About Maker’s Dozen
Maker’s Dozen is an independent content creation and digital technology studio, run by Kate and Neil from their log home in Quinte West, Ontario. We work with clients in all sectors and specialize in the places where art, technology, and nature meet. We are a full-service studio able to facilitate your big (and little) ideas. If you have a cool project and could use some help, we’d love to work with you!
Maker’s Dozen “makes” in many ways and builds bridges between communities that are often treated as separate. Urban and rural, technology and art, expert and novice, reason and wonder.
In 2016 we moved our business from bustling downtown Toronto to beautiful rural Ontario. We loved our life in the city, but wanted to be more connected to the natural world, to better understand and participate in the challenges of rural life, food production, land stewardship, and climate change.
At Maker’s Dozen, we believe the future doesn’t just happen – it’s made. We want to make that future the best it can be. That means understanding the world around us and helping build the sustainable future we all depend on. Our work is a practice in encouraging ourselves and others to make the leap from consumer to maker: to be curious and engaged participants in the world. At home, we grow and preserve food, raise chickens, harvest rainwater, learn about tracks, scat and wild critters, and upcycle and DIY just about everything we can. Because… D-I-Why Not?
We love our rural life and little log house in the woods, but we haven’t forgotten our urban roots. With internet connectivity, we’re able to bring new perspectives to bear as we continue to work on high-tech and content creation projects. We believe more than ever that sustainability will be achieved by both changing ourselves to better fit into the environment around us and by informed, collaborative, and considered applications of technology.
Our Team
Kate - Co-founder/Creative Lead
Kate leads our art + design work, develops and programs video game content, and is our all-around primary experimenter.
Her professional background is taking raw objects, spaces, and ideas, and making them better. Over her career, Kate has assessed AI and robotics technologies; worked as a freelance journalist in Toronto; helped run international hackathons; learned needlefelting; built an Arduino game controller out of a 2×4, made tonnes of print and digital content look pretty and work well; and continues to do a mashup of other activities that don’t often appear in the same run-on sentence.
Kate has spearheaded a maker’s dozen of new ventures for Maker’s Dozen, from running workshops, designing and producing maker kits and greeting cards, writing articles, painting with plants, participating in local artisan markets, giving talks and leading walks. When she’s not creating art or writing code, you can usually find her trying out a new craft, following animal tracks in the woods, or otherwise happily juggling several projects at once.
You can connect with Kate professionally on LinkedIn.
Neil - Co-founder/Technology Lead
Neil draws on over 25 years of experience building software that makes digital creativity real. He has the heart of an artist and a brain for wrangling bits and bytes.
His professional background is in computer programming, specializing in high performance applications such as computer graphics, animation and real-time rendering. He earned his degree in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, where he learned from world-class faculty including Turing Award winners Stephen Cook and Geoffrey Hinton.
Over the course of his career, Neil has had the opportunity to work in many areas, including film and television, telecommunications, artificial intelligence, academia, and video games. As a natural organizer, he is always a key contributor on software projects. His appetite for learning keeps Maker’s Dozen at the forefront of technology, always ready to tackle new and exciting projects.
When he’s not behind his computer, Neil spends his time learning about the flora and fauna of Southern Ontario, pursuing his many non-digital hobbies (pizza-making, woodworking, music, …) and caring for our various furry and feathered friends.
You can connect with Neil professionally on LinkedIn.