO helped raise millions, and I joined investor meetings. For the Ku’damm store concept, I used Blender and Rhino in AI-assisted spatial exploration, developed the floor plan and led engineers and builders through the physical build within a constrained budget.
- **Countercult: founder work from tested idea to full-time build**: I started testing Countercult in November 2023 and moved into full-time founder work in mid-2024. I founded it as cultural infrastructure, building open-source software with open-source stacks alongside a public discovery layer, product direction, editorial, operations, local relationships, cultural intelligence and commercial models for paid creative work. Countercult Studios began in 2026 to bring my creative and strategic work together and extend delivery for clients. The founder record includes cultural curation, a rural place pilot, local culture business growth and product infrastructure.
- **Place, local knowledge and international work**: My experience also includes work across New York and European contexts, New York Fashion Week and exhibitions. With Sende, I co-created Border Fanzine from old recipes from the Galician and Northern Portuguese border. In 2025 I completed two Rural Hackers residencies in Spain and participated in the Grace Berlin Accelerator. These experiences keep globalization grounded in people and place: a market is not just a destination for a message, and local context should shape the work rather than appear as decoration.
- **Education, languages and working context**: I hold a BFA in Experience Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology, earned in 2018, and an AAS in Fine Arts from FIT, earned in 2016. English is my native language, my German is near-fluent and my Spanish is conversational. I work between NYC and Berlin, remotely and with travel.
- **What collaborators say**: “Along with her undeniable talent, Shona has been a joy to work with. I highly recommend Shona to join your organization.” Melissa Overton, Creative Director, Museum of Modern Art Retail. “I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with Shona and came to know Shona as a truly valuable asset to my team.” Derek Watson, Senior Manager Creative Services, Tommy Hilfiger. “I am pleased to recommend Shona Neary, the creative leader behind CounterCult, for the AvantNow program. Shona has showcased remarkable creativity, impactful initiatives, and a global mindset.” “Their startup, based in Berlin, has demonstrated forward thinking changes in the creative, sustainability, and startup industries, and is successfully organizing methods of connecting professionals and creatives, strengthening the social and economic sustainability of these areas. Shona is well-equipped to leverage the resources and network provided by AvantNow.” “While participating at The Break Fellowship for Women Entrepreneurs, Shona demonstrated to be a key member of the community, always up to contribute and help others with creative solutions and leadership focused on values.” “I'm sure Shona will bring valuable contributions to your program, making the most of it as well.” “Thank you for considering this recommendation.” Cristina Pan García, Program Coordinator at The Break Fellowship, 15 January 2024 (recommendation for the AvantNow programme).
- **How does an engagement work?**: We begin with the situation, the people involved, what needs to change and when it needs to be ready. We agree the remit, decision rights, time commitment, deliverables and working relationship with the team before starting. That may be an ongoing fractional leadership role, a fixed-term embedded engagement or a focused launch across brand, product and customer experience. The scope reflects the responsibility required, rather than treating senior ownership as a list of disconnected outputs.
- **How can a recruiter or founder assess the fit?**: The four-page master CV puts the designed two-page CV first and appends its two-page text-first ATS version. The recruiter profile gives a hiring overview, and the linked project records show the work behind the claims. Send the role or brief, team context, decision-makers and timing, plus a budget range if known, so we can discuss the fit.
Related resources:
- [Download the designed + ATS master CV](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/Shona-Neary-Master-CV.pdf)
- [Read my progression from West Point to Countercult](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/from-west-point-to-countercult/)
- [Connect on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/shona-neary-aa7182100/)
- [Discuss a senior creative brief by email](mailto:sho.neary@gmail.com)
- [Read my recruiter profile and selected experience](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/recruiter-profile-selected-experience/)
- [Read the Countercult founder case studies](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/founder-case-studies/index.html)

### How I sourced two production runners across Berlin and Amsterdam in under 30 minutes
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/creative-work-operational-leadership/
Summary: How Shona Neary helped recover a last-minute underground ballet production by sourcing and pitching two runners in Berlin and Amsterdam in under 30 minutes.
Article opening: An agency brought me into a last-minute logistics problem for an underground ballet production. I resolved the immediate issue, then used Countercult’s local knowledge to find and pitch two runners, one in Berlin and one in Amsterdam. The search and outreach took under 30 minutes. The agency hired both, and their work helped get the production back on its feet.
Search and subject topics: Berlin production case study; Amsterdam production case study; last-minute production logistics; local talent sourcing; production runner sourcing; Countercult Studios production.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The brief was immediate**: The production had a time-sensitive logistics problem. I handled the immediate issue first, then looked at what else was needed to get the work moving again. I am keeping the account at the level I can substantiate rather than adding production details that were not part of my role.
- **I used local knowledge to find people**: I searched for and pitched two runners who could work in the relevant cities: one in Berlin and one in Amsterdam. The search and outreach took under 30 minutes. Countercult’s local network gave me a practical way to find people quickly across both places.
- **The agency made the hiring decisions**: The agency hired both runners. Their work helped get the production back on its feet. The hiring decision belonged to the agency, and the credit for delivering the work belongs to the people it hired.
- **What this case study shows**: This is one documented example of local knowledge supporting a last-minute production need. It shows how I connected an urgent brief with people who could do the work; it is not a promise that every production problem can be solved in the same way.
Related resources:
- [Explore Countercult Studios](https://countercult.network/studios)
- [Read my creative leadership and career record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/shona-neary-creative-leadership/)

### My artist practice is part of how I build Countercult
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/artist-founder-building-countercult/
Summary: Shona Neary writes about building Countercult as an artist-founder, and how cultural practice informs its technology, products, and financial model.
Article opening: I did not set aside being an artist when I founded Countercult and became its CTO. My experience of making work, bringing people together and understanding how culture lives in a place informs the company’s product, technology and economic model.
Search and subject topics: Shona Neary artist-founder and CTO; Countercult artist-founded fintech and culture tech; creative practice and software engineering; artist-led product architecture; cultural economic infrastructure.
Article structure and full section text:
- **I do not separate artist and founder**: I am a multidisciplinary artist, curator, designer and founder. Those are not unrelated job titles that I move between for variety. Making art has taught me to work with form, material, context and possibility. Building Countercult asks me to bring that same attention to products, relationships, systems and the conditions that let people keep making work.
- **The tool does not define the artist**: I have said: “An artist is not defined by their tool, but by how they channel and master it to make tangible what has not yet been created or thought.” Software and AI are among the tools I use. The creative responsibility stays with the people deciding what to make, whose knowledge is involved, and how the result affects them.
- **Cultural practice shaped the product question**: Countercult began with a practical problem I kept encountering: artists, cultural spaces and local operators can create value together, yet the information, relationships and opportunities that connect them are often scattered. I founded Countercult to build technology around those real conditions rather than treating culture as a category of content.
- **The product needs different kinds of space**: The public Network helps people find artists, places and cultural knowledge. The protected Exchange gives approved members a separate place for participation and resource-sharing. Studios carries selected work into paid research, commissions, programmes and delivery. These layers reflect a distinction I care about in both art and technology: what should be visible, what needs context, and what should remain with the people who hold it.
- **A cultural company needs an economic model**: Artists are often expected to create the value that makes a place meaningful while working without dependable routes into commercial budgets. Countercult’s business-owned Fund can connect selected sales to an agreed local marketing or community-work budget. It is a defined mechanism with agreed scope and terms, not a claim that we already operate general-purpose banking or payment rails.
- **I grew from product UX/UI into the CTO role**: I founded Countercult through hands-on product UX/UI and grew into its CTO role, leading open-source software, product architecture, data structures, APIs and engineering collaborators. My artistic practice is not an image or mood placed on top of that work. It informs what the system pays attention to and how it can support people without flattening their context.
- **I want the work to keep culture connected to life**: My aim is to build technology and economic infrastructure that help cultural work participate in the life of a place, while keeping artists’ authorship and agency intact. Countercult is one way I am working on that. The current products and Fund are distinct from the broader systems we are still developing.
Related resources:
- [Countercult as a fintech startup](https://countercult.network/journal/countercult-fintech-startup-cultural-finance/)
- [Countercult as a culture-tech startup](https://countercult.network/journal/countercult-culture-tech-startup-local-knowledge/)
- [The Countercult artist-founder perspective](https://countercult.network/journal/artist-founder-building-countercult/)
- [My founder case study: what I built at Countercult](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-founder-product/)

### Why I built Countercult across fintech and culture tech
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-fintech-culture-tech-founder/
Summary: Shona Neary explains why they founded Countercult as a fintech and culture-tech startup, how its current Fund works, and how the product connects cultural discovery to paid local work.
Article opening: I founded Countercult and serve as its CTO because cultural value needs more than visibility. It needs technology that helps people find one another, and financial models that give local work a real route into budgets and paid commissions.
Search and subject topics: Shona Neary Countercult fintech founder; Countercult culture-tech founder; artist-founded fintech startup; fintech for culture; technology for local cultural economies; Countercult Fund and paid creative work.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The question behind the company**: I have spent years working across creative culture, technology and business. I kept seeing the same gap: artists and cultural spaces create value that makes a place distinctive, while the relationships, information and commercial routes that could support them remain scattered. Countercult is my attempt to build infrastructure around that gap, not another content platform that treats culture as material to extract.
- **Why I call it fintech**: The financial question is how existing commercial activity can support defined local cultural work. Countercult’s business-owned Fund can connect selected sales to an agreed marketing or community-work budget. The scope, fees, delivery, records, reporting and settlement are set for each engagement. Countercult Studios can then carry an agreed brief into paid commissions, programmes, experiences or other local work.
- **What fintech does not mean here**: I am not saying Countercult is a bank or a payment processor, and I am not claiming that general-purpose financial rails are already live. The Fund is a specific mechanism within a wider startup. Its purpose is to connect commercial activity to paid work with clear terms and cultural context.
- **Why culture tech is the other half**: The technology helps people find and understand the cultural knowledge already present in a place. Countercult’s public Network supports discovery, while the protected Exchange is for approved members. Studios delivers paid work. The product has to keep public information distinct from private relationships, consent and sensitive knowledge.
- **Building the system is part of my founder work**: I founded and built Countercult’s brand, product UX/UI, open-source software, roadmap and architecture, while leading engineering collaborators. I work across the proposition and the system that carries it because the choices inside a product affect who is visible, what context stays attached, and whether discovery can lead to a useful next step.
- **AI is a tool inside the work**: I use AI-assisted prototypes as part of product exploration. That does not make AI the author of the culture or the decision-maker about people’s knowledge. The product direction stays grounded in human judgment, consent and the needs of artists and local operators.
- **The two sides connect**: Fintech gives cultural work a defined relationship to budgets and commercial activity. Culture tech gives that work a context, a network and a route between people and places. I founded Countercult to build these parts together, while being precise about what is operating now and what is still being developed.
Related resources:
- [Countercult: fintech for local culture](https://countercult.network/journal/countercult-fintech-startup-cultural-finance/)
- [Countercult: a culture-tech startup](https://countercult.network/journal/countercult-culture-tech-startup-local-knowledge/)
- [My founder case study: what I built at Countercult](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-founder-product/)

### I build across the creative, technical and venture layers
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-founder-product/
Summary: How Shona Neary builds Countercult across creative direction, CTO leadership, AI-assisted product engineering and venture strategy, from infrastructure thesis to live cultural technology product.
Article opening: I founded Countercult and lead it as CTO, product builder and venture builder. I move between creative direction and brand, product strategy and UX, software and data architecture, engineering leadership and commercial design. I have used AI to build and engineer front-end and back-end systems and develop product prototypes, while remaining responsible for the product decisions and the system being built. This case study shows how that range became a live cultural technology product, not a set of disconnected roles.
Search and subject topics: Countercult founder and CTO case study; Shona Neary Countercult technology leadership; open-source cultural software; artist-founder and CTO; cultural economic development; product UX/UI; brand identity and strategy; cultural infrastructure and economic models.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Start with the infrastructure problem**: Artists, independent spaces and local operators hold knowledge that is often scattered across social feeds, informal relationships and closed networks. I set out to build a product where people and places could be discovered, opportunities could circulate and paid work could connect to existing cultural life. This required more than a directory. It meant defining who the product serves, which information should be public, what membership changes and how commercial work fits without turning community participation into a data-extraction exercise.
- **Design a public Network for discovery**: I led the product direction and designed the public Network so artists, spaces and local activity can be found through profiles, place-based discovery and search. The interface needs to help someone move from a broad sense of a city or scene to a specific person or place, while respecting the difference between information someone chose to make public and the details that belong inside a membership relationship.
- **Build a protected Exchange for participation**: I designed the Exchange as a separate member space rather than another public feed. Approved members can find and share opportunities, offers and requests without exposing every interaction to the open web. That separation shapes the product architecture, visibility rules, moderation and the way someone moves from joining to contributing. The public Network and protected Exchange are related products with different trust requirements.
- **Make the journey from joining to contributing understandable**: I worked across the signup, profile and posting journeys, testing the experience through direct walkthroughs with people. I ask what brought them to Countercult, watch where they hesitate and invite candid feedback about what is unclear or missing. I sometimes review behavioral signals such as where people stop between signup and posting, then use those signals to decide what to investigate. A drop-off tells me where to look, not why someone left; this is an ongoing feedback practice, not a formal usability study or a claimed conversion lift.
- **Lead as CTO and product builder**: As founder and CTO, I have led product roadmap architecture, software, data, APIs and cross-functional engineering. I carry decisions from the visible interface into the systems that support it, including account and approval flows, data visibility, search, opportunity management and boundaries between public and member-only information. I work as a product builder across the whole stack because the product promise depends on the underlying rules working as clearly as the screens.
- **Use AI as an engineering tool, not a substitute for authorship**: I have used AI to build and engineer front-end and back-end systems and to develop product prototypes. I direct the product logic, structure, user experience and technical decisions, then use the tools available to move from idea to working software. The creative and strategic authorship remains mine; AI expands how quickly I can explore, prototype and build.
- **Build the venture, not only the interface**: I developed Countercult’s brand, marketing, go-to-market and commercial model alongside the product. The Network supports public discovery. The Exchange supports approved-member participation. Studios delivers paid creative, strategic and place-based work. The Fund is a business-owned budget for selected local creative work under an agreed brief. Each has a different role in the venture, with boundaries that keep cultural participation, member trust and commercial work distinct.
- **What is live, and what remains ahead**: The Network, Exchange, Studios and Fund model are operating parts of Countercult today. The product is designed to help culture participate in local economic activity through discovery, relationships, commissions and partnerships. Wider licensed deployments and locally governed systems remain future development, not proven outcomes. I keep that distinction visible because trust depends on saying what exists now and what is still being built.
Related resources:
- [Open the Countercult public site](https://countercult.network/)
- [Read the Countercult founder case studies](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/founder-case-studies/index.html)
- [Read how building Countercult changed my approach to data and design](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/building-countercult-data-culture/)

### Building Countercult changed how I think about data and design
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/building-countercult-data-culture/
Summary: Shona Neary reflects on early art awards, FIT Hives, and the lessons that shaped Countercult’s work across culture, data, product design, and consent.
Article opening: I came to systems work through culture. Building Countercult made me see how much of a cultural question is also a product and data question.
Search and subject topics: Countercult cultural infrastructure; cultural data and design; artist-led technology; product design and privacy.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Recognition was part of the early record**: I received a Gold Key in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in 2014, while I was living in Orange County, New York. In 2013, I won the overall Congressional Art Competition award for New York’s 18th District with my black-and-white photograph “Tranquility.” I also received an award through the U.S. Army Arts & Crafts Contest. These were separate recognitions, not one continuous credential. I value them as early moments when work I had made entered a public context, while knowing that an award cannot explain what an artist will build next.
- **At FIT, the work became collective**: In 2016, Sarah Langenbach and I were developing the bee-education project that became FIT Hives. FIT selected it as one of its three Commitments to Action for CGI U 2016 at Berkeley. FIT’s President’s Blog says the project first received support through the Innovation Grant program, which also supported a bee documentary involving Film and Media students Max Hechtman and Shoshana Rabinowitz. In April 2017, Sarah and I formally founded FIT Hives with Think Big Challenge support, installing two roof hives with the Honeybee Conservancy. FIT’s nearby Natural Dye Garden received a separate Innovation Grant. FIT Hives continues with Innovation Grant support, and the beekeepers are still paid for their work today. These are connected but distinct stages and projects. The experience taught me that a strong idea still needs a place, partners, decisions, and care if it is going to work in the world.
- **The question was larger than the interface**: I did not begin with a plan to build a software company. I kept returning to a practical problem: independent cultural work is often described as a scene, a list, or a campaign, while the relationships and knowledge that sustain it are harder to find and maintain. Building Countercult pushed me to treat that as an infrastructure problem, not only a communications problem.
- **Data structures are cultural decisions**: A public record is never just a neutral container. Someone decides what can be described, which context stays attached, what should be current, and what should remain private. Those choices affect who can be found, how they are approached, and whether the next step is useful to them. That is why I care about product design, data structure, and consent as parts of the same work.
- **The numbers help, but they do not explain a life**: Eurostat estimates that 8.9 million people were in cultural employment across the EU in 2025, or 4.3% of total EU employment. It reports that 31.6% of people in cultural employment were self-employed, compared with 13.7% across total employment. The measure combines cultural occupations and cultural industries. It is not a count of artists alone, and it does not tell us whether somebody earns enough. It is useful context, not a substitute for listening to people about the conditions they work in.
- **Tools change the work, not the responsibility**: Research on generative AI makes me wary of simple claims about speed. One customer-support study found a 14% average rise in issues resolved per hour, with different effects for newer and more experienced workers. A separate experiment with experienced open-source developers found that early-2025 AI tools increased completion time in its specific tasks. Those results are about different workers and different work. They are not a forecast for every creative practice. The responsibility for context, accuracy, consent, and the result still belongs to people.
- **I did not leave creative direction to build a platform**: Working on product and software has made me more, not less, interested in how people encounter an idea. The interface is one part of the experience. The words, the choices behind the record, the way a person is invited in, and whether the project creates a real route to work all matter too. I move between creative direction, product, technology, culture, and market questions because the work rarely respects the neat divisions between them.
- **Countercult is where I keep testing the connection**: Countercult is the cultural infrastructure I am building with artists, cultural workers, collaborators, and supporters. The Network supports public discovery, Studios delivers paid work, and the Fund creates a business-owned budget for selected local creative work. These parts connect, but they are not one automated mechanism. I have written about the boundaries in the Countercult Journal, and I want this professional record to stay clear about where my own work connects and where it remains distinct.
- **What I want the system to do**: I want digital infrastructure to make cultural knowledge easier to find when that is useful, and harder to misrepresent or expose when it is not. That is not a claim that every part is finished. It is the standard I use to make decisions as the work develops.
Related resources:
- [FIT Hives, 2016 Innovation Grant and documentary](https://blog.fitnyc.edu/onmymind/2016/05/12/bee-education-project-takes-flight)
- [FIT Hives, CGI U 2016 selection](https://news.fitnyc.edu/2016/03/28/student-projects-headed-to-clinton-global-initiative-university)
- [FIT Hives, 2017 founding and Think Big support](https://innovation.fitnyc.edu/learn-from-bees)
- [Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Gold Key and national recognition rules](https://www.artandwriting.org/awards/recognition/)
- [2013 Congressional Art Competition result, Times Herald-Record](https://eu.recordonline.com/story/news/2013/05/20/hudson-bureau-confidential-local-student/46200523007/)
- [Congressional Art Competition, U.S. House](https://www.house.gov/educators-and-students/congressional-art-competition)
- [U.S. Army Arts & Crafts Contest](https://www.army.mil/article/110818/army_arts_crafts_contest_reveals_much_about_entrants)
- [Read the Countercult essay on cyberpunk and cultural infrastructure](https://countercult.network/journal/cyberpunk-cultural-infrastructure/)
- [Read Countercult’s note on AI and cultural infrastructure](https://countercult.network/journal/ai-assisted-cultural-infrastructure/)

