Available · Remote · Full-time / Founding / Fractional

Multidisciplinary builder.
AI-native. Ships daily.

Ten live platforms across education, music, publishing, nonprofit, and services — solo-built over eighteen months on an AI-native workflow (Claude Code + Claude API as my daily IDE). Three LLCs, a federally-filed 501(c)(3), a published book. Looking for remote teams where the builder partners with the build, long-term.

See the work → Get in touch
About

Builder by habit. Range by design.

10+ years as an AV professional running live events — sound, video, and lighting for conferences, concerts, and broadcasts. That trade taught me to ship under real-time pressure with the equipment in front of me. No second takes. No vendor support.

Since early 2024 I’ve been building on an AI-native workflow as my daily operating environment — Claude Code + the Claude API + the modern generation stack as the medium I work in. Eighteen months in: ten live web platforms across education, music, publishing, nonprofit, and services, 900+ pages, 80+ unique educational worlds, a 118-song music catalog across 5 albums, an independent publishing imprint with the debut title LIVE on Amazon Kindle + KDP paperback + IngramSpark distribution, a service-business platform serving real customers (Beyond Clean Solutions + Coastal Connect), a federally-filed 501(c)(3) nonprofit (The Cultivation Foundation — Ohio Articles of Incorporation approved, IRS Form 1023-EZ filed 2026-07-15, board and bylaws in place), and a 4-entity business structure (3 LLCs + 1 nonprofit + 1 DBA) standing it all up.

The build is still in motion. New worlds, new platforms, new tools every week. This portfolio updates as the work ships.

What I bring to a team: solo-builder fluency (I can take a thing from concept to deployment without handoffs), multidisciplinary range (front-end, design, brand, audio, writing, IA), and operational discipline (every project documented, every script reusable, every decision logged in a memory system I built).

What I’m looking for: remote-first, long-term partnerships — founding-team roles, fractional architect engagements, embedded contracts, or full-time IC roles where the builder stays with the build. Education tech, creative-tools companies, indie media platforms, and small product teams are the natural fit. Less interested in ship-and-walk-away contract work; more interested in compounding on a product over time.

10 live
Web platforms
900+
Pages shipped
80+
Content worlds
118
Songs (catalog)
Capabilities

What I build.

Hover any card. The same person did all of these. The range isn’t a stretch — it’s the shape of the work.

01 · Front-End Engineering
HTML / CSS / JavaScript at scale
Vanilla JS, no framework dependency. Responsive across desktop and mobile. Accessibility-aware (semantic HTML, ARIA where it earns its place, keyboard navigation). Comfortable with 200+ page static sites, custom canvas rendering, audio APIs, localStorage architectures, container queries, modern CSS.
02 · Brand & Visual Systems
Palettes, typography, identity architecture
Locked brand systems with documented palette tokens, typography hierarchies, and reusable visual patterns. Built a procedural SVG → PNG cover-art pipeline that generates album art from data. Record-label-grade documentation (read: the visual identity is a real product, not a vibe).
03 · Information Architecture
Solar-system content navigation
Invented a federated solar-system metaphor for navigating large content libraries — planets, orbits, constellation cross-references, profile-aware visit tracking. Each platform deploys the same architecture with platform-specific data. Same engine ships across five separate audiences.
04 · Conversational Interfaces
Bounded knowledge-graph navigators
Designed and shipped Nyasia, a voiced navigation curator with a knowledge-graph brain (not an LLM). Six modules: knowledge / intent / responses / profile / voice / widget. Voice is fully live — 480+ MP3 clips deployed across the platform, real recorded voice, per-planet intros and reactive prompts. Zero-AI safety design — she literally can’t hallucinate because she can’t generate.
05 · Audio Production
40-song catalog, self-taught multi-instrument
Full DAW workflow in Studio One. Bass on every track. Vocals, mix, master. ffmpeg batch pipelines for format conversion + cache-busting deployment. ElevenLabs voice cloning for narration. Suno-AI auxiliary instrumentation with honest SR copyright disclosure on AI-assisted portions.
06 · Writing & Curriculum
80+ educational worlds across 5 platforms
Age-banded curriculum from 3-year-olds through adults. Multi-language (English + Spanish-first). Brand voice systems with consistent tone across thousands of pages. Multiple books in editorial pipeline. Documentation discipline (every project has a README + memory file).
07 · Ops & Documentation
Reproducible builds + memory-driven PM
Custom build scripts (Python + bsdtar for cross-platform-safe zips), reusable script libraries, and a memory-first project management system that survives session breaks. Every deploy is reproducible. Every decision is logged. Future-me (or any teammate) can pick up cold and ship.
Selected Work

Live products.

