Influencing Burner culture

The Backstory: I’ve been going to Burning Man since 1995, back when it was weirder, smaller, and more experimental. As the event exploded in popularity, the culture started to shift. People showed up unprepared. Some treated it like a music festival. There was more MOOP (Matter Out of Place), less participation, and a rising sense of entitlement. It was time to course correct.

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The Challenge: Burning Man needed to reinforce what made it different. The goal was to revive the spirit of participation, personal responsibility, and kindness—without sounding preachy or top-down.

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What we did: I worked with the internal communications team on Project Citizenship, an initiative to get back to the core ethos. We created a series of dispatches written in a warm, personal voice "from the desk of Charlie Dolman," the event's Operations Director. The tone was smart, friendly, and most of all, human.

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We also created culture-forward content that people would actually want to engage with. That included memes, a blog post, and a cheeky safety card that looked like it came from an airline seat pocket, a nod to the event's culture-jamming roots. Except this one taught you how not to be a jerk on the playa. I concepted it, wrote it, and led the art direction. It was handed out on Burner Express flights and buses as a playful reminder of how to be a good citizen in Black Rock City.

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Ta-da: The emails got over twice the open rate of Burning Man’s official newsletter. Community response was overwhelmingly positive. And last I heard, that weird little safety card is still doing its job.​

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