### Should I come out in the startup room?
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/coming-out-in-the-startup-room/
Summary: Shona Neary on gender, queer founder visibility, venture capital and the personal calculation of coming out in business.
Article opening: Funding, visibility and the calculation queer founders are still asked to make.
Search and subject topics: queer startup founder; founder visibility and venture capital; gender and startup culture; queer entrepreneurship.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The question came up in a conversation**: I recently spoke with journalist Marlon Jungjohann about what entrepreneurship looks like when you are not a man, and what changes if you are also LGBTQ+. The short answer is that it can be hard to get noticed, harder to secure funding, and difficult to know whether being open about yourself will help, harm, or simply change the mood in a room. The more honest answer is that I still do not know why a founder should have to run that calculation at all.
- **The startup room still has a narrow picture of a founder**: The startup world is still getting used to women as founders. That may make some people uncomfortable, but the investment numbers show that access remains uneven. PitchBook’s 2024 U.S. All In report says women-founded companies have secured only around 2% of U.S. venture capital over the past decade. That is a specific U.S. figure for women-founded companies, not a global number or a complete measure of gender diversity. It is enough to show why access is not just a matter of having a better pitch.
- **The data gets thinner when you add queer identity**: StartOut’s U.S. analysis covered 142,000 founders and 95,000 high-growth companies between 2000 and 2022. Its Index estimates that LGBTQ+ founders raised 0.5% of the $2.1 trillion in startup funding it tracked, while creating 36% more jobs and 114% more patents than the average founder. These are estimates from a defined dataset, not a global census. Still, the contrast matters: the funding share is tiny, while the reported outcomes do not support the idea that queer founders lack ambition or the ability to build. We are good at business, and I dislike that we still have to prove it before the room takes us seriously.
- **Visibility is not a neutral choice**: Chasing Rainbows and Proud Ventures’ UK-focused LGBTQ+ Founder Report found that 75% of the LGBTQ+ founders in its research had concealed their identity from investors at some point. That is not a global statistic, and it does not tell us that every founder concealed for the same reason. It does make “just be yourself” careless advice. A founder may be weighing safety, power, timing, the people across the table, and the capital their company needs.
- **There is no universally safe answer**: To come out or not to come out in business is not a test of courage. Disclosure belongs to the person making it. Being visible can create connection and recognition, but privacy can be a sensible boundary. Choosing not to share does not make someone less honest. Choosing to share should not make their company seem less credible. Investors should be evaluating the business, the team, the market and the work, not treating a founder’s identity as a risk factor.
- **What I love is that we started building our own rooms**: Tinush Weise started SHE/THEY, a European network for queer women* and non-binary startup founders. I am happy to be a member. The club creates a place to meet, exchange knowledge and build relationships with people who understand the extra calculation queer founders are often asked to make. If you are eligible, join. If you work in the startup ecosystem or can support the network, do that too. Community does not replace fair access to capital, but it means we do not have to enter every room alone.
- **Being good at business should not be the price of admission**: The StartOut data is useful because it makes some of the economic contribution visible. But queer founders should not have to outperform an average before they are treated as investable. I want to be judged on the company I am building, not forced to decide whether my identity will be treated as evidence against its prospects. The question of coming out belongs to the founder, not to the room that controls the cheque.
Related resources:
- [PitchBook’s 2024 U.S. All In report on female founders](https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/2024_US_All_In_Female_Founders_in_the_VC_Ecosystem.pdf)
- [StartOut Index: U.S. LGBTQ+ entrepreneurship data](https://startout.org/speii)
- [Chasing Rainbows: The LGBTQ+ Founder Report](https://www.chasingrainbows.vc/blog/the-lgbtqnbsp-founder-report)
- [Join or support SHE/THEY](https://www.she-they.com/)
- [Read my note on artists and access](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/artists-are-not-missing-from-the-room/)

### The answer economy is changing what brand strategy has to do
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/answer-economy-brand-strategy/
Summary: Shona Neary on the shift from search to generated answers, the value of original context, and why brand strategy now has to connect digital records to real experiences and useful action.
Article opening: When information is compressed into an answer, the record behind the answer has to carry more context.
Search and subject topics: AI search and brand strategy; brand discovery in generated answers; digital brand context; answer economy marketing.
Article structure and full section text:
- **From search to synthesis**: I have spent much of my career working on the point where a person moves from seeing something to understanding it, trusting it and deciding what to do next. The shift from search results to generated answers makes that point more important.
- **The record has to carry the context**: A brand cannot rely on a thin digital presence and assume the rest will be filled in correctly. The public record needs to explain what the organisation does, who it is for, what it has actually made, and how a person can take a useful next step.
- **Physical encounters still decide meaning**: The answer may begin on a screen, but people still decide through encounters: a store, a product, a cashwrap, a room, a service, a conversation, or the feeling that a place has been understood rather than packaged. This is why I move between brand, product, technology, experience and production.
- **Technology should make the work more useful**: I do not think the answer is to retreat from the digital layer. I think the digital layer should become more precise. It should help the right people find the right context, make a relationship easier to begin, and preserve the record after a campaign or launch has ended.
- **Countercult is the live test**: Countercult is where I have been testing this thinking at a larger scale: a public discovery layer, a maintained record of people and places, protected community context, Studios delivery, and a Fund model that connects selected commercial activity to paid local creative work. The pieces are related, but they are not the same thing.
- **Specific ownership makes the record useful**: A list of client names does not tell someone what to hire me for. Rebel explains full creative ownership across a startup’s brand, website, launch, retail and production, including positioning and investor pitch decks that helped raise millions. Countercult explains founder-led open-source software building with open-source stacks. The MoMA work in New York City and Japan connects retail business development, wayfinding, product and the visitor encounter. Tommy Hilfiger explains design and production documentation across a system spanning more than 500 U.S. touchpoints. Those distinctions are what I want a reader to retain when the larger record is summarized.
- **The public record should connect the evidence**: I want a professional profile, a project record, a CV and an authored article to support the same account of the work. The names, responsibilities, dates and links need to agree. A substantial article can explain why the work matters; a case document can show what was made; a hiring profile can explain the engagement. None should have to replace the others. That is useful to a founder assessing a collaborator as well as to a system trying to describe a person or company.
- **Discovery still needs a relationship and a next step**: Publishing a clearer record is only part of the work. It also needs to reach a relevant person through an introduction, an article, a professional profile or a conversation, and give them something useful to do next. I connect the context to the next decision: review a case, discuss a role or bring a defined brief. The point is not to produce more generic content. It is to make the actual work easier to understand and commission.
- **The work now**: The work is to build brands, products and cultural systems that can survive the answer layer without becoming generic. That means stronger propositions, more useful interfaces, clearer records, better physical experiences, and a route from attention to participation or paid work.
Related resources:
- [Read when the web becomes an answer layer](https://countercult.network/journal/when-the-web-becomes-an-answer-layer/)
- [Read what Countercult publishes and protects](https://countercult.network/journal/what-countercult-publishes-protects-builds/)
- [See selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Discuss a brand, product or cultural brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### The synthetic extraction crisis
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/synthetic-extraction-public-record/
Summary: A third-person reading of the public record around Shona Neary and Countercult, distinguishing documented work from predictions about AI, cultural data, and value return.
Article opening: This is a third-person analysis of the public record around Shona Neary and Countercult. It separates what the published work documents today from what broader AI and cultural-infrastructure debates suggest. It is not written in Shona Neary’s voice, and it is not a technical audit.
Search and subject topics: AI and cultural data; AI-generated public narratives; artist authorship and AI; cultural record accuracy.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The footprint describes cultural infrastructure, not an AI product**: Countercult’s public material connects cultural discovery, member exchange, paid Studios work, and a business-controlled Fund model. Read together, those parts point to an infrastructure question: how can local cultural knowledge be found and connected to paid work without turning every relationship into an open data feed? The public record does not establish that Countercult is an autonomous AI product or an automated transaction engine.
- **An answer can lose its context**: Generative systems can compress public information into answers. The risk is that a summary may travel without the source, timing, consent, relationship, or useful next action that gave the information meaning. This is a design concern, not proof that every model uses the same data or that every answer removes a website visit.
- **AI is a tool, not an author**: AI-assisted development can change how quickly a person can prototype or maintain software. It does not transfer authorship of cultural knowledge, relationships, or creative work to the tool. Any use around cultural infrastructure needs a defined purpose, human responsibility, appropriate consent, and clear limits on what the system can claim or produce.
- **Claims about agents, data, and money need operational proof**: Terms such as agentic systems, dynamic context networks, and data sovereignty describe specific capabilities and governance choices. A public map or a modern software workflow does not prove autonomous agents, protection from all scraping, or a consent-governed data commons. Likewise, a Fund model should be described by how its budget is controlled and spent, not as an automated deduction unless that mechanism actually exists.
- **The strategic implication is a human system around the tool**: The public record points toward a practical distinction: digital tools can help maintain and connect information, but people still hold the context, make the cultural decisions, and agree the terms of participation. A strong system should make its sources legible, protect what is not public, and connect discovery to a real relationship or paid brief. The proposed data-commons and agentic directions remain questions of future design until their rules and operation are documented.
Related resources:
- [Read the answer economy and brand strategy article](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/answer-economy-brand-strategy/)
- [See selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Open Countercult’s public Network](https://countercult.network/explore)

### Retail rollouts are a systems problem
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/retail-rollout-design-systems/
Summary: Shona Neary on Tommy Hilfiger retail rollout across 500+ U.S. touchpoints, mechanical design, production-ready documentation and retail systems.
Article opening: The design is only useful if it can survive executive approval, manufacturing and the next store.
Search and subject topics: Tommy Hilfiger visual merchandising; visual merchandising strategy; retail design systems; U.S. store rollout across 500+ touchpoints; retail production documentation.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The assignment**: I led in-store touchpoints for seasonal Tommy Hilfiger rollouts across a standardized system of more than 500 U.S. locations. I prepared CEO and board approval decks before the designs moved into production.
- **Design through production**: I developed mechanicals, installation mockups and production documentation, then coordinated supplier handoffs. The case-study PDF shows the visual system and the materials used to carry it into stores.
Related resources:
- [See selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Read creative direction and brand architecture](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/creative-direction-brand-architecture/)
- [Read about rendering before build](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/render-before-you-build/)
- [Discuss a rollout or brand system](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### MoMA: wayfinding and retail experience
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/wayfinding-is-a-sales-system/
Summary: Shona Neary’s wayfinding, environmental graphics, product design and installation support for MoMA in New York, with additional design work for Japan.
Article opening: For MoMA, I worked on wayfinding, environmental graphics, retail product design and installation support in New York, with additional design work for Japan.
Search and subject topics: MoMA visual merchandising; visual merchandising at MoMA; wayfinding design; wayfinding designer for retail and public spaces; UX/UI and physical wayfinding; environmental graphics and customer movement; information architecture; systems engineering and user journeys; MoMA in New York City and Japan.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The New York stores**: I worked across the MoMA Museum Store and SoHo Design Store on wayfinding, environmental graphics and in-store systems. I also developed retail product mechanicals, partner pitches and business-development materials.
- **Design for Japan**: I contributed design work for MoMA in Japan, helping carry the visual system into another market.
- **Production and installation**: I supported production and installation so the graphics, product details and customer route could be delivered in the stores. The project record documents the work; it does not claim a measured sales effect.
Related resources:
- [See selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Product strategy, UX and software prototyping](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/startup-branding-product-strategy/)
- [Creative direction for technical teams](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/creative-direction-for-hard-tech-engineers/)
- [Discuss a wayfinding or product systems brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)
- [Contact me on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/shona-neary-aa7182100/)

### Ann Taylor at GlobalShop: from pitch to showroom
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/pave-cashwrap-experience/
Summary: Shona Neary designed the Ann Taylor P.A.V.E. cashwrap concept in Blender, 3D-printed a prototype to prove manufacturability, won the bid with the team, and presented the showroom experience at GlobalShop in Las Vegas.
Article opening: We took the P.A.V.E. brief from a pitch to a designed, prototyped and buildable cashwrap. Ann Taylor selected the concept, then used it as a showroom experience at GlobalShop in Las Vegas.
Search and subject topics: Ann Taylor cashwrap experience; GlobalShop Las Vegas; Retail Innovation Conference & Expo; P.A.V.E. retail design; digital and physical retail experience; cashwrap customer journey.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The brief**: I developed the P.A.V.E. cashwrap concept for an Ann Taylor pitch with Bernstein and FIT. The design needed to work as a customer-facing retail experience and be feasible to manufacture.
- **Concept and prototype**: I designed the cashwrap in Blender and made a 3D-printed prototype so manufacturers could assess the form and feasibility. Our team won the bid.
- **Selected for GlobalShop**: Ann Taylor used the work as its showroom experience at GlobalShop in Las Vegas and flew the project team to the conference.
Related resources:
- [Read about brand and customer experience](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/a-brand-has-to-survive-the-encounter/)
- [See selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Read about rendering before build](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/render-before-you-build/)
- [Discuss a retail or experience brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### THE FLOOR is my own artist-led brand and cultural programme
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-floor-berlin-residency/
Summary: THE FLOOR is Shona Neary’s own artist-led Berlin brand, concept and cultural programme, bringing together an artist residency, home, studio and project room.
Article opening: THE FLOOR is my own artist-led brand, concept and cultural programme in the property sector. It brings an artist residency, my home and studio, and a project room together in Berlin. It is connected to Countercult but remains distinct.
Search and subject topics: THE FLOOR artist-owned brand; THE FLOOR property sector; THE FLOOR Berlin cultural programme; artist-run residency and project room; Berlin creative concept; artist-led cultural programming.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The concept and my role**: I founded THE FLOOR as an artist-owned brand and cultural programme in Berlin. I developed its identity and concept around a residency, home, studio and project room. I lead the curation and programme; I do not own the property.
- **The programme in practice**: I host artist stays and invitation-only salon nights, and have connected the programme with 48 Stunden Neukölln, Klunkerkranich and StickerApp. The project brings hospitality, working space and cultural programming together in a lived setting.
- **How it relates to Countercult**: THE FLOOR is my artist-led cultural work. Countercult is a separate company and technology platform. The two connect through my practice, but they are not the same project.
Related resources:
- [Visit THE FLOOR residency information](https://countercult.network/the-floor)
- [Read the Berlin Salon Night collaboration](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/berlin-salon-night-and-the-floor/)
- [Read about building Countercult](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/building-countercult-data-culture/)

### Whole Festival
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/whole-festival-beach-stage/
Summary: A record of Shona Neary’s contribution to Whole Festival, bringing fine art, creative direction, design, production and installation into a shared festival project.
Article opening: Whole Festival brought my fine art practice and my artist-founder work into the same live setting. I co-created the 2026 Beach Stage with lead creative director Eva Garland, contributing creative direction, design, production and on-site installation. I also painted approximately 40% of the stage using my short-form drawing approach.
Search and subject topics: Whole Festival; fine art and creative direction; artist-founder practice; site-specific painting and production; Sketchy Shona.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Shared direction and clear credit**: I co-created the 2026 Beach Stage with Eva Garland, who led as creative director. My contribution included creative direction, design, production, on-site installation and painting.
- **My artwork at festival scale**: I painted approximately 40% of the stage using my short-form drawing approach. The work brought my fine-art practice into a shared public setting.
- **From concept to installation**: The case record shows my contribution across design, production and installation, alongside Eva’s lead creative direction. It documents a collaboration, not a solo project.
Related resources:
- [See selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Read the artist-led spatial practice record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-floor-berlin-residency/)