Click any project to expand. These platforms are in active development — status pills below reflect current shipping state. Some are mature, some are v1 holding pages with deeper features queued, some are tools in daily production use. Gated platforms can be walked through by screen-share for hiring evaluations.

Federated platform · 5-tier architecture
C.U.L.T. Life Universe
Five distinct educational platforms sharing one federated architecture.
Gated · Active build

An educational platform serving five distinct audiences from a shared architecture: Sparks (ages 3-6), Chispas (Spanish-first 3-6), Kids (ages 7-12), Teens (ages 13-17), and Adult. Each platform is a fully-rendered solar system of "planets" (educational worlds) with profile-aware navigation.

Built the entire federated stack solo: information architecture, brand systems per tier, 80+ unique content worlds, profile picker with per-cadet localStorage namespacing, Daily Beacon engagement engine, Companion (cross-tier accountability), Cultivation card game, Stars-to-Planets identity spine.

Notable engineering: custom solar-system canvas renderer with elliptical orbit math, vector-similarity intent matching for the conversational curator, COPPA-aware design with parent-mediated consent, federated contributor pattern for tutors and advisors.

HTML/CSS/JS Canvas Information Architecture Brand Systems COPPA Profile system
Commercial services platform · Active business + DBA
Beyond Clean Solutions · beyondcleansolutions.net
Active service business — cleaning, landscaping, handyman, detailing — plus Coastal Connect (DBA) local-partner marketplace.
Live · Active business

Beyond Clean Solutions is an active operating service business (own LLC, own EIN) running on the same federated solar-system architecture that powers the rest of the work — the third commercial pillar alongside NJP Productions and the C.U.L.T. educational platforms.

Four service planets — cleaning, landscaping, handyman, detailing — each with its own scope, pricing, and customer flow. The architectural reuse is the proof: the same engine that ships an educational platform ships a service business, because the system is content-agnostic.

BCS also stands up Coastal Connect (coastalconnect.beyondcleansolutions.net) — a filed DBA operating as a local-partner marketplace on a flat 8% commission model, live on the same architecture.

Demonstrates: cross-vertical platform fluency. Same builder, same architecture, completely different industries — education, music, service business. The pattern doesn’t care what content lives inside it.

Service business 4 verticals Solar-system reuse Pricing pages Local SEO ready Separate LLC
Music platform · Public
Nathan James Productions · nathanjamesproductions.tech
Record label platform with audio listening room. 28 of 40 catalog tracks live, more in mix.
Live · Expanding

A music platform built around the concept of the catalog-as-solar-system. Each song is a planet with a story page. The Press — the platform's audio listening room — renders a spinning vinyl record with album-cover-as-rotating-label, karaoke-style synced lyrics, custom playlist persistence (localStorage), and 40 tracks of original music.

Custom-built audio infrastructure: HTML5 audio element with auto-advance, cache-busting via version params, custom playlist tabs, mini-player that follows you across the page, container-query-based label sizing that scales with the record itself (not the viewport).

Integrated with: DistroKid distribution, BMI publisher affiliation, MLC mechanicals, custom SVG cover-art pipeline generating album covers from data.

Audio APIs Custom SVG pipeline localStorage Container queries Brand identity
Visit nathanjamesproductions.tech →
Conversational interface · Fully live w/ voice
Nyasia · bounded knowledge-graph curator
A voiced navigator with zero generative AI — she only knows what's in the platform. Voice live across every page.
Live · Voice deployed

Replaces three legacy tools (site search + nav hints + index) with a single conversational interface voiced by a named curator. Six modules: knowledge (structured site brain), intent (query resolver), responses (template slot-filling), profile (user-state integration), voice (live, 480+ real recorded MP3s), widget (UI shell).

