I help teams listen closely, make sense of what they’re seeing, and turn what they learn into clear strategic stories, learning experiences, and visual materials, so decisions stay connected to what people actually need.
What I Do
Research & Sensemaking
I start by trying to understand what is actually shaping people’s behavior, decisions, and experience through interviews, ethnography, cultural research, and synthesis that gets underneath surface-level answers.
Outputs: Interview and focus group studies, synthesis frameworks, journey maps, insight briefs, research-backed recommendations
Narrative & Strategic Communication
I help turn research, program knowledge, and organizational complexity into stories and structures that other people can understand, remember, and use.
Outputs: Brand positioning and messaging, funder decks, impact reports, creative strategy
Facilitation & Learning Design
I design and facilitate sessions that help people surface what they know, make sense of complex ideas together, and turn shared understanding into usable next steps.
Outputs: Workshops, listening sessions, training curricula, learning programs, participatory activities
Visual Storytelling & Production
I create visual materials that give ideas, programs, and communities a form people can see, remember, and share.
Outputs: Branding design, presentation design, visual identity systems, photography, videos
A Few of the Clients I've Worked With
featured projects
A Bit About Me
I've been trying to understand people and make things for as long as I can remember: designing Neopets signatures in fifth grade as a lil' ol' So Cal boy who may or may not have downloaded an illegal copy of Photoshop 7.0, falling in love with theater because it let me see the world through someone else's eyes, studying both public policy and cinema & media at The University of Chicago because I couldn't pick just one.
That tension between understanding systems and making things followed me through four years curating TEDxUChicago, a role championing diverse voices in the nonprofit sector, a multimedia design role that taught me I hate arbitrary decisions, and eventually to design research, where I realized I didn't have to choose. You can study what people need and give that understanding a form that actually creates change.
I've spent the last 8+ several years doing exactly that: working with Fortune 500 companies at agencies and firms, then building programs and communications plans from research through implementation, alongside local partners and community organizations.
The scope has ranged from two-month research sprints with Fortune 500 companies to two years embedded in a community in Kutaisi, Georgia. In both places, the work produced things meant to outlast the project: Miro templates adopted across a research team, a full-length entrepreneurship curriculum for Georgian youth programs, and cultural frameworks built for cross-cultural healthcare research.
I speak English, Mandarin, and enough Georgian to hold a conversation.
Let's Talk!
The best collaborations I've had started with someone reaching out about something slightly undefined: "We have this problem and we're not sure what to do about it."
If you’re trying to clarify a program story, shape a deck, synthesize research, design a workshop, or document work that deserves to be understood, let's chat!
I’m currently based in Tbilisi, working internationally, and am open to partnerships across research, strategy, storytelling, and social impact.
freddy (a) ftsao.com
Tbilisi, Georgia | Chicago, IL, USA