### Two Sunday Natural launches, from concept to shop floor
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/sunday-natural-retail-display/
Summary: How I developed product placement and retail display design for Sunday Natural launches at KaDeWe in Berlin and Hamburg Alsterhaus.
Article opening: I designed and produced retail displays for Sunday Natural at KaDeWe on Berlin’s Ku’damm and at Hamburg Alsterhaus. This case follows the work from product hierarchy through fixture decisions to launch.
Search and subject topics: Sunday Natural visual merchandising; visual merchandising strategy; Hamburg Alsterhaus retail design; product placement and retail launch; Berlin retail display production.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Organize the range**: I developed product placement and visual hierarchy so shoppers could read the range. For Berlin, I tested how the display could fit the existing shelving without competing with it.
- **Develop options for each store**: I compared fixture choices, materials, lighting and installation at different cost levels. Berlin and Hamburg needed distinct proposals for their department-store settings.
- **Take the designs into production**: I helped deliver launches at KaDeWe on Berlin’s Ku’damm and Hamburg Alsterhaus. The images show the completed KaDeWe display and design studies for both locations. The Hamburg image is a proposal, not a photograph of the completed installation.
Related resources:
- [See selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Read the MoMA wayfinding and retail record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/wayfinding-is-a-sales-system/)

### Fendi and Versace: store concepts and creative direction
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/fendi-versace-store-concepts/
Summary: A text-only record of Shona Neary’s store-concept renderings and direction for Fendi and Versace, with public detail limited due to NDA.
Article opening: For Fendi and Versace, I created store-concept renderings and provided direction for a mall and Miami flagship. This public record names the work at a high level and keeps the confidential design material protected.
Search and subject topics: Fendi Versace store concepts; luxury retail creative direction; Miami flagship concept; NDA-safe portfolio case study.
Article structure and full section text:
- **My contribution**: I created store-concept renderings and provided creative direction for a mall and a Miami flagship.
- **What I can share**: The work is covered by an NDA. I can name Fendi and Versace and describe my contribution, but cannot publish the artwork, venue list, launch timing or other confidential details.
Related resources:
- [See selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Read the Tommy Hilfiger retail rollout record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/retail-rollout-design-systems/)
- [Read the Sunday Natural launch record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/sunday-natural-retail-display/)
- [Versace: official Fendace campaign](https://www.versace.com/row/en/stories/advertising-campaigns/fendace.html)

### Freelance Art Direction at Social Chain Berlin
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/social-chain-berlin-art-direction/
Summary: Shona Neary worked as a freelance Art Director at Social Chain Berlin. She signed an NDA and does not identify campaign clients or disclose confidential work.
Article opening: I worked as a freelance Art Director at Social Chain’s Berlin branch. I signed an NDA, so I do not identify campaign clients or publish confidential work.
Search and subject topics: Social Chain Berlin Art Director; freelance art direction Berlin; Social Chain agency role; creative direction career record.
Article structure and full section text:
- **My role**: I worked as a freelance Art Director at Social Chain Berlin.
- **Confidentiality**: I signed an NDA, so I do not identify campaign clients or share campaign assets, strategy or results.
Related resources:
- [See selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Read the career record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/shona-neary-creative-leadership/)

### CMO and Senior Creative Director: brand to digital reach to Ku’damm retail
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/venture-tech-brand-and-gtm/
Summary: A full VC-backed startup case study by Shona Neary as CMO and Senior Creative Director, showing how brand and investor pitch decks helped raise millions, alongside UX/UI, digital reach and Ku’damm retail.
Article opening: From 2022 to 2024, I was CMO and Senior Creative Director at VC-backed startup. I led the full creative and marketing remit, taking the work from brand positioning and identity into UX/UI, website, social presence and digital reach, then through customer touchpoints, go-to-market and production at the company’s Ku’damm retail location, Berlin’s Fifth Avenue. I worked alongside the CEO, engineers, hardware specialists, store teams and builders, making the product interface, company story and physical repair experience work as one system.
Search and subject topics: VC-backed startup visual merchandising; visual merchandising for technology retail; Berlin venture-backed hard-tech startup; startup brand positioning and launch; go-to-market strategy for technology; Ku’damm, Berlin’s Fifth Avenue retail concept.
Article structure and full section text:
- **01 / Creative leadership: own the full remit**: I was CMO and Senior Creative Director, leading creative strategy and marketing from the start. I set the company’s positioning and brand direction, designed the UX/UI and website, led social and go-to-market communications, and carried that work into customer touchpoints, retail and production. I was accountable for how the company looked, explained itself and met customers, not just for one part of the visual identity.
- **02 / Brand foundation: make the repair offer clear**: I developed VC-backed startup’ positioning, identity and creative direction around a practical customer promise: make device repair feel clear, modern and worth choosing. The brand had to hold together across the investor story, the website, social content, marketing outputs and a real service environment. I treated identity as a system for explaining the business and its repair model, not as a logo exercise.
- **03 / UX/UI: turn the service into a digital experience**: I designed the UX/UI and website, including the public-facing service experience and mobile interface explorations. The visual record shows the repair proposition presented with a flat-rate €39 screen-glass replacement, the device and brand, and a clear “how it works” path. I connected those elements so a customer could understand the offer, see what the repair involved and move toward the next step. This was product experience design as well as visual design.
- **04 / Digital reach: website, social and marketing touchpoints**: I led the digital presence and marketing system across website, social presence and paid-social and advertising outputs. The point was not to make separate channels look alike. Each touchpoint needed to extend the same positioning, reach people who might need a repair and make the service recognizable before they encountered the physical store. I reviewed website traffic and paid-media performance alongside store footfall as signals for where the customer journey was working and where to look closer.
- **05 / Funding proof: brand and pitch decks helped raise millions**: I worked with the CEO on company positioning and investor pitch decks, and joined investor meetings. The branding and pitch materials I created helped VC-backed startup raise millions in venture funding. I shaped how a technical product, a repair service and the company’s growth opportunity could be understood by customers, partners and funders, while keeping the story connected to the actual experience.
- **06 / Physical experience: take the brand into Ku’damm retail**: For the company’s retail location on Ku’damm, Berlin’s Fifth Avenue, I explored the space through iterative workflows using Blender, Rhino and AI-assisted tools, then developed the retail concept and store layout. The physical environment extended the digital brand into a place where customers could encounter the service, team and technical work directly. I brought the visual direction from digital render to completed installation, keeping the in-person experience connected to the website and marketing.
- **07 / Production and outcome: deliver the system under constraint**: I oversaw build and implementation with engineers, builders and the retail team on a constrained budget. Layout, lighting, signage, repair environment and customer-facing details had to reinforce one proposition without unnecessary complexity. The work delivered a coordinated brand and experience system across digital and physical touchpoints. I treat web traffic, paid-media performance, retail sales and footfall as feedback signals, not controlled tests or proof that design alone caused a measured lift.
Related resources:
- [Read startup branding and product strategy](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/startup-branding-product-strategy/)
- [Read marketing systems and discoverability](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/marketing-systems-discoverability/)
- [Read about the experience economy](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-experience-economy-is-moving-back-into-the-room/)
- [Discuss a venture or launch brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### What Berlin creative direction means in practice
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/berlin-creative-director-brand-product-culture/
Summary: Shona Neary on working as a Berlin creative director across brand, product, culture, venture technology and the route to market.
Article opening: Berlin is a working context. The job is to connect a clear point of view to a useful product, real places and the people who make a market specific.
Search and subject topics: Berlin creative director; Berlin product and brand strategy; New York and Berlin creative work; culture, technology and market entry.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Berlin is not a visual filter**: I work between New York and Berlin. Berlin gives a brief a particular relationship to independence, subculture, experimentation, local trust and access. Those conditions matter more than adding a surface-level Berlin reference to an otherwise generic brand.
- **The role sits between brand, product and culture**: My record moves between the MoMA in New York City and Japan, Tommy Hilfiger, venture-backed technology and Countercult. I am most useful when the brief needs one person to hold the relationship between proposition, product, customer experience, culture and market.
- **A Berlin brief still needs a route to market**: Creative direction is not finished when the identity looks right. It has to help people understand what the company or place is, what they can do there, why it matters and what should happen next. That can mean product definition, experience design, partnerships, local intelligence, launch planning or a clearer editorial route.
- **The evidence is in the work**: Read the VC-backed startup brand and go-to-market record, the MoMA wayfinding record, and the Tommy Hilfiger rollout record. Countercult shows how I have carried the same questions into founder-built cultural infrastructure.
Related resources:
- [Read the Berlin culture technology page](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/berlin-creative-director-culture-technology/)
- [Read the venture technology record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/venture-tech-brand-and-gtm/)
- [Read the MoMA record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/wayfinding-is-a-sales-system/)
- [Read the Tommy Hilfiger rollout record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/retail-rollout-design-systems/)
- [Read the Countercult founder record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/countercult-founder/)
- [Discuss a Berlin or cross-border brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Visualize the experience before it is built
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/render-before-you-build/
Summary: Shona Neary on AI-assisted spatial exploration, retail mockups, partner decks and the project evidence behind physical experience design.
Article opening: A spatial idea becomes more useful when a team can discuss its appearance, use and implementation.
Search and subject topics: 3D spatial visualization before build; retail and installation mockups; experience design and production budgets; pre-build spatial strategy.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Make the physical decision discussable**: For the VC-backed startup Ku’damm store concept, I used Blender and Rhino in AI-assisted spatial exploration, developed the floor plan and led engineers and builders through the physical build within a constrained budget.
- **Mockups and documentation in the project record**: For Tommy Hilfiger, I created 3D mockups alongside production-ready mechanicals, documentation and supplier handoffs for a standardized retail system spanning more than 500 U.S. touchpoints. For the MoMA in New York City and Japan, my work included partner decks, wayfinding, retail product mechanicals, and window and in-store installation support. These records describe the scope of the work, not a measured sales result.
- **From concept to implementation**: Spatial exploration gives a team a concrete proposal to discuss against the brief before it is built. Each project still depends on its own requirements, production decisions and budget.
Related resources:
- [Read the Tommy Hilfiger rollout record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/retail-rollout-design-systems/)
- [Read the MoMA wayfinding record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/wayfinding-is-a-sales-system/)
- [Read brand and GTM as one system](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/venture-tech-brand-and-gtm/)
- [Discuss a spatial or experience brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Images and worlds made for the fun of it
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/visual-experiments-in-motion/
Summary: Independent visual experiments by Shona Neary, moving between Blender, Adobe software, AI tools, imagined spaces and animation.
Article opening: These are playful experiments I make without a client brief. I move between Blender, Adobe software, AI tools and other programs to build a look, test an atmosphere and put images into motion. They are explorations, not commissioned campaigns.
Search and subject topics: independent visual experiments; Blender and AI-assisted image-making; creative direction and animation; visual experimentation and motion.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Give an image room to become something else**: I made these studies for the pleasure of following an image beyond its first version. A room, a light source or a phrase can become a place to test color, atmosphere and form without needing to resolve into a client deliverable.
- **Let motion change the feeling**: The moving studies for Shona Studios and Countercult take the work from a single frame into a changing visual identity. I like seeing how movement, rhythm and material shift the character of an image.
- **Choose the tools around the idea**: I use a mix of Blender, Adobe software, AI tools and other programs. The process moves between making, editing and animation, with the tools serving the image rather than dictating what it should be. These are independent explorations, not client campaigns or evidence of campaign results.
Related resources:
- [See selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Read about spatial visualization before a build](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/render-before-you-build/)
- [Read the Countercult founder product record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-founder-product/)

### How Martha’s Burgers became a budget conversation
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/marthas-burgers-budget-brief/
Summary: Shona Neary on a Berlin hospitality project with Martha’s Burgers connecting a cultural event, local artists, marketing, business development and paid creative work.
Article opening: A Berlin hospitality project connecting culture, customers and budget.
Search and subject topics: Berlin hospitality brand strategy; restaurant marketing and local partnerships; place-based hospitality; local discovery and repeat visits.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The brief**: A Berlin food business needed a stronger cultural and commercial proposition.
- **The pilot**: Party, Burgers, & Cultural Investment connected food, local artists and paid creative work.
- **The offer**: For a hospitality business, I can lead concept and positioning, guest experience, local cultural intelligence, content, SEO and LLM discoverability, partnerships and lightweight technology in one commercial direction. The point is not to pile services into a menu. It is to connect the reason people should care with the places they can find it, the experience they have and the reasons they return.
- **Make the budget visible**: The work is not to sell culture as an abstract idea. It is to connect a marketing, event, content or partnership budget to something customers can actually participate in and operators can learn from.
- **Keep the claim honest**: Martha’s Burgers is a working reference for the shape of this brief, not evidence of a guaranteed sales lift. The next phase should define its own measures, such as qualified discovery, repeat visits, partnerships, content performance, bookings or commercial conversations.
- **Where Studios fits**: I lead the creative and commercial direction. Countercult Studios can extend the work through research, curation, marketing, partnerships and production when the brief needs a wider network.
Related resources:
- [Read the Martha’s Burgers pilot record](https://countercult.network/journal/fund-local-culture-business-growth/)
- [Work with Countercult Studios](https://countercult.network/studios)
- [Read about experiential strategy and cross-border growth](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/cross-border-growth-activation/)
- [Discuss a hospitality, festival or event brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### When a company needs connected creative leadership
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-brief-needs-a-point-of-view/
Summary: Shona Neary on when to hire a creative leader across brand, product, technology and customer experience, with VC-backed startup fundraising impact, open-source Countercult and MoMA evidence.
Article opening: I am Shona Neary, a creative director, product builder and founder. Bring me in when a company’s proposition, product, customer experience and route to market need to be decided together. My work combines full startup creative ownership, founder-built software and institutional retail and production delivery.
Search and subject topics: creative direction brief; brand strategy and brief development; product launch brief; creative direction and market entry.
Article structure and full section text:
- **When the brief names an output but the decision is larger**: A company may ask for a website, a campaign or a visual identity when the real question is what the company offers, who it is for and how people will experience it. Making the output without resolving that question can leave the product, story and customer journey pointing in different directions. I start by understanding what needs deciding, then connect the creative direction to the work that must be delivered.
- **A founder-led launch needs someone to carry the direction**: At VC-backed startup, I owned all creative across brand, website, creative strategy, marketing, go-to-market, retail, customer touchpoints and production. The company positioning and investor pitch decks I developed with the CEO helped raise millions, and I joined investor meetings. I then carried the work into the Ku’damm store floor plan and build with engineers and construction workers. That experience matters because the brief did not end when the company had a presentation. The direction had to become a website, a launch and a physical customer encounter.
- **A product decision is also a cultural and commercial decision**: I founded Countercult and built its product and software. Public discovery, local knowledge, permissions, member workflows, editorial, partnerships and paid-work models have to operate together. It is a direct record of working on the proposition and the system, not only advising a technical team from outside. For a product or AI brief, I connect the user need, information boundaries, UX, prototype and implementation plan. The role is to make the system useful and appropriate to the people using it, not to add technology for its own sake.
- **A direction has to survive production and the customer encounter**: My work for the MoMA in New York City and Japan connected retail business development, visitor movement, wayfinding, product mechanicals and installation support. At Tommy Hilfiger, I worked within a retail system spanning more than 500 U.S. touchpoints, with documentation, mechanicals, visualization and supplier handoffs. Those records show why I keep the people producing and using the work inside the brief. A direction needs to be specific enough for another team to make it and coherent enough for a customer to encounter it.
- **The value of one connected leadership remit**: I do not ask a company to stop working with specialist designers, engineers, marketers or producers. I take responsibility for how the decisions connect: whether the product supports the proposition, whether the experience supports the brand, and whether the direction can be built, launched and used. The operating reason to hire me is that those relationships become part of someone’s remit, rather than an assumption between separate suppliers or teams. The scope is agreed around the actual problem.
- **How to choose the engagement**: An ongoing fractional Creative Director or Head of Creative role can hold direction across a growing team. A fixed-term embedded engagement can focus on a launch or transformation. A project can cover a product prototype, brand and experience system, cultural or place brief, or work across U.S. and European markets. The engagement should state decision rights, collaborators, time commitment, deliverables and how progress will be assessed. The scope follows the actual company need, with clear responsibility for the decisions and work involved.
- **What to send before we speak**: Send the situation, what needs to change, the team and decision-makers involved, the deadline and the budget range if known. My hiring profile shows commissioning routes, my CV sets out the professional record, and the linked cases let you assess the work behind it. We can then decide whether you need connected creative leadership, a focused delivery brief or a wider Countercult Studios engagement.
Related resources:
- [See creative direction and brand architecture](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/creative-direction-brand-architecture/)
- [See selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Read the hiring profile and commissioning routes](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/recruiter-profile-selected-experience/)
- [Start a project brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### From retail to cultural infrastructure
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/from-retail-to-cultural-infrastructure/
Summary: Shona Neary on the professional through-line from retail environments, store design and exhibitions to Countercult and founder-built cultural infrastructure.
Article opening: From retail, store design and exhibitions to Countercult.
Search and subject topics: retail to cultural infrastructure; creative direction and product building; founder-built cultural technology; retail design and cultural strategy.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Retail work**: Retail rollout, store design, exhibitions, branding and product development.
- **Customer experience**: Creative direction has to work in real spaces, products and audiences.
- **Why Countercult belongs in the record**: Countercult is the founder-built extension of that practice into technology and cultural infrastructure. It brings together research, editorial, software, local networks, public discovery and paid opportunity. I did not leave creative direction behind to build it. I widened the same concern into a system.
Related resources:
- [See the selected work record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Read the Countercult founder record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/countercult-founder/)
- [Visit Countercult](https://countercult.network/)