Voice is fully deployed — every planet on the platform has a Hi/Why/Tips/Close voice track that plays on visit. Recorded, converted, and served via an auto-generated JavaScript manifest that maps 700+ voice IDs to their MP3 files.

The key design lock: she's not an AI. She can't hallucinate because she can't generate. Her knowledge is a JSON graph of the site itself. Out-of-scope queries route gracefully ("I don't know that one — want to try [random planet]?"). Crisis triggers (kids platform) route directly to safe resources, never advice.

Three-layer separation makes the avatar visual replaceable without rewriting logic. Cross-platform port is a knowledge-graph swap, not a re-architecture.

Intent matching Knowledge graph Voice synthesis ElevenLabs integration Modular architecture Safety-by-design
Specialty product · Public
The Drift · drift.cultlife.net
A standalone landing page for cadets in a transition state. Abandoned-space-station visual.
v1 live · Profile features queued

Standalone single-page product with a distinctive copper-and-rust palette, custom SVG hero (abandoned space station + twinkling starfield), and four-field intake form. Distinct subdomain, distinct identity from the parent platform but built on the same architecture.

Demonstrates: spinning up a focused single-purpose product fast, brand differentiation while preserving system fingerprints, custom SVG illustration, accessible form design, mailto-based intake without back-end dependencies.

SVG illustration Custom palette Single-page No back-end
Visit drift.cultlife.net →
Document design · Brand work
Equal Partnership Agreement · contract design
A side-by-side comparison document that turns a legal artifact into a product.
Template · Pre-execution

Designed an interactive side-by-side artist contract comparison (industry-standard vs. transparent partnership) for the record label. Document doubles as a marketing piece, a recruiting tool, and the signable contract preview.

Demonstrates: brand-as-applied-to-legal-documents — warm paper palette, Courier monospace for legal metadata, Georgia serif for prose, gold/crimson accent system. Tier-based 12-sub-tier schedule with profit math embedded. Print-ready via @page CSS.

Print + screen Legal-tech crossover Brand application @page CSS
Brand system · Print + screen
NJP Lyric Sheets · record-label-grade typography
A branded lyric sheet template used across the catalog and Copyright Office filings.
Template · In production use

Built a single-file HTML lyric sheet template (8.5×11 print + screen) used to: verify lyrics during the catalog QA pass, generate PDF deposit copies for PA copyright filings, ship liner notes for physical releases, and supply DSP metadata.

The brand system document itself is the deliverable — full palette + typography + imprint stack + dual-entity attribution rules, designed to be reusable across every official document the label ships (sync pitches, EPKs, contracts, federation pitches).

Print typography @page CSS Brand systems Cross-context design
Visual design · Procedural pipeline
SVG → PNG cover-art pipeline
40 album covers generated procedurally from a single SVG template + per-song data.
Production tool · 40 covers shipped

Built a Python pipeline that takes one master SVG template and a JSON data file (palette, planet word, title, tagline, era), generates per-album SVG variants via find/replace, and headless-renders them to 2048×2048 PNG via Microsoft Edge headless. Outputs deploy directly to the platform.

Each cover has consistent brand identity (PERCEPTION imprint, NJP-XX catalog number, dual rings) but distinct palette per album, ring-phrase tagline per song, and AI-disclosure flags where applicable. One template, 40 covers, zero designer time per cover.

Python SVG Headless rendering Build automation Procedural design
Publishing imprint · Debut title LIVE on Kindle
Nathan James Publishing LLC · nathanjamespublishing.tech
Independent publishing imprint. Debut title The Book of You LIVE on Amazon Kindle since 2026-07-03. KDP Select enrolled.
Live · Book in market

The third LLC of a four-entity federation (three LLCs + one nonprofit). Same architectural pattern as the education platforms and music label: shared design system, shared infrastructure, distinct content and identity. The imprint went live in a single overnight session with the debut title The Book of You submitted to Amazon KDP — 5 days later Amazon confirmed the Kindle edition is live in the store and enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

Site includes a dedicated Published Authors roster separating writers from titles. Nathan James is the first published author; the trilogy arc (YOU / OTHERS / US) is outlined and staged for release.

The public site itself is unusually radical for a publisher: the full author-partnership contract is posted on the site as a live page, with three transparent tier splits (Foundation 25/75, Launch 40/60, Federation 50/50). Quarterly company ledger published. Rate card public. Author financials private by explicit clause. The positioning line: "the publisher whose terms live on its website."

