Michael Duncan McArthur

4th Culture is an independent practice built to make technology more expressive and recognizably human without surrendering judgment, and to shape products specific enough to belong to the people they serve. I still do the building myself, and I bring in specialists when the work calls for them.

We built a civic app for reporting congestion and parking violations, and it got its own Wikipedia entry and a run of national broadcast interviews. My part was everything from research and product to press and government relations.

With the managing partner, I built the product design practice, including the process, the templates and the measures it needed to scale. Clients included American Express, Chapters Indigo, StubHub and C Spire.

I was the link between client stakeholders and the delivery teams on mobile and enterprise work for BMW, Land Rover, Nike, Microsoft, Hugo Boss and Novartis.

I art directed a team of hybrid designer-developers on dozens of sites, from the information architecture to the front-end build. Luminato, Mirvish and the Gardiner Museum were among them.

We started a freelance-first agency during the downturn and worked with talented freelancers the recession had laid off. In that period I was voted one of Marketing Magazine Canada’s top 25 creative professionals.

I took contract work through Trapeze Media, Youthography, Henderson Bas and Indusblue, covering information architecture, art direction, front-end and sound design. Jaguar, Ubisoft, Mattel and Pizza Hut were among the clients.

I ran the first online skateboard shop in the Middle East out of Dubai, which meant the wholesale supply and logistics partnerships, the inventory, the marketing and the storefront itself. Dubai has since hosted the X Games.