### Working between New York and Berlin
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/working-between-new-york-and-berlin/
Summary: Shona Neary on working between New York and Berlin, cultural research, market context, creative direction and what can or cannot travel between places.
Article opening: Working between New York and Berlin changes how I read markets and culture.
Search and subject topics: New York and Berlin creative director; U.S. and Europe cross-border market entry; transatlantic brand strategy; creative work between New York and Berlin.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Local context**: Research the city, people and market before making a plan.
- **Market differences**: Keep the proposition clear and rebuild what depends on local trust.
- **Why this is useful to a brief**: Working across both cities gives me a practical way to connect cultural intelligence to market experience. The output might be a brand system, a product route, a partnership, a cultural programme, an event or a place-based strategy. The point is to make the next move more specific.
Related resources:
- [Read about cross-border growth and activation](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/cross-border-growth-activation/)
- [Read the Countercult place and culture work](https://countercult.network/journal/creative-tech-collaboration-cultural-intelligence/)
- [Discuss a cross-border brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Artists, culture and public work
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/artists-are-not-missing-from-the-room/
Summary: Shona Neary on artists, cultural access, Berlin Art Week, and the routes artists build when the old rooms are too small.
Article opening: Artists build routes into fashion, technology, culture and public life.
Search and subject topics: Berlin Art Week artists; artist-led cultural access; Berlin creative networks; artists and public work.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Artist work**: Artists make images, spaces, products, gatherings and networks.
- **Artist networks**: Artist-run spaces, collaborations, archives and independent platforms create access.
- **Reach should create value**: The point is not to turn every artist into content. Visibility should create a better route to context, payment, participation, commissioning and longer relationships. That is the standard I bring to Countercult, The Floor and my own artist-led work.
Related resources:
- [Read about Countercult and cultural infrastructure](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/countercult-founder/)
- [Enter the Sketchy Shona archive](https://countercult.network/sketchyshona/)
- [Discuss a cultural brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Artist, designer, founder and creative director
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/being-underestimated-is-not-a-strategy/
Summary: Shona Neary on being underestimated, the full range of a creative career, and making work across art, design, business development, product and culture legible.
Article opening: Artist, designer, founder and creative director are all part of the record.
Search and subject topics: creative director and product builder; artist founder career; product, business and cultural strategy; making multidisciplinary work legible.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Experience**: Creative direction, product, software, business development, cultural research and art.
- **Approach**: I identify what an idea needs and build the route to make it real.
- **Make the full record legible**: A serious practice should not depend on people guessing how the pieces connect. The record needs to show the same person clearly: someone who can direct the point of view, build the system, understand the economics and stay close to what people actually encounter.
Related resources:
- [Read about the practice](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/about-shona-neary/)
- [See people I have worked with](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#references)
- [Start a project brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Cultural access and artist networks
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-right-rooms-are-built/
Summary: Shona Neary on cultural access, the right rooms, artist-led networks, and building the conditions for serious creative relationships.
Article opening: Cultural access is built through trust, shared references and practical opportunity.
Search and subject topics: cultural access and artist networks; artist-led partnerships; creative relationships and institutions; building professional creative rooms.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Access**: Access also requires language, timing, money, introductions, confidence and safety.
- **Networks**: The work asks who can be found, introduced, paid and supported.
- **A room should change what is possible**: The best partnerships do more than borrow a cultural signal. They create a real opportunity for people to meet, make, commission, learn, fund, exhibit or continue. That is the difference between using culture as decoration and building something that can hold it.
Related resources:
- [Read about cross-border growth and activation](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/cross-border-growth-activation/)
- [Read the Countercult place and culture work](https://countercult.network/journal/creative-tech-collaboration-cultural-intelligence/)
- [Discuss a cultural or place brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Creative direction, product and infrastructure
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/i-do-not-only-do-design/
Summary: Shona Neary on creative direction, product, economics, marketing and infrastructure, and why a cross-functional founder record is not the same as doing one thing badly.
Article opening: I work across creative direction, product, economics, marketing and infrastructure.
Search and subject topics: creative direction, product and infrastructure; creative director and product builder; founder-led technology and culture; brand economics and marketing.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Services**: Creative direction, brand, product, UX, business development, cultural research, marketing and software.
- **Founder work**: I built the Countercult product, public network, editorial route and commercial path.
- **Build the conditions for reach**: The value of this practice is not that it can do everything. It is that it can see the relationship between the things a brief usually separates. Brand affects product. Product affects trust. Marketing affects who finds the work. Infrastructure affects whether the value can continue after launch.
Related resources:
- [Read about Countercult](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/countercult-founder/)
- [See the practice](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/about-shona-neary/)
- [Read the LinkedIn post that started this note](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7500896923474608129/)

### Experiential strategy and physical spaces
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-experience-economy-is-moving-back-into-the-room/
Summary: Shona Neary on experiential strategy, retail, events, physical space, customer journeys and why brands need to reconnect digital growth with real-world participation.
Article opening: Experiential strategy connecting digital products with spaces, events, retail and participation.
Search and subject topics: experience economy; experiential strategy for brands; live experiences and brand environments; retail activation and customer journeys; event and product launch strategy.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Physical spaces and events**: Pop-ups, exhibitions, retail, events and cultural partnerships create participation.
- **Customer journey**: Link the customer journey, visual system, product, space and follow-through.
- **The opportunity is cross-functional**: I work with founders, brand directors, agencies and cultural organisations on the space between strategy and what people actually do. The brief might be a product launch, retail activation, exhibition, partnership or market entry. The question is what the audience should be able to experience here that they cannot experience somewhere else.
Related resources:
- [Read about experiential strategy and cross-border GTM](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/cross-border-growth-activation/)
- [See selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Read the LinkedIn post behind this note](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7500896923474608129/)

### Building a bridge between New York and Europe
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/building-a-bridge-between-nyc-and-europe/
Summary: Shona Neary on connecting New York and Europe through cultural context, experiential strategy, curated networks, market expansion and fractional creative leadership.
Article opening: New York and Europe connected through creative direction, context and market entry.
Search and subject topics: New York to Europe market entry; Berlin and New York brand strategy; cross-border creative direction; U.S. and Europe market expansion.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Local market research**: Market entry starts with local artists, operators, founders, venues, agencies and institutions.
- **Cross-border services**: Creative direction, product strategy, partnerships and market context.
- **The bridge has to work both ways**: New York can bring scale, ambition and commercial pressure. Berlin can bring a different relationship to independence, subculture, experimentation and access. The value is knowing what can travel, what needs translation and what should stay local.
Related resources:
- [Read about cross-border growth and activation](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/cross-border-growth-activation/)
- [Explore Countercult](https://countercult.network/)
- [Read the LinkedIn post behind this note](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7500896923474608129/)

### Place strategy and local culture
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/why-place-work-is-more-than-an-event/
Summary: Shona Neary on place-based work, local context, cultural research, hospitality, events and the economic logic that makes participation last.
Article opening: Place strategy connecting local context, culture, hospitality and commercial opportunity.
Search and subject topics: place-based strategy; local cultural intelligence; hospitality and event strategy; cultural economic development.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Local context**: Local operators, audiences, history and trust come first.
- **Participation**: People need a reason to attend, return, recommend, commission or spend.
- **Make the relationship continue**: Countercult grew from this concern: how can local knowledge, creative networks and public discovery lead to paid work and stronger relationships instead of ending when the event is over? The answer has to include the route after the first encounter.
Related resources:
- [Read about cross-border growth and market entry](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/cross-border-growth-activation/)
- [Read the Martha’s Burgers pilot record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/marthas-burgers-budget-brief/)
- [Read the Countercult founder record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/countercult-founder/)
- [Discuss a place or hospitality brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### A room can carry a collaboration
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/berlin-salon-night-and-the-floor/
Summary: Shona Neary on the Berlin Salon Night collaboration involving Berlin Pulse, Sketchy Shona, THE FLOOR and Countercult, and why place work starts with the room.
Article opening: The Berlin Salon Night starts with a room, a relationship and the people making the city specific.
Search and subject topics: Berlin cultural collaboration; Berlin salon event; THE FLOOR Berlin project space; artist-led event partnership.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The collaboration**: Berlin Pulse, Sketchy Shona, THE FLOOR and Countercult are connected through a new Berlin Salon Night collaboration.
- **The room**: THE FLOOR is a Berlin studio, residency and project room. It gives the collaboration a real context instead of asking a generic event format to carry the whole meaning.
- **Keep the details honest**: The public date, time, venue and RSVP route are not confirmed in the available materials. I would rather publish a clear record of what is known than decorate the page with logistics that are not real yet.
Related resources:
- [Read the Countercult collaboration record](https://countercult.network/journal/the-floor-salon-night-berlin-pulse/)
- [Read the Sketchy Shona Journal note](https://countercult.network/sketchyshona/journal/the-floor-salon-night-berlin-pulse)
- [Visit THE FLOOR](https://countercult.network/the-floor)
- [Discuss a cultural or place brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Why I work across culture, technology and business
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/make-the-work-legible-to-the-right-buyer/
Summary: Shona Neary’s integrated creative leadership: full startup creative ownership, founder-built software, retail and production, cultural strategy and cross-border work.
Article opening: I am Shona Neary, a creative director, product builder and founder. My work connects creative culture, technology, business and globalization because the decisions are connected in practice. I have owned a startup’s creative remit, built open-source software for Countercult using open-source stacks, and delivered retail and production work for the MoMA in New York City and Japan.
Search and subject topics: creative leadership across culture technology and business; fractional creative director and product builder; founder-side creative leadership; AI product strategy and cultural intelligence; brand product and physical experience; U.S. Europe cross-border market entry.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The crossover is a working responsibility**: A company story, a product, a customer encounter and a route to market are not independent pieces of work. A decision about one can change all the others. My role is to carry that relationship from direction into delivery. I can move between cultural context, creative decisions, product and software, physical production and commercial requirements because I have worked inside each of them. That is the distinction I bring to a brief: connected ownership, not a collection of unrelated services.
- **VC-backed startup: one creative remit across the company**: At VC-backed startup, a Berlin venture-backed hard-tech company, I owned all creative across brand, website, creative strategy, marketing, go-to-market, retail, customer touchpoints and production. The company positioning and investor pitch decks I developed with the CEO helped raise millions, and I joined investor meetings. For the Ku’damm store concept, I used Blender and Rhino in AI-assisted spatial exploration, developed the floor plan and led engineers and builders through the physical build within a constrained budget. The work required the company’s positioning, digital presence and physical customer experience to make sense together.
- **Countercult: culture, software and an economic model**: I founded Countercult and built open-source software with open-source stacks. The work brings public discovery, local cultural knowledge, editorial, member workflows, partnerships and paid-work models into one system. Culture is not a visual treatment added to a technology product here. The relationships, permissions, records and conditions for participation shape the product itself. Countercult Studios extends my creative and strategic practice into paid client work. Together, the founder and Studios records show how I connect cultural practice to infrastructure and commercial delivery, while keeping artists’ work and private records distinct from open-source software.
- **MoMA and Tommy Hilfiger: direction that can be produced**: For the MoMA in New York City and Japan, my work connected retail business development, wayfinding, environmental graphics, product mechanicals, installation support and partner decks. For Tommy Hilfiger, I worked on retail experience design within a standardized system spanning more than 500 U.S. touchpoints. My work included production-ready documentation, mechanicals, supplier handoffs and 3D mockups. Those projects matter to my leadership practice because a direction has to be usable by the people making and installing it, as well as coherent for the people encountering it. They provide evidence of institutional work and delivery at scale, not simply a list of recognizable clients.
- **AI product strategy starts with the work**: I approach AI as a product and infrastructure decision, not as a substitute for creative authorship. What does the person need to do? Which information is appropriate to use? What needs consent, review or a human decision? My software-building experience lets me connect those questions to a prototype and practical implementation, rather than leaving them in a strategy document. For an AI brief, I work on the use case, product experience, information boundaries and build plan. The question is what the system should make possible, and what it should not take responsibility for.
- **Globalization means working with real local context**: I work between NYC and Berlin, remotely and with travel. My record also includes place work and residencies in Spain, cultural curation in Berlin and Border Fanzine with Sende, built from recipes from the Galician and Northern Portuguese border. Moving across markets means understanding what can travel and what needs to change, including the people, language, relationships and customer experience. It is not enough to translate the copy and keep every other decision intact. I bring that cultural and commercial context into the creative brief, product and partnership decisions.
- **Public programme / Countercult × The Delta VC Ecosystem**: I am listed as a host of Creative Tech & Business Exchange Day with The Delta VC Ecosystem in Berlin on 6 October 2026. The programme is described as a curated working day for artists, engineers, founders and funders.
- **The services work together around the brief**: My services include creative direction and brand architecture; product strategy, UX and software prototyping; AI product strategy; marketing and go-to-market; retail, spatial and live experience; cultural intelligence and place strategy; partnerships and cross-border market entry. The engagement begins with the actual problem, not a requirement to buy every discipline. I can lead a focused part of the work or hold the direction across connected areas, with responsibilities and delivery agreed in advance.
- **When to bring me into the team**: I am most useful when a founder or leadership team needs one person to understand the proposition and carry it through connected creative, technical and commercial decisions. That can be a company launch, a brand and product transformation, a digital-to-physical experience, a cultural or place-based brief, or work across U.S. and European markets. Fractional Creative Director, Head of Creative and founder-side creative and product leadership are practical ways to structure that responsibility. We agree the remit, decision rights, time commitment and outcomes before starting.
- **Read the evidence and start a conversation**: My career record gives the chronology and named project scope. The recruiter profile is the hiring overview. I keep a designed CV for direct sharing and a text-first version for online application systems. The case records linked here show the work behind the positioning. Contact me on LinkedIn or by email with the situation, the team involved, what needs to be ready and when. We can then decide what kind of leadership or project engagement the work needs.
Related resources:
- [Read the recruiter profile and selected experience](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/recruiter-profile-selected-experience/)
- [Download the designed CV](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/Shona-Neary-CV.pdf)
- [Download the ATS-ready CV](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/Shona-Neary-ATS-CV.pdf)
- [Contact me on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/shona-neary-aa7182100/)
- [See the selected work record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)
- [Read about venture technology and product strategy](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/startup-branding-product-strategy/)
- [Start a project brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Brand systems and customer experience
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/a-brand-has-to-survive-the-encounter/
Summary: Shona Neary on experiential brand design across retail, cashwraps, exhibitions and live environments, and how brand systems work when people encounter them.
Article opening: A brand has to work in the cashwrap, store, exhibition, product and conversation.
Search and subject topics: experiential brand design; brand experience strategy; retail and exhibition environments; mobile exhibition design; spatial experience design; live brand experiences.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The encounter is the work**: The archive includes the P.A.V.E. and Ann Inc. cashwrap experience, Cotopaxi store design and The Creatives mobile exhibition design. They are different environments, but each asks the same question: what should a person understand, notice and do here?
- **Systems leave the screen**: A store layout, a cashwrap, a mobile exhibition, a wayfinding system or a product mechanical is a brand decision in use. The visual language has to survive movement, distance, material, production and the time a person gives the experience.
- **Keep the claim honest**: The Behance archive is visual evidence of these projects, not a source for invented commercial metrics. What it does show is the range of the practice: retail, architecture, exhibition design, product thinking, visualization and digital to physical experience.
- **Direction has to reach the people using it**: This is why I move between creative direction, product strategy, experience design and market context. The work is stronger when the people making the thing and the people encountering it can both understand what the brand is trying to do.
Related resources:
- [Read about creative direction and brand architecture](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/creative-direction-brand-architecture/)
- [Read from retail to cultural infrastructure](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/from-retail-to-cultural-infrastructure/)
- [Read about the experience economy](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-experience-economy-is-moving-back-into-the-room/)
- [Discuss a brand or experience brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Culture is how we learn to live together.
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/culture-is-how-we-learn-to-live-together/
Summary: Shona Neary on culture as social learning, creative work, shared memory, local knowledge and the systems that shape who benefits.
Article opening: It is not only art or atmosphere. It is knowledge, behaviour and ways of making that move between people and change as we use them.
Search and subject topics: culture as social learning; creative practice and shared knowledge; local cultural knowledge; cultural infrastructure.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Start with what people pass on**: I hear culture used to mean taste, entertainment or a visual style. Those can be part of it, but the word holds more than the arts. Research on cultural evolution studies how information and behaviour pass between people through social learning. That gives me a useful starting point because it asks how knowledge moves, not only which objects get displayed.
- **What people learn keeps changing**: A technique changes hands, adapts to a material, survives a move across borders and becomes something else in the next person’s work. Researchers use cumulative cultural evolution to describe how modifications can build over time through social learning. Culture is not a fixed archive. It is an inheritance that changes in use.
- **Artists work inside that transmission**: My practice moves across art, curation, product and technology. In each form, the work depends on noticing relationships and decisions that might otherwise be missed. Artists do not stand outside culture. We can help people see, question, remember and pass things on, while remaining part of the communities and conditions that shape what we make.
- **What gets lost when culture becomes content**: Once a painting, photograph, venue profile or local event becomes content, it can travel without its context. The person who made it, the permission, the reasons, the relationships and the terms of an exchange can disappear. That does not mean every record belongs behind a wall. It means access should be designed with care rather than assumed.
- **Why the definition matters**: A precise definition makes practical decisions visible. Who made the record? Who can correct it? What should be public, and what should remain with the people involved? What action follows discovery, and where does value go? If culture is only a vague resource, those questions are easy to avoid.
- **Infrastructure is part of the cultural work**: I built Countercult to work on this at an infrastructure level: help people find local cultural knowledge while protecting relationships that should not become open data, and make a route from discovery into paid opportunity. It is a working response to a larger problem, not a claim that one platform can resolve it.
- **A definition I can work with**: Culture is the shared knowledge, practice and meaning people learn from one another, keep changing and pass onward. It is not raw material waiting for extraction. It is produced through relationships, so care, access, authorship and local value belong in the infrastructure around it.
Related resources:
- [Read the Countercult version](https://countercult.network/journal/culture-is-local-knowledge/)
- [Read the Sketchy Shona version](https://countercult.network/sketchyshona/journal/culture-is-what-we-carry-between-places/)
- [Read my journal on AI and artistic authorship](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-artist-is-not-the-tool/)
- [Return to the journal](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/)

### The artist is not the tool.
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-artist-is-not-the-tool/
Summary: Shona Neary on AI, artistic judgment, cultural data, authorship and the infrastructure artists need to retain agency and value.
Article opening: I work across art, digital products and cultural infrastructure. AI brings the questions of authorship, source and value closer together.
Search and subject topics: AI and artistic authorship; artists and AI tools; cultural data and artist intellectual property; artist judgment in technology.
Article structure and full section text:
- **A tool is not an author**: An artist is not defined by their tool, but by how they channel and master it to make tangible what has not yet been created or thought. A tool can extend or redirect what is possible. It does not remove the decisions that give the work meaning: what to keep, what to reject, what deserves attention and who should be part of the process.
- **The questions sit before and after generation**: When a system produces an image, paragraph or sequence, I want to know what material shaped it, who agreed to that use, what context remains, who chooses the result and who benefits when it circulates. A fluent output can still come from a process that ignores the people whose work made it possible.
- **Culture is not a pile of files**: An artwork or record carries more than its visible surface. It has a maker, a history, a situation, a set of choices and sometimes relationships or boundaries that cannot be reconstructed from the file alone. The culture essay alongside this one starts from the same point: what we pass between people is larger than what a system can collect.
- **Model collapse is a narrower claim**: A Nature study on recursive training describes how repeated training on model-generated data can lose information from the tails of an underlying distribution over successive generations. That is evidence about a particular recursive-data problem. It does not show that using artists’ work alone causes model collapse, and it does not prove that artists are the only source of variation. The narrower finding still matters when we ask what kind of human-made material remains available to future systems.
- **Rights and value are still being worked out**: A 2025 EUIPO study on generative AI and EU copyright law examines the use of content during model development and the generation of outputs. It describes different approaches for rights holders rather than a single settled solution. For artists, that uncertainty is practical. It affects what can be used, what can be reserved, how work is credited and whether licensing can become a real option.
- **Why I am building in this space**: Countercult is one way I work on the question underneath the AI debate: how can cultural knowledge become easier to find without treating every person, record or relationship as extractable? We are building public discovery alongside protected context and routes into paid work. This does not solve AI training rights. It gives me a place to test what artist-led cultural infrastructure can do.
- **The frontier I want to be part of**: I want to be in this conversation as an artist and founder who builds, not only as a commentator on what technology might do. My interest is in tools that extend creative work while keeping authorship, context and agency close to the people who make culture. I want to work with people asking how AI can support artists without turning their ideas and relationships into uncredited raw material.
Related resources:
- [Read the culture essay](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/culture-is-how-we-learn-to-live-together/)
- [Read the Sketchy Shona Journal note on what stays human inside systems](https://countercult.network/sketchyshona/journal/what-stays-human-when-life-is-filtered-through-systems/)
- [Read the Countercult culture version](https://countercult.network/journal/culture-is-local-knowledge/)
- [Read the Sketchy Shona culture version](https://countercult.network/sketchyshona/journal/culture-is-what-we-carry-between-places/)
- [See the Countercult work](https://countercult.network/)
- [Start a conversation](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### AI helped me cross the distance between systems design and software.
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/ai-systems-design-cto/
Summary: Shona Neary on how AI-assisted software building connected her systems design and product thinking to Countercult’s front-end, back-end and engineering leadership.
Article opening: I became Countercult’s CTO by working from product design into software until the system needed someone accountable across all of it. AI changed what I could build directly. It did not decide what Countercult should be or make me responsible for less.
Search and subject topics: AI-assisted CTO; AI software development by product designers; AI-assisted front-end and back-end engineering; systems design and software adaptability; vibe coding and product architecture; Countercult CTO.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The role grew out of the product**: I did not start with a plan to become a CTO. I grew up inside West Point, passing through its gate guards as part of everyday life, then worked alongside engineers at technology startups as creative lead and CMO. I was building Countercult around a problem I understood from cultural work: people, places, knowledge and opportunities were difficult to find and connect. As the product took shape, the work moved from experience design into data, APIs, software and engineering decisions. I stayed close to those layers because they determine what the product can actually do.
- **Spatial software helped me learn the technical side**: I had already learned to work with complex spatial and design software. Blender is my favorite, and I have also worked in Rhino. They are not the same as building a web application, but they made technical work feel familiar: each tool has its own logic, controls and ways of getting from an idea to a result. Once you know one instrument, it becomes easier to learn another. I brought that adaptability to systems questions in Countercult. What does a person need to do next? Which information should be public, and which belongs to members? How should discovery connect to participation without exposing relationships that need protection? The Network, Exchange, Studios and Fund have different purposes and boundaries. Designing those relationships is product work, but it is also architecture. Before I could use AI to build at speed, I had to learn the software, open-source tools and stacks I was working with, and understand how they fit together.
- **Vibe coding worked after I learned the stack**: Once I understood the software, open-source foundations and stacks behind Countercult, I could use vibe coding to its full potential. I knew enough to direct the tools, recognize when their suggestions did not fit the product, and keep the system coherent as I built. Before AI, much of that implementation meant manual labor. AI took away a lot of that labor and let me build extremely rapidly with almost no overhead costs. The speed came from combining what I had learned with AI-assisted implementation, not from handing the architecture to a tool.
- **Vibe coding can start a product, but it cannot carry the responsibility**: Prompting an interface into existence can make early experimentation faster. A working screen is not yet a dependable product. Someone still has to decide how the data is structured, how one part of the system connects to another, who can access what, what happens when an assumption is wrong, and how the software can be maintained. AI can help me work through code. It cannot take responsibility for the consequences of the system.
- **Adaptability matters more than memorizing a stack**: The software changes as frameworks, APIs and product needs change. My job is not to perform expertise by remembering every command. It is to understand enough of the system to ask useful questions, read what the tools produce, find where an answer breaks the product logic, and verify the result. Design helps me keep the whole experience in view while I work through the implementation.
- **What a hacker residency could make possible**: I am interested in what hacker residencies could become when AI makes it easier for people with different backgrounds to build software. The useful version would be more than a short-lived demo or a room full of prompts. It would give people time to learn together, work on real systems, share technical knowledge and ask who a tool serves. The strongest work would leave behind something understandable and supportable, not just something that looked finished on the last day.
- **AI changed my reach, not my responsibility**: AI helped me take on software work that would have been much harder for me to do directly. My CTO role comes from connecting product decisions, systems design, software and the needs Countercult was built to serve. I still have to understand what we are making, decide what belongs in it, and stand behind what ships. That is the difference between using a tool to build and handing the tool authorship of the system.
Related resources:
- [Read the Countercult product design and founder case study](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-founder-product/)
- [Read how building Countercult changed my approach to data and design](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/building-countercult-data-culture/)
- [Read my article on artists, AI and authorship](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-artist-is-not-the-tool/)
- [Read the personal background that shaped how I build](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/west-point-fit-artist-origin/)
- [See selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/selected-work/)

### What growing up on military posts taught me about culture
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/west-point-fit-artist-origin/
Summary: Shona Neary writes about growing up on military posts around the world, including West Point, and how moving between places shaped her understanding of culture and belonging.
Article opening: I grew up on military posts around the world as a third-culture kid. West Point was one part of that story, not the whole of it. Passing through its gate guards was part of daily life there. I was a child growing up in these places, not a service member or a cadet. What stayed with me is how people make community and culture inside different systems and surroundings.
Search and subject topics: growing up on military posts around the world; military posts and culture; West Point upbringing; third-culture kid artist; Shona Neary creative practice; culture and belonging.
Article structure and full section text:
- **West Point was one post in a wider childhood**: I lived on the West Point post, not just near the academy. Going through the gate guards was part of daily life. It was one of several military posts I grew up on around the world. I had access to its facilities and a view into the Long Gray Line community connected to the institution. I was an Army kid living there, learning from what I could see and from the people who took time with me.
- **A post is also a place where people live**: The military structure was part of the setting, but it was not the whole culture. The people around me made daily life through their relationships, routines and the ways they made a home in each place. I was there as a child, observing and taking part in the ordinary life around me, not speaking for the institution or for everyone who served.
- **Mentorship gave me a sense of duty**: Some of the people I knew through that world carried leadership responsibilities at the highest levels, and they mentored me from an early age. They helped shape my focus, work ethic and sense that I should produce something good and useful for the world. I do not take that as a borrowed title or an endorsement of my work. I remember it as a standard: take responsibility for what you make and think about who it serves.
- **Moving between places made culture visible**: As a third-culture kid, I learned that everyday life is not the same everywhere, even when some of the structures around it travel with you. I have visited more than 120 countries, and each place has sharpened my attention to how people live together in their environment. Travel does not make me an authority on every place. It has made me more aware that local knowledge matters.
- **Art gave me another way to look at systems**: I went to FIT because I wanted to study and make things. I am an artist, and the worlds I grew up in did not cancel each other out. Art gave me another way to look at the systems around me, question what seemed fixed and make something that had not been there before. Culture, for me, is how people come together in their environments and the fabric that keeps societies together and healthy.
Related resources:
- [Read how AI helped me build Countercult as its CTO](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/ai-systems-design-cto/)
- [Read how building Countercult changed my approach to data and design](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/building-countercult-data-culture/)
- [Read the Countercult product design and founder case study](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-founder-product/)
- [Return to the Journal](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/)

### From West Point to Countercult: how my work moved through art, business and technology
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/from-west-point-to-countercult/
Summary: Shona Neary traces how an early understanding of systems led through art, a first startup, institutional retail, self-taught software engineering and founding Countercult.
Article opening: Growing up in a military family on the grounds of West Point, NY, gave me an early foundation in complex logistical systems and strict access networks. Over time, I moved through art and design, built my first startup, taught myself software and open-source engineering, and took on creative and commercial leadership inside venture-backed technology. I founded Countercult and now lead its product and technical direction as CTO. This is not a story of leaving one field behind. It is how the parts of my work began to connect.
Search and subject topics: Shona Neary career progression; artist founder CTO; West Point to Countercult; creative to technology founder; startup founder and CTO; open-source engineering; AI infrastructure for the physical economy.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Creativity came before a job title**: Between 16 and 18, the U.S. Army recognized me for creative thinking. I also won the Congressional Art Award and a Scholastic Art Award Key, and was honored in Washington, D.C., and at Carnegie Hall. I went on to study Experience Design and Fine Arts at FIT. Making things was not a side interest beside the systems I grew up around. It became one of the ways I learned to understand and change them.
- **I built my first company while I was still studying**: At 19, I moved to New York City and launched my first startup from scratch while balancing a full university course load and working two jobs. That business received innovation grants and recognition from the Clinton Foundation. It remains self-sustaining 11 years later. Starting a company early taught me that a creative idea also has to meet the daily realities of customers, money, operations and time.
- **Creative work carried me from New York into international markets**: By 22, I was directing physical spatial installations in New York for institutions including the MoMA. I later moved abroad and continued working across U.S. and European markets, including retail and spatial projects for MoMA, Tommy Hilfiger, Fendi and Versace. The work asked me to connect a clear idea with a place, a customer, a production team and the conditions of a real build.
- **A rural residency opened a technical path**: During a fully funded Rural Hackers residency in rural Spain, supported by WordPress and the Goethe-Institut, I taught myself software development and open-source engineering. I did not stop being an artist or a creative director when I began working with software. I added another way to make systems, test ideas and give people access to something useful.
- **Hard tech brought product, business and the physical world together**: I joined a venture-backed laser and drone technology startup at inception with a CMO remit. I led creative, brand and product work across software, hardware and a physical retail environment. My work with the CEO on company positioning and investor presentations helped the business raise millions.
- **Countercult brought the strands into one founder role**: I launched Countercult in Berlin and built its product and software as founder and CTO. I lead product roadmap and architecture across UX/UI, data, APIs, privacy and consent, and used AI to build and engineer its front and back ends. Countercult was selected for Grace Berlin Accelerator and received funding and operational support from the State of Berlin. The venture brings together open-source cultural infrastructure, a public Network, member Exchange, paid Studios and a business-owned Fund.
- **What I am building toward now**: My work has moved between culture, technology, business and place because the problems I care about rarely sit inside only one of them. I am now building AI infrastructure for the physical economy, connecting digital systems with local capacity, real environments, rules and permission. That ambition grows out of the work I have already done, while the system itself is still being built.
Related resources:
- [Read my West Point and FIT origin story](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/west-point-fit-artist-origin/)
- [Read the Countercult founder and CTO case study](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-founder-product/)
- [Read how AI helped me build Countercult as its CTO](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/ai-systems-design-cto/)
- [Read my creative leadership and career record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/shona-neary-creative-leadership/)
- [Return to the Journal](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/)

### As CTO, I connect brand, product and go-to-market across digital and physical work
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/cto-connecting-brand-product-go-to-market/
Summary: Shona Neary on CTO leadership as the work of connecting brand, product architecture and go-to-market across digital systems and physical experience.
Article opening: I connect brand, product and go-to-market across digital and physical work. Through a CTO lens, I see that as one system: the promise a company makes, what its product can actually do, how people encounter it, and what happens when it enters the world all have to agree.
Search and subject topics: CTO connecting brand product and go-to-market; technical founder and product architecture; brand product engineering and launch; digital and physical customer experience; Countercult CTO; AI-assisted product engineering.
Article structure and full section text:
- **A company reaches people as one experience**: Inside a company, brand, product, engineering and marketing can be separate teams. Outside it, people experience one thing. They meet a promise, try to use the product, make a decision, and carry the result into their work or daily life. When those parts disagree, the problem is not only a weak campaign or a confusing interface. The system has not carried its intent all the way through.
- **My CTO role starts with the whole product system**: At Countercult, I am founder and CTO. I lead product roadmap and architecture across UX/UI, software, data, APIs, privacy and consent, and I used AI to build and engineer the front and back ends. The architecture has to reflect what the business is asking the product to do. The public Network, protected member Exchange, paid Studios and business-owned Fund have different purposes, access and responsibilities. Those are product and technical decisions, but they also determine how people understand the company and whether they can trust it.
- **Architecture determines what the promise can mean**: A brand can promise meaningful access to local culture, but the product has to make the right information discoverable without turning every person, image or relationship into open data. That requires deliberate decisions about what is public, what belongs to members, how consent is recorded, how information moves between systems and what happens after discovery. I see privacy and permissions as part of the product experience, not a policy added after launch.
- **Go-to-market begins before a launch**: I do not think of go-to-market as the final campaign after the product is built. The way a company explains its offer, the audience it can reach, the first action a person can take and the value that follows all shape the product itself. If the route to use is confusing, the technical architecture and the story both need attention. The strongest launch is the one where the company can deliver what it says, through a route people can actually use.
- **Physical work makes the system visible**: My earlier work inside a venture-backed laser and drone technology company had a CMO remit. I connected company positioning, product UX/UI, website and marketing with a physical retail environment, working across software, hardware, engineering and build teams. I also worked with the CEO on company positioning and investor presentations that helped the company raise millions. A physical space makes gaps between promise and delivery hard to hide. People have to navigate it, understand it and use what is there. The same is true of digital products, even when the consequences are less visible.
- **AI accelerates the work, but does not own the decisions**: AI has expanded how much software work I can do directly. It helps me build and explore faster, but it does not decide what the product should protect, how its parts should fit together or what the company is responsible for after release. My technical leadership is in making those decisions, directing implementation and staying accountable for what ships.
- **The CTO lens connects strategy to use**: I connect brand, product and go-to-market because customers, members and partners do not experience internal departments. They experience a system and decide whether it works for them. My CTO role is to help make that system coherent across code, company, customer and place, so the product can deliver its promise in the world it is meant to serve.
Related resources:
- [Read how AI helped me build Countercult as its CTO](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/ai-systems-design-cto/)
- [Read my Countercult founder and product case study](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-founder-product/)
- [Read the venture technology, brand and go-to-market case study](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/venture-tech-brand-and-gtm/)
- [Return to the Journal](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/)

### My Client Work Across Culture, Technology and Experience
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/client-work-culture-technology-experience/
Summary: How I work with founders and leadership teams across venture technology, retail, culture and live experience, with specific project evidence and commissioning routes.
Article opening: I work with founders and leadership teams when the challenge needs senior creative ownership across more than one channel or discipline. My work includes company positioning, product and software, retail, cultural programmes and live production. The useful question is not how many services one person can list. It is whether the decisions connect, who is accountable for carrying them through, and what the team needs to make the work real.
Search and subject topics: Shona Neary client work; creative director selected work; creative leadership across culture and technology; brand product and experience design; experience production Berlin.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Venture work connects product, story and market**: At VC-backed startup, I was CMO and Senior Creative Director, leading the creative remit across brand, website, UX/UI, marketing, go-to-market, retail, customer touchpoints and production. I developed company positioning and investor presentations with the CEO; that work helped raise millions. At Countercult, I built the product and software as founder and CTO, connecting an open-source cultural network to member exchange, paid Studios and a business-owned Fund. These are different ventures, but both required the product, the business and the public story to make sense together.
- **Retail asks the idea to survive contact with a real place**: My retail work includes visual merchandising and wayfinding for MoMA, seasonal systems for Tommy Hilfiger, and design and production for Sunday Natural launches in Berlin and Hamburg. For Ann Taylor, I designed the P.A.V.E. cashwrap concept and made a feasibility prototype; the work won the bid and became the GlobalShop showroom experience. I also have a limited public credit for Fendi and Versace store-concept renderings and creative direction. I keep those details within the NDA boundary. My wider confirmed credits include New York Fashion Week, MAVRIX and LDJ Productions.
- **Cultural work starts with who is in the room**: I have produced and led the creative direction and curation of cultural programmes for Zalando Pride, Klunkerkranich, Späti Raves, AVOMIND and The Delta VC Ecosystem. I have also curated and produced work for Quouch, THF Radio, Lynk & Co and FOMO Berlin. The formats differ, from a Berlin club programme and a radio takeover to local-talent curation and a creative-tech gathering. Each case record names what I did and links to the available evidence without inventing audience or commercial outcomes.
- **A senior remit, scoped to the actual brief**: I can lead as a Creative Director, work fractionally with a founder or leadership team, or take a defined brief through strategy, design and production. I do not assume every engagement needs the same remit. We agree decision rights, collaborators, time, deliverables and handoffs around the problem. The case records below distinguish my leadership roles, founder-built work and commissioned projects, so you can assess the evidence without treating them as interchangeable.
Related resources:
- [Career record and recommendations](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/shona-neary-creative-leadership/)
- [VC-backed startup: brand, product and go-to-market](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/venture-tech-brand-and-gtm/)
- [Countercult: founder-built product and software](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-founder-product/)
- [MoMA: retail wayfinding](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/wayfinding-is-a-sales-system/)
- [Tommy Hilfiger: retail rollout](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/retail-rollout-design-systems/)
- [Sunday Natural: Berlin and Hamburg launches](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/sunday-natural-retail-display/)
- [Ann Taylor: P.A.V.E. cashwrap experience](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/pave-cashwrap-experience/)
- [Fendi and Versace: limited public credit](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/fendi-versace-store-concepts/)
- [The Delta VC Ecosystem](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-delta-creative-tech-business-day/)
- [Klunkerkranich Berlin club programme](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/klunkerkranich-experience-production/)
- [Quouch](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/quouch-curated-connection/)
- [Späti Raves](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/spati-raves-berlin/)
- [THF Radio](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/thf-radio-kox-countercult/)
- [Lynk & Co](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/lynk-co-experience-design/)
- [FOMO Berlin](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/fomo-berlin-local-talent/)
- [Discuss a senior creative brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Building Infrastructure and Creative Systems
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/building-infrastructure-and-creative-systems/
Summary: Why I understand my work as building the systems that carry creative ideas into products, businesses, culture and physical life.
Article opening: I understand my strengths as infrastructure and creative systems building. I am interested in what lets an idea operate: the relationships, product decisions, technology, business model and lived experience that have to work together.
Search and subject topics: infrastructure and creative systems; creative systems building; artist-founder; Countercult founder; venture building; creative technology.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The work is bigger than the first thing you make**: A visual identity, a product, a space or a piece of software can each be important. But the work I am drawn to often begins with a wider question: what needs to exist so this idea can keep working after its first expression? That can mean deciding who a system serves, how people enter it, what they can do there, how it sustains itself and what needs to connect behind the scenes. I move between creative culture, technology and business because those decisions shape one another.
- **Countercult is a system, not one feature**: I founded Countercult as open-source cultural infrastructure. Its public Network, protected member Exchange, paid Studios and business-owned Fund are different parts of a connected venture. Building them has meant making decisions about product, software, consent, identity, commercial work and how cultural knowledge becomes useful without treating people as raw material. I do not claim that every part is finished or that the model has already transformed local economies. I can show the structure I have built and the questions it is designed to address.
- **Creative systems can be physical**: I have also worked on systems that people encounter in a room or on a shop floor. For Ann Taylor, I designed the P.A.V.E. cashwrap in Blender and made a 3D-printed feasibility prototype; the concept won the bid and became the GlobalShop showroom experience. At Sunday Natural, I helped design and produce retail launches in Berlin and Hamburg. The medium changes, but I still have to carry the idea through decisions about use, materials, production, people and place.
- **Leadership means connecting the parts**: At VC-backed startup, I led the creative remit across the brand, website, product, marketing, go-to-market, retail, customer touchpoints and production. The company positioning and investor presentations I developed with the CEO helped raise millions. That work was not a set of disconnected creative outputs. It was a way to make the company understandable inside the team and to the people deciding whether to support it.
- **Build the system the problem needs**: I do not believe every problem needs an app, or that every creative idea needs to become a company. I want to build where the missing system is the real obstacle: where people cannot connect, make, participate, reach an audience or sustain the work they are already capable of doing. Technology can be part of that answer. So can a business model, a physical experience, a network or a new way for people to work together. The scale of the ambition should come from the problem and from what the system could make possible.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Why Startups Should Bring Brand and Creative Into the Work Early
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/startups-brand-and-creative-work-early/
Summary: A practical guide to bringing brand and creative leadership into startup product, customer experience and go-to-market decisions early.
Article opening: When a startup waits until the product is built to decide what it stands for, the team has to stitch the story, interface, launch and sales materials together under pressure. Brand is not a campaign layer. It is a working set of decisions about what the company is building, who it is for and how people will understand its value.
Search and subject topics: startup brand strategy; startup creative direction; brand and go-to-market; venture technology; product positioning; creative leadership.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Make the product legible before launch**: Early teams know the product from the inside. Customers do not. Positioning and creative direction help a team explain the problem it solves, why its approach matters and what someone should do next. That clarity can shape the product itself, not just the launch campaign.
- **Connect the promise to every encounter**: A brand has to hold up across the product, website, pitch, demo, packaging, store and support. When those touchpoints are designed separately, customers meet several versions of the company. Bringing creative leadership in early gives the team one point of view to carry through the whole experience.
- **Give go-to-market a useful foundation**: Sales, hiring, partnerships and investor conversations all rely on a company being clear about what it is making and why it can matter. A coherent brand and a strong pitch do not replace product quality or commercial proof. They help people understand the work well enough to evaluate it.
- **Bring creative decisions into the room early**: At a venture-backed hard-tech startup, I joined on day one and built the brand, company positioning, website, marketing, go-to-market, retail experience and customer touchpoints. I developed investor pitch decks with the CEO, and that work helped the company raise millions. The full case study shows how those decisions carried from the company story into the Ku’damm retail location, Berlin’s Fifth Avenue.
- **When to bring in creative leadership**: Bring it in before a launch date forces every decision at once: when the team is still shaping the product, when customers struggle to understand the offer, when a new market needs a different route in, or when sales, hiring and fundraising materials tell different stories. If the decisions connect, the work should connect too.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### How Startups Can Brief and Scope Creative Work
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/how-startups-brief-creative-work/
Summary: A founder’s practical guide to commissioning creative leadership with a clear brief, real decision rights and scope that supports the work.
Article opening: A startup does not get strong creative work by sending a vague brief and asking for something impressive by Friday. Before I begin, I want to know what the company needs to decide, what the product can truthfully promise, who owns the decision and what the team can support through production. A useful brief gives creative leadership enough context to improve the question, not just decorate an answer the company has already chosen.
Search and subject topics: startup creative brief; how to hire a creative director for a startup; scope creative work; creative project budget and rights; founder guide to creative leadership.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Start with the decision, not the deliverable**: “We need a new logo” may describe the symptom, not the job. I ask what is changing in the business, what people currently misunderstand and what decision the work must help someone make. A launch, a product definition, a new market or a funding conversation may need different work even when the request arrives under the same label.
- **Give the creative lead the operating context**: Share what the product does today, who uses it, what is known about the audience, where the company is in its development and which claims are supported. Include technical, legal, budget, time and production constraints early. References can show taste, but they cannot replace context about the people, product and market the work must serve.
- **Make scope describe responsibility**: List the decisions, stages, outputs and handoffs the work actually includes. A brand direction, UX/UI, website, pitch deck, social system, retail environment and production package are not one interchangeable deliverable. Agree which parts are in scope, who supplies inputs, how many review points are planned, what depends on other teams and what is not included. Set the budget against that responsibility instead of treating an open-ended list as a fixed task.
- **Name who decides and how feedback works**: One person should own the final decision, even when several people contribute expertise. Identify who can approve product truth, technical feasibility, brand direction and budget changes. Ask reviewers to connect feedback to the agreed objective. If the decision-maker changes late, pause and reset the brief, schedule and scope rather than asking the creative team to absorb the change invisibly.
- **Agree rights, use and confidentiality before production**: Put usage, ownership, source files, credit and any limits on public disclosure into the written agreement before work begins. Make sure the terms match the channels, markets, duration and future uses the company expects. Legal counsel should review the contract language. A clear creative process respects the creator’s rights and the company’s real operating needs.
- **Decide what success and handoff mean**: Choose evidence that fits the work: whether customers understand the offer, whether a team can use the new system, whether the experience reaches production intact or whether a launch generates a signal worth investigating. Brand and creative work can contribute to commercial outcomes without being the sole cause of them. Agree who owns the next step, files, implementation and measurement before the engagement ends.
- **Bring leadership in while the answer can still change**: At VC-backed startup, I joined as CMO and Senior Creative Director and carried the company story across brand, UX/UI, website, go-to-market, pitch materials, customer touchpoints and Ku’damm retail. The position and investor materials I developed with the CEO helped raise millions. That is why I want creative leadership in the room while product, customer and market decisions are being made, not only when the company needs finished artwork.
Related resources:
- [Why startups should bring brand and creative in early](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/startups-brand-and-creative-work-early/)
- [Read the VC-backed startup case study](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/venture-tech-brand-and-gtm/)
- [Read the Countercult founder and product case study](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-founder-product/)
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### The Velocity Gap: Taking a European Product to the U.S. Market
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-velocity-gap-eu-us-gtm/
Summary: A first-person framework for carrying a product across markets without assuming the same story, experience or route to customers will work twice.
Article opening: Moving between the United States and Europe has taught me to treat expansion as a product and experience decision, not a translation exercise.
Search and subject topics: EU U.S. go-to-market; cross-border product launch; market entry strategy; New York Berlin creative direction.
Article structure and full section text:
- **A market is a set of relationships**: A product does not arrive in a new market as a neutral object. People meet it through language, pricing, distribution, support, trust and the expectations attached to the category. A team can keep the core product and still need to change how it explains the problem, demonstrates value and earns a first conversation. I start by asking who already has the problem, who can introduce the product, and what proof will make the first commitment feel reasonable.
- **Keep the thesis, retest the encounter**: The useful work is to separate what must remain consistent from what needs local interpretation. The product promise, customer journey, sales materials, retail environment and launch partners should tell the same story, but they may not use the same expression. My work across New York and European teams, including product, retail and founder environments, makes that connection visible. I map the decisions, test them with people close to the market and carry the learning into creative and production choices.
- **Expansion is a sequence, not a reveal**: A market entry should leave room to learn. Choose a specific audience and route in, make the first experience coherent, measure what causes hesitation, then change the parts that are not travelling. The goal is not to make a company look international. It is to make the next customer, partner or team member understand why this product belongs in their context.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Navigating NDA and Compliance Boundaries in Luxury Retail
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/transatlantic-nda-compliance-luxury-retail/
Summary: How I protect trust while translating complex retail briefs into clear design and production decisions.
Article opening: Confidential work still needs to be legible. The discipline is to explain the responsibility and process without exposing the client’s protected material.
Search and subject topics: luxury retail creative direction; NDA-safe portfolio; confidential design process; Fendi Versace store concepts.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Separate the method from the confidential asset**: An NDA changes what can be shown, named or discussed, not whether the work happened. In my public record, I describe my Fendi and Versace work as store-concept renderings and creative direction for a mall and Miami flagship. I do not publish the restricted artwork, venue details, launch timing or internal systems. That boundary lets a future client understand the level of responsibility without using someone else’s confidential work as promotion.
- **Make access and approval part of the design process**: For a complex retail brief, I establish who can see which files, which version is current, who approves changes and what may be handed to production. That means treating filenames, render exports, source documents and supplier packages as part of the workflow, not as cleanup. Legal counsel owns legal interpretation; the creative and production team still has a responsibility to follow the agreed controls.
- **Show the decision-making, not the secret**: A credible case record can explain the brief category, my role, the kind of work delivered and the boundary around disclosure. It can use approved wording, public company information and non-confidential process examples. The result is not a vague claim of luxury experience. It is a precise account of what I can say, what I cannot share and how I keep a collaboration safe.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### From Blender Viewport to Manufacturing Floor
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/blender-to-manufacturing-spatial-rollouts/
Summary: How I use spatial visualization to resolve design decisions before they become expensive production problems.
Article opening: A render is useful when it helps a team decide what to build, what to change and what to verify on site.
Search and subject topics: Blender retail design; spatial design to production; retail prototyping; Ann Taylor P.A.V.E..
Article structure and full section text:
- **Build a shared picture early**: I use spatial tools such as Blender and Rhino to make relationships between objects, people and existing architecture easier to discuss. The model is not a substitute for a site survey or technical drawing. It is a working surface where proportion, visibility, circulation and material intent can be challenged before a team commits to fabrication.
- **Translate the image into decisions**: The next pass is practical: dimensions, fixing points, tolerances, access, material choices, transport and installation sequence. At Ann Taylor, I designed the P.A.V.E. cashwrap in Blender and made a 3D-printed feasibility prototype so manufacturers could see that the concept could be produced. The team won the bid and the work became Ann Taylor’s GlobalShop showroom experience. At Sunday Natural, I carried retail display design through production and installation.
- **Keep the handoff connected**: A spatial rollout succeeds when the visual intention survives contact with budgets, suppliers, shop teams and the site itself. I keep the model, drawings, specifications and approvals connected, then use mockups to expose the questions that a flat image hides. That does not remove uncertainty. It gives the team a better place to find it while changes are still possible.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Designing for the First Three People in the Room
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/creative-direction-for-hard-tech-engineers/
Summary: Creative direction for technical products starts by helping founders, engineers and customers share a clear product story.
Article opening: When a product is technically complex, the first design problem is often shared understanding.
Search and subject topics: hard-tech startup creative direction; product strategy for engineers; go-to-market visual systems; VC-backed startup.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Translate without flattening**: Engineering teams hold important detail about how a system works. Customers need to know what it makes possible. My role is to connect those views without turning the product into a claim the system cannot support. I work across product decisions, positioning, interface and physical experience so the story remains consistent from a technical conversation to a first use.
- **Make the roadmap visible**: I structure the work around decisions: who the product is for, what the first version must prove, what dependencies engineering needs to resolve and what the market must understand. A roadmap should make tradeoffs discussable. It is not a decorative timeline. It helps founders and cross-functional teams see how product, brand, customer experience and launch depend on one another.
- **Give the team material to move with**: At VC-backed startup, I led the creative remit across product, positioning, go-to-market, marketing, retail and production. Company positioning and investor presentations I developed with the CEO helped raise millions. That experience is why I treat creative direction as operating work: it gives technical teams a clear frame for decisions and gives the outside world a credible way to understand the product.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### How Creative Direction and Engineering Build a Product Together
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/creative-engineering-collaboration/
Summary: A practical working model for founders, engineers and creative leaders shaping the same product from its first decisions through launch.
Article opening: Creative and engineering work are often separated by a handoff that arrives too late. I have led as CMO and Senior Creative Director at a hard-tech startup and as founder and CTO of Countercult, so I work across the product story, user experience and the systems that make the experience real. The collaboration works best when both disciplines help define the problem and stay connected through the decisions that follow.
Search and subject topics: creative engineering collaboration; creative direction for technical products; design and engineering workflow; startup product collaboration; founder engineer creative team.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Agree on the user problem before choosing the expression**: Start with the person, task and context. What are they trying to do? What is difficult or unclear today? What does the system already make possible? A shared problem statement gives engineering, product and creative a common reference without asking everyone to use the same method or language.
- **Put technical truth into the creative brief**: Engineers should explain dependencies, performance limits, data boundaries and risks while the product is still taking shape. Creative leadership should make those constraints legible to the team and explore how the experience can work within them. A constraint is not a reason to stop designing, and a polished concept is not evidence that the system can support it.
- **Map decisions, owners and dependencies**: Write down which choices affect product behavior, technical architecture, interface, brand promise, timeline and cost. Give each decision an accountable owner and identify where the disciplines must agree. The founder or product lead can resolve tradeoffs across the business; engineering owns technical integrity, while creative direction owns coherence of the experience and expression. Record the decision so teams are not asked to reopen it through a new channel.
- **Prototype the riskiest part before polishing the whole**: Make the next question visible with the lightest useful model: a flow, a screen, a content prototype, a clickable interaction or a technical proof. Put it in front of the people who need to react, including engineering when an interaction depends on system behavior. Learn what is unclear or infeasible before spending time on finished visual detail.
- **Keep product, brand and go-to-market in the same conversation**: The company promise has to survive the interface, website, demo, customer support and launch materials. At VC-backed startup, I led the creative system from brand and UX/UI through digital reach, customer touchpoints and Ku’damm retail, working with the CEO, engineers, hardware specialists and builders. That end-to-end view helped me catch gaps between what a screen promised and what a customer would encounter.
- **Treat launch and production as part of the design**: Define who is responsible for implementation, content, QA, accessibility, physical production and approval. Agree how late changes are raised and how they affect other teams. A handoff is complete when the people delivering the work have enough context, files and decision history to carry it forward, not simply when a design file is sent.
- **Review evidence without assigning false credit**: After release, look at user questions, task completion, support signals, sales conversations or other measures that match the original problem. Separate what changed from what else was happening. Creative and engineering decisions can work together toward a commercial result, but no single interface or campaign proves it caused that result on its own.
Related resources:
- [Why startups should bring brand and creative in early](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/startups-brand-and-creative-work-early/)
- [Read the technical product guide](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/creative-direction-for-hard-tech-engineers/)
- [Read the VC-backed startup case study](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/venture-tech-brand-and-gtm/)
- [Read the Countercult founder and CTO case study](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-founder-product/)
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Privacy by Design in Open-Source Cultural Frameworks
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/privacy-by-design-cultural-frameworks/
Summary: Countercult’s approach to cultural infrastructure begins with consent, clear visibility choices and respect for the people represented in the system.
Article opening: A directory of artists and places is not just a database. It changes who can find whom, what becomes visible and how a community is represented.
Search and subject topics: privacy by design; open-source cultural infrastructure; artist data consent; Countercult software.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Model consent as a product decision**: At Countercult, visibility is not a default to apply to every person or object. The system needs to distinguish what someone shares publicly, what is available to approved members and what remains private. Those choices must be understandable at the point where information is submitted and revisitable when circumstances change.
- **Open source does not mean open access to everything**: Open-source software can make the infrastructure inspectable and reusable. It does not grant permission to reuse member data, photographs or cultural knowledge. The software licence, data permissions and artwork rights are different questions. Keeping them separate is essential to a cultural technology system built around people rather than extraction.
- **Build boundaries into everyday workflows**: Consent has to travel through profile editing, discovery, moderation, search and future reuse. That makes privacy an engineering and product responsibility as well as a policy. My work on Countercult has meant building these distinctions into the product model and its member journeys, so the infrastructure can support public discovery without treating every contribution as permanently public.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### The Fractional Creative and the Agency Stack
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/fractional-creative-open-source-agency-model/
Summary: Open-source thinking can help small teams build a more connected creative practice, without pretending every agency function can be replaced by one person.
Article opening: I do not see fractional work as a cheaper version of an agency. It is a way to place senior creative judgment close to the decisions that shape a product.
Search and subject topics: fractional creative director; open-source agency methods; creative leadership for startups; integrated product and brand.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Start with the work that is fragmented**: A company may have separate teams for brand, product, marketing, experience and production, while the customer encounters one company. The gap is not solved by adding more deliverables. It is solved by connecting the decisions, setting priorities and making sure the work carries through to the point where people meet it.
- **Use open methods where they create leverage**: Open-source practice offers useful habits: visible systems, shared documentation, modular tools and the ability to inspect how decisions are made. Those habits can help a fractional lead work clearly with a founder and an existing team. They do not replace specialist engineering, legal advice, production capacity or long-term client ownership. They make collaboration easier to understand and build on.
- **Price responsibility, not just hours**: A fractional creative can hold a meaningful remit across product direction, brand and go-to-market. The engagement still needs a clear scope, authority, access to decision-makers and a route to production. I bring that connected leadership to teams when the brief requires a coherent point of view and practical movement, not another stack of disconnected agency outputs.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### THE FLOOR: An Artist-Owned Property-Tech Venture
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/bricks-mortar-subculture-artist-led-space/
Summary: How I am building an artist-owned venture where property, hospitality and cultural programming meet, without claiming ownership of the property.
Article opening: THE FLOOR is my property-tech venture, expressed through a Berlin residency, home, studio and project room with hospitality and a cultural programme.
Search and subject topics: property-tech venture; artist-owned property venture; THE FLOOR Berlin; place-based cultural programme.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The venture is the proposition**: I own and shape THE FLOOR as an artist-led brand and programme. It is also my property-tech venture, built around an artist residency, home, studio and project room. I do not present it as ownership of the property. What I have built is the identity and framework for how people, art and activity meet in that setting.
- **Physical work has operational weight**: A residency or event depends on access, care, scheduling, maintenance, neighbours, safety procedures and the practical needs of the people using the space. Those details shape the programme. They are not background to the creative idea. The role of the artist-founder is to make the intention clear while respecting the conditions of the place and the people who share it.
- **Keep the cultural value in view**: Independent spaces can support exchange that is difficult to reproduce in a campaign or a purely digital channel. Their value comes from relationships, time and participation, not from claiming underground culture as a brand asset. My work through THE FLOOR lets me build a cultural programme from lived practice, with the limits and responsibilities of a real place in view.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### The Spatial Architecture of the Whole Festival Beach Stage
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/spatial-architecture-whole-festival-beach-stage/
Summary: A creative account of co-creating a live festival environment, from shared direction through production, installation and painting.
Article opening: A festival stage is encountered as a whole environment. Its image, materials, scale and details have to work together while people move through it.
Search and subject topics: Whole Festival Beach Stage; festival stage creative direction; live art installation; Eva Garland.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Shared direction, clear credit**: For Whole Festival, I co-created the Beach Stage with Eva Garland, who led as creative director. My contribution included creative direction, design, production, on-site installation and painting. The distinction matters: the work was collaborative, and leadership should be credited accurately.
- **Let the authored detail hold at scale**: I painted approximately 40% of the stage using my short-form drawing approach. The marks came from my fine-art practice, but they were made for a shared live setting rather than a gallery wall. That shift asks the work to remain legible at a distance while still rewarding people who encounter it close up.
- **Design for the encounter**: My account here is about creative direction and production, not a claim to have engineered crowd safety. A live site has its own operational and safety leads. Creative work needs to fit their plan, keep circulation and installation conditions in view, and remain coherent once people arrive. The final stage brought my artist practice into a collective festival environment without making the contribution or the credit vague.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### The Delta VC Ecosystem: Creative Tech + Business Day
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-delta-creative-tech-business-day/
Summary: A case study in experience production, creative direction and curation for The Delta VC Ecosystem in Berlin.
Article opening: I produced and led the creative direction and curation of a Creative Tech + Business Day with The Delta VC Ecosystem, bringing my creative network and PR experience into a room with people working across culture, technology and venture capital.
Search and subject topics: The Delta VC Ecosystem; Creative Tech + Business Day; experience producer Berlin; creative technology event curation; venture ecosystem and culture; Shona Neary event hosting.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The brief was to convene**: The value of the day was not simply putting speakers on a stage. It was creating a reason for people from different parts of the creative and business ecosystem to meet in person, hear one another and have a useful conversation. I produced the event and led its creative direction and curation, then hosted the gathering, drawing on my experience moving between artist-led cultural spaces and the venture ecosystem.
- **Curation is part of the infrastructure**: A strong convening depends on who is invited, what question holds the room together and what happens after the event. I used PR and my existing relationships to support that bridge between communities. The programme treated creative technology as a shared point of inquiry, not a pitch category that reduces artists to sources of content or founders to sponsors.
- **What the case demonstrates**: This work shows a form of leadership that is less visible in a conventional portfolio: making the room, framing the conversation and helping relationships become possible. I do not attach attendance figures or funding outcomes without a verified record. The evidence here is the curation, hosting and cross-community convening itself.
- **My role**: I produced the event and led its creative direction and curation end to end, working with The Delta VC Ecosystem on the Creative Tech + Business Day in Berlin.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Venture Builder, Artist, Creative Director and Strategist
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/venture-builder-artist-creative-director-strategist/
Summary: Shona Neary is a venture builder, artist, creative director and strategist, carrying ideas from software and product into market, culture and physical experience.
Article opening: People often present these as four separate careers. In my practice, they are connected ways of building something that can exist in the world. I bring an artist’s authorship, a strategist’s questions and a creative director’s responsibility into venture building, then carry the work into product, technology, business and experience.
Search and subject topics: venture builder; artist and creative director; creative director and strategist; venture building and product strategy; digital product to physical experience; Shona Neary.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Venture building means carrying the idea into operation**: I start by asking what should exist, who needs it and what would make it useful enough to sustain. A venture is more than its pitch or visual identity. Its proposition, product, relationships, operating choices and experience have to make sense together. I work across those decisions, from early definition through launch and production. Some of my work moves from software and product architecture into a physical environment and on-site build. The route depends on what the idea needs, not a formula applied to every brief.
- **The artist is the source of authorship**: My art practice is not a visual layer added to a business brief. It is where I develop a point of view about culture, people and what has not yet been made. As Sketchy Shona, I make and curate work through my own visual language. That authorship informs how I see opportunities, but it does not turn every artwork into a campaign or every cultural relationship into a commercial asset.
- **Creative direction gives the work a coherent form**: Creative direction is the responsibility to make connected decisions and carry them through. At VC-backed startup, I led the creative remit across positioning, brand, product, website, marketing, go-to-market, retail, customer touchpoints and production. Investor presentations I developed with the CEO secured millions in funding. The work moved from company story and product decisions into a real customer environment.
- **Strategy tests the idea against people, place and business**: I use strategy to understand the conditions a venture has to meet: who it serves, how people will encounter it, what the market expects, and what cultural knowledge changes the decision. My work between New York and Europe has taught me that a strong idea still needs to make sense in its local context. Strategy helps decide what stays consistent, what must change and what the team needs to do next.
- **One practice, with different evidence**: I founded Countercult and built its open-source cultural technology, taking it from a founder’s thesis into software, member journeys and an operating model. My artist-owned work through THE FLOOR and my client work across retail, culture and technology show other forms of the same responsibility. I build the proposition, shape the direction and stay close to what people will actually use, see or take part in.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Working Between the U.S., Europe and Global Markets
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/working-between-us-europe-global-markets/
Summary: Based between New York, Berlin and Philadelphia, I bring lived cross-border experience to creative, product and market work.
Article opening: I am based between New York, Berlin and Philadelphia, and work across the U.S., Europe and global markets. Moving between them changes how I see a brief: the product, culture, business relationships and customer experience have to make sense in the places where people encounter them.
Search and subject topics: U.S. Europe global markets; cross-border product strategy; go-to-market; creative leadership; New York Berlin Philadelphia.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Three working bases, one connected practice**: New York, Berlin and Philadelphia are my bases. I work remotely and travel beyond them, staying close to different cultural and commercial conditions while thinking beyond a single market from the start.
- **The work has to make sense where people meet it**: My work includes Tommy Hilfiger across more than 500 U.S. touchpoints, MoMA, and the Sunday Natural retail launches on Berlin’s Ku’damm and in Hamburg. At a venture-backed hard-tech startup, creative leadership and investor presentations I developed with the CEO helped secure millions in funding. These are different settings, and each required the proposition to reach people through the right product, place and experience.
- **Different markets require more than translation**: A U.S. proposition and a European proposition do not become global because the same deck is translated. Buying expectations, relationships, regulation and cultural context shape how people encounter a product. I hold the intention of a project steady while adapting how it becomes a product, experience or business model in each place.
- **Technology and AI in context**: My product work includes shaping roadmaps and working closely with cross-functional engineering teams. I use AI in product development and creative exploration, while keeping authorship, cultural judgment and the people affected by a system at the centre of the decisions.
- **A cross-border practice**: I founded Countercult and built its brand, product and open-source platform as a cultural technology venture. My work moves between creative culture, technology, business and global markets because those parts of a project already affect one another. I bring that lived U.S. and European context to teams that need to carry an idea across markets without flattening the people and places it depends on.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### THE CREATIVES: A Traveling Museum for Local Artists
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-creatives-traveling-museum/
Summary: A self-initiated cultural and spatial design concept for a transportable museum that brings established artists and local creative work into smaller towns and rural communities.
Article opening: I developed THE CREATIVES as a self-initiated concept through Sketchy Shona, my artist-owned practice. It brings a national exhibition together with a rotating programme for local artists in a museum designed to travel. The proposal is not a built client project.
Search and subject topics: traveling museum concept; artist-led cultural access; mobile exhibition design; local artists and museums; rural arts access; Sketchy Shona.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Start with access, not a building**: The proposal began with a simple question: what would it take to bring the resources and presence of an art museum beyond major metropolitan areas? I imagined a traveling exhibition platform for smaller towns and rural communities, sized to move on two truck beds. The structure is a means of reaching people, not the point of the project.
- **Create two exhibition relationships**: One part of the exhibition would bring established artists from around the country into a theme shaped by the local environment, developed with a well-established museum. The other part would make room for local artists at each stop. That pairing gives visitors a point of connection to a wider art history and to the creative life around them.
- **Give local artists a route to be found**: The local exhibition was also conceived as a discovery and promotion system. Early thinking considered local advertising and platforms such as Etsy and Society6 as ways artists might be encountered beyond the physical visit. These were directions to test, not confirmed platform partnerships or a finished sales system.
- **Develop the idea into a clear design package**: I carried the proposition through early diagrams, layout, transport planning, dimensions, truck specifications, visitor circulation, exhibition zones, material studies and exterior and interior renders. Together, those pieces make the idea easier to assess and discuss with potential partners. They document design exploration, not a commissioned production or construction-ready package.
- **What would need to be proven next**: A real pilot would need museum and community partners, a curatorial and rights framework, accessible circulation, transport and installation plans, climate and artwork protection, staffing, insurance, local promotion and a viable operating budget. Those questions are part of the concept’s next stage, not claims this proposal has already solved.
Related resources:
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Zalando Pride: A Curated Employee Experience in Berlin
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/zalando-pride-experience/
Summary: A case study in experience production, creative direction and curation for a community-led Berlin Pride programme.
Article opening: I produced and led the creative direction and curation of a Pride experience with Zalando’s LGBTQIA+ employee resource group, building the programme around the people who would take part rather than treating Pride as a seasonal visual theme.
Search and subject topics: Zalando Pride; experience producer Berlin; Pride event production; employee experience; creative direction and curation; community-led brand experience.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Start with the people in the room**: The concept began with the employee resource group and its lived context. I led the project end to end, shaping the programme with the people it was meant to include and making the decisions about format, contributors, room, food, language and how the gathering would feel.
- **Make the experience specific**: A credible Pride programme is not a set of symbols placed around an ordinary corporate event. The curation has to shape what people can do together, who has a voice and what makes the space feel genuinely welcoming. I developed the experience around participation and shared context, not a camera-ready display of support.
- **The programme**: The Berlin programme reached more than 175 colleagues, community members and allies. It included two workshops with more than 40 participants. Those figures describe the scale of the event, not a claim about long-term organisational change.
- **My role**: I produced the experience and led its creative direction and curation end to end, working with the employee resource group and the wider Countercult Studios team to carry the brief into a real event.
Related resources:
- [Countercult Studios case study](https://countercult.network/journal/zalando-pride-berlin/)
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Klunkerkranich Berlin Club: Producing a Curated Cultural Programme
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/klunkerkranich-experience-production/
Summary: A live cultural experience case study covering concept, artist curation, creative direction, production and promotion for Klunkerkranich, a Berlin club.
Article opening: I produced the commissioned programme and led its creative direction and curation, shaping a live experience for Klunkerkranich, a Berlin club, around local artists, music and open participation.
Search and subject topics: Klunkerkranich; experience production Berlin; creative direction; cultural programming; artist curation; live event producer.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The concept belonged to the venue**: The brief was to make the programme specific to Klunkerkranich, its atmosphere and its audience, not to hand over a generic list of performers. I shaped the format around open drawing, live jazz, jazzy house sets, DJs and local creative participation.
- **Curate the people and the format together**: Artist selection, programme rhythm, production and promotion affect one another. I led those parts as one project, bringing local creative contributors into a format that made sense for the venue and paid them for their work.
- **Carry the idea into the live setting**: The programme took place on 17 September 2026. The public record documents the concept, the contributors and the delivery, without inventing attendance or revenue outcomes.
- **My role**: I produced the programme and led its creative direction and curation end to end, with Countercult Studios delivering the paid programme in partnership with the venue.
Related resources:
- [Countercult Studios case study](https://countercult.network/journal/klunkerkranich-countercult-paid-cultural-curation/)
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Späti Raves: A Street-Level Cultural Experience in Berlin
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/spati-raves-berlin/
Summary: A Berlin experience-production case study using neighbourhood corner shops as live sites for participation, cultural research and creative direction.
Article opening: I produced and led the creative direction and curation of a cultural activation that moved the experience out of a closed venue and into the everyday places people already use. The concept treated Berlin’s Spätis as neighbourhood infrastructure, not as scenery for an imported event format.
Search and subject topics: Späti Raves; Berlin experience producer; street-level activation; cultural research; creative direction; neighbourhood experience design.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Use the spaces that already matter**: A Späti can be a shop, meeting point and signal of neighbourhood life. I built the concept around that existing social role and curated a music-led encounter that could meet people on the street without requiring an invitation or formal event knowledge.
- **Let participation become research**: The project was designed to observe how a cultural idea behaved in public, who chose to take part and what the setting made possible. That made the activation a practical research format as well as an experience, without reducing its value to a single attendance number.
- **Keep the work connected to the street**: The creative direction had to respect the everyday function of the location and the people who use it. Production choices were made for a neighbourhood encounter, not for a closed campaign set.
- **My role**: I produced the activation and led its creative direction and curation end to end, from the concept and local context through the live experience.
Related resources:
- [Countercult Studios case study](https://countercult.network/journal/berlin-corner-shops/)
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### AVOMIND: Making Employer Brand Feel Human
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/avomind-employer-experience/
Summary: A case study in employer-brand experience, local cultural curation, creative direction and production for AVOMIND.
Article opening: I produced and led the creative direction and curation of an employer-brand experience designed to make AVOMIND’s internal culture feel tangible and credible, rather than presenting it as a list of corporate values.
Search and subject topics: AVOMIND; employer brand experience; experience producer; creative direction; cultural curation; employer branding Berlin.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Translate culture into an encounter**: The concept started with a simple question: what would help someone feel how this organisation works, instead of asking them to trust a culture brochure? I grounded the experience in local creative practices and shaped an environment people could imagine themselves inside.
- **Use detail to make the culture legible**: Creative context, partner collaboration, food and the environment all communicate something about how a team works. I brought those choices into the concept and curation without borrowing an edgy visual language the organisation had not earned.
- **Make the first impression honest**: The experience was not a substitute for a good workplace. It was a more human first encounter, built from real cultural context rather than recruitment clichés.
- **My role**: I produced the experience and led its creative direction and curation end to end, carrying the employer-brand concept into delivery with the Countercult Studios team.
Related resources:
- [Countercult Studios case study](https://countercult.network/journal/avomind-recruitment-firm/)
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Quouch: Designing a More Curated Queer Travel Experience
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/quouch-curated-connection/
Summary: Product and experience strategy for Quouch, a VC-backed queer travel startup exploring more intentional, culturally specific connection.
Article opening: I concepted the campaign and wrote its copy, then produced the project and led its creative direction and curation as we explored how Quouch could grow from a queer couchsurfing platform into a more connection-led global network. The concept linked product strategy to the real encounters the service was meant to make possible.
Search and subject topics: Quouch; queer travel experience; product strategy; campaign concept; campaign copywriting; experience production; curated connection network; creative direction.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The question was about connection**: The challenge was not simply how to add more features. It was how to make the network feel more intentional as it grew, with cultural context and human connection visible in the product rather than lost inside a broad platform.
- **Test the direction in the real world**: I shaped a curated participation concept so the team could meet the audience and learn how people responded to the direction. That made product strategy concrete: we could observe the conditions for connection rather than defend a positioning statement in a presentation.
- **Keep the network specific**: A queer travel product has to support people finding places to stay and people to meet while treating safety, trust and context as part of the experience. The project explored a more deliberate connection model without claiming unverified adoption or growth outcomes.
- **My role**: I concepted the campaign and wrote its copy, produced the project, and led its creative direction and curation end to end, including the experience strategy. I worked with the Countercult Studios team on delivery.
Related resources:
- [Countercult Studios case study](https://countercult.network/journal/quouch-curated-connection-network/)
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### THF Radio: KOX Radio #73
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/thf-radio-kox-countercult/
Summary: Countercult produced and curated a KOX Radio takeover featuring Miss T Delight and MEHMOOD, bringing its cultural work into Berlin’s underground music scene.
Article opening: I produced and curated Countercult’s KOX Radio takeover on THF Radio, featuring Miss T Delight and MEHMOOD. The broadcast extended our cultural work into Berlin’s underground music scene through sound, artist relationships and programming.
Search and subject topics: THF Radio; KOX Radio 73; Countercult; Berlin underground music; radio production; music curation.
Article structure and full section text:
- **A different kind of cultural encounter**: Not every cultural programme needs a room full of people. Radio carries a point of view through sound, selection and sequence, reaching people through a different part of Berlin’s cultural life.
- **Production and curation**: I produced and curated the Countercult takeover for THF Radio. The public recording is KOX Radio #73, featuring Miss T Delight and MEHMOOD, published on 1 April 2026.
- **Countercult in Berlin’s underground scene**: This work sits alongside Countercult’s event and place-based programmes. It documents our participation in Berlin’s underground music scene without claiming audience or reach figures that are not verified.
Related resources:
- [Listen to the KOX Radio takeover on SoundCloud](https://soundcloud.com/thfradio/kox-radio-73-countercult)
- [Countercult case study](https://countercult.network/journal/thf-radio-kox-countercult/)
- [Talk to Shona about a similar brief](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)