Custom colophon seal built for the imprint with five layered meanings — Latin motto MUNDUS EX VERBIS, a Clairignis flame between an open book and the NJP monogram, MMXXVI Roman numeral date, italic serif positioned at the point of ignition. Every book that carries this seal will carry all five simultaneously.

Publishing platform Amazon KDP · KDP Select Public contract design Published authors roster SVG colophon seal
Visit nathanjamespublishing.tech →
Nonprofit · 501(c)(3) in progress
The Cultivation Foundation · cultivationfoundation.org
Ohio-registered nonprofit that funds the free educational platform — from articles of incorporation to shipped merch shop in six weeks.
Live · Board seated · Filing 1023-EZ

The fourth entity in the federation and the reason the education platform stays free forever. Filed Articles of Incorporation in Ohio with the state (Doc ID 202618301222), obtained federal EIN 42-3558347, adopted bylaws and conflict-of-interest policy at the first board meeting, and shipped the public site and merch shop the same six-week window. Three directors seated with signed disclosures.

The public site includes mission page, board roster, governance page, transparent give page, and a real Printify-integrated merch shop where 100% of net proceeds fund the mission. Site + shop + governance + accounting all documented in an isolated Foundation Command Center workbook that can be shared with directors without exposing sibling-entity financials.

Custom Foundation seal designed with hidden layered meanings — SEMINA LUCIS OMNIBUS Latin motto, tier belt Roman numerals, open book with the hidden "YOU" inside the V-triangle marking the trilogy origin.

Ohio 501(c)(3) Board governance Printify merch pipeline Foundation seal design Isolated CRM workbook
Visit cultivationfoundation.org →
How I Work

Custom. Scalable. Long-term.

Three principles that shape every engagement I take. They’re also the reason I prefer founding-team / fractional / retainer roles over ship-and-walk-away contract work.

Principle 01
Custom over templated
Templates ship fast and constrain forever. Custom platforms cost more on day one and save more by month twelve. Every build I take on is architected to the specific shape of the problem, not folded into a generic frame. The eight projects in the portfolio above span education, music, conversational interfaces, and commercial services — same builder, no two are clones.
Principle 02
Designed to scale
Scale isn’t a future migration — it’s a day-one architecture choice. Federated patterns, modular structure, content-as-data, namespaced state. The build at 10 users and the build at 10,000 users should be the same system, not a rewrite. The federated 5-tier architecture in the portfolio is the proof.
Principle 03
Long-term ownership
I don’t ship and walk away. The builds I take on, I stay with — as architect, maintainer, or embedded partner. Knowledge of the system stays with the system. Retainer, equity, salary, or hybrid — the structure varies, the commitment doesn’t. Active development is a feature, not a bug.
Stack

What I use.

Tools I use daily. The web stack is intentionally lean — I prefer to understand what's happening at every layer.

Languages
HTML5 CSS3 (Grid, container queries, custom props) JavaScript (vanilla, ES6+) Python 3 Markdown SQL (basic)
Audio & Video
Studio One ffmpeg ElevenLabs (voice cloning + TTS) Suno AI Whisper (transcription) 10+ years AV (live)
Design
SVG (procedural) CSS animations Brand systems Typography hierarchies Print-ready CSS (@page) Responsive / mobile-first Accessibility-aware Midjourney (visuals)
Build & Deploy
Python build scripts bsdtar (Linux-safe zip) Hostinger .htaccess auth Custom CI patterns Static site deployment
Workflow
Claude Code (AI-augmented dev) Memory-driven PM Markdown-first docs Reproducible builds Cross-platform Windows / WSL
Reach Me

Let’s talk.

Open to remote-first, long-term engagements: founding-team, fractional architect, embedded retainer, or full-time IC. Email is the fastest way to reach me. Response within 24 hours, usually less.

Direct line to Nathan James

For role inquiries, project commissions, or just to compare notes. I can do a portfolio walkthrough by screen-share on short notice — the gated platforms above will get a guided tour.

Public platform nathanjamesproductions.tech
Legal name (for HR) Nathaniel J. Barnes
Availability Remote · Founding / Fractional / Retainer / Full-time