### Lynk & Co: Production, Curation and Experience Design
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/lynk-co-experience-design/
Summary: Countercult’s work for Lynk & Co combined production, curation and experience design in a branded live environment.
Article opening: My work with Countercult for Lynk & Co covered production, curation and experience design. This record names the disciplines and shows the supplied event documentation without inventing a brief, date or outcome.
Search and subject topics: Lynk & Co; Countercult; experience design; event production; cultural curation; brand experience.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The work**: Countercult delivered production, curation and experience design for Lynk & Co. The work joined programme choices, a designed experience and the practical delivery needed to bring the environment to life.
- **Visual documentation**: The supplied photograph shows a Lynk & Co branded installation within the experience environment. It is evidence of the setting, not a claim about attendance or commercial performance.
- **Connected practice**: This case sits alongside my other experience-production work, including Klunkerkranich, The Delta VC Ecosystem and Quouch. Each required a different context and audience; the common thread is carrying curation and creative direction into a real encounter.
Related resources:
- [Countercult case study](https://countercult.network/journal/lynk-co-experience-design/)
- [Talk to Shona about a similar brand experience](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)
- [Klunkerkranich Berlin club programme](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/klunkerkranich-experience-production/)
- [The Delta VC Ecosystem](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-delta-creative-tech-business-day/)
- [Experience production and curation](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/experience-production-curation-creative-direction/)

### FOMO Berlin: Curating Local Talent Through Countercult
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/fomo-berlin-local-talent/
Summary: Countercult curated local talent for FOMO Berlin from its database, connecting a cultural brief with people in its network.
Article opening: For FOMO Berlin, we curated local talent through Countercult’s database. This case records a practical use of the network: finding people relevant to a local cultural brief, rather than treating the database as a static directory.
Search and subject topics: FOMO Berlin; Countercult database; local talent curation; Berlin cultural programme; experience production.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Curation from a living network**: Countercult’s database gave us a way to identify local talent for FOMO Berlin. The value was in making a considered selection for a particular brief, not simply passing along a list of names.
- **Local context matters**: The people in a cultural programme shape its tone and relationships. Curation starts with understanding the brief and selecting talent whose work belongs in that setting.
- **Evidence and limits**: The supplied photographs show people together in the event environment. They document the setting; they do not establish attendance totals, commercial outcomes or longer-term impact.
Related resources:
- [Countercult case study](https://countercult.network/journal/fomo-berlin-local-talent/)
- [Talk to Shona about local talent curation](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)
- [Späti Raves street-level case](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/spati-raves-berlin/)
- [The Delta VC Ecosystem](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-delta-creative-tech-business-day/)
- [Experience production and curation](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/experience-production-curation-creative-direction/)

### Visual Merchandising Is How a Brand Works in Retail
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/visual-merchandising-retail-experience/
Summary: Visual merchandising strategy, retail design and customer experience across Tommy Hilfiger, VC-backed startup, Sunday Natural and MoMA.
Article opening: I work across visual merchandising, retail design and customer experience because a brand has to make sense where people encounter the product. Display, product hierarchy, lighting, wayfinding, materials and production all shape what a person notices and can do next.
Search and subject topics: visual merchandising; visual merchandising strategy; retail visual merchandising; visual merchandising designer; retail display design; customer experience; Tommy Hilfiger visual merchandising; MoMA; Sunday Natural retail; VC-backed startup retail.
Article structure and full section text:
- **Visual merchandising is a system**: Visual merchandising is not decoration applied at the end of a campaign. It is the way a retail proposition becomes visible and usable through product placement, hierarchy, display, lighting, material, signage and movement. The system has to work for customers, store teams, manufacturers and the people installing it.
- **Tommy Hilfiger: repeatable seasonal retail**: At Tommy Hilfiger, I led visual merchandising and in-person retail touchpoints for seasonal rollouts across more than 500 U.S. touchpoints. I developed CEO and board pitches, production mechanicals, installation mockups and documentation so the system could travel into manufacture and store delivery.
- **VC-backed startup: carry the brand into a real place**: As CMO and Senior Creative Director, I led the creative work from positioning and identity through website, UX/UI, marketing, go-to-market, visual merchandising, the Berlin retail environment, customer touchpoints and production. The Ku’damm store made the company’s brand and product experience physical.
- **Sunday Natural: product hierarchy at flagship scale**: For the 2026 launches at KaDeWe on Berlin’s Ku’damm and Hamburg Alsterhaus, I led visual merchandising strategy and creative direction. I developed product-placement strategy, mood boards and fixture concepts, tested materials, lighting, budgets and product hierarchy, then carried selected designs through production and installation.
- **MoMA: navigation and display**: For the MoMA in New York City and Japan, I led retail design and visual merchandising alongside wayfinding, environmental graphics, product mechanics, partner pitches and installation support. The work had to hold together as an in-store system across different cultural contexts.
- **Make the work producible**: Good visual merchandising carries an idea into the conditions of a real store. That means making the visual hierarchy clear, making the system possible to manufacture, and giving the teams who install and maintain it enough direction to carry the work through.
Related resources:
- [Tommy Hilfiger retail rollout](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/retail-rollout-design-systems/)
- [VC-backed startup case study](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/venture-tech-brand-and-gtm/)
- [Sunday Natural retail launch](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/sunday-natural-retail-display/)
- [MoMA project record](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/wayfinding-is-a-sales-system/)
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)

### Experience Production Starts With a Point of View
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/experience-production-curation-creative-direction/
Summary: How Shona Neary leads experience production, creative direction and curation across brand campaigns, cultural programmes and live events.
Article opening: I produce experiences by starting with the people, place and reason for being together. Then I carry the concept through curation, creative direction, production and the decisions that shape what people actually encounter.
Search and subject topics: experience producer; experience production; creative director for experiences; event producer Berlin; experience curation; brand experience production; cultural programming; live event production.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The concept comes before the format**: A live experience is not a stage, a guest list or a campaign image. I begin with the question the work needs to answer: who should be there, what should be possible between them, and why does this need to happen in this place? The format follows from the brief and the people involved.
- **Curation is part of production**: Curation determines whose knowledge enters the room, how the programme unfolds and what kind of participation feels possible. I lead it as part of the production process, not as a list of names added after the creative idea is finished.
- **Different briefs need different experiences**: My work includes Zalando Pride, where the programme was shaped with the LGBTQIA+ employee resource group; Klunkerkranich, where local creative contributors, drawing and live music formed a paid Berlin programme; Späti Raves, which brought music and participation into neighbourhood corner shops; and AVOMIND, where local creative practice made an employer-brand experience feel more human.
- **Build spaces for exchange**: With The Delta, I led and curated a Creative Tech + Business Day for people working across culture, technology and venture capital. With Quouch, I led product and experience strategy for a more intentional queer travel network, testing the direction through real-world participation. The contexts differ, but the responsibility is the same: make the experience coherent for the people it is for.
- **Lead the whole project**: Across these projects, I lead from the concept through creative direction, curation, production and delivery. I can work with a team, venue, company or community, but I stay accountable for how the parts connect and what the audience actually experiences.
- **Experience is not only an event**: My wider practice also includes visual merchandising, retail, product, campaigns and customer touchpoints. The same responsibility applies: carry the idea into the physical or digital encounter and make sure it works for the people who have to use it.
Related resources:
- [Zalando Pride experience](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/zalando-pride-experience/)
- [Klunkerkranich programme](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/klunkerkranich-experience-production/)
- [Späti Raves](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/spati-raves-berlin/)
- [AVOMIND experience](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/avomind-employer-experience/)
- [The Delta experience](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-delta-creative-tech-business-day/)
- [Quouch experience](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/quouch-curated-connection/)
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)

### The Content Crash Will Make Human Judgment More Valuable
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-content-crash-human-judgment/
Summary: My prediction for the post-AI economy: as digital production becomes abundant, trust, cultural context, permission and human judgment will matter more.
Article opening: I think we are moving toward a point where there will be more content, design and code than anyone can pay attention to. That will not make creative work worthless. It will make judgment, context and trust harder to replace.
Search and subject topics: AI and creative work; human judgment in the post-AI economy; artist-founder; cultural infrastructure; Countercult founder.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The market will not be short of output**: Over the next few years, production volume will keep rising. A company will be able to make a campaign, a prototype or a whole set of product screens faster than it can build a reason for anyone to care. My prediction is that cheap output will make customer attention harder to earn, not easier. The companies that treat more content as the whole answer will find that they have made the same noise as everyone else.
- **The tool changes. The responsibility stays**: I have used AI-assisted development to build Countercult’s software and product. That has let me take on technical work directly. It has not made the decisions for me: what the system should do, who it should serve, what information belongs in public, and what should stay with the people who shared it. I use technology to build the system. I do not use it to replace artistic authorship or cultural judgment.
- **Human knowledge is not raw material**: People are already talking about human knowledge as the next premium data supply. I do not think artists and communities should be reduced to a new class of content provider. The questions are who has permission to use a work or a record, what context travels with it, who can say no, and who benefits if it becomes useful to someone else. Those questions belong in the design of the system, not in a disclaimer after it has shipped.
- **What I am building toward**: Countercult is my working response to that problem. It brings together a public Network for discovery, a protected Exchange for members, paid Studios work, and a business-owned Fund for selected local projects. They are distinct parts of a venture, not an automated pipeline. I am building the connections between cultural knowledge, real people and paid work because I think the next economy will need more than systems that can generate.
Related resources:
- [How local trust changes the content economy](https://countercult.network/journal/the-content-crash-human-context/)
- [What Countercult publishes, protects and builds](https://countercult.network/journal/what-countercult-publishes-protects-builds/)
- [Read my artist-founder account of Countercult](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/artist-founder-building-countercult/)
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

### Countercult Started Close to Home
Canonical URL: https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/countercult-started-close-to-home/
Summary: I built Countercult inside the artist and cultural communities it was supposed to serve. Now I am building the company to carry that learning into a wider world without flattening local difference.
Article opening: I did not begin with a global market map. I began with people I knew, problems I could see, and a question I could not leave alone: what would make it easier for artists and cultural spaces to find one another, work together, and keep more value around the people making the culture?
Search and subject topics: Countercult founder; artist-founder; post-AI economy; globalization and local culture; cultural infrastructure; venture building.
Article structure and full section text:
- **The community was not a marketing channel**: Countercult began in the relationships around artists, spaces, and independent cultural work. People were already helping one another find opportunities, rooms, collaborators, and ways to keep going. I wanted to understand what would make those connections easier to sustain. That was not a strategy for collecting an audience. Those communities were the reason the product needed to exist.
- **The first version had to meet real life**: I tested the product against questions that do not get answered in a pitch deck. Would people trust this network? What information would they share publicly, and what needed to stay inside a protected space? Could a useful introduction lead to paid work instead of another request for unpaid access? The answers changed the product. The work is still being tested, and I am careful not to call a real-world beginning proof of performance at every scale.
- **Now I have to build the company around what I learned**: I am not building a community project with a services business bolted on. I am building a company whose first product grew out of community. The public Network, protected Exchange, paid Studios work, and business-owned Fund are distinct parts of the venture. They have to reinforce one another without pretending they are already an automated system or that every future financial tool is live.
- **AI will make the human part more valuable**: My prediction is that content and production will keep getting cheaper, while trust, judgment, authorship, and accountability become harder to earn. AI can help me build software and reduce some of the work around a product. It cannot decide whether a local relationship is welcome, whether an artist should be paid, or whether a cultural record should be public. Those decisions belong with people.
- **Global work will need people who know the place**: The next stage of globalization will not be solved by translating a campaign into more languages. Companies will need local relationships and the ability to make decisions with people who understand a place from inside it. I expect the organisations that can do this well to become more valuable than the ones that only know how to scale one identity across every market.
- **Scale the lesson, not a template**: What I want to scale is the capacity to connect local knowledge to opportunity, with consent and paid participation built into the work. Each place has its own history, people, needs, and limits. Countercult has to carry a clear set of principles into those places while leaving room for the people there to shape the work. That is a harder company to build than a directory or a content engine. It is also the company I think the next decade will need.
- **My prediction for the next decade**: By 2030, global businesses will spend more on trusted local relationships and less on pretending that automated content is the same as cultural fluency. The value will move toward people who can make an organisation useful in a place, not only visible there. I started Countercult close to the work because I wanted the infrastructure to be shaped by the people it was meant to serve. Now I am building for that idea to travel without losing its point.
Related resources:
- [Countercult’s forecast on local infrastructure and globalization](https://countercult.network/journal/globalization-will-be-local/)
- [My prediction for the post-AI economy](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/journal/the-content-crash-human-judgment/)
- [Selected work](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#work)
- [Contact Shona](https://countercult.network/shona-neary-portfolio/#contact)

## Identity

Shona Neary is the professional identity and founder. Sketchy Shona is their artist name and the identity for their multidisciplinary visual practice. Countercult is the artist-founded cultural and economic infrastructure company Shona built, connecting local cultural knowledge with paid work and wider economic systems. These names refer to related but distinct parts of the work, not interchangeable